Amélie is expressing my opinion of the ending. An early novel, this shows the promise of what Cash will become. But it‘s not there yet. It does a great job of evoking its place, and I want to love some of the characters. But they‘re not totally believable. Still a good escapist read. It‘ll be interesting to hear my non southern book club members‘ opinions. #LetterL #LitsyAtoZ @Texreader

Loved the Kyrie this morning! Although I can‘t say the same for Ockeghem‘s hat. 😂 @AnnCecilie @kspenmoll

My February stats. Proud Shoes was the highest ranked, but the tagged book is so important right now.

My #readyourebooks list is ready, now that I‘ve downloaded and converted my ebooks. @CBee

I took the final steps today to totally disconnect from Amazon. #kobo on the way. #HitThemWhereItHurts #resist

There‘s a lot to unpack in this slim novel, and I will be puzzling on it for a while. Sparkling bits of humor and quirky characters set against personal tragedy and absurd yet unsettling politics make this a dense read. Beautiful writing and the ability to portray a very different time and place make this worth the effort.

Calling all #Kobo users! I‘m switching away from Amazon (and all the oligarchs) so I‘m ditching my Kindle Paperwhite and looking for a Kobo. Which one do you like best, and why? My preference is for lightweight and small enough to fit in a purse, but I‘m flexible. Convince me that your version is the best one. 😀

Just going to leave that there. 😂

The writing was very stilted feeling, who‘s is perhaps more on the translator than the author, but I lost interest 17% in.

Here‘s my #bookspin for March, trying to fill in some #litsyatoz prompts at the same time. 😀 @TheAromaofBooks @Texreader

WTF did I just read? This seemed like it should have been a poem instead of a 434 page novel, as it was all symbolism and no plot or character development. Unless you read Spanish, French, and German (with a little Latin) reading it on a device with translation capability is helpful. And a knowledge of Peter Loree‘s filmography, post-WWII politics, and Mexican geography would also be helpful. Glad I pushed through and finished, but 👇🏻

Pauli Murray - lawyer, civil rights activist, Episcopal priest, poet, friend of Eleanor Roosevelt - grew up in Durham NC. This is the story of her grandparents and great grandparents, their different backgrounds and races, and particularly their time between the war and Jim Crow when people thought it was going to be a more direct route to equality. Highly recommend. It‘s engagingly written and immersed me in her world.

Beautiful writing, without any sensationalism or exaggeration, telling what it was like to live through 1943 & 44 in Italy, first far enough from the fighting to be considered a safe place to evacuate children, then literally the front lines. Fleeing at a moments notice, on foot, with 4 infants, 23 children under 10, and various adults. Dealing with partisans, fascists and Germans, all armed, all wanting to take whatever food, clothes etc.

We have no room on our bookshelves, but also no self-control. 😂 We spent this rainy day in two secondhand book stores and came away with these treasures. #bookhaul

The Geoffrey chapters annoy me, but then the Hugh chapters have a sentence like this. 😂

Rome in May of 1943. Would that I can be that sanguine!

Like with most short story collections, I liked some more than others. So many were heartbreaking. But also full of love of family. Sony‘s Gone might have been my favorite, but The Bones of Louella Brown was also a favorite. #bookspin @TheAromaofBooks

My edition seems to want to shed its pages - and it‘s only February. How are you managing a reread @AnnCecilie ?

While I was at a work retreat my husband found this in a 2nd hand book shop and bought it for me. And the CD is still there! If you are (or know) an #oboist, you know how exciting this is. He gets me. ❤️

I can deal with unlikable characters, but in this book they got more unlikable as each chapter unfolded and I found nothing to redeem them. Every character is in a weird spot where they think they are superior while simultaneously feeling like everyone else feels superior to them. The final act of the “first love” was so selfish. I don‘t understand those who call the book romantic. Some decent writing, but not enough to save it for me.

Started my #bookspin today! @TheAromaofBooks

My February list for #readyourkindle. Maybe I‘ll do better than one completion this month. 😀 @CBee

I loved this novel of family, identity, and the power of cake. 😂 Seriously, it‘s a well written story that draws you in and with one exception, makes you love all the characters. I‘m looking forward to my book club‘s discussion. #litsyAtoZ #letterB

Informative. Disturbing. Sometimes funny. How do you describe this book? It sucks you in with a premise of a ridiculous “infomercial” for American Beef exports, and unwraps layers of things we don‘t like to think about. I don‘t eat factory-farmed meat but if I did before this book would have made me stop. Not preachy, but gets the message through loud and clear.

