Finally some movement on my #fourfoursin25 #fourfours reading challenge! My first prompt fill for months, #picketcricket . Only one to go!

How's your challenge going? @thebacklistbook @clwojick @TheAromaofBooks @lizpixie @AbigailJaneBlog @CoffeeNBooks @ReadingRachael @mcipher @AbigailJaneBlog @PageShifter @Jas16 @willaful @bekakins @ImperfectCJ

#WickedWords wrap for August. I think my pick would be Lost in the Moment and Found, though Ballad wins in the Exceeding my Expectations (which were low) stakes. @AsYouWish

"Happy birthday, Haymitch!"

#firstlinefridays @ShyBookOwl

Working on a GenmaichaTea shawl in this very fine and soft Sultan Deluxe cotton. #showandtelltuesday @Catsandbooks

Completed! X was last, of course. #LitsyAtoZ #LitsyAtoZ2025 @TexReader

Annnnd... once again I just plain adore an Olympus, Inc book. This one's a sapphic (both MCs are bi) romantic suspense. It's set in an island festival, with the romance being between a single-mum burlesque performer and a fallen-from-grace influencer/photographer. It's body positive and sex work positive and fun. Also, there are murders.

Extra kudos to Healey for writing an X book to finish off my #LitsyAtoZ #LitsyAtoZ2025 @TexReader #LetterX

This is an absolutely superb graphic memoir of George Takei's life. I learned a lot more about his political activism, and about the forces that led to him leading most of his life closeted. The book brilliantly balances this sadness with fire and hope and joy.

Reading George Takei's second graphic memoir. It's very good, albeit with the pervasive sadness of him needing to be closeted.

Library haul: local "Indigiverse" graphic novels by Scott Wilson and Molly Hunt. These new superhero stories are based in First Nations lore and language.

Another instalment in the Wayward Children series that I absolutely loved. No surprises there.

And the last word for August! #WickedWords @AsYouWish

Random allusion to monster-fucking romance novels in Saga 12 🤣🤣 👹❤️

Continental Drifter is an excellent graphic memoir about a childhood spent between Bangkok and Maine, and the search for belonging.

And it has a lighthouse on the cover, so that's July done! #ISpyBingo #ISpy @TheAromaOfBooks

Also. Bangkok is Somewhere Hot @julieclair #FictionalTraveler

Fully up to date with my #goodreads Summer Challenge! Are you participating? How are you going?

Great title, but a disappointing read. Lack of formatting was very offputting. But my biggest critique was pacing/plot. This felt like a poorly-edited first half of an overlong book. There were threads I expected to be part of a denouement, like certain recurring social media commenters, but the book just tailed off half-heartedly at the end instead of anything happening or any significant personal growth occurring.

Found a piano, so November grid is done! Eleven prompts to go...

#ISpyBingo #ISpy @TheAromaOfBooks

I‘m really enjoying the art in the new Wizard of Earthsea graphic novel . Atmospheric and beautiful .

Found the sixties in this graphic memoir! #WickedWords @AsYouWish

Also my August nonfiction for #MonthlyNonfiction2025 @julieclair

Is this a cheat? Nah, it's a flexible challenge! #WickedWords @AsYouWish

I picked this up for the Goodreads debut challenge, and I'm quite enjoying it so far.

Cute, magical, queer graphic novel.

#WickedWords @AsYouWish

I was tentative going in, but ended up really enjoying this! It's not super pace-y or anything, but I thought Collins adeptly trod the balance of writing a character who we all know turns out terribly.

#WickedWords @AsYouWish

Finally found #lightning ! And I have a book out of the library with a piano on the cover.

#ISpyBingo #ISpy @TheAromaOfBooks

#dogsoflitsy

That is all

Finally found a Z book! #LitsyAtoZ #LitsyAtoZ2025 @TexReader

Only X to go now, and I know what I'm reading there (XO, Xena by Kate Healey)

This was a sweet, magical graphic novel. Good fun.

The 2nd half of the #Pantone2025 #readingchallenge is HEEERE!

This challenge is based on Fashion Week seasonal trend colours, this time for the northern hemisphere Autum and Winter. Please note there are TWO grids - for London (orange border) and NY (mauve border).

To play, just find a colour in a book cover, then plonk the cover into the grid. There are no other rules! Colours are listed in text in comments. Share and enjoy.

@litsyevents

The 2nd half of the #Pantone2025 #readingchallenge is HEEERE!

This challenge is based on Fashion Week seasonal trend colours, this time for the northern hemisphere Autum and Winter. Please note there are TWO grids - for London (orange border) and NY (mauve border).

To play, just find a colour in a book cover, then plonk the cover into the grid. There are no other rules! Colours are listed in text in comments. Share and enjoy.

