Would you call this book magical realism? Supernatural? Something else?
(Photo purely for ears and toebeans) #catsoflitsy

“Hurt?”
“A touch.”
“Good for ya. More it hurt, more better it is. T‘ain‘t nothing heal without pain, y‘know.”
Carne fritas. #puertorriqueno #audiocooking

“But if her shining was not for him, who then? He had never known a woman who lit up for nobody in particular, who just, did it as a general announcement.” Well captured, Toni Morrison, and also, 🤨
#malegaze #audiobook #audiocooking

The only “problem” with TM narrating her books is that I sometimes get lost in the cadence of her speech rather than hearing the words she‘s saying. So exquisite, on every level.

Tough subject but very well done. I enjoy epistolary novels, and this format is very similar, plus doing it on audio was perfect, given the podcast setting. I don‘t always enjoy a full cast; it sometimes feels too busy, but the interview style made it work well. Very This American Life, Hidden Brain, Radiolab, etc.
Photo is frankly so I can show @brandybear22 my planner sticker for mint julep poached peach delivery tonight 😏

This comes highly recommended, and I need something easy for my drive up the coast to visit @ph9k for the afternoon 😊 #audiobook #audiodriving

“Compare the torrent and the glacier. Both get where they are going.” #queerbooks #bookclub

I know that sometimes I can get lost listening to a book rather than reading it, particularly with science fiction, so I‘m switching to paper for this one. Plus for some reason, George Guidall‘s narration is grating on me and that‘s distracting. #queerbooks #bookclub

50¢ bin find! #queerbooks #comics

“But they did not go to war. They lacked, it seemed, the capacity to mobilize. They behaved like animals in that respect, or like women. They did not behave like men, or ants.”
“There are things that outweigh comfort, unless one is an old woman or a cat.”
The first one I found very clever. The second just speaks to my very soul. 👵🏼 🐈 #queerbooks #bookclub

“For one‘s language — the one we dream in — is home.” #Scribd #audiobook

Switching to Toni Morrison‘s latest, to celebrate the life of someone who gave so much to our world. I read Sula in my first ever college class, women‘s literature survey. Rest in Power, Beloved. #readblackwomen

Curious if there‘s an #unpopularopinion hashtag yet. [ETA: there is.]
Also want to acknowledge that I would most likely love this book unequivocally if I were reading it rather than listening to it. #audiobook

Seemed appropriate for #SharkWeek 😀🦈 “Don‘t be misled by my bad habit of making everything look cute, and don‘t try to pat one on the head, as they are likely to bite your hand off and hit you over the head with it.”
I think hammerhead sharks and cats must be distant relatives... 🤔 🐈 Oh and bonus Xander also pictured 😻 #catsoflitsy

Press Your Luck, domestic goddess edition: can I set these very thickly sauced ribs to broil, complete a laundry hat trick (dry load bagged and upstairs; washed load into the dryer; dirty load into the washer) and get back to the kitchen before either the ribs are blackened or the smoke detector goes off??
Yes, yes I can.
(Ignore the detritus in the pan, this has been a multi-step rib cooking and not all is meant to be eaten 😬) #audiocooking

Some of the spoils of my “pretend to be a tourist day” with @brandybear22 yesterday — fancy candy and the penguin she won for me in the arcade. We wrapped the day with her reading a bit more to me: we‘d abandoned poor Troilus for too long!

A little stoop reading on this breezy 75° day, in preparation for queer book club tomorrow. #bookandabeverage #bookclub #queerbooks

“And perhaps it is the greater grief, after all, to be left on earth, when another is gone, do you think?”

While this is but one necessary change for the island, it is a significant one. #RickyRenuncio

Hi everyone. Getting back into social media is proving difficult. Between technology problems while in PR and having too much to show/say in such a limited way, it‘s just felt easier to not try. I miss you all though, so I‘m going to give it a bit of effort as I‘m able. Tell me the most wonderful thing that‘s happened in the last month to help me jump back in? Drop a link to a post if that‘s easiest. 💜

Leyendo en la guagua 🚌 📖 #queerbooks #ARC

As conflicted as I feel about this trip, I'm truly excited to take the girls to the observatory at Arecibo. ? ?? It's on the US National Register of Historic Sites (thank you for that bit of trivia, @brandybear22 ?) and is a longtime "bouquet list" item for me. We weren't going to take them, but another excursion had to be canceled when the mayor declared last friday a municipal holiday. ?✔ #STEMinPR

Morning commute. I *will* finish this ARC this week!

Bookmarks I found in my wanderings around Viejo San Juan today, and bought the tagged book. At least I made something bookish happen this weekend? 😊

Perfection.

I haven't read at all since arriving here. Going to try to get to an ARC tomorrow, at least to read enough to give it a fair review. I have a lot of feelings about how things have gone on this trip, but no energy to talk about them. For now, I'll say that the good has been unequivocally good, and leave it at that. Piña coladas ("con ron?" "Por supuesto!") with @brandybear22 at a spot an Uber driver recommended for seafood. ?

