Libraries Connected (a UK Libraries organisation) are fundraising to send a mobile library to Ukraine.
https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/mobile-library-to-ukraine
Libraries Connected (a UK Libraries organisation) are fundraising to send a mobile library to Ukraine.
https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/mobile-library-to-ukraine
@Chrissyreadit Hi Chrissy. You‘d asked a few months back about this book. I‘ve just got a copy after a long wait at the library. The intro page above is where she‘s coming from (and 100% where I‘m at, and I don‘t think I‘ve see a cookbook that ‘gets‘ that before). I‘ve seen a couple of recipes/tecniques already that I might actually want to try. It‘s worth a look if you can get a library copy.
Given that I‘m SO good at posting to Litsy atm, I thought I‘d give a little update on my Women‘s Prize for NonFiction reading.
Short Version: I‘ve started these! I might even finish some.
Very long version: I love being surprised by prize lists, being encouraged to try things I never would normally and finding I love them. This list does that in spades and it‘s fab.
Absolutely categorically not starting a new book. *
But it was on the returns shelf when I went in this morning. And, after a day of cheerleading and Bhangra dancing, it was still on the shelf when I left this afternoon. (A normal day in this library). So it‘s coming home with me.
And it looks a lot more interesting/readable than I initially expected, so… 🤷🏻♀️
*Also Women‘s Prize for Non-Fiction Longlist. Not reading that either.
Shadows at Noon and train journeys at sunset.
Not the easiest read so far, but really interesting…
Where to begin?
This was some trip.
It starts off as a farcical fishing trip to put a curse on pause, and turns into… something else. Something with a whole lot of heart and supernatural folkloric beings. And witches. And mosquitoes.
Give it a go if you‘re up for a dose of Finnish weird. I liked this a lot. Whatever it was.
#readaroundtheworld #finland
Announcing this month‘s clear winner in the ‘what the flip am I reading??!‘ category.
It‘s Finnish. There are bugs. There‘s a small town in the back of beyond. There‘s a pike, that isn‘t too keen on being caught*. And there are card games with mythological creatures. Then the police show up.
*Given everything else that‘s going on, I feel the pike has been short-changed on the character-development front.
Also, perfect cover design. Perfect!
@BookwormM I‘ve been waiting for the dates for this for ages. Are you doing this year? My reading has just been derailed by the Women‘s Prize for NF. Would now be a good time to panic?
Facts.
- The Women‘s Prize for Non-Fiction Longlist was announced last night.
- I am absolutely not reading it.
- Apart from the tagged, which I started, & am finding gripping, heart-breaking, and terrifying. Now I‘m into it, I love her voice.
- I might have reserved 4 others. Thankfully the library catalogue went down for maintenance at that point.
- I think this might be a prize we actually need.
- But I‘m absolutely not reading the longlist.
I‘ve seen a lot of mixed reviews for this, but I really, really enjoyed it. It‘s the first book this year I‘ve totally been able to disappear into. Yes, it meanders, and there are a fair few characters to get your head around, but I loved getting to know the characters of Chicken Hill, perhaps I need a new motto (“be more Chona?”) and he managed to ramp up the tension at the end. Massively looking forward to reading McBride‘s other books.
Due to a string of regrettable occurrences, Elina Ylijaako had to catch a pike from a certain pond by June 18th every year.
Her life depended on it.
I haven‘t done a monthly wrap-up in about a million years (or maybe 3) so now seems like a good place to start again
I read 3 books this month, and bailed on one. Meh. On the other hand, outside of Litsy, that‘s not that bad!
I read an ARC called In All Weathers, a fantastic novel in short stories called Good Citizens Need Not Fear, and buddy-read Ultra Processed People (feelings: mixed.)
Good Citizens was my hands-down favourite this month.
I suppose this Saturday relief cover malarkey isn‘t that bad. Trying to squeeze in 15 mins train reading before I start.
Really enjoying this book. Yes, it‘s meandery, but I find I can sink right into it. Has to be back by Friday, so we might need to speed up a bit.
A few of you have said it‘s not his best. Would love to know which James Macbride books I should be stacking then…
https://inews.co.uk/opinion/cant-price-joy-libraries-2865747
I mean, there‘s a lot she‘s missing, but on the whole, yes.
