#12Booksof2025 December / Book 12 : Kingfisher was the perfect end to the year
Thanks for hosting @TheEllieMo this was fun!

January #bookspinbingo board. I'm penciling in Oyinkan Braithwaite for #BIPOCIntlAuthorArtist2026 since @GatheringBooks challenged me to find my own list and to add in with all my other buddy reads. Currently reading the tagged #bookspin pick and greatly enjoying it, although my #USpresidents choice is forming a pleasant way to survive my morning commute.

#12Booksof2025 November / Book 11 : surprise twist! This was not my highest rated read of the month (that honor goes to the new WWII historical fantasy A Resistance of Witches) but it has stuck with me enough that I am pursuing research at work related to the information I learned about pigeons in WWII from this author. Inspiration should always be celebrated!
Read with the incomparable @AllDebooks and #NaturaLitsy

#12Booksof2025 October / Book 10: also my #bestbookof2025
Also 5-star reads this month: The River Has Roots (whimsy, lovely narration on audiobook); The Salt Grows Heavy (dark fairytale reimagining, excellent gothic and body-horror vibes)

#12Booksof2025 September / Book 9 : September is for linking up my kindle before going on a trans-Pacific flight only to see a surprise new series starter from a fav author. I read it twice on the plane ❤️❤️❤️ and the artwork is also lovely!

#12Booksof2025 August / Book 8 : highlighting these two books from #camplitsy25 that I loved and wouldn't have had on my radar without the buddy read!

New year, new #readyourebooks #readyourkindle list!

#bookspin /#doublespin list for January. I‘ll add the picks to my tbr and put up that list for the bingo board since that seemed to work out nicely last year!

I enjoyed doing both of these brackets from @Catsandbooks and @MegaWhoppingCosmicBookwyrm - at first it seemed like they'd give me different results but then Everett swept the last half of the year 😂 #bestbooks2025 #bookbracket2025
So here are some #mylitsyawards winners for a little variety! Great idea and thanks for the templates, @CSeydel

#12Booksof2025 July / Book 7 : I'm loving reading Christie's oeuvre in publication order with @Librarybelle - I feel like participating in #ChristiesCapers is making me pick up on how Christie's life influenced her themes. But this one was just a true classic that didn't disappoint, and I somehow had never read it before so going fresh was so much fun!

#12Booksof2025 June / Book 6 : a short novella that packs a punch. Sounds like the author's newest novel too, so I guess I should go check that out!

#12Booksof2025 May / Book 5 : ❤️ Vera Wong!

@BarkingMadRead your reference to Scooby was apt! I enjoyed this zany house-party murder, but then my tolerance for tomfoolery is high. Thanks for leading us! #hashtagbrigade

#12Booksof2025 April / Book 4 : I always love a new SGJ!

#12Booksof2025 March / Book 3 : my favorite of the 2 books read this month (2!!! Way below my normal, I can tell I was traveling for work)
Probably not destined to be a classic 🤣🤣🤣? But when a good work friend and I both figured out we had read it independent of each other it spawned an ongoing buddy read that has survived her moving states and jobs.

#12Booksof2025 February / Book 2 : not an easy read, but important

#12Booksof2025 January/Book 1 : I had a few 5-star reads in January, and they were all from the #ToB2025 competition (not that I've finished everything from the shortlist yet, lol)
This surrealist Fahrenheit 451 was particularly captivating!

Loved it, as expected. A delightful Snow White rewrite where Snow is an ancillary character to an adult lady poison expert. Light romance, creepy mirror world, on-its-head fairytale retelling? Yes, please. And I stand by my comp to Robin McKinley for this book, too.

After seeing everyone, including the year-end lists, rave about this I think my take will be a bit of an #unpopularopinion 😅
I liked the Jane Eyre undertones (or are they more overt?) but I found the parade of trauma to be extremely oppressive. I think Ive decided I dislike how much this author wallows, making you really work for the hope.

I‘ve been reading smut lately with a long-distance friend and this one did not impress. My “these idiots” feelings were not alleviated by the narrators this time.

Loving the new T. Kingfisher! It‘s giving me McKinley vibes but with a creepy sheen - maybe it‘s the desert setting making me think of Damar? Her inner dialogue writing of the reluctant hero is similar too.

