Thank you @Mynameisacolour for the #litsylovesummerswap package. The wrapping paper was so colorful. All the books have been on my list for some time. The hot cocoa looks delicious, and the pens are needed. I will use the notecards for writing, the tags for marking my collection of non-fiction book, and the bookmark is adorable. I also love tigers so the not card is perfect. Thank you again ☺️☺️ #llss

Celebrating Immigrant Heritage month on our June podcast episode. It is up and available wherever you listen to podcasts. We did one on Pride and Juneteenth last year.

https://anchor.fm/readingsquad/episodes/Reading-Squad-S2-Ep4-Immigrant-Authors-a...

Thank you Heather @Mynameisacolour for the swap package. #llss #litsylovesummerswap

June 20th can‘t come fast enough ❤️❤️

Also, our newest episode focusing on fantasy reads and social justice was up on Anchor, Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and anywhere else where you listen:

https://anchor.fm/readingsquad/episodes/Reading-Squad-S2-E3-Fantasy-Reads-and-So...

This is available since May 19, apologies for the delay.

I completed this book in 2 days, which means that this was an excellent fast-paced book. It follows Nella and 12-year-old Eliza of 18th century London and Caroline from Cincinnati, OH who visits present-day London. Told from these 3 perspectives, the novel focuses on women, patriarchy, relationships, and sisterhood/friendship. Nella is an apothecary who gives poison to women to kill off men. It packs a lot.

Rachel @rsteve388 and I have been working on a new segment: interviews with authors and members of the bookish community! If you know someone who would be interested, fill in this form: https://forms.gle/q6L4NKUW2PoJqvZC6

Thank you fir the tag @Cupcake12
1. With the tagged book- NYC, France, Boston, New Orleans and others.
2. Elizabeth Acevedo, Jhumpa Lahiri, right now. Have others but can‘t remember now.
3. Catch up on sunshine and writing.

Feel free to play if you haven‘t already.

This collection of retold fairy tales promises a lot but I was a bit underwhelmed. The stories retell the Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, and a few others. More than half were interesting but the ones with folk tales and other sources seemed a bit long-winded.. I would like to read some other books by the author, though.

This book is the first in the Tensorate duology. Focusing on the twin non-binary siblings, Akeha and Mokoya, the novel also deals with the contrast between elemental magic and technology. The twins‘ mother is the Procetorate who rules her empire. However, the twins decide on their genders and their life choices create repercussions. Mokoya confirms as female and Akeha as male. I am looking forward to reading the second book.

This book about six high school friends who can do magic but whose lives are changed when Alexis accidentally kills her prom date, Josh. An excellent book in its representation of the diverse characters in terms of their sexuality, family statuses (adopted), race and ethnicity, and interests (makes tutorials, swimming), and female friendships. Despite a young adult novel, there is a lot of exploration of Alexis‘s relationship with her dads.

I was excited about this as I had enjoyed Ibanez‘s Woven in Moonlight. However, this story focuses on the outcast Condesa, Catalina, and her adventures in the forest and her search for allies to get her throne back from Ximena. The descriptions of the forest are gorgeous and the live story between Catalina and Manuel, son of the former General, is cute and all right. Catalina does grow as an individual but I found her irritating.

This collection of essays starts and ends with the author‘s birthday over a year. Gay decides to find delights in the daily, mundane, routine life and this is his collection of ‘more than a hundred ‘essayettes‘. I enjoyed a few of the essays but not the overall anthology. I am sure others might enjoy but this was a so-so for me.

This gender-reversed retelling of Beauty and Beast is an epic and beautifully epic story. Owen Merrick lost his mother to the enchanted woods. When he is saved by a tree siren, Seren, their relationship starts. The tree sirens attract humans, kill them, and collect the souls for their mother, the witch of the woods. There is a second story on why the witch wants the souls. I enjoyed Seren‘s story more than Owen‘s and the Ecofeminism view.

Thank you for the tag @Cupcake12 and apologies for the delay.
1. Planning to catch up on blog posts.
2. Horror and erotica.
3. The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Thank you @Laughterhp for this book. Queenie is a new adult novel about the 25-year-old Jamaican-American Queenie Jenkins. This was an interesting book in terms of adding in text messages in the narrative. Queenie is having ahead time: breakup with her white boyfriend, consequent one-night stands, sexual and mental health, and her family. I enjoyed her friendships and her growth as a character but some parts seemed repetitive. Still a pick.

Nora Seed commits suicide and the first few chapters tell us about the reasons behind her death. When she dies, she is transported to the Midnight Library, an in-between space between life and death where she can try out various lives in parallel universes. She borrows a book with a life based on a decision that she did not take in her actual life. Touching on themes of life, death, kindness, love, and regrets, this book deserves the hype.

This book features quotations by famous Balck people preceded by a short biography. This was a slim book and I enjoyed the bios and learned about some people I did not know about.

Juliet Milagros Palante is a self-proclaimed closeted Puerto Rican baby dyke from the Bronx. At 19, she comes out to her family and flies to Portland to intern with Harlowe Brisbane, the ultimate authority on White feminism and lesbianism. Juliet believes that Harlowe will help her figure things out but she is the one who teaches Harlowe. There is also a cute love story between Juliet and a motorcycle driving librarian, Kira.