Here, for no reason whatsoever, is a very fishy #BookSpinBingo list for February.
Thanks Sarah @TheAromaofBooks
I‘ll be catching up on last year‘s international Booker reviews over the next weeks- I reviewed them over at thereadersroom.org but they never made it to Litsy. Or NetGalley. 🫣
I reached the end, and immediately wanted to flip to the front and start again. Standing Heavy tells of life as seen thro the eyes of undocumented security guards in Paris – work so tedious it requires an ‘engrossing inner life‘: it‘s this inner life
It‘s a really good premise. The author sets out to intentionally experience what is often considered ‘bad‘ British weather - rain, fog, snow & ice and rain. Where this really worked was where he was meeting other people- the fenland skaters section was fantastic!
And it has made me want to consciously appreciate some of our more trying weather. But I wasn‘t always
I am SO out of practice with reviews. Time to snap out of it!
I really enjoyed this. It‘s your favourite @BookwormM - interconnected short stories 😁 - this time set in a Ukrainian apartment building before/after the fall of the USSR. I would say it‘s at the novel end of the ISS genre - we get to revisit the main characters, and grow to really feel for some of them - even the awful ones have heart. From a young orphan making her
https://lithub.com/for-the-love-of-plants-a-reading-list-of-books-on-nature-and-...
Not sure if this has already been posted, but 11 books on nature and conservation coming out in 2024. Some fab looking titles in here. #naturalitsy @AllDebooks
I may well get bored before the end, but currently I‘m finding this very funny, and way more relatable than it should be.
And any diary-style book that begins January 1st with a full poem version of My Resolution will not be Televised deserves brownie points for sheer brass-necked punnery.
Ukraine, sometime before the fall of the USSR. A New Years Eve visit to a baby house (children‘s home) by Grandfather Frost (definitely NOT St Nicholas), making swans 🦢 out of tyres 🛞. This is how he did it. In case you need to practise at home!
We‘ve already established that the solution to a vegetable canning issue is to grow triangular vegetables.
This book is bizarre. I like it.
Apparently I‘ve been reading this for 2 months now (or not). Lost my place, finally got round to finding it again, and realised I just wasn‘t fussed how it ended. So I bailed.
It‘a a really good set-up! 1851: a body is found under a deadly nightshade bush, in a physic garden full of poisonous plants. But the dual timeline via a journal aspect never grabbed me, & I felt kind of indifferent towards the main characters. Oh well. Gorgeous cover tho!
Possibilities for #ReadAroundTheWorld #Ukraine this month.
I really enjoyed the surreal seagulls of Kurkov‘s Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv earlier this year. But Good Citizens is really appealing at the moment. I do (usually) like a novel in short stories, if it‘s well done.
Highly unlikely to get through both this month, so Decisions will have to be made!
I made a #BookSpinBingo board for January 🎉 🌈 It‘s forever since I played! Think I need a nice, neat, nifty template if I‘m going to play all year (but making bingo boards is so much (time-consuming) fun!)
Reading 100 Tales from the Tokyo Ghost Cafe this morning which is a wildcard Christmas prez from the brother - alternating chapters of text and graphic novel, and REALLY good. 👻 🐈⬛ 🐰
…and let‘s see if we can start the year as we mean to go on, by actually writing the odd review!
Set in rural 1980s Poland, these vignettes of a young girl growing up are beautifully evocative and well-written. There‘s humour, there are several dark episodes, and there‘s wonderful detail of time and place.
But they are very much vignettes. I don‘t mind not-
It‘s been forever since I took part in #bookspin, so it‘s time to dive back in. This year it‘ll be more about the bingo than the bookspin (I don‘t need help deciding which book to start next. I do need help persuading myself to actually finish them or bail). And let‘s face it, it always was about making a list and a bingo board really…
So here‘s my January list. In which i try to finish some of those books on the nightstand 🫣 @TheAromaofBooks
Happy New Year, Litsy!
Wishing you a beautiful year filled with friends, books, time to enjoy both, and the best sort of adventures.
I‘m attempting a festive read on audio. (Bah humbug!) I wasn‘t