Josephine, who as young girl lost her parents due to political violence, will meet up with her older brother and his girlfriend at a huge house on an island in the middle of nowhere. The house where their childhood friend Hiraya lives. The one whose family was rumored to be witches, aswang, cursed. There they will play a game that to the winner, they‘ll get a wish. A wish that could fix everything. This is set against the people‘s revolution👇🏼

I loved this a lot. Becky Spratford has collected 18 essays from some of today‘s best horror authors on why they love horror. My favorites came from Brian Keene, David Demchuck, Paul Tremblay, and Grady Hendrix. Really wtf, Grady? His was soooooo good. He starts his essay talking about the time he found the severed arm of a small child in his father‘s refrigerator. It is wild. And sad. Most of these are how made up horror allows them to👇🏼

Read this for bookclub this past Friday. We had a good time. Would you want to know how and when you will die? This book starts off with this woman on a plane from Hobarth to Sydney. She just goes down the rows pointing and predicting how and when people will die. Bless this author for all the details she gives her characters as we follow their lives to see if the predictions will come true. A book about death that has so much life. Pick!

#ozlittens @CarolynM @Rissreadswithcats have ya‘ll been? Do ya‘ll have a favorite? I went up and looked up the big things. The pineapple was my favorite. And the prawn and lobster would scare me. The kookaburra was cool. lol

Jack Jr. awakens from a 2yr coma in which Covid has happened, his bf/fiancé has left him, and he is taken back home by the family he hasn‘t really talked to in years. Back to work at the Korean-Japanese restaurant he was raised in but escaped. This was slice of life, lots of sushi, forgiveness, family, parents. What do you do when one day your whole life has changed? I chuckled, just read along, chuckled again and would tear up so often. Pick!

This is a real low pick for me. I liked the premise a lot. Which was Mr.Litt during the pandemic gets depressed and to stop from losing himself in doomscrolling decides to pick up surfing. Instead of dwelling and drowning in despair he picks himself up. And then he goes surfing with his brother in law who is opposite of him in a lot of ways. There‘s just something about trying something new but bringing your same neuroticism to the new thing.👇🏼

Kenny and Han are roommates who have been best friends since forever. Han is undocumented and as a solution Kenny suggests they get married so he can stay. The good ol‘fake relationship trope. There were some scenes I absolutely loved but it reads really YA with New Adult characters. There are 2 sex scenes in here that are really ill timed. One that I just skipped over cause I kept wondering why the hell is this even in here. It was just ok.

This book did a great job talking about what fear does and can turn into. We follow Cora, a young Asian woman, living in NYC during the pandemic, trying to survive all that someone saying “China virus” has brought to her. It‘s a lot. Violence, gore. The feeling of being suffocated by fear. The constant feeling of not being safe. You‘d think the horror in here would be the hungry ghosts of Chinese culture but it‘s not. Not even close. Pick!

Litsy, I read horror, so I don‘t know why I felt like I spent most of my time clutching my pearls while reading this. Like I was brand new to this. lol. We follow Ellen, a deeply closeted person who works at a company that restores films. A newly found exploitation film believed to be destroyed by the Nazis has arrived. It‘s haunted and soon, Ellen finds her reality being blurred while also wondering if the choice to be closeted was the right👇🏼

I finished this book this morning and have thought about the MC Margaret all day. Imagine being a kid and having a parent who makes you wonder if they dislike you/hate you. You look around for allies in the family and realize no one wants to upset the apple cart. That later in life you have enough distance where you start realizing you have made decisions to keep that parent comfortable. That maybe those same decisions were a betrayal of 👇🏼

This was read for bookclub this Friday. I guess this is the year of reading books that contain actors, actors who are duplicitous, LIARS! Self CENTERED! CHEATERS! Audition had an actress, Tilt had an actor. Good Company has a couple of actors. I‘m just gobsmacked that this whole book hinges on a decision of an actor not acting or making up a story at a very critical point in his marriage. Instead he tries on the truth. What the eff. Sex advice👇🏼

This was a little all over the place and I loved it. Hendrix is killing it. She has a great list of clients, she‘s trying to get her first television credit by executive producing, she‘s part of Aspire, a group of women who recruits investors for Black Women businesses. She‘s happy being the aunty to her friend‘s children because she KNOWS she doesn‘t want any. She has a mother with dementia she‘s trying to take care of. Enter Maverick, a man👇🏼

Soledad and her 3 daughters are blindsided when her husband gets arrested by the FBI for embezzlement. She has to figure out how to save herself and her girls from financial ruin. There is a lot in here about sisterhood, great friendships. Her love interest, a great coparent with his ex wife, has twin sons with varying degrees of autism. To call this romance seems unfair because it feels like it‘s much more than that. A strong pick.

