Current reading mood. Bright 🟡 🟡 🟡 🟡 covers.
These books are VERY different but enjoying both so far.

Sonia, a London-based actress of Palestinian descent goes to Israel to visit her sister. While there's she agrees to participate in a West Bank production of Hamlet. The result is a complex novel about how art can be both a personal and political force. I found it slow but gripping.
Reading this now, it provides insight into the plight and mistreatment of the Palestinian people by Israel since 1948. And now things are so much worse. 😔🍉

It comes as no surprise to me that I loved this book! Especially since @leahbergen @vivastory @sarahbarnes @Centique @Cathythoughts all love it too. 😃
Brookner creates an uncomfortable, close world at an off-season Swiss hotel that caters to the just-so. It takes a while to understand why Edith has gone there to get away, and for her to figure out how she can leave with dignity. As in the best novels, nothing happens, everything happens. ❤️

Monday morning. Would love to stay here with my cat and my book. (Which is so good so far!!)
Also, rarely do I read a book and feel my vocabulary is lacking. But Brookner! She has me looking up words constantly! 😅

A messy March storm (snow, freezing rain) is here for the weekend so happily hunkered down with this book that's been languishing on my TBR for eons.
Encouraging to see how many of my favourite Littens love it!

An excellent collection of short stories by Canadian Kate Cayley. (Originally published in 2014, this new edition is coming out soon with 3 additional stories.) Each story is a little gem, a careful observation of human behavior. Indeed in many of the stories, characters are observing others, and figuring out their own reliance on/distance from/ connection to other people. #netgalley

I've been missing Proust in the morning, so decided to return to Woolf. I read the first two volumes of her diary a few years ago, so starting with Volume 3. There was immediate comfort to be back in her prose.

Kind of soppy and overly nostalgic for bygone days. Some pretty descriptions of nature.

This book landed more as a memoir than a history (which I guess is what "intimate" in the subtitle means.) While each chapter is dedicated to the work and ideas of an influential Black theorist, most of the book focuses on how these ideas helped the author make sense of her own life and experiences. A worthy project but I guess not what I was expecting. Definitely learned lots but I was left wanting to read more BY these women & less about them.

Bookoutlet strikes again! 😬🙈💸

I'M DONE!! 🎉🎉 After 15 months, I wrapped up #morningswithmarcel.
It was a journey and there were some rough spots, but overall, I loved it. Brilliant! 🌸💗🌸

Picked this up at a used book shop on a whim & glad I did. It opens as Mrs Dean (an assumed name?) checks into a hotel. She has a suitcase full of cash & no memory of who she is or how she got there. She spends her days wandering the town, having awkward conversations & avoiding any attempt at deciphering her identity even though people show up claiming to be friends and family. Part of the fun was having no idea what was happening or how it 👇

My #weeklyforecast. A bunch of rando books in progress. 😁

The Woods in Winter by Stella Gibbons - from my ebook shelf
Fire & Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones - fairy tale reread
Nelly's Version by Eva Figures - hard copy off my shelf
Black Women Taught Us - nonfiction audio

My reading has been slow & erratic lately but I managed to finish 3 books this weekend.
📗Away by Jane Urquhart. Beautiful, lyrical story about an Irish family's immigration to Canada.
📗A Stranger in my Grave by Margaret Millar. Mid-century noir set in an affluent suburb of LA. Spotty plot but love how it tackles racial/ class issues
📗Tagged book. Excellent linked stories about the Palestinian community in Baltimore. Last story about 👇

I've been listening to Maggie Rogers's new single "Don't Forget Me." I loved her 2019 album Heard it in a Past Life. Didn't love her 2022 album Surender.
But based on this single, feeling hopeful for the one out in April! ?
@TieDyeDude #tuesdaytunes

One of my intentions for 2024 was to do more re-reading, and now in mid(late) February, I've finally started one.
I read this back in 2018. I don't remember much except feeling confused. 🙃 It's Wynne Jones's retelling of Tam Lin, a fairy tale I apparently am drawn to.

Spent a lovely Saturday morning doing some laundry and baking while listening to this #childrensclassic2024 pick. It's a simple story but the writing has depth and nuance. Even the horses (Phantom and Misty) have excellent character development. I was never a horsey girl but I might have been had I read this when I was young. 🤎🐎 @TheBookHippie

My daughter is discovering Aimee Mann so we have been listening to a lot of her music in the car. This is our favourite album.
Always love sharing and seeing what people are listening to. 🙂
#tuesdaytunes @TieDyeDude

My #bookreport
?Away - finally reading this #Canlit classic from the 90s #192025
?A Great Deliverance - listening to the first volume in the Inspector Lynley series
?Hagitude - my "workish" listen (This will take me forever ?)
?️Behind You is the Sea - new ebook of short stories about Palestinian immigrants in Baltimore.