I haven‘t actually played yet because I have had literally no free time, but on the off chance that I get some before the month of camp is over: 7289 3413 9638

Funny story: I know that Emil, the chef at Sur Lie, visits tables to introduce himself and ask how everything is, so I wasn‘t surprised when he came over to ours tonight. Then he asked me, “Do you have a Puerto Rican flag on your jacket?” Mortified, I realized that I had basically worn the band tee shirt to see the band, and had to confess that I did actually know he was Puerto Rican but that wasn‘t why I wore the hoodie! 😳😬🙄

Having a lot of feelings about Pride week, how I‘m participating, how I‘m not, what I‘m preparing for that‘s keeping me home from the festivities. Mostly thinking about how many of my LGBTQ+ family lost in the Pulse shooting were Puerto Rican. This overlap in the communities I am passionate about feels particularly strong right now, as I prepare to leave one home during its Pride celebration in order to return to another. #lgbtq🌈 #pride

“Accepting yourself is non-negotiable.” #genderqueer #intersectional #tarot

Feeling very on brand for a certain segment of my identity Venn diagram today. Happy #Pride, Littens! Tagged book is this month‘s #queerbookclub pick; I won‘t be there for the discussion, but I‘m going to still try to read at least a few of the stories during my travel this Saturday.

🥰

A great exhibit during pride month, honoring the 50 years since the stonewall riots. #firstfriday

🤓😯😍

I think I may have hit on something that won‘t lose my attention...

Solid three ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Will revisit for some of the types of food, restaurants, and organizations mentioned throughout.

https://open.spotify.com/track/3dskm5fAe8OkBtM9E0VVWx?si=25S6LuORTXKSr3MRVq3CsA
The first time I listened to this song I didn‘t hear the coquí until the very end, the one that chirps into the silence after the music and singing concludes. I‘m tearing up just thinking about the gut punch of it. ??

NOPE. I won‘t go on about why I‘m bailing, suffice it to say that June is not the month for me to give any listening/reading time to formulaic heteromance. Bad enough that “straight pride” allegedly has a parade permit for Labor Day weekend in Boston (no I don‘t think it‘ll happen, but it‘s getting loads of media coverage): I don‘t need patriarchal BS with simpering girls and perfect men in my ears.

I‘m not exactly in a listening rut, but nothing‘s holding my attention. Giving this one from Sync summer listening a try.

Tor put together a collection of four LGBTQ+ sci-fi novellas for pride month, free download here: ebookclub.tor.com 🏳️‍🌈 #queerbooks #ownvoices #scifi #bookclub #ebook #freebooks

“God does not play games with the universe.”
“Where have you been?”
😂

Lots to think about.
Does your gender ever feel like a riddle?
“I‘m not non-binary, but I‘m genderqueer. I‘m not cis, but people assume I am. What am I??”

Happy Pride. Question everything. Assume nothing. Ask your femme-presenting loved ones how you can lift them up and keep them safe. Tell your masc-presenting loved ones that you see them and you value their lives. Are your people different from you in any way? If not, why not?

I love good closed captioning 😂

I‘m very glad I reread this recently; I‘m sure I‘ll enjoy it better for having revisited it since my first time through a decade or so ago.

Macabre humor in the midst of bananas details of trying to get food to the Puerto Rican people. Fucked up, indeed.

Last-minute birthday dinner plan: Mexican takeout from the awesome place around the corner, and finally opened the bottle of tequila I bought to celebrate the end of my first year at Mount Holyoke. Jam jar shot glasses are now officially A Thing with @brandybear22 🙃🥰🍶🌮🥑 I was happy to postpone my Good Omens binge for this.

I was just reminded of this series by my (playfully) frustrated Litsy post upon finishing book 4, and was hopeful that book 5 might have come out in the meantime. Alas! What‘s a #bookbirthday you‘re anxiously awaiting? (And yes, I put this on my calendar)

“‘I‘m given to understand,‘ said translator Zeiat thoughtfully, ‘that most, if not all, humans, are built by other humans. If that‘s a disqualification for significance, which I‘m not sure it is, if that‘s a disqualification for significance then NO, I don‘t like it one bit.‘” The Presger are just the best.
Pictured: this year‘s first bloom on my cherry brandy hibiscus, a housewarming gift from @brandybear22 when we‘d just started dating 🥰 🌺

Returned to this one for some lunchtime #audiocooking 🇵🇷
“If you want to talk to Puerto Ricans, try sharing a meal with them. If you want to tell them you care, try cooking for them.”

@brandybear22‘s kid took us out to breakfast before our adventure at the McLaughlin Garden Lilac Festival for my birthday, and gave me these sweet gifts that will remind me of the day 🥰 #birthday #bookmark