https://youtu.be/mqsd_ywAH_U?feature=shared
Join me in the Trans Rights Readathon 21st March - 31st March
Lift up trans voices all year long 🏳️⚧️🩵🩷💛💜
Video above demonstrates some trans and non binary authors on my TBR
#transrightsreadathon
#transrightsreadathon2025
Pickles appreciates all the love and support 💕💕💕💕
I will pass on all the hugs and scritches
Mrs Dribbles has a blocked nose and I'm really worried about her.
Please send Pickles good luck. She saw vet this morning and may need investigating.
I want this book and I love the cover.
My friends hate the cover!
Who is right? Haha
pickIf you want an uplifting story with positive representation RUN FOR THE HILLS.
This is a powerful and subversive piece of writing that provokes and challenges the reader to examine the ableism around them.
It explores the realities of living with a severe physical disability and the ramifications on sex, self esteem and fulfillment.
I'm not sure why Enriquez described it as 'uproariously funny'. Stunning nonetheless.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
pickThis was brilliant.
A creepy suspense novel set in a hotel in Luxor. Starts innocent enough and then gets dark really fast, approaching psychological horror.
The protagonist is a woman in her 80s who has been hotel hopping and meddling in others' beeswax since the death of her husband. SHE IS ABOUT TO MEET HER NEMESIS.
Highsmithian was right. This was right up my street.
@Prairiegirl_reading This isn't the whole lot, but I have something of a collection of Japanese and Korean cosy healing fiction... my plan is to read the lot and make a video about which are best... it may take a while though hehe
Read books. Be kind. Stay weird.
Also cake.
so-soA slow-paced, contemplative novel about life running a bookshop. We meet various characters and discover the roots of their hopes, wistfulness and melancholy.
More vibes than plot, this was nonetheless a cosy read.
A major theme was work and the way it can both drain or enrich a life.
A sweet, gently philosophical read that celebrates books and coffee.
so-soClayton Stumper turned up in a hatbox on the fellowship's front porch as a baby. Instead of actually having a heart-to-heart with him before her death, his mother Pippa sets him a treasure hunt to unravel his past. Maybe she just thought he could do with getting some fresh air?
Adorable, but a little boring. If you like low stakes and very little plot, this was a fun meander. Wholesome, but I generally need more meat to sustain my interest.
https://youtu.be/Lp9ZLO-1nSw?feature=shared
Women's Prize Longlist 2025 has been announced! Here's my reactions and thoughts...
https://youtu.be/7xvHgxRPXt4?feature=shared
Probably should have waited until morning to upload, but I'm impatient! Haha.
Female authors for the TBR 🔥🔥🔥🔥💕💕💕💕
https://youtu.be/Yp4nmwyEP5k?feature=shared
Made a video about the International Booker Prize Longlist which was announced yesterday.
The two books I'm most excited to read are Hunchback and Solenoid, but there are so many books on this list that have intrigued me!
Check it out 😊
pickWhile at times this was a bit cringe and at other times tonally jarring, the world still needs more of this sort of thing, and so I'm rounding up to 4 stars!
Voyage of the Damned is a fantasy murder mystery set on a boat. Characters from 12 different provinces (that seem to be based off Crash Bandicoot levels) are off on a pilgrimage, and it's not long before they start getting butchered.
Fun, violent & cheesy with an overall positive message.
I love the new bag design! 😊
https://youtu.be/UARJ-hx2zso?feature=shared
Check out my saltiest video yet.
Over 30 minutes of ranting about books.
I am exhausted 😅😅
pickThis was poetic and lovely but also made me feel like I can't read.
Once she even switched POV mid-sentence.
It's like Sylvia Plath and Charles Dickens had a baby prose-wise.
Timescale-wise, this is not technically possible. I checked.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
so-soDeWitt's debut was grim and grotty.
If you like books where people take lots of drugs and alcohol and poop themselves - and you've already read Trainspotting - then this might be for you, but it wasn't really my cup of tea.
Reasonable writing, but no redeemable characters and written in the second person, which should never be attempted.
Read his other stuff instead.
⭐️⭐️⭐️
I have flu and I am not coping.
Only managing to read about a chapter at a time.
Can't even get to the shop to buy more Lucozade and chocolate milk.
Please send sympathy addressed to Rae Towers.
😵😵😵😵😵😵
EVERYONE! Give a warm Litsy welcome to my friend Laura! @emo_baggins 💕💕💕
This is her cat Fang who is the sweetest boy!
Also, she runs a bookshop, and is therefore awesome.
