I wish I could go back in time to before I read The Passage trilogy so that I could experience again reading it for the first time. *sigh* Alas, I am reading - and enjoying! - this one by Justin Cronin. I really need to clean the bathroom and get some bills paid...but Ziggy thinks sitting under our tree and reading is a better idea. So smart, my boy. 🐾❤️

In February, both of my sweet old cats died within a week‘s time. March got better. Then April started with this guy tearing his knee (think ACL, humans) - he did the same thing in early 2017 to the *other* knee - and as a result I‘m taking my first “vacation” in like ten years so I can be with him as he recovers from last week‘s surgery. We are both kind of miserable and very tired. I am so grateful for this Lynley book! Long and marvelous. 👍🐾

I‘m spending more time marathoning Cheers on Netflix (and trying to explain to Ziggy why we‘re not outside) than reading on this day of wild weather...must.turn.off.television.
Is anyone else in #maine for #blizzard2018?

Good Morning, 2018!

Who needs resolutions when you have coffee and books?!

The temps could come up a little...at this rate, the dog won‘t poop ‘til June.

I started reading year 2016 with GONE WITH THE WIND. (Looooooved it!)
I started reading year 2017 with LONESOME DOVE. (Looooooved it!)
I think I‘m on the right track by starting reading year 2018 with THE THORN BIRDS...yes?

Thank you, @meeshmom for my #secretsantagoespostal swag! One of my goals in my new house is to have lots of bookish mugs, and you‘ve given me my first! Merry Christmas!🎄

@Litlady - Your #secretsantagoespostal should arrive today, according to the UPS tracking site. It was scheduled to arrive yesterday, but there was a delay for which they apologize (as do I!) I would NOT want to be a delivery person this week...those folks are doing some serious hammer-down, take-no-prisoners hustling right now! While I am truly sorry you‘re not opening your box this morning I do hope that it will be a delight when it arrives! 🎁

My new address has the mail delivery folks quite confused, but they did manage to get this to my door...so, yay! I am very excited to open my #secretsantagoespostal package during my beloved early morning coffee time tomorrow! #wintersolsticebookexchange Thanks for all the organizing, @MrBook @BookBabe and @Avanders !

And sometimes you choose which of your current reads will be your bedtime read based solely on the fact that it is not the one upon which the cat is parked. 🐾 #catsoflitsy

There shouldn‘t be anyone else trying to ship things out today, right?! Haha - when you wait until the last second, you prepare for lines...I better get an audiobook cued up while I‘m cued up at the post office today! Here we go, #SecretSantaGoesPostal! #WinterSolsticeBookExchange is making spirits bright!

So....I guess I love this series! You guys, life has been hella crazy up in here - end of a 7-year relationship, purchase of my first home, three consecutive weekends of moving our stuff to our respective and separate places (buy stock in Uhaul! DO IT NOW!), a dog with separation anxiety, and as much hunkering-down-with-a-good-book as possible. I live in Maine and these crime novels are fixin‘ what ails me! Hard crush on Warden Mike Bowditch. 😘

I have no shortage of books to read here at my palace, but that does not keep me from wandering into my local library with book lust on a very regular basis. This week, I literally just grabbed a book off the shelf that caught my eye and took it home without so much as a glance at the jacket blurbs...so spontaneous!...and this is how I met Attica Locke. I *loved* BWR and quickly went back to snag Pleasantville. READING IS SO MUCH DAMN FUN!

Not since OUR ENDLESS NUMBERED DAYS have I loved a book title this much! Only made it to page 14 before falling asleep last night, but I can see that this one is going to be a doozie. Maybe I should stop trying to fight this head cold and instead embrace the possibility of being too sick to do anything but read for a few days? (Oh, Adulting, how I resent thee and ye employment obligations. *sigh*)

Kinsey and I are having dinner together. In 1989/1979/2017. Because we are friends like that.

Good Morning, Friday! I have one half hour of sleep-shirt-clad coffee-drinking, book-reading, kitty-cooing time before hustling off to work...and it is this one half hour that keeps me from being a mass murderer. So, yay!

