I finally read an Angela Thirkell and it was such fun!

And i saw this china poodle in a second hand shop which made me think of you Leah - because i think you have a china poodle? Maybe not such a snooty one? 😆

I had to post this photo for the gardeners out there - i dont often see a cactus flowering - so i grabbed a sneaky pic of someone else‘s garden 😉

I am probably the last on Litsy to read this book! My second by Valerie Perrin and i thoroughly enjoyed it, got very wrapped up in the “who done it” aspect and read way past my bedtime 😆 Definitely will be reading more Valerie Perrin!

A slow start to my reading year but I flew through this one super quick. I do just love Ann Tyler. This story of a dysfunctional family all impacted by each others anger or bitterness has a quiet vein of hope throughout. There are some lovely moments where each one (not all but most) finds a spot of peace, love or happiness within their grasp. I do wish we had seen more of the daughter Jenny though as that piece felt a little less resolved.

Well its actually 22 books but lets call it my #top24of24
Top half is literary fiction, bottom left is non fiction and bottom right is SFF. My top 3 are - North Woods, Cantoras and Other People Manage. I think Cantoras needs more readers and lots of Littens will love it. Other People Manage might just be a Me book. 💔

This is a ROMP. Basu says in acknowledgements that he started off retelling the Aladdin story in a spec fic setting but it ended up as something else. You have a city in poverty & crime ruled by colonisers, oligarchs & crime lords, then the family of a disappeared revolutionary find a piece of alien tech. Lots of battles, lots about political systems and the difficulties of revolutions & just fantastic world and character building. ⬇️

Really enjoyed this story of Ray and Kip, both divorcees, now engaged to be married, going on an earlymoon (a pre wedding honeymoon). Id call this a relationship novel rather than a romance, because rather than wondering “will they get together?” you are wondering “will they break up?” as over their holiday all their differences get exposed. I got SO mad at one of them, wanted to slam some doors myself! 😂 Thank you for the great read @Reggie

Finally had a chance to finish this after a hectic Christmas Eve/Christmas morning. I enjoyed this - I liked the fact that Espach takes what is essentially a rom-com/commercial fiction set up but treats it in a more contemplative way. I think appreciating Phoebe‘s “awakening” to her own power to decide, to act or influence others, is the crux of liking or disliking this. Without that some of the unrealistic elements would have put me off a little.

Thank you so much for the Christmas gift @Rissreads This is the cutest Christmas card 💕The little fox! I am excited for both of these books and the bookmark is exquisite. You have spoiled me 😍 I hope you have had a lovely day and maybe spent some time with that cute kitten Earl! Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! And thank you for this wonderful gift @CarolynM 💕 Look how gorgeous this bookish glasses case is! Brave New World and 1Q84 on there 😍 And i have been so keen to start the John Boyne series too. The soap smelt so good i have already started using it so it didnt make the photo 😂 Thank you so much and I hope you have had a lovely Christmas Day.

Cant reach my book without disturbing a Very Important Cat 😂😂

Spent most of today reading this on the sunny deck (sun has gone now!) Felt like being on holiday myself. Newman writes in a conversational style that is easy to read and i felt a lot of similarities (age, an adult child). So this telling of a family vacation where she is sandwiched btw one generation and the next while going through menopause was a delight. It also delves into some serious stuff so potential for a few shed tears here too.

I enjoyed this novel for its super interesting concept (time travel tested by bringing a handful of people from the past into the present) and its depth of characterisation. It has been described as a combination of romance & sci fi mystery/thriller. For me the romance/introspection portion got a bit bogged down and the thriller plot happened too quickly with not enough detail. But there is such good material here ⬇️

Sunny here while i read a snowy winter mystery set in Yorkshire. I love these Richard Jury mysteries even though there are tropes aplenty - usually a beautiful gentlewoman stoic & tragic, a feisty and friendless girl child, multiple women caving & telling all in the face of the good looks and quiet kindnesses of Richard Jury. But Grimes does settings so well and a ton of interesting side characters. Catnip for me!

