So this is a book I haven‘t read yet but reaaalllly want to get my hands on.
This is uk based and feels like it will be really important. A lot of you know that I‘ve worked as a carer for years and tbh this year has been the year that has finally broke me.
I‘ve done this for over 10 years and I want out now, this job is hard and just got harder and all we have had in thanks is clapping from people who voted in the people who have made this worse

So I can‘t believe no one has reviewed this yet. If you don‘t know skin and skunk anansie you need to look her and her band up stat!
Britpop ruled the uk music scene in the 90s and tbh most of it I can leave now. But there was always skin being herself in a band that was ahead of its time. She is political and someone I really look up to. If you like awesome women musicians then this is a must read.

Just realised just how long it‘s been since I‘ve posted on here! Ummm hi.
I hope everyone has been as good as they can be during a global pandemic.
Will be nice to catch up on what people are reading and some reviews of my own.

The perspective on this photo is weird but I ate it all too quickly to take another one I'm afraid.
From this book we have creole cajun tempeh pieces, a beetroot and candied walnut salad, greens with orange juice and weird fact for you all in the us grits are nigh on impossible to get in the uk so I used polenta (please don't get upset) love this book! A fair amount of work needed for the recipes in comparison to others but worth it.

I‘ve now cooked a few meals from this book and so far they have been easy to make and tasty. The pear cake with chocolate was particularly nice. My only problem with this book is that for me some of the main meals don‘t have enough protein to leave you feeling full afterwards. I obviously love vegetables but on their own with grains I will be starving within half a hour without some beans in the meal. Overall good but expect to have to have to

1. Nope, but it is very windy
2. Reading in bed under a nice duvet after having a nice bath with candles and a face mask. When I‘m getting cosy I will probably be reading a book about food of some sort. Cookbook or food memoir.
3. Sending some warmth to @ephemeralwaltz @Bookwomble

Thanks for the tag @RachelO

I‘m from the uk so I‘m not aware of all the players in the civil rights movement I‘m afraid. I love graphic memoirs and this was a great way to be introduced to John Lewis and his story.
I hope the wait for volume 2 isn‘t too long from my library. It‘s a really good one

On a bit of a roll today. If you like art books and particularly mixed media collages (as in the title) with watercolours then this is a wonderful book for you.
I never really know how to talk about art books as it‘s a personal thing. But I found these images beautiful and otherworldly at point.

I haven‘t done one of these for ages! So here is the amazing grace jones!
I remember my first time seeing her was in a James Bond movie as a small kid and being both intimidated and in love with her at the same time.
Just another amazing musician from this collection.

I do love clothes and fashion, but I love how they hold memories, personal style and creativity rather than trends and the industry as a whole trying to make people conform. So for me this book was perfection. It‘s a memoir told through fashion, particularly fashion as it pertains to black women.
The last chapter on hoodies on black people and black lives matters was particularly strong. Read if you like a book about style with substance.

So with it being black history month in America I decided to theme the cookbooks I use this month too. This isn't actually in her cookbook but on her YouTube channel and just let me say wow! This is food you want to eat regularly. Jackfruit and black bean brown stew with coconut rice, slaw pineapple salsa and fried plantains. This is doable vegan food full of flavour.
A huge hit!

When watching the news this morning I saw Lisa bloom on and my rage went through the roof as I remember reading about her in this book.
This reads like a thriller and tbh if this had been fictional I would have been going this is too much and ridiculous. Unfortunately it is ridiculous but in a truly horrific kind of way as it‘s all true and Ronan lays it out so there‘s no mistake that he is telling the truth. Highly recommend

So the royals are something I‘ve always disagreed with in principle but been infinitely fascinated with. This book has turned my mild annoyance at a privileged institution into full blown rage and disgust at what we as the taxpayer pay for. This book will infuriate you from not paying real tax whilst accumulating massive amount of wealth to some other stories of a more personal note (one about the queen mum made me sick to my stomach)
But

Climate change has been on my mind a lot recently and a huge contributor to this is our consumption habits in society so of course I had to read this. If you don‘t know much about how damaging clothes production is both environmentally and for the people in the industry them this is a great overview. I learnt some things for this but it‘s not really a how to guide would be my only real complaint. it could possibly leave you feeling a bit helpless

Just needed to share this gem with you all. It‘s literally two of the best things in the world in one book!
Will also wish you all a wonderful New Years 😊

Ive been teaching myself tarot for a while now and it‘s part of my self care routine.
This is a really good beginners guide to the tarot and I loved the authors voice. The personal style always helps me rather than just a dry here is what the meaning are.
If you want an accessible guide that won‘t make you feel like you are doing it wrong or taking it seriously enough but that still has morals this isn‘t a bad place to start at all.