She heard that a few of you haven't been enjoying The Blade Itself but I promise she's not here to make trouble........
😶🌫️🍿🍿🍿
Rae's number one rule of how not to be pretentious when writing a novel is:
NEVER use the second person!
Someone should probably also tell Rae that referring to oneself in the third person can be just as annoying 🤣🤣
I'm not sure if this is a difficult book to read or if I'm just really poorly 🤦🏼♀️🤣
pickNew favourite book!
Don't watch the video unless you've already read it (major spoilers!):
https://youtu.be/riYGi8zxB0Y?feature=shared
ALL THE STARS!!!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A heartbreaking, vulnerable, raw, intimate, powerful piece of writing.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
so-soI just spent over an hour writing down my thoughts on Goodreads if you want to know what I thought in full, but in short:
This was a spectacular piece of writing about infatuation, obsession, misery, loneliness, emptiness, selfishness, relationships, & staring into the void.
Having said that, the MC is a toxic, judgemental, superficial narcissist who behaves in some truly unforgiveable ways.
And I'm not sure it was intentional.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
https://youtu.be/Up09ywcvGYQ?feature=shared
Building my 2025 TBR video 😊
Reading with my emotional support pear 🤣
so-soIf you're looking for a book to get more people on board with current social justice discourse, this is not the one.
There's certainly lots of food for thought and I agree with most of what's being said, but there isn't enough empathy with opposing views to truly build a bridge.
Ironically, I found Shahvisi a lot more convincing in later chapters when she loses some of the certainty and allows more nuance into her arguments.
Also, cake!
so-soThere's no copyright on plots, but nicking a good one can still have consequences... Jacob Finch Bonner is about to be massively inconvenienced.
This is a slow paced thriller that didn't quite manage to build enough claustrophobic dread and tension to make it worth my while.
Also the premise relies on "The Plot" being truly original and mind blowing, and it just... wasn't all that.
Not a bad read, but... unsatisfying.
Look who I met again! 💕💕💕💕
Read this book everyone!
https://youtu.be/VrZKST6vl0g?feature=shared
Made a video about representations of mental health conditions in fiction.
pickThis fantasy murder mystery gets the Rae stamp of approval!
Din and Ana are great characters and this book works as both a mystery and fantasy read.
Fungalpunk detective noir!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The best versions 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
so-soGrasby is back with another unnecessarily convoluted murder mystery.
As with the last one, I couldn't actually tell you who did the actual murdering. It was clear as mud what was happening by the end.
And yet, I really enjoy these because Grasby is such a character. They are genuinely entertaining.
⭐️⭐️⭐️
https://youtu.be/a_WvQb9ED4I?feature=shared
My Top 10 Reads of 2024!
#roll100 for 2025
Let's do this!!!!!!!!!
First picks are:
Divided, The Pisces, and The Memory Police
Thank you all for your kind words 💕💕 I truly appreciate it.
Have finally managed to distract my phone into letting me download the Litsy app. 🤗🤗🤗
Grandma Eunice was a big reader. She liked her murder mysteries a bit more brutal than I do. For such a sweet person, she really did show a concerning interest in serial killers 😂
I'm reading the second Frank Grasby at the moment. It's farcical and joyous.
Today we said goodbye to the most wonderful Grandma I could ever have asked for.
Goodbye, Grandma Eunice. We all loved you so very very much 🩵
pickQuietly touching.
A mother tells her daughters about dating a famous movie star (before he became a star.)
Usually, this kind of slow-paced, deliberately heartwarming, nostalgic type of storytelling is not for me. I steer away from the saccharine.
Ann Patchett creates a wonderful sense of place, her characters are believable, and her writing is lovely.
By the end, I did have an emotional response and it wasn't the one I was expecting.
My new phone won't let me download the Litsy app. Even when I disabled all sorts of security. This is going to make it really difficult to keep up on here 😢
I'll keep trying to get things sorted out, but in case I don't manage it, this is my Insta - https://www.instagram.com/rae.lovestoread/profilecard/?igsh=ejE1a3BrNHB4OGlt
And obviously I'm RaeLovesToRead on YouTube and I have Goodreads too - will post below 💙
Got my #Christmas Crime challenge underway!
M = Mansion (The 31 Doors by Kate Hulme)
A = Agatha Christie (And Then There Were None)
Surprisingly similar concepts! 😅
![[tagged book]](https://image.librarything.com/pics/litsy_webpics/icon_taggedBook@3x.png){kind=icon}
