May 2025 #LitsySciFiBookClub #Read2025 I loved this! Every species encountered in this book is vastly different from humans and those humans who care to meet these species are subject to so many new and wonderful challenges, opportunities, and ideas. There still are plenty of earthbound humans who think they are superior or are just afraid. So the racism and nationalism we experience now don‘t exist in this future but it now becomes (cont)⬇️

#Read2025 #SeriesLove2025 This is a prequel to Pullman‘s series His Dark Materials. Perhaps I should have read the series in publication order instead of chronological order but this is the first book chronologically. I still enjoyed it very much and I look forward to reading the series. Recommended.

May 2025 #AuthorAMonth #Read2025 For the first few minutes I wasn‘t sure if I liked this book, but I quickly turned around into loving it. It is the story of a young man‘s life and how as a middle aged man he comes to understand why he became the person his and finally comes to peace with his past and himself. It also is a story of love, family, friendship, and art. There is a subtle allusion to his race while he was in graduate school (cont)⬇️

#Read2025 #SeriesLove2025 I loved this book!! It‘s wonderful to read about women close to my age still being amazing. Recommended. All the 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

I listened to the audiobook for #WithTheBanned and I‘m including it with #Read2025 because I actually finished the book and for #SeriesLove2025 because it‘s the first book in a trilogy that I won‘t continue. I gave it two stars on Goodreads because the unusual style of poetry and prose is the only thing I liked about the book. There are several reasons I didn‘t like it. I‘m tired of YA and teenage angst. I‘m tired of multi book series. (cont)⬇️

@Soubhiville I hope you are well. I just wanted to let you and the rest of the #AuthorAMonth gang know that the tagged book, So Much Blue, and The Trees, both by May‘s author Percival Everett, are free on Audible. I‘d love to read James but it‘s not free and the hold list is months long. I‘ll get to it when the LIBBY gods smile on me.

#WondrousWednesday @Eggs 1) While I was reading this most excellent tagged book which I highly recommend, there was much smelling and drinking of coffee. I love coffee but coffee doesn‘t love me anymore. But I swear I could smell and taste the coffee while I was reading. And I started craving it. 2) One of my fondest childhood memories is of my paternal grandmother pouring some of her cream and sugar coffee into a saucer and feeding it (cont)⬇️

This excellent article discusses the benefits of reading daily. While it is targeted to Boomers, I think it‘s applicable for all generations. https://search.app/AcCDdeEk6HMKntst5

#Read2025 #SeriesLove2025 March 2025 #AuthorAMonth I‘ve had this in my library for a good while and I‘m glad to finally have the extra motivation to read it. Excellent world building, intricate magic system, and, most important from my point of view, interesting, well-rounded characters with realistic relationships. Recommended.

#Read2025 #SeriesLove2025 Another great story about love and friendship, with lots of laughs for the reader. Recommended.

#Read2025 #SeriesLove2025 This series exists in the same world as the author‘s Good to the Last Death Series and is just as much fun! Loyalty, friendship, and family, including found family are so all important in this series. It‘s sacrilegious and profane and who cares?!! It‘s about doing what‘s right. Recommended.

#Read2025 The author narrates her own book and she has such a peaceful sounding voice. She seems to be very much in tune with the world around her and she has a great deal to teach. Recommended. I thought I read this for a challenge or a buddy read but I can‘t find which one.

#Read2025 I‘m very far behind in my reviews so I‘m going to spend some time catching up today. I loved this clever, kind, enlightening book. Recommended.

I‘m just disappointed.

#Read2025 #SeriesLove2025 I have enjoyed this trilogy about three young women who discover that they are witches. It‘s lighthearted and fun.

#Read2025 Told from two different perspectives in two different eras, I enjoyed hearing how all the pieces fit together. How much can a 21st century American woman really know about a woman who lived in 18th century London? From finding a single vial in an impromptu mud larking excursion, a budding historian takes an intellectual journey as well as a journey of self-discovery.

#Read2025 #SeriesLove2025 This is a “folk tale” from the Grishaverse. It‘s not required reading to stay up to date with the series but it‘s definitely worth reading. It‘s not what I expected.

This is not a bad book. I just don‘t want to read anything smacking of the real world right now. Maybe if I were in a better state mentally and emotionally I would learn something from this book. But as it stands, I‘m having a hard time getting into it. Back to fiction!

#Read2025 #SeriesLove2025 This has been in my Audible library for over a decade. It‘s a long time coming for me to check this one off my list. I enjoyed the first couple of books in the series, but the quality has gone downhill five books in. Only one left to listen to and I will listen to it within the next couple of months. I‘ve got to find out what happens in the end.