I needed this book. I haven‘t been reading much recently and I keep having to take breaks from the news but at the same time I feel guilty when I do as I need to be informed on things.
This book covers how the constant negative coverage of events by the media affects us. This is a call for constructive journalism, this doesn‘t mean not covering the bad stuff or just giving us fluffy good vibe news stories.

Reading the tagged book and loving it. Came across this amazing photo inside and I had to share 🖤
Can you guess what my last vinyl purchase was?

I loved this. It‘s the black British woman‘s experience and full of advice.
Whilst this wasn‘t written for me I would happily recommend it to anyone, I learnt a lot about issues in the uk as lots of books about race and racism are from a American perspective and whilst you know there will be parallels you don‘t know the subtle differences people face in the uk. Continuing in comments

The uk cover is decidedly less pretty than the American cover imo.
A book of essays from black women writers talking about the books that resonate with them and the importance of diversity.
The best part for me was the lists! I love a good list and this has several that has made me add to my tbr like mad. This is going to be a reference book that I will keep coming back to when I‘m looking for what to read next.

This is one of those books where I loved the atmosphere of what was going on and the premise. I enjoyed reading this but it also did one of my pet peeves.
All the good characters are beautiful and the bad characters are ugly, I forgive this for certain time periods even though it grates on me but this was written in the 60s so I‘m less forgiving of the trope in this case.
It‘s a pick as mostly I enjoyed when I wasn‘t rolling my eyes.

James Baldwin obviously had a unique, compassionate and thoughtful way of looking at the world.
There is a reason he is still read today. Unfortunately a lot of what he writes about is still relevant today.

Finished this series during my time away and if you are looking for a horror comic then this is for you. My only complaint is the last book felt a bit rushed but it was a satisfying conclusion overall.
A part of me would love this to be a tv series and another part of me screams no as some parts really are horrific and I‘m not sure I want to see that in live action .

Well this was odd and incredibly fun for me.
Old ladies, werewolves, immoral nuns, the holy grail, cats, murder and a nuclear winter.
The author is a surrealist artist and this is important because if you want something tightly plotted then you will hate this!
But if you want a book full of dream logic, imagery and can just go with the flow then this is delightful. Lots of lines made me smirk and no it didn‘t make full sense but I loved it.

Another book I managed to read recently was this beauty. This is not a book for everyone, Marianne isn‘t always nice but she mostly doesn‘t care what you think about her. I personally love her snark and insane memories. I laughed out loud at several parts and if you want the classic rock and roll badly behaved memoir from the woman‘s point of view I would recommend this.

Thanks everyone who commented on my last post and sorry I didn‘t reply to you all. I was a bit overwhelmed and just wanted to run from the internet for a while. Still gonna be patchy on posting ect for a while but I needed to share this book that I managed to read.
This is so interesting and shows how differently activists have to work in a country like China. Seriously I was impressed with all these women in a big way.

Just a note to say I‘m having a little break from Litsy.
I will be back but I can‘t keep up with my feed of all you lovely people right now. The usual problem of life getting in the way and it‘s making me unable to read much and I just need one less thing to think about right now.
See you all again soon. 😊

I‘ve been wondering how to review this book and I‘m still processing things in my brain today.
Maybe that‘s all I need to say in this review, this book whilst disjointed at points and jumping from topic to topic has so many things in it that make you think!
Any feminist should read a book like this since for too long people in the sex industries voices have been ignored and at best they have been shown to be ...content in comments

And here we have the iconic Joan jet!
Another woman I looked up to as a child and wanted to be like, a trailblazer in her time who helped pave the way for more women in music and rock.