It's that time of my reading year when I try (valiantly?) to clean up outstanding challenges while simultaneously picking up random #ToBlonglist titles that strike me. This book is one of the latter and was definitely an all-vibes-great-cover-no-waitlist sort of choice 🤷🏻‍♀️
I really liked the acerbic commentary on social mobility and class, but the last 1/4th fell apart for me when it turned into an angsty Bonnie-&-Clyde romance #tob26longlist

I received this audiobook as a skip-the-line - what luck, since I doubt I‘d seen anything about it before a month ago!
This is an intense historical fantasy which sets an English witch going against her coven‘s wishes to find a horrifying grimoire in occupied France before a Nazi coven can find and use it. Recommended if you enjoy epic magic stories 🔮 and WWII lady spy 🕵🏻‍♀️ novels with a light romantic subplot

Hah! I had no idea ToB did a Horror Popup mini tournament this October. Did anyone follow along? It could be fun to pit these against each other, and I cringe to admit I‘ve never even read the tagged. Maybe they‘ll do it again next year! 🎃
Am I here for #ToB side quests? Yes!

Hello! I‘ve had a bit of a Litsy-hiatus due to work travel and the newly enforced vacation (iykyk). But I missed you! Y‘all help me actually think about what I‘m reading, and it turns out that I couldn‘t remember the title of a single book I‘d read lately, good or bad, when asked by my hairdresser last week 😆 so let‘s try and turn that around. At least Briggs‘ werewolves are always memorable…

#bookspin list on the left and bingo to the left - let's go, June!

I had this novel backburnered from a #classicLSFBC buddyread, but I‘m happy to have finally read it! Great cover, wacky book. I‘m giving it a low pick bc the idea of humanity entering the space-faring universe as one of the only species not to have a patron to introduce technology led to interesting alien dynamics. But the plot was all over the place - a Jekyll-&-Hyde thing, a murder mystery, oddly timed pov shifts, hand-to-hand fighting… I dunno

A great novel about art, originality, and ownership. Do we use art to manifest parts of ourselves? Can we ever get beyond that? How much ownership can we have over anything we put out in the world?

Can‘t wait to discuss it for #camplitsy, I think there‘s a lot here to unpack!

I mean, was Death of the Author a better book? Probably. But the newest Vera did not disappoint! She's a delight.
Apparently I'm all about comfort reads lately... (Looking at you, Kate Daniels...)
#weeklyfavorites25 @Read4life

Hello everyone! I've been on a bit of a hiatus since I was traveling for work for the last two months and it really cut in to my reading time. The nerve! This month, I'm going to see how many of the books I meant to read in March and April are actually getting finished. But first, on to the tagged new release that I am so excited to start!

As in Feb, I'm doing two lists, one to pick my #bookspin books and the second for the #bookspinbingo board.

I know I said I needed something fluffy to read, but I started this anyway from the #lsfbc February poll and the engagement necessary for the conspiracy-heavy puzzles, references, and reality-bending games is actually working to help with my doom spiraling. 🌀🌀🌀
Anyone else reading this ? I didn‘t realize there were a bunch of podcasts out previous to the novel. Now I feel like I‘m missing something 👀

Thanks, I hated it! Maybe my timing is off, but reading about a bunch of snobby elites blame everyone around them and hating on women was not helping this week 🫠
The #literallymycharacter challenge was fun though, thanks @TheBookHippie even the Amazon ads (not pictured) were entertaining and pretty accurate tbh! I AM a sleepy insomniac judgy hot mess who's glued to her phone/camera.

This was a powerful read and such an interesting and important pov, but hearing how Gay kept punishing herself for her own childhood trauma was oh, so sad. @Read4life #weeklyfavorites25 @Soubhiville #AuthorAMonth
It's been a hard week all around and I think I need some happy fluffy reads next for my own mental resilience haha. Suggestions?

I liked this first Poirot novel enough that #christiescapers made my final #weeklyfavorite for January but I didn't love it. Red herrings everywhere, and so much talking it almost felt like a play, but an impressive 1st novel! My favorite reads this month are all from the #tob2025 longlist (one from the shortlist) so I'm happy to see it is still capable of introducing me to new authors to watch.
Lots of books in January! And a #bookspinbingo! 🔽

I put a number of stalled-out books on my #bookspin list for February - let's see where the luck takes me!
I very much enjoyed the system last month, @TheAromaofBooks you're right! Somehow the dual list with lots of category entries on the bingo board was very freeing.