#Read2025 #SeriesLove2025 Set in the Caraval universe, we get to find out about another young woman seeking love and trying to do the right thing. A lot of focus is placed on Jax and I am glad to see him again, even if he has a total shit. I recommend this fantasy.

#Read2025 #SeriesLove2025 The idea of corporations having so much control over the government and the citizenry is not new. The fact that it is now formally acknowledged to be the case in this is particular future is well done. The ways companies maintain their power are disturbing but not surprising. The idea of “Modders” is new to me and it‘s an intriguing concept. The way Modders are respected and the technology is intertwined with (cont)⬇️

#Read2025 #SeriesLove2025 I love Katherine Center‘s writing and I‘ve made it my goal to read everything she‘s written. She says she‘s a Romance author but if that was all there was to her storytelling I wouldn‘t be interested. Her characters are compelling and real. Their lives aren‘t perfect and they go through life-changing experiences. Recommended.

#Read2025 #SeriesLove2025 A sweet, mostly uncomplicated, YA fantasy that‘s great when you need a little light reading.

#Read2025 #SeriesLove2025 Dark Urban Fantasy? Yes, please! This is the first book in a new series and I look forward to the second book which is being released on September 23, 2026.

#Read2025 #SeriesLove2025 I‘m way behind on reviewing books this year. Of the 41 books I‘ve completed, this is the first of the twenty reviews I want to write. The concept is fascinating, some of the characters are well developed, and the end of the book left me wanting more. Recommended.

February‘s choice for #AuthorAMonth is Roxane Gay and this is the book I chose. I‘m not finished with it yet but I‘m learning so much that I‘m taking it slow. I just started the section on Race & Entertainment and the first essay is extremely challenging. It‘s making me take a good look at myself and ponder my own prejudices. As someone who considers herself anti-racist, this is a hard but enlightening lesson. I hope I never stop (cont)⬇️

Still learning a lot from reading an essay a day from my selection for February‘s #AuthorAMonth. Today‘s essay is about trigger warnings, and whether or not they are effective in preventing people from being triggered. As a survivor, she is not affected by possible triggers, because the triggers are nothing compared to the actual trauma. As a writer, she does not believe in including trigger warnings. An interesting perspective.

#AuthorAMonth I‘m learning a great deal from Roxane Gay. But I‘m not planning to finish this book this month. There‘s too much to take in and I don‘t want to miss a thing.

I really wanted to love this book, but for whatever reason it didn‘t strike a cord with me. Maybe I‘m not in the right frame of mind. But it looks like I borrowed this book from the library once before and returned it. And I‘m doing that again. If you read this and you love the book, that‘s fabulous.

#Read2025 #SeriesLove2025 While this is technically not the first book in a series. I wish I had read this prior to reading the Rom-Commers. Jack Stapleton, the male romantic lead in The Bodyguard, is a good friend of Charlie Yates, the male romantic lead in The Rom-Commers. This book provides some context for their friendship. Be that as it may, I am not at all disappointed in either Katherine Center book and I strongly recommend both.

#Read2025 #SeriesLove2025 My biggest peeve is all the little romances going back and forth. The world building and magic systems are impressive and entertaining. The book definitely ends on a cliffhanger that makes me want to find out what happens next. I‘m glad this is only a trilogy.

#Read2025 #SeriesLove2025 This anthology is only sort of the second book in a series. Blackout takes place in New York City during a blackout. I lived in New York long enough to know how scary that could possibly be even though I never actually experienced one. Whiteout is written by the same six authors and takes place during a blizzard in Atlanta. As a native West Virginian, I always find reactions of Southerners to a few snowflakes to (cont)⬇️

I‘m enjoying this book, but I just heard something on the audiobook that I‘ve noticed hearing in other books that just annoys the snot out of me. It would bother me if I were reading it in print. The narrator uses the phrase “lifeless body” to describe a limp body that isn‘t lifeless. The person is still alive. I hereby declare that the term lifeless body must always apply to someone who is dead. The End.

#hailthebail @dabbe @tpixie this is Christopher Moore‘s first published novel. I really enjoyed his A Dirty Job and its sequel, Secondhand Souls. His writing has improved tremendously since this was published. I really wanted to like this book and I listened to 40% of it. But in the end, I just didn‘t want to waste my time anymore. #betterbooksahead

#FellowshipOfTolkien In these crazy political times, it‘s always good to have a little something to lighten the mood. So if you like political humor, I suggest a YouTuber who calls himself The Pissed-Off Bartender. He coined the hilarious, but sadly accurate, term The Saffron Sauron. He seems to have about a million nicknames for DJT and his co-president, but this is the first one I heard him use and I think it‘s the funniest. But that‘s just me.

I borrowed this book from the library and I waited for months to get it. But now I‘m not in the right frame of mind to listen to this story. This is not a review of me saying that I bailed. I didn‘t make it very far in this book at all before realizing that I‘m looking for something lighter. I‘m just returning it to the library and I‘ll borrow it again later when I‘m in a different frame of mind. However, if anyone is interested in (cont)⬇️

I‘m enjoying this book very much. I do have one gripe. The book describes The Hierophant in the Tarot deck as the card of the magician. There is actually a card called The Magician. The Hierophant would more likely be described as a high priest or in some decks the Pope.

A Canadian friend of mine who is of Swedish heritage sent this to me. I have absolutely no Swedish heritage, but this is such an excellent word. I‘m sharing it with you, Sydney, because you do Weird Words Wednesday, but they‘re English words. I thought I‘d mix it up a little and send this on Friday. I don‘t know who else you tag when you do your weird words, but if you think they‘d be interested, feel free to tag them. Enjoy, my fellow Littens.

#NoPlaceLikeHolmes I am so glad I joined this buddy read. It has been both entertaining and enlightening. The Sherlock Holmes Definitive Audio Collection has proved to be an excellent investment. It is edited and narrated by Stephen Frye, who is absolutely marvelous. His introductions to the home novels and short story collections are brilliant, as is his narration. I just listened to his introduction to the tagged book. He provides (cont)⬇️

#AuthorAMonth I tried to listen to this but I just couldn‘t. Things I liked about this book are that Lord Peter is a book lover, his mother doesn‘t think his hobby is inappropriate, he has a “Jeeves”-type character who helps him. Things I didn‘t like are that he behaves like solving crimes is all a lark, cheerfully going to the house where the body was found and joyfully disturbing the crime scene. And he rhymes, rhymes about murder. As I (cont)⬇️

Just a little nitpicking here. There is a point early in the book in which two seniors, one of whom uses a cane, start walking down a winding staircase and plan on the trip taking two days. Okay, I‘m a senior and I use a cane. The characters in the book talk about the trip down being the easy part but the trip back up is what‘s going to be hard. Nope. Nope, nope, nope. I promise that my old knees find the trip down to be worse. Going up (cont)⬇️

#Read2025 #SeriesLove2025 This final book in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series may just be my favorite. We finally get inside Nesta‘s head and find out what‘s in her heart. Why is she the way she is and can she come to terms with it? Recommended.

#Read2025 I just love her books! Fair warning: this might make you cry. I still recommend this book. All the stars!🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

#ClassicLSFBC The Martian Chronicles is a classic of science fiction literature. But I fell asleep four times while listening to the audiobook and I decided that was enough. #HailTheBail!

#LiteraryCrew I listened to the first two hours and this isn‘t really holding my interest. There are plenty of other books out there and I‘ve decided it‘s time to #HailTheBail!

#Read2025 #SeriesLove2025 I‘ve read reviews of Harlan Coben books on Litsy and they‘ve been pretty enthusiastic. So I gave this book a listen and was not disappointed. It was written and takes place in the 1990s, so car phones with cords, pay phones, no cell phones. I got a little early Spenser vibe, mostly because Myron has a running internal dialogue and has a quirky sense of humor. Myron gets beaten up more than Spenser and Win has (cont)⬇️

#Read2025 #SeriesLove2025 The characters in this book are young adults but I don‘t know if I consider this book YA. It‘s an excellent book and I don‘t usually post trigger warnings but TW: murder, torture. I still recommend the book but let the reader beware.

#Read2025 My goal is to listen to every book by Katherine Center. I like her storytelling so very much! I think she gets kind of lumped in with Rom-Com writers and she doesn‘t write Rom-Coms. There is romance, there is comedy, and there are serious issues addressed in her books. She doesn‘t write HEAs either but she does write “happy enough afters.” Because life is not full of HEAs. Life is life and most of the time, life is pretty good.

#Read2025 January 2025 #LiteraryCrew There is some powerful story telling in this book. I look forward to discussing it with the group on the 20th. If you care about civil rights, if you care about human beings, I urge you to read this book!

#Read2025 #SeriesLove2025 The Rivers of London is such a wonderful series and this novella is no exception. Kobna Holdbrook-Smith is an excellent narrator, and he reads the many diverse characters so that the listener has no doubt who is speaking. Highly recommended!