Goodbye July. This is the first time since Covid that I read 10 books in a month. Being on vacation had a lot to do with it. I coulda probably snuck another one in but I read 50 pages of 2 books and said nah. And the bingo was the bingo I won at Drag bingo. Which I went to with @Bookzombie in Indianapolis. I had so much fun with Margie. We went to a museum, Culver‘s, Insomnia cookies, Drag Bingo. Funny enough, we didn‘t go to a bookstore. Lol

Right away we‘re in the midst of watching midwife, Martha Ballard, help deliver a baby in the late 1700s and then told she is needed to see to the dead body just pulled from the river. She declares it was murder. Its slice of life, lotsa midwifing, community. There is also a sexual assault and gender inequality that still reads in a “yeah, that‘s what would happen today” 200 years later. Depressing. I really liked Martha and her wit. Pick!

Thanks for #trees #tagyoureit @kspenmoll I love this book. It made me more aware of nature. Of trees and the conditions that have to be right for some of them to live, the interdependent ecosystem of it all. The creatures who live in them, the insects who make their home. Their root system. How they talk to each other. These are pics are from different walks/hikes I took on vacation and just like reading a good Kingsolver or Patchett, being👇🏼

It‘s been 2yrs since Ali‘s mom has passed away. It‘s been 1yr since Pete, the father of her 3 kids, has asked for a divorce. This summer, Ethan will enter her orbit and she‘ll wake up from the life fog she‘s been lost in. This was a little snoozy to me but ask me if I didn‘t read it in a day. Also, it feels pretty light until some deep truths about parenting come up. And of course I cried tears of happiness in the end so it‘s a pick! 👇🏼

Loved this queer romance. Adam, a writer whose fame is waning after his gay exMormon Memoir came out 12 years ago gets summoned to ghostwrite the memoir of super mega popular star of the Crash movies, Roland Rogers. When he gets to Roland‘s house he finds Roland‘s ghost and his body is somewhere under an avalanche. So he‘s ghostwriting for a ghost. It sounds wacky but the strength of Allen‘s writing to take something bizarro and make it work👇🏼

Belardes is all about the eco horror. I really enjoyed this book. Greta has dropped out of college, lives on side jobs, and her gf Hannah has ghosted her. She takes a job herding cattle in Wyoming. Into a canyon. The thing is, this land has a long history of violence it has never forgotten. Interspersed with Greta chapters, are chapters told from povs of different animals. It gets intense. The end falls a little for me but it‘s a pick!

I read this book before Xmas this past year. It has a 2.6 rating in GRs and I don‘t care cause I loved it. I get why it has it. There‘s the waste from oyster farms being dumped into the ocean. The blooms in the oceans that awaken something ancient. Maybe an alien who crashed millenia ago. A quarantine, a death cult, and a community group of bird watchers. And sometimes it feels like none of this intersects. I ate it up. He had really strong👇🏼

This was a pick for the back half more than the front half. Asher gets dumped by longtime bf, Clint, at the airport right before they were supposed to go compete on the reality show, Epic Trek. Enter Theo, a pilot who‘s been grounded because of too many flight hours and a bet on some marinara sticks, Theo agrees to be fake bfs with Asher to compete. The writing, some of it read awkward first book. Idk. It eventually made me cry so it gets a pick!

I loved this translated book from South Korea about an alien whose planet exploded and they crash landed here on Earth. They go on the dating apps and shapeshift to become desirable to whoever they‘re talking to. This alien has a lot to say about human relationships, how lonely we can be, and how utterly impossible life feels sometimes. This was so funny at times because this alien is so OVER IT. Big time and stairs are their nemesis. I wanna 👇🏼

I loved this book. Chuck Tingle is so good at writing horror that deals with an issue impacting the queer community. And the evils of capitalism. Hollywood out but closeted back home, screenwriter Misha is trying to write a real queer season finale to one of his shows but comes up against the powers that be. Like all his previous monsters from his queer coded movies. This was at times creepy and funny. It talks about the importance of rep. Pick!