We are melting. I get to rotate through all of my least ladylike sitting positions in an effort to read without thigh sweat, so that's how *my* Saturday night is going. (If you are one of those people who "loves this heat," might I suggest you come wash my sweaty bras? mkthx)

Ok, so I started Joe Hill's "Heart-Shaped Box" today, but, for real, it's too creepy to bring to bed. As in, it is NOT ALLOWED NEAR ME WHEN I SLEEP. I am eager to meet with the story back in the living room first thing in the morning, but for now it is good ol' Andy Rooney who will send me into my dreams...bushy eyebrows and all.

At the lake, under the pines. Cool breeze. One too many BBQ burgers. Loving this story, but am slipping into a holiday coma out here in this fresh air!

It's hot. My Saturday night plans: To spread eagle on the carpet with the fan, the dog, and a book that starts with the line "There were stories in sweat." Things are getting pretty crazy around here, is my point.

Took my 15yo on her first train/subway/walking/bus adventure to and from Boston today. Figured it was a great time to pick a book I own, in case something should happen to it during our travels...and discovered that I have both a hardcover *and* this paperback on my shelf...oops! I clearly thought, more than once, that I would like it, and alas - I do! Wicked glad to now be reading in bed and not whilst going 70mph, tho. Oy.

So...apparently the reason everyone loves this book is THAT IT IS AMAZING. There aren't many things that make me stay up past my bedtime, but this book has been added to that short list. Hooray 🎉 for marvelous books 📚!

I got this as a Kindle deal a while back (it's still $2.99 - worth it!) and, trying to fill a little gap in my reading this week, decided to give it a go. I really liked it! Literary stunner? Nope. Edge-of-your-seat tension? Not really. But it was effortlessly readable, the story flowed really well, and I feel like I know well (and like!) the main character...although I'd love to see him quit smoking! Quick read, will read more by this author.

Soon, Ziggy and I will be coaching a bunch of feisty, sweaty athletes. But right now, we are enjoying the quiet as I dive into this book that I TOTALLY FORGOT I'd requested from the library. (Library hold surprises are the very best surprises, yes?!) What a happy Friday! #dogsoflitsy #booksandbarbells

People loved this. I did not. Mostly, I felt annoyed and eyeball-rolly and I am quite sure I was supposed to care about the main character and his plight, but I just couldn't. An alternate title could be "Running Away, Often Naked." I just cleared three books off my Kindle.

In spite of the ultra-grim forecast here in Maine, the sun is out and the sky is blue and the birds are singing! When you don't know if it will last, you take your post-workout / pre-coaching time with your best buddy and your current read outside. In a tire.

The story was smart and sweet and educational, and relatable to anyone who has ever referred to themselves as "Mommy" to their pet (guilty as charged!) The narrator was excellent, complete with owl noises. The downside is that, well, SPOILER ALERT: animals do not live forever. I ugly-cried in my car on the way to work during the last ten minutes. Still my favorite read this year, so far. #audiobook

After several fails, I finally NAILED IT for an #audiobook for my commute. You guys: if you love and respect animals in every way, and you're a softie about it, you will love this true story. Not only do I find that I knew NOTHING about owls (they are easily offended, for one thing) but I am soaking up the entertaining and fascinating details of the relationship between the author and this bird of prey. I'm sure I'll cry later, but it's SO GOOD!

Good Morning, Spring! I'll definitely wind up searching my nooks and crannies for ticks later, but I am 100% standing barefoot on the earth today.

The secret to cutting the line for popular library holds? Large Print editions. You're welcome. #noshame #stillneedmycheaters #nolinesnowaiting

I dropped off my trembling and confused dogchild at the vet for knee surgery this morning and, you guys, I am wrecked. He is my constant, my confidant, the one thing in my life that does not put into question my confidence or qualifications. The surgery is "routine," they say. But my routine is taking a hit today, and so is my heart. So, with my coffee this story I sit next to a group of laughing elderly ladies and try to end the pity party.

I cannot remember a character that I wanted to hug this much. Only on page 57 and I am deeply invested in Nelson. So much so that I am considering slapping a few Boy Scouts. (Reason #4527 that I do not have children.)