I loved this - it made me so mad but also exposed some important truths. Annie is basically a sex robot, designed to be compliant & attuned to her owners emotions. As she becomes capable of independent thought her relationship with her owner becomes fraught. This book holds up a mirror to coercive relationships & issues of dominance & compliance (could be triggering for some) An innovative way to capture the experience of being dominated/coerced.

Read this in one day - just a fun page turner. Cordelia Black is a pharmaceutical sales rep with perfectly coiffed hair, high fashion clothes and bags, meticulously gelled nails. A woman like that couldn‘t possibly be suspected in the rash of missing men in South Louisiana could she? This is a light toned book despite the amount of blood and you‘re rooting for Cordelia as her perfect planned life suddenly goes awry.

Thank you for the gift of this book @CarolynM 💕Oh it broke my heart. Have you read it yet? Michael Cunningham is definitely one of my favourite authors. His insight into the human experience, interior thoughts, quiet but intense emotions - there are so many sentences that are divine. I did wish for a little more of the children‘s POV here as their changing characters were so fascinating. Just a beautiful book.

Just been in Christchurch visiting friends & then on the plane home a wonderful thing happened. I was reading a book & the woman next to me was reading a book. She then started a conversation with me about my book which she had already read & then we talked for 90 minutes about books!! And i told her all about Litsy so hopefully she will turn up here one day. We even exchanged phone numbers so we can meet up and talk books some more 😍

Thoroughly enjoyed this humorous look at the kings and queens of England up until the end of the Tudors. It‘s a solid bit of history - Mitchell has a degree in history as well as his career as a comedian (bright spark isn‘t he?). I learnt a lot and had plenty of laughs. I wished some parts were longer so i might start differentiating a few more Henrys and Edwards - but it‘s a long period to cover and he‘s done a great job.

I cant give you a photo of wild islands and massive shipwrecks but heres a yacht that ran aground locally for you! 😂
Like @Cathythoughts i saw that this is now a movie and thought i‘d read the book 💕 Amy returns to the Orkney islands as a recovering alcoholic. She explores nature while she contemplates her past life and possible future. Sometimes meditative writing can leave me cold but i just loved this.⬇️

A few of them have inscriptions - one from 1831 (but its in French and pretty faint).

My husband‘s parents just dropped off some family heirlooms for us to look after, including some antique miniature books. They‘re so sweet! (Some title pages to follow)

Book 3 in the Disco Space Opera series (which starts with You Sexy Thing)
A joy to be back with these characters. The last book was high octane but here we take a slow pace, the team needs to regroup and rebuild. This one is about relationships & back story & setting up for future books… could have been boring but it was delightful.
If you want Becky Chambers feels but more of a series, ongoing adventure style of book this could be for you.

Its not too early is it? I try and get a christmas history book from the library in Nov but theyre all booked out - so i grabbed this one early! Its a nice thorough little history - everything i wanted to know in 245 pages, without getting bored by too much detail. It was interesting to see how secular Christmas has been & how different periods have created a nostalgia for ancient traditions that are actually not old! ⬇️

We follow Artie, a gay writer in New York, with alternating chapters when he is 30 yrs old in 1992 and in 2022 when he is 60. In the first timeline Artie is starting a relationship and has a bunch of friends - in the second he is feeling very alone. There‘s a lot to love in this book - found family & wonderful insights & reflections - but i felt it was trying to fit in a lot of characters & didnt have the space to make them all feel fully formed⬇️

This was such a fun read. Thank you @Reggie for this great MG horror. Evelyn moves to Blight Harbour to live with her witchy aunt after the loss of her parents. She struggles with PTSD and panic attacks. This book sets her on a paranormal quest to best a nasty spirit but aided by some more helpful ghosts and witches. An alternative to Coraline this spooky season 🧙👻🎃 Pictured are my ginormous witchy cats!