This is a very sweet gaslamp fantasy with instalove, bicycle riding, and a vast conspiracy that involves soldiers with ptsd and an affliction that's making them kill their families. This was also my #readyourebooks #readyourkindle pick for January! Yay! @CBee

I feel like the gimmick (an actual alien reporting on the coming of age of an ace, lower middle class girl through living it) detracted from the story. It made the MCs identity uncomfortable and her v literal “dispatches” annoying rather than quirky. Sorry #tob #tob25 and I guess all the other best of lists last year but I wasn‘t here for it. #unpopularopinion

I enjoyed this book and how it used a youth sports competition in Reno, NV to frame the lives of the 8 contestants. The last chapter was a little weird, maybe? But Reno is a weird place, so whatever I guess. #tob #tob2025 #tob25

Wow, this dystopian novel was great! I loved how it plays with how books can take over one's subconscious, giving fiction more agency than is usual in these types of books. Only one quibble with this one, #tob #tob25 : why oh why is it up against James? I have no idea how to even compare them 😂
#weeklyfavorites25 @Read4life

Funny! Only a little too meta at the end. Definitely a reminder that main character energy is bad for your health and the health of those around you. There's an "aw-shucks" vibe to all of Scalzi's main characters that I'm beginning to grow tired of, however. #LitsySciFiBookClub

That moment when you realize you were not-so-patiently waiting for a hold on a book you already own🤪🤦‍♀️
At least this hold was only a couple weeks - last time, I had waited on hold for MONTHS. Lol anyway, am only now starting my reread for #classicLSFBC obviously...

I've not seen much love for Whose Body this #AuthorAMonth but honestly I dug it. Maybe I'm just a sucker for an inventive if gruesome crime? And then I found bk 2 to be a bit annoying and it felt like I was reading something by a person that didn't like women very much. So, yes, Harriet, I'm giving this series that same sideeye you're currently giving Whimsey. I think ill continue but maybe not soon.

Tagged is a low pick. It is billed as reverse harem with sexy superpowered faery suitors, and honestly it needed more smut 😂
so it lost out to a YA fantasy for #weeklyfavorites25 🙃 @Read4life

Oh dear. I‘ve been listening to this sci fi space opera/romance while falling asleep for a couple months (maybe since it was voted in for #litsyscifibookclub?) and now I‘m very wide awake after the creepy-fungal-misprints-in-the-trees interlude 😳🥶 🙉 I‘m just picturing a bunch of Last of Us monsters, anyone else from #lsfbc find this more of a heart-pounder than they thought?
Welp time to finish it in daylight and find a new bedtime story!

Hard-to-kill girls are demonized and lied to in this YA fantasy with an overthrow-the-patriarchy vibe. I found it to be really satisfying for the first in a series! Thanks for the rec, @Lin3han this was a fun #auldlangspine pick! @monalyisha

This magical murder mystery had some cozy vibes and great rep (MC with fibromyalgia, lesbian/gay MCS, nonbinary side char), & I'd rec it for folks into paranormal fantasy who don't mind flashes of brutal violence, fairly immature MCs (I think I'd categorize it as YA?), and overt mustache twirling. There were a lot of side themes! I'm curious if the next book settles down a little and decides if it's doing a cozy or a hard-boiled detective mystery.

When I was trying to decide whether to dnf this, I read a review that called it “all tell no show” and that is completely, infuriatingly accurate. There‘s a workplace drama and a post-colonial exploitation adventure story that are juxtaposed. Almost all plot is related via monologue from two narrators, sometimes secondhand, and is rife with judgement in which the reader is invited to partake. So, all in all not a comfortable or even all that ⬇️

A lovely, slightly bittersweet, book of interconnected stories that revels in the beauty in everyday life. A front runner among the #tob25 books for me.

51/100 for today's #tlt thanks for the tag @dabbe !
That was ALot of Jansson and Dahl! My fav are in the collage, but i have to admit Dahls books have influenced my sense of humor bunches, for good or bad. And now I'm also disappointed in Gaiman. So 😩
I am unsure about the inclusion of LoTR as a children's book? Plus my personal pref would have been for Five Children and It for Nesbit, and where's Secret Garden? Tagged looks interesting!

A better picture of AllTheBooks that came in from being on hold at once at the library. Jeez, that‘s what I get for trying to game the system and have future holds to look forward to! 😅
My pup looks unimpressed by the future distractions for my time…
Currently reading and enjoying the tagged for #tob2025