Gawd I love snow days! I managed to finish 2 books! India Allwood is a successful actress, single mother of 2 adopted children when she causes a stir by criticizing the representation of adoption in a movie she's starring in. Things escalate, especially when it's discovered young India placed two children with adoptive homes. Family is complicated y'all! I ended up liking this but the structure felt constrictive & the book is too long. Frankl 👇

Rebecca grows up listening to her grandmother's retelling of Briar Rose. And on her deathbed, she claims that she *is* Briar Rose. Rebecca then travels to Poland to discover the truth behind her beloved grandmother's fairy tale. Yolen skillfully weaves together Sleeping Beauty with the history of the Holocaust. It's a bold take and shows why fairy tales continue to help us make meaning out of our experiences.

A collection of melancholic, meandering stories, many set in Maine. I liked the drift of them. Loosely plotted, loosely connected. The title story was particularly effective, and more then a few sentences that gave me pause.
A book that's been sitting on my Goodreads TBR for years, and part of my most recent Book Outlet delivery. Glad I finally got to it.

Current listen. Part of the same series of fairy tale reimaginings as Pamela Dean's Tam Lin (which I LOVE.)

This is a very good book & a very distressing book. Alex is a young woman who survives on sex work and street smarts. Most of the novel she floats around the Hamptons, trying to avoid one guy, waiting for another guy's party. Homeless, penniless, friendless, she is the outsider who find ways inside, exposing the empty world of personal assistants, country clubs, lonely kids, uneven marriages, false friendships & unhappy families. Alex is 👇

For all the Margaret Laurence fans, The Stone Angel is featured on the most recent episode of Backlisted. Highly recommend! @vivastory @batsy @LeahBergen @BarbaraBB #manawakans https://www.backlisted.fm/episodes/203-margaret-laurence-the-stone-angel

Like @TheAromaofBooks I might have a Book Outlet problem. 🙈 All purchased before 2024... Because this year, I'm serious about the book buying ban. 🤪

Oh Mon dieu! I finally finished Volume 5 & it was a struggle. It's the longest of the six volumes and was the most tiresome. So much jealous ranting. It improved near the end, once the narrator stops fixating on Albertine (first in life, then in death.)
I went into this project pretty ignorant & so have no idea how the story unfolds or what the critical reception is. I am curious to see if others struggle with this volume too.
On to Volume 6!

Book 5 by Toni Morrison that I've read with @HardcoverHearts Author Spotlight series. Set in NYC in 1926, the book opens with a 50 year-old married man shooting his young lover. That's the opening event but not the story. The book explores the stories & back stories of the constellation of people affected by this event. The City looms large as does the music that gives the book its title & its rhythm. There's a sense of play amidst the violence 👇

Friday night vibes. 😴
Enjoying the tagged book on audio.

Book 1 of 2024. I loved it. A book about Melville, yes. AND not a book about Melville. Also a book about Nathaniel Hawthorne, Robert Lowell, Elizabeth Hardwick, & "the biographer" of Melville. It's a book about making art, marriage, literary partnerships, literary reputations, literary scholarship. Oh, and the male ego. ? And about words, language, connection & why we read. No plot, weird, discursive, witty & self-aware. ☑️☑️☑️ So many of my ?

I haven't set any reading goals for 2024, but have identified a few reading directions. I'd like to do more re-reading, dig into fairy tales, and tackle the unread books on my shelf. (A Book outlet order is enroute as I write. 🙈)
I used those 'directions' to create my January 2024 #bookspin list. I have lots of #TOB books to get to as well.
Here's to kicking off another great year of reading!
@TheAromaofBooks

I read a lot of poetry in August for #thesealeychallenge. I loved many volumes but highlighting this one by Canadian poet Elizabeth Brewster. It was my "least shelved book" in my Goodreads wrap-up and so want to show it some love. I have a soft spot for Brewster and her work as she grew up in the same small town as my mother.
#12daysof2023.
@Andrew65

My pick for July is this excellent story about the messiness of young adulthood. It was a perfect summer read!
#12daysof2023
@Andrew65

My plan for 2023 was to tackle Proust's masterpiece, to spend my #morningswithMarcel. I figured it would be slow-going and that it might take me longer than a year.
And I was right.
I have about 100 pages left in Volume 5 (the hardest to get through BY FAR). Then one more volume.
It has been an enriching, stimulating, moving, and at time, dull and/or infuriating reading experience thus far. Will be sad & happy when I finally complete it.