Sex workers should not be expected to defend the existence of sex work in order to have the right to do it free from harm.

This! A hundred times over!

How scary is this?!
Women should not be being targeted by those who are meant to protect us in society.

This book has been blowing my mind at work last night.
I‘m sorry but expect a fair amount of spamming to happen now.
This is just unacceptable

I liked this but it‘s one of those books I will always have reservations about.
The principal of buying good quality for life is great and our economy should be less throwaway but these sorts of books will always come from a place of extreme privilege.
Some of us literally can‘t afford to buy the quality stuff! With economic inequality abounding it is literally just not within our grasp.

First up in this book is a artist I hadn‘t heard of. Janet Sobel. Guess what she was the first to use the dripping technique that made pollock famous.
She had a short career and I can‘t seem to find much out about her so any extra info as always would be appreciated.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Sobel here‘s her Wikipedia page for anyone interested.

First up in this book of forgotten women scientists are the Harvard computers.
These women helped make great discoveries in astronomy, measuring the distance between stars and other things.
Data sobel has actually done a whole book about them called the glass universe which has been on my tbr forever.

I‘ve been super busy recently and this is the only thing I‘ve managed to read in the last week 😳😭
This is definitely a horror comic so won‘t be for everyone.
Some parts were genuinely quite chilling and creepy to me and already have a few characters I‘m worried about.
So far in I‘m interested (I tend to read graphic novels as a whole for the series rather than judge individually unless one is particularly bad)

This book starts off with the wonderful Greek poet Sappho.
There are only fragments of her work available to us as much was destroyed in the past unfortunately.
This picture is from the book literary witches and I love it. I will link to bits and pieces in the comments

The glass bottle trick.
A retelling of blue beards wife! Oh yea, I love this kind of story and it added a dark twist I felt.
I loved the spirits in this one and really wish I knew what happened next!

I normally love these types of books. I‘m not really into fashion but I love seeing stylish people who convey their personality through their clothing.
The essays are good but and it‘s a big but for me this book is so white. From every section I only counted 4 black women included and 1 black man. With over 54 authors covered overall I really don‘t think this is good enough in a book like this. Seriously James Baldwin wasn‘t in this book!

It‘s my fave avenger time again!
This is the sort of story that highlights exactly what can be done with such an overpowered superhero whilst showcasing the kind of character she is.
Good story but it doesn‘t show off her wonderful snark like Kelly sue deconnick run did unfortunately. Still if you are a huge Carole fan like I am it‘s well worth the read and you can‘t hope but help for elements of this to be included in new films.

Debbie Harry today and isn‘t she just great!
I once had a conversation with a guy who when I said how much I loved Patti Smith told me he preferred blondie because Debbie Harry was hotter. My fury at diminishing both women‘s talents was great. She‘s so much more than just a beautiful woman, she has amazing songs and a amazing voice who pushed boundaries and mixed up genres constantly.

I haven‘t done a #scribdpicks for ages and I‘m wanting to get to this book for my #readingwomen2019 challenge under the prompt book by a Nigerian author.
I think it was you @mhillis who used to be tagged when I did these in the past?
Anyone else wants to know when I find something amazing looking on scribd let me know and I‘ll try to remember to tag you!

#poetrymatters

First up is someone I had never heard about Carlota Lucumí.
She led a slave rebellion in Cuba against the Spanish slaveholders in the 19th century. Unfortunately it did not succeed and we don‘t know a huge amount about her.
I‘ll post links to her Wikipedia page and another article I liked about her. I couldn‘t find any books about her so if you know of any let me know please!

And this is why I read so many books like this. I will be talking about the women from this series very soon!

By Liz Lochhead
#poetrymatters
I really like the rhythm in this one

I just recently got the whole series of these books and love them! Expect to see some profiles on amazing women from these soon.

Ok something to hitch meat to. I loved this one, it was so perfectly creepy and the ending wasn‘t what I expected necessarily.
I found it interesting with the spider character being referred to as a trickster as that isn‘t something I‘ve seen in folklore before and now I want to explore Jamaican folklore more!