This cute graphic novel is the story of Hazel Johnson and Mari McCray how meet at church bingo in 1963 brings together. They fall in love with each other during their high school, profess their love, and are torn apart by family pressure and circumstances. Now in their mid-60s, they are reunited at a bingo game and realize they are still in love. This is the first in a series and a really cute love story.

This book presents the seven necessary sins women and girls need to employ to defy, disobey, and disrupt the patriarchy: anger, attention, profanity, ambition, power, violence, and lust. It describes various contemporary feminist movements and suggests ways to make feminism intersectional as well as relevant. I learned a lot from this book.

Set in Nigeria, it is the story of Vivek Oji, his life, death, and legacy. The main theme is his transformation and how his sexuality plays a major role in the story. He struggles with his identity reflected in his education, family, friendship, and his relationship with Osita, his paternal uncle‘s son. The novel probes the ideas of gender, sexuality, friendship, love, family, the larger social community, organized religion, through Vivek‘s life.

We just had an awesome book discussion with Roxane Gay, organized by the @FeministBookClub

February‘s book is The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love and there will be a member‘s only discussion with the author, Sonya Renee Taylor.

If you are interested, you can use the code LUCHI to get 15% off your box.

This was the first book of 2021; it is truly unputdownable despite a slow start. New York City is going to come alive but its avatar has fallen into a supernatural sleep. It can only be revived if its 5 boroughs, represented by 5 people, can come together and defeat the enemy. All the 5 avatars are the boroughs themselves. With themes of racism and gentrification and other important ideas, this novel is highly recommended. #AuthorAMonth

This delightful anthology of short stories is cute, adorable, sometimes funny, and full of love. Featuring diversity, race, and love across all sexualities, these stories have protagonists who are people of color, are usually in high school, and end often on a hopeful and happy note. This collection is excellent and highly recommended.

This book is on very antiracism list and rightly so. Kendi provides definitions of racist and anti racist at the beginning of each chapter and shows how racism is prevalent in everything while tracing his own life and examining his own biases. I would have preferred some more concrete solutions but this is still an excellent book to read.

Completed this anthology of short stories, cuddled with our dog, while it was snowing outside (first snow of the season). TW- sexual assault, domestic abuse.
All the stories feature ‘difficult women‘ but shows how they became or why they are difficult. The protagonists come from various backgrounds; the stories vary in length & genres showing Gay‘s brilliance. I can say that every reader will finds parts of themselves in at least one story

Evidence of my 2021 bookish resolutions 📚

Donated 8 books to the neighborhood Little Library and borrowed Thoughts from a Blue Bike and What Do You Say When

Bought books by a trans author: Map of Salt and Stars (recommended by @rsteve388 ) & by a WOC: Patsy with Powell‘s store credit after selling a box of books.

I had planned to donate/sell books that I won‘t re-read and buy books by P/WOC/trans authors.

Thank you @CBee for The Almost Moon

Thank you @Cupcake12 and @TorieStorieS for the tags and @Eggs for the questions #wondrouswednesday

❄️No but I plan to read The Butterfly Effect by @rachelm Suggestions welcome 💖
❄️Netgalley, Feminist Book Club Box blog, and I should revive my blog 🤦🏻‍♀️ Also thinking of being active on Storygraph
❄️I am thinking of the tagged book from the top of my head.

Thank you for the tag @Cupcake12 for the tag and @rachelsbrittain for the questions #weekendreads

1. Tagged book.
2. The Buddha In Daily Life: An Introduction to the Buddhism of Nichiren Daishonin by Richard Causton. I practice Nichiren Buddhism and this was one of the first books that I read.
3. Just completed How To Be an Antiracist by Ibram X Kendi

Thank you for the tag @slategreyskies and @Cupcake12 for the questions #MotivationalMonday

1. Catch up on Litsy love and general stuff, such as this post 😁
2. Salsa verde with healthy Trader Joe‘s tortilla chips
3. Afternoons when I am done with day‘s work or at night before bed. Favorites as I feel relaxed and calm to tackle crazy reads.

Our final episode of our first season is now available on Anchor.fm and anywhere else where you hear podcasts. We are taking a break for January and will be back in February. Our theme for January was social justice and we will soon post our recommendations. You can also support us by participating in our Diverse Reads Reading Challenge.

https://anchor.fm/readingsquad/episodes/Reading-Squad-Episode-8-TBR-and-Christma...

Historical fiction noir detective story set in Sydney in 1946 focuses on Billie Walker, a private investigator: glamorous, a feminist, and comfortable confronting criminals and dancing at a club. Billie tracks the son of European immigrants who own a fur shop. Billie also tries to help Shyla, a young woman of the Wiradjuri, find her older brothers who were separated in childhood to be trained as helpers in White society. #Booked2021 #setAustralia

Thank you @Cupcake12 fir the tag and the questions #MotivationalMonday

Halfway through the book and enjoying it.