Sometimes, I get a half hour between jobs to reset. Yesterday, as the frigid wind howled outside, I spent thirty minutes reading (and loving!) this California-based story while in the company of warm sunbeams and furry heartbeats. I am a lucky girl. #catsoflitsy #dogsoflitsy #downtime

Ok, I'm out. Toodles, you unlikeable and unsympathetic characters to whom I feel no commitment whatsoever: my long-awaited hold of Jonathan Kellerman's new Alex Delaware has arrived, and, well, I will not even remember you in like twenty minutes. Over and out.

The only reason I'm not bailing is because the author has made me want to punch pathetic Kyung in the face and I need to know if she can make me feel otherwise before the end.

Oh, hello, blizzard.

You guys, it's still like eleven hundred degrees below zero here in Maine, and a nor'easter with over a foot of snow is in the forecast for Tues/Wed. People are upset...it must be because they don't have a TBR lineup that just BEGS for a bonus snow day! Started this today, hooked already!

Feeling well-rounded today. And also a little bit ass-kicky.

What do you do when all indications are that spring is coming and then - BAM! - it's 17 degrees out and the weather dude describes the weekend temperatures as "relentless cold"? OBVIOUSLY, you hop in your time machine and go back to an unusually hot (fictional) February in 1961 in Mississippi and check out a town where the only form of communication is writing on chalkboards hanging from the residents' front doors.

Apparently I am in a scary-book phase. I did squeeze a sweet little book in between finishing "NOS4A2" and starting this one, but still - the creep factor wins. (One of my favorite things about my reading life is that the next phase could be anything! Western? Historical Fiction? Graphic? Who knows! Bring it on, my fickle reading ego!)

When you're reading a book that is way (WAY) out of reality, but you read a passage that clarifies how you feel in your relationship. I'm no therapist, but this can not be good.

If I could put it down, it would go in the freezer. Lawd, there is some serious creep quotient happenin' here on the couch today.

No pressure, Joe Hill, but my Lonesome Dove hangover has left me with a 100% bail rate on all books since. I neeeed to love this.

Thank you so much, @SaturnDoo - what a feast of fun bookish things you've given me in my #cupidgoespostal package! Not shown: sweet treats and thoughtful notes. I had so much fun unwrapping and I am very excited to use/read all of this! Kindness is super fun, isn't it?! Happy Valentine's Day, Littens! 💌

WE GET TO OPEN OUR PACKAGES TOMORROW! #cupidgoespostal #valentinesbookexchange

Balance. #bookriot

Sometimes, when they say it's going to be a blizzard it really is a blizzard. ❄️I bid an unapologetic farewell to The Woman in Cabin 10 because the woman in cabin 9 of that book was too annoying. So, here we have a sweet story on a sweet pajama-clad day! Yay, books for every mood!

True story: when the bf asked me "what happened" to the potatoes I roasted on Friday, I thought "how did he lose potatoes? What a dummy!" Tonight, I found them. In the oven. Where I left them. Since FRIDAY. (At least the oven was off. That's something.) This is a reflection of my current stress levels. So, is that why I'm having a hard time getting into this book? Is it me? I'm TRYING. Really, I am. I *need* it to get better. Pronto.

With very few exceptions (I'm looking at you, Lily and the Octopus), I am quite proficient at avoiding books that are animal-related tear-jerkers. I am also loathe to read books with movie-production covers. But, here we are. This interruption in my reluctances is sponsored by the great deals at Goodwill (darn you, dollar days!) and my major cowboy hangover from Lonesome Dove...is anything LESS cattle-drive than puppy reincarnation?

We've been together 15 years this year, and this is maybe the 5th time she has been in my lap. My sweet old ragamuffin knows what I need today during my not-long-enough break between jobs! ❤#catsoflitsy

I just spent the last three weeks with these cowboys (and Indians, and horses/cows/pigs, and women, and rivers, and hot spells and rain storms, and all manners of death) and I'm going to truly miss them boys of the Hat Creek Cattle Company. Bonus: Clara is quite possibly one of my favorite female characters of all time. Her role is small, but mighty. 💪🏻