I really enjoyed this - my first novel by Rachel Khong. She takes a three POV structure for a “three generations of an immigrant family” style story - but makes it intriguingly different from other such novels with a little sci fi twist. I did wish she had amplified that aspect more, but i was won over by how well Khong writes familial relationships. I enjoyed being in each of the POVs even when not a lot was happening.
Pic: spring at the library

I think a lot of people are going to dislike this book. I didnt entirely like it - BUT i keep thinking about it. It‘s an “idea” book, rather than driven by plot or character development. Three Chinese American girls meet in their early teens. Each one is very driven by a passion which will steer their lives - art, technology, activism. I think many readers will want to get into their heads & emotions but this is more about their achievements ⬇️

This book is super sweet - thank you @Reggie for your review which put this on my radar. Its 1950s New York - Mark is a journalist grieving the death of his partner, Eddie is a new trade to a famous baseball team who arent speaking to him because of a tirade he made to the press. Two unhappy and very different men living in an era where homosexuality is a dangerous secret. Lovingly drawn characters, a hug of a book, medium heat.

It‘s always a delight to be back in the Rivers of London world. This novella we jump over to the US to adventure with FBI Special Agent Kimberley Reynolds who was a side character in an earlier book. Kimberley is quite new at the magical stuff and she has to figure it out without back up when she‘s snowed in at a small town in Wisconsin with a large malevolent problem. Lots of fun and i cant wait for the Spring novella to be released.

Sometimes you need a side trip to the sixteenth century to solve a few murders. Loved being back in this world with Matthew Shardlake. Just realised there is a buddy read of this happening right now so i wont breathe a word more about it! 😂 Enjoy guys

Photo: WW2 tunnels at Fort Stony Batter. NZ never got invaded but it was a possibility so we built some defences like this one.

How to say that you enjoyed a grief memoir? This is almost a memoir in essays or thought pieces. Sloane moves from a burglary, to a friend‘s death & into the pandemic in New York. It is as much a memoir about not moving on - the memories that don‘t leave, the conversations with the person that isnt there anymore, the illusions you have of turning back time & saving them. Very much the internal workings of Sloane‘s grieving and beautifully done.

Absolutely loved this weird twisty little novel! Thank you to @BarbaraBB for putting this on my radar a couple of years ago. I LOVE a novel where your brain is busy trying to figure out what is going on - and thats all i can say about this one without influencing the next person‘s reading experience. Except to say if surreal or fantastical isnt your thing, then this isnt your thing. @Reggie have you read this? I devoured it in one sitting.

This was published in 2002 when Fay Weldon was 70. And its like sitting down with an older lady who has lived quite a life and having her describe that life to you over tea and cake. Its written in an easy style but Fay never kept diaries so its not always detailed - although her childhood in NZ is very well remembered. Her mother was a solo mum in the 30s and Fay was a solo mum in the late 50‘s ⬇️

Thank you to @vivastory for recommending this book to me months ago. It was a perfect book for me to read while i was severely anxious about my sons recovery from surgery (there were post surgical complications some 2 weeks after surgery - on the mend again now!). This novella about a young returned soldier restoring a church mural in a small village tells of his own restoration through art, nature & human connection. Just a quiet joy of a book.

Just a light pick for this one. My brain has been fried lately - so i appreciated the light tone and some of the amusing asides as Anthony Horowitz inserts himself into the mystery as a kind of goofy Watson character. Some good red herrings and a bunch of unlikeable but well created characters. However there were a few things that brought me out of the story because they felt too far fetched.

I enjoyed this short classic for the sense of place and the way the writing beautifully captures the ambivalence of the teen protagonist. I can imagine the relaxed attitude to sex in here was extremely controversial at the time whereas now it doesnt seem shocking. Ground breaking at the time, now its an interestingly dark little read.

Home from hospital yesterday on Day 12 @Reggie We are so thrilled to have our son back home and already starting to behave like his usual dry humoured 14yo self! It will be a slow transition back to school as he had major surgery and csnt yet stand up straight or carry a bag.
Here is a photo from his hospital room. A great view right? This tower is lit up for different events and this month is its 27th birthday hence birthday colours.

Day 7 in my sons hospital room but he‘s improving and i finished a book!

I thought this was really powerful. Alternating chapters from four young women who live in the same low cost apartment building in Seoul. Each one is carrying wounds from their past and struggling to get by. Cha paints a misogynistic society with huge barriers to success for impoverished women without family support or social connections. A thought provoking read.