1. Complete writing blog posts for Feminist Book Club Box
2. Gorging on goat biryani (my brother-in-law is staying with us and he cooked it). Biryani- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biryani

Thank you for the reminder, Jenny! #jennyis30
I completed the challenge with the following books:

Religion- The Beauty of Your Face
Hard-boiled crime- War Widow
Drama- A Feminine Ending (play)
Satire- Fifty Things That aren‘t My Fault
Victorian- Enola Homes: Mystery of the Pink Fan
Feminism- Hood Feminism
Historical Mystery- Enola Holmes: Case of the Missing Marquess
Cats- Sabrina the Teenage Witch by Kelly Thompson

This was a horrible and crazy year for many. I don‘t know if anyone who hasn‘t been affected in some way or the other by this pandemic. My silver lining was that I completed 111 books, more than my goal of 100. This might be a low or high number for some but for me, I am happy that I spent so much time in so many non-pandemic worlds, real and imaginary.

Happy new year, Littens! 🥳🥰

This was a sweet and wonderful book about Haze Evans, who is in a coma. He is a newspaper club IST for 50 years and after her coma, the publisher decided to print her selected columns and responses. The novel is also a meditation on family, relationships, happiness, politics, and feminism. This was the perfect book to end tho crazy year.

This book starts on Dec 17th and ends on Dec 27th. Dash is at the Strand in New York when he comes across Lily‘s book of dares that have clues. I liked it as it is a cute YA romance novel that also deals with issues of family, loneliness, and friendship. Both of them pass the notebook around and they do meet.

The first in the trilogy, Ceony Twill arrived at Magivuan Emery Thane‘s House to learn the magic of paper. However, Thane‘s ex- wife, Lira, steals his heart and Twill chases to get it back. This was between a pick and so-so; I enjoyed the story and the memories but could not stomach the messiness of traveling inside the heart.

Read this after watching the adaptation. This fell between a pick and a so-so. Set in Ireland, Marianne and Connor have an on-off relationship since high school to after college graduation. The book portrays how two people are together and apart. It portrays mental illnesses and domestic abuse sensitively. It seemed a bit slow sometimes but I still liked it.

Just completed the tagged book as the last of 2020 and will start 2021 with The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin. Thank you @BookNAround for the #lastfirst giveaway.

As many of you know, Rachel and I host a podcast, the Reading Squad. We decided to start a reading challenge for 2021 based on themes of social justice. Here are the 12 prompts and here is a link to the PDF: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_suTAjurqeaDSiV27f7s2ppPpR2Ntz1L/view?usp=shari...

If you are interested, use #DiverseReadsChallenge for your posts. Feel free to share. Do tag us if you are participating. Happy holidays and happy reading!

Picked this up on @rsteve388 recommendation and this is such a hilarious and delightful book. The marriage of Gavin, a baseball player, is in shambles. His wife, Thea, wants a divorce and their 3-year-old twin daughters. Gavin wants to save his marriage and seeks help from his teammates and their romance book club. This is a feel-good book that also analyses serious issues. #ReadYourWay #CrushtheRush

I started January and December 2020 with Backman. This is an excellent book featuring interesting characters and how a bank robbery results in a hostage situation at an apartment showing/open house. Like any Backman, there are meditations on love, marriage, divorce, family, relationships, and suicide. I enjoyed it. Also keep tissues close at hand. #ReadYourWay #CrushtheRush

Thank you for the tag and the questions @MoonWitch94 Apologies for the delay. #thoughtfulthursday

✨Christmas and New Year‘s Eve.
✨We keep it low key although we finally bought a giant artificial tree and decorated it over the weekend. Also eggnog and a Christmas movie on Christmas Day is usually the plan.
✨I need something to occupy myself or my mental health suffers. Reading is therapeutic if unemployed 😅

Thank you for the tag @MoonWitch94 and @Eggs for the questions. Sorry that it is a week late. #WondrousWednesday

1. Egypt- pharaohs, pyramids, and Cleopatra.
2. Hoping to finish #Booked2020 and the Reading Women challenge. It‘s ok if I don‘t 🤷🏻‍♀️

Participating in the #ReadYourWay readathon hosted by @TheSpineView . Planning to complete 4 books.

My last post for #NFN20 is a day late. This podcast discusses non-fiction books but from an interesting comic perspective. Listened to a couple of them and enjoyed the content. Link: https://www.stitcher.com/show/by-the-book

This is my last book for #NFN20 . I enjoyed this book that discusses sexual liberation with interviews and scholarly research. It also unpacks the different labels that women are bombarded with.

Waco on Netflix is a limited series that shows the 51-day siege between the members of David Koresh‘s Branch Davidians and the FBI/ATF. The tagged book is one of the sources of the series. Definitely worth a look into what happened. Now, I want to see and read more about this 🤷🏻‍♀️ #NFN20

This book chronicles the most catastrophic library fire in the US that occurred on April 29, 1986 at the Los Angeles Public Library.The book also connects to the larger implications and effects that libraries have. So a love letter to libraries. I enjoyed this as I love the American public library system. #NFN20 #FEASTMODE