Ughhhh. This had so much potential. Talitha Velkwood still reeling from a tragic event 20 yrs ago gets an offer to go back to her haunted street she left. That piece of haunted street that exists in its own reality separate from our own. One only Talitha and 2 other girls can enter. It could have used more characterization, I‘m not a fan of going back and forth between places where nothing really happens or gets moved forward. I did like her 👇🏼

I liked this book very much. We read about 5 survivors of a cult, 120 of whom disappeared almost 15 years ago. DiLouie weaves their present and past together giving them this tortured and tragic, kicked out of Eden vibes mixed with “what did happen to us? Maybe we should go back and find out?” I loved it all and really wished the best for these people. I listened to it on audio while roadtripping and was hooked the whole time. Pick!

I was pretty upset that this was only 160ish pages. It was like reading the 1st issue of a really awesome comic book. It‘s a Black, adolescent coming of age as we follow 12yo Sean in Bostonian the 1970s. Things are changing in his life. He is seeing girls different, he‘s doing things he‘s never done before, and seeing his parents with new eyes. A couple who met after the bombing during a protest where his mom says she came from Saturn. Did 👇🏼

A rec I got from the Podcast Books in the Freezer. I listened to it on audio and it was cute because the narrator sounded like a young Melissa McCarthy. We meet high school junior, Camilla “Mila” Flores at the funeral of her best friend, Riley. The 3rd alleged suicide in their small town. Mila and Riley were Wiccan besties and Mila knows better about her death which is why she uses a spell to bring her back with unexpected surprises. Mila is 👇🏼

Excuse my language Litsy but holy fcking shit! What a fcking gangster Greek tragedy of a book set on the streets of Jefferson Runs, Virginia. This is why I don‘t lie. One secret can lead to a whole fcking apocalypse of events in one‘s life. This was good, I kept just wanting to get back to this book. A 5 star summer blockbuster of a book. I finished this at the Speedway library in Speedway, Indiana.

Listened to the audiobook narrated by the author. We meet Maria, a 20 something trans woman who is finding out she likes her freedom more than being with her gf. The 2nd part of this book is Maria meeting James in Nevada, a trans person who doesn‘t know theyre trans, yet. This book is quite a peek into the mind of a trans person. I hate the ending but love that the author uses such exact language to express every thought and feeling. A pick!

Litsy what would you do if you were gay, hooked up with a guy on the apps, had sex with him, and then went out with him drinking and dancing until all hours of the night because you are a failed writer but then, the next morning you wake up and he doesn‘t? That‘s this book. This was gay Weekend at Bernies for a minute and I laughed a little but then we kept taking detours into the “why me?!!!!” And I could barely stand the self victimization. 👇🏼

#5joysfridays
1. Walking along the Arkansas River to breakfast. The cloud cover that kept me cool the whole way.
2.The delicious biscuits and gravy that FED my soul after that walk.
3.The topiary unicorn at the Witchita Botanical gardens.
4. The peach margaritas I drank after a hot day while waiting for some togo bbq.
5. Clarity. I wanna be a witch who lives in a forest. I walked into the children‘s garden portion of the gardens and 👇🏼

From the getgo you are hurled into this frenzied sea with a shipwrecked woman tangled in kelp. A family of four finds her and cares for her. They are caretakers of an island meant to have a doomsday seed vault. But due to rising sea levels they are just waiting for a ship to come get them and the seeds. The family and the woman all have secrets. I thought this was good. McConaghy can write the hell out of nature but sometimes it was a bit 👇🏼

This was very cute. Dylan works for his Auntie Jade‘s struggling takeout restaurant. He enters a mooncake competition in hopes of saving the restaurant. Enter Theo, a dashing Ritchie rich character. This was so fun. It‘s about family, has some fun wordplay, has a dash of Pretty in Pink, Crazy Rich Asians, and Dynasty, lol that sounds like a lot right? It was so good and if you can get me to laugh and cry on the same page- you got me. Pick!!! 🥡

I love this book so much. Erica, a teacher in her 30s has just realized she‘s a trans woman. She befriends Abigail, the only trans girl at her high school in a small South Dakota town. Their friendship will change their lives forever. This was hilarious, Abigail makes this book, touching, messy, so messy. It highlights the importance of community and support from one queer person to another. The importance of living an authentic life. So good!