My picks for #12daysof2023
May - The Lost Garden
June - Miss Buncle's Book
@Andrew65

My pick for April is this classic by Penelope Lively. What she manages to pack into this tight novel is impressive.
I read it around the same time as The Shell Seekers (another favourite) and the parallels were striking. Both examine the long shadow of WW2 on women's lives in the UK.
#12daysofChristmas
@Andrew65

Took a walk and saw a beaver!
Also started Jazz by Toni Morrison in print and tagged book on audio. Maybe I'll finish one more book before 2024.

My pick for March, a collection of linked stories by my all-time favourite writer. Called The Beggar Maid outside of Canada.
#12daysof2023 @Andrew65

A soft pick for book 6 of the Thumps Dreadful water series. Thumps is a suitably cranky misanthrope with a gigantic soft spot (a subplot finds him caring for a litter of kittens) but the mystery was kind of meh and the small town of Chinook might have surpassed the acceptable quota of quirky locals. Still I liked it enough to keep going, appreciated the subtle incorporation of racial politics, and I love kittens! 🤪 I might go back and try book 1.

My pick for February (and one of my top books of 2023) is Laurent Mauvignier's The Birthday Party. I listened to it on the indie audio platform Spiracle. And it was FABULOUS. It's a master class in building suspense.
#12daysof2023
@Andrew65

My pick for January is the first book I've read by Elizabeth Goudge. This story of four children going to live with their grandmother combined good characterization with English folklore in a satisfying way. I can see why she is so beloved! I hope to track down more of her novels.
#12daysofChristmas
@Andrew65

Headed to our 3rd family gathering in 24 hours and felt a need to bring my book. While I'm grateful to spend time with family, part of me is craving some alone time. 🙃

I couldn't manage a #top23of23. My collage skills just are not up to the task, so here's some of my favourite reads from the past year. There are a few missing but The Birthday Party, Forbidden Notebook, Girls of Slender Means, and Run Towards the Danger were my absolute stands outs!
@BarbaraBB @Cinfhen

After a very busy, peoply day such a treat to come home to my #jolabokaflod parcel. Thank you so much @thebacklistbook for the thoughtful selections. Small Pleasures looks like the perfect book to curl up with on a wintery afternoon.
Thank you to @MaleficentBookDragon for running this excellent swap.
Peace and joy to all. ❤️🕊️🌟

Albert Campion wakes up in the hospital with a sense of danger & without his memory. Slowly, he starts to piece together his identity (secret agent) and the name of his assignment (Minute Fifteen), but he is forced to fake it until he can learn/remember more. Set in early days of WW I I, Campion realizes he must succeed or England's war effort is doomed.
Book 5 in the Albert Campion series but my first, so I knew as little as he did about 👇

In spite of the obvious Scooby-Doo mystery and pervasive racism, it was hard not to love the formidable Amelia Peabody.
Read for the So They Know It's Christmas? prompt for #cloakanddaggerchristmas
@Ruthiella

A poem for Winter Solstice. ⚫🖤⚫

My heart is full. ❤️ Got to travel to Kansas City this past weekend where I lived for 10+ years. I was spoiled by my girlfriends there AND I had the immense pleasure of spending an afternoon with @vivastory. After being friends on Litsy since 2016, it was so great to finally meet Scott in person. ☺️ The two cool books are from him. So thoughtful! My only disappointment was that I missed seeing Taylor Swift. Next time! 😀

Finished the third book in the Toni Morrison author spotlight series mid-flight. My first time reading and I found it dense, and different from her other novels I've read. Wordier somehow. Not sure how to capture it. The story of Milkman who needs to shed what he knows to discover who he is. A simplistic summary of a very complex book. Glad I read it, but feel left with lots of questions. @HardcoverHearts

Mailed a #Jolabokaflod parcel off to L'Anse au Loup this morning. (It must win for best place name in this swap! 😀🐺) Should arrive by early next week. 🤞 @BookishMadHatter @MaleficentBookDragon
No post office pic so here's my little office tree instead. 🙂