@litsyevents

Another entry for the lettering hall of shame, but I am excited about this new project on the hook. Malduguns Fen Fire Sweater by Linda Skuja. I'm doing it as a light cotton top. #litsycrafters

I'm not sure what to say about this, except that I don't think it's as clever as it thinks it is.

Words springing to mind are “leaden“, “trite“, “superficial“, and “gimmicky“, but if I said all of that you'd think I hated it. I didn't. It was just meh.

I think I just like my books about stereotypes and marginalisation to have at least a smidgen of intersectionality. A tiny nod. A soupçon.

BUT it did fill Acclaimed Titles in my GR challenge.

Beautifully illustrated book of creation stories from the Yindjibarndi people of northwestern Australia.

#MonthlyNonfiction2025 @julieclair

#WickedWords @AsYouWish

More than halfway through and still waiting for this metafiction to live up to its hype. I'm not sure whether it's just me, or whether I still judge every author using 2nd person in comparison to NK Jemisin (and none of them are NK Jemisin). Maybe it will all come together before the end?

Anyhow, I've finished #WickedWords for July @AsYouWish

MG Australian riff on AYTGIMM. MC is a comp swimmer whose teammate and BFF wants to ask her out, but she is not ready . She gets her first period at his house, which she's also not ready for.

The drama lies mostly around school r'ships, a new kid, MC's rival on the swim team (who has troubles of her own - child abuse mentioned, not sexual) and dealing with having been abandoned by her mother who has run off to India.

#WickedWords @AsYouWish

This fae novella was lovely. #WickedWords @AsYouWish

This was a rather lovely little graphic novel set in a magical Benin-inspired fantasy world.

With Okupe being Nigerian, that's a wrap on the Formidable Reading Challenge! #urc2025 #URC @Faranae #frc #frc2025

I've put all the other prompts into a grid for the Ultimate Reading Challenge - and have only three to go there.

Making a woollen baby pinafore as a followup to my recent baby blanket. Have I acquired a baby in the meantime? No. Have any of my friends? Also no.

#litsycrafters #crochetandabook

Also finished this week: Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers. It was fine, a decent cosy mystery. It did drag a bit for me, though I'm not quite sure what was missing.

Filled the England prompt for #WickedWords @AsYouWish , also Poolside Puzzlers for the Goodreads challenge.

This is an excellent graphic novel adaptation of Williams-Garcia's classic novel. Recommended!

#WickedWords @AsYouWish

Tag is current read, just started. Mostly posting to show you my finished beanie! #litsycrafters

Tag is current read, just started. Mostly posting to show you my finished beanie! #litsycrafters

I really really disliked this book, so I'm glad it at least filled a prompt!

Little rich kids and their hateful family gather on a private island and *waves hands* twisty blahblah I really don't care because the only likeable characters are the dogs.

@julieclair #FictionalTraveler

Beautiful art in this illustrated book of creation stories

Local literature from the library today

Gorgeous little sapphic (?) romance novella featuring an ace heroine and a robot who runs a tea shop. Examinations of SFnal AI personhood, ethics, nurture, and autonomy.

And I'm done! Nine graphic novels, nine text novels/novellas, and a poetry book.

#LGBTQIA2025 @Kenyazero

Gorgeous cover, cute title, liked the mooncake contest storyline idea. The rest was just meh. Theo was a dick, and there was no chemistry between them. Took me ages to read because I kept falling asleep a few pages after picking it up.

I did get the #Autumn prompt for #LGBTQIA2025 @Kenyazero - one to go! As well as Cake, finishing March for #ISpyBingo #ISpy @TheAromaOfBooks

After a long period of chaos and homelessness, Dan‘s alcoholic mum abandons him at his Meemaw‘s place in the Smokies. It‘s not a very queer-friendly town, but there is also joy to be found. I‘m loving this graphic novel so far.

on page 28 :

- Terrible Lettering Hall of Shame award

- That's not how retinal detachment works

- That's not how disability diagnosis works

- That's not how anything works

Impending DNF

Cute MG graphic novel with a bit more going on below the surface.

And with scissors on the cover, that's February done! #ISpyBingo #ISpy @TheAromaOfBooks

Four grids are fully completed; 15 prompts to go.

Murder by Memory - a generation-ship murder-mystery with a nod to knitting? There's really no way I wasn't going to like this.

And I finished my Goodreads seasonal challenge! #goodreadschallenge #readingchallenges

I'm not particularly enjoying the artwork in this graphic memoir so far, but I did spot an Italy!

#WickedWords @AsYouWish

Only “Italy“ to go! #WickedWords @AsYouWish

This little graphic novel is pretty fun.