This book is freaking hilarious. Just for context. Erica is a trans woman not fully realized yet as when we meet her she is still presenting as male. In the book she‘s always called Erica and her deadname is grayed out. It‘s all fascinating.

I had heard it but never believed it. I mean I‘ve read at least 20 of his books. But when I hear people say he coulda cut 200 pages about one SK‘s books, I thought they were outta their minds. I loved the first 200 pages. Pages 200-450, what a slog. But in the end I cried. That emotion does not erase that snooze fest of a middle. A young man finds a portal to another world and sets out on an adventure with his dog. Hurts my heart to do this-meh.

Today we had training on an update to one of our systems and this guy was one of the trainers. When he got up he asked if we had any questions. I asked if anybody had ever told him he looks like Stephen King. He said all the time. The photo does his likeness no justice. In person for a minute I thought Stephen had Schwarzeneggered Chloe. He looks like Joe. Fairy Tale is my bookclub book for this Friday, so it all felt serendipitous. He was so nice

I loved this book so much. I started off thinking I wouldn‘t like the book because of the writing but the narrative is so strong simple sentences later in the book emotionally hit deep. We follow 2 timelines. One is the future where there are no humans and it‘s all robots. The other is us following Zelu, a Nigerian American author who is paraplegic. This is a love letter to culture. This is about the frustration of just trying to exist when 👇🏼

He closes the book. He imagines what he‘ll say in his Litsy review. Smirking, contemplating that maybe what he is actually doing, posting his Litsy review is synonymous with the title of the book. With every review he is auditioning for the role of reader in other people‘s minds-Lololol. I loved this book. The wtf is happeningness of it all. Loved her writing, the language, how it was able to dissect everything. I did think it lost a little 👇🏼

Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner. lol, this book. I seriously have had to go watch scenes from that movie, Carol, with Cate Blanchett, because the vibes are similar. All air cracking with energy but not a lot of action.

This. Was . Hilarious!!!!! This was Otessa Moshfegh and all her gruesomeness but with humor. Miss Notty is hired to be the governess at the Pound estate and nothing will ever be same again. She has a darkness inside her that is just itching to get out. One would be afraid for the family of the Pound estate until you meet them. Then, maybe, you‘re rooting for Miss Notty. Litsy this was great but for a lot of you it might not be. Take care. Pick!!!

There is this gentleman that comes in almost everyday and plays the same machines at my casino. He‘s a Navy veteran who worked on submarines. He lent me 2 books and this is one of them. Was it on my 2025 bingo card to read about life on a 1960s submarine mission? No, but here we are. And as someone who has never read about submarine navy life I found it fascinating. I wouldn‘t say this is narrative but slice of life. Pick!

Shell, fresh out of a breakup in her young 30s and just having moved back home with her parents, takes a job in the mall as an assistant florist where there is a sinister plant. I wanted to like this more than I did but it lacked forward motion. There was a lot of stutter stopping. The story was sprawling in ways where I just ached to get back to any kind of main story. I just wanted the plant to kill people. Is that too much to ask!!! Low pick.

#haikuaday

#haikuaday

This from a plant in the bouquet of flowers the girl is holding.

#haikuaday for yesterday.

I didn‘t expect to be bawling my eyes out on a Friday night but should have known better with Abby. Hot Veterinarian Xavier meets Mustard PR woman, Samantha. They have an imperfectly perfect 1st date. When he drops her off at her apartment he finds out she‘s moving 2000miles away. They decide to make it work long distance. This is sweet and funny, but man, there is a dementia storyline in here that ripped my heart out. Jimenez is always a pick!

Livia finds out her controlling husband is cheating and realizes when she left her childhood maybe she left one prison for another. Her and 3 girlfriends take a girls trip to recover and along a shortcut called The Devil‘s Driveway they come upon a stretch of this malicious unreality. It reminds them that the past will always haunt you. I loved, loved, loved his first book so I had to read this, his 2nd book. This is a bit wonky and 👇🏼

#haikuaday