My February #bookspin is ready! @TheAromaofBooks

Definitely a #blameitonlitsy purchase, but one that‘s useful/appropriate for our times. Maybe Montaigne is the way to help us find our way back to each other. #litsyatoz #letterM

A fascinating look at Tudor history from another angle, through a different lens. Written in an accessible narrative style backed up by solid research this volume follows the rise and fall and rise again (and fall again, and rise again . . .) of the Dudley family who rose first with Henry VII and then served four more monarchs (five if you count Queen Jane, the 9 days Queen.) Pictured is Robert Dudley, favorite of Elizabeth I.

This has become our morning routine. This morning (Steve Reich) was the first time I didn‘t want to listen to multiple recordings of the say‘s selection. Oh well, tomorrow is Shubert. @AnnCecilie

Iris Origo writes this for herself, not for publication, in the years 1939-40, living in Italy and married to an Italian, but of British and American parentage she has a unique perspective on the war brewing in Europe. So well written that after finishing it, before writing this, I went online and ordered two more (tagged in comments.) I could do worse than take her as a model for how to get through the next regime. #LitsyAtoZ #letterC @Texreader

I know the print is small, but I wanted to give you the whole quote. Written in 1939 about Mussolini. But . . . Plus ça change, plus c‘est la même chose.

The diary of a woman whose mother was British, father was American, and husband was Italian. She lived in Italy and is writing during 1939-1940. In a fascist regime. I think there may be much to learn from this slim volume.

Jessie Childs draws Henry Howard for us, complete with his strengths as and weaknesses, neither hero nor villain. And in so doing she illustrates the terrifying times of Henrican England. Henry VIII‘s tyranny, paranoia, megalomania, and hubris are all too familiar in our age. An appropriate read just prior to the upcoming inauguration.#bookedintime @Cuilin

Who knew that Henry, Earl of Surrey, invented the “Shakespearean Sonnet!

I picked this up because I heard the author on a panel about the Tudor era, and so far it doesn‘t disappoint.

My apologies to the #whatthedickens group, but I got going and couldn‘t stop, so I‘ve finished already. ☺️ I want to participate in discussions so I‘ll hold off on my review, but I must comment on the illustrations. They seemed oddly both familiar and disturbing, and not quite up to my inward images of the characters. So I looked up the illustrator. He did a lot of Penguin covers in the 60s, 👇🏻

Most of the books for my irl book club arrived today! Now to find places for them all . . . #bookhaul

#whatthedickens @Cuilin

I‘m going to have to bail on this one. The writing is dry and it reads like a dissertation. Example “At the point when Perceval rides out into the grey and empty dawn from the deserted castle, we are two-fifths of the way through Chrétien‘s work in its unfinished form.” That‘s a sentence chosen at random. ? I wanted to like it, but when reading becomes a chore, I‘m out. Too many good books out there. #doublespin @TheAromaofBooks

Another great installment in Maya Angelou‘s memoirs, (and vastly different from the last memoir I reviewed!) She was an amazing writer and she pays loving tribute to her mother without ignoring her faults. A definite 👍🏻
#bookspin @TheAromaofBooks

I found the author to be too self-centered and judgmental to garner my sympathy. She snarks on about the “tourists” who are just after a picture for instagram, yet the hikes she describes taking in those parks I am familiar with are ones we took as a family when my kids were in the single digits - hardly epic hikes. This was my 1st #readyourkindle and I‘m just sorry it‘s not a paperback I can give away. @CBee

The illustrations in my edition are copyright 1966, and I think it shows. Not what I expect but suitably grim for Coketown! #whatthedickens @Cuilin

The first book of 2025! For my irl book club, written by a cellist, the wedding scene is full of all the horrors you know he has played. It was highly amusing and I enjoyed it highly.

Here are my #readyourkindle picks for January. Will I read them all? Doubtful. But I‘ll knock at least one of them off the TBR. @CBee

My first #bookspin and #doublespin of 2025!

Hard cover ready for reading at home (with illustrations by Charles Raymond) and Kindle edition for reading while out and about. I‘m ready for #whatthedickens! About half of my Dickens novels are in this binding, which I often find in second hand shops.

I always enjoy seeing people‘s reading stats, so here‘s my 2024 “year in books.” (The longest, in case you can‘t read the title, is Nicholas Nickleby.)

This has sat unread on my shelf for YEARS. I‘m glad to have finally gotten around to reading it, and while it‘s not exactly flattering to Dickens it was a well-crafted novel that explored those close to me “the Chief” and I‘m glad I read it. My final #doublespin of 2024, and (unusually for me) I‘m ready to start 2025 with no book in progress. It‘s a clean slate. @TheAromaofBooks

I‘m going to try to “read down” the backlog on my kindle. Because how many challenges are too many, really? 🤷🏻‍♀️#readyourkindle @CBee

My #bookspin for January is all nonfiction and heavily Tudor for #bookedintime. @TheAromaofBooks @Cuilin

Required reading for work is interrupting my “real” reading. 😂