Day 5 of my son‘s hospital stay and he‘s still nil by mouth and on multiple IVs for fluids, antibiotics, proteins, lipids and electrolytes. Just incredible to think how much medical intervention has been necessary (post burst appendix for 3 days) and how fortunate we are to be getting such good care. And glad that we can get this in a ward and not ICU so that he can be in a more comfortable environment. Appreciate all the support from Littens!

So it turned out my 14yo sons gastro wasnt gastro. Despite two doctors telling us it definitely wasnt his appendix over the last 4 days, it was. Apparently he had few of the signs. But meantime it had ruptured and done further damage through a terrible infection. Hes in having quite a large surgery now as they need to explore around the whole area to fix any damage, not just a lapsroscopy. So glad we are in the right place now! ⬇️

Maybe i would have given this a so-so but in the middle of a gastrointestinal storm in my house (just the kids) this was the kind of light read i needed. It was great to be back with GUP, Maisie and Grant and I enjoyed their travels through Europe. The family situation and tension between the kids, their dad and their dad‘s fiancée felt a bit forced and unnatural - but i get that its difficult with sequels. Great humour & fun new characters.

This book is quite different to Essex Serpent. If you loved Essex Serpent‘s raw vitality & personalities conflicting - think of this as melancholy, solitary souls looking for life‘s purpose amongst small tragedies. Its nowhere near as epic and there‘s a ton of philosophising. And i loved it, but in an entirely different way. Perry‘s writing and characters just appeal to me, even when the storyline isnt always smooth. ⬇️

Thank you for putting this on my radar @Megabooks 💕
A thought provoking story of a young woman coming to realise her entrapment in christian patriarchy. Cait‘s father became increasingly controlling as she grew up and more committed to the concept of “stay at home daughters”. If youre interested in how misogyny can thrive within religion this is a fascinating personal account - from entrapment to realisation to dealing with PTSD after leaving.

I havent read enough non fiction this year so i picked this up. This is one of those “WTF” books where i was constantly reading bits to my husband - saying “listen to this, you won‘t believe it”. It turns out that when Dutertes said in the election campaign that he would kill a lot of people, it wasnt an exaggeration. The drug war he initiated created state sponsored killing squads, with no requirements for justice or legal process ⬇️

Went to Waiheke Island last week for a day trip and just as we pulled in to Palm Beach, three small orcas had come into the bay to swim and play! It might look like a shark fin here (its one small orca fin in front of a larger one) but they were rolling about and obviously playing and a young man was swimming amongst them for a short while. (And its winter!) A very cool and unexpected sighting.

A 5 star read for me. I do love a novel that follows a family over generations (i guess its a family saga but you spend most of the book w the middle generation). I have 3 sisters & a big family & while they‘re nothing like the Padvanos, i appreciated watching the dynamics over the years & patterns repeating. A warm hearted book with family drama, rifts and finding forgiveness along the way.

And i want to read 34. This NYT list is a good reminder of some of the books that have fallen off my radar!

For the first quarter of this book i thought it might be too twee for me - but then i warmed to the characters and devoured the rest of this heart warming story. It really is a light mystery with a touch of romance - and lots of illustrated cryptic puzzles to solve! (Although i didnt bother trying to solve many of them and it was still a good experience) Clayton is a foundling left on the steps of The Fellowship ⬇️

Hekla is a young woman in 1960s Iceland. She is named after a volcano, and like her namesake so much is going on under the calm surface. Hekla is a writer but it seems only men can be? Olafsdottir writes in an observational way - we hear what people say to Hekla, see what she sees and we notice the hypocrisy, but we are left to imagine what Hekla is thinking. I like this style of writing and the way it makes the reader try to figure out Hekla. ⬇️

I think i stacked this book thanks to a review by @Megabooks Meg, it was so good! Sarah Polley looks at six dangerous episodes of her life - from being on a film set as a child actor, to a difficult birth, to an accident causing severe concussion. In each episode she examines herself, her family, her memory - with intelligence, humility and grace. There is wonderful honesty and insight and i felt “seen” for my own vulnerable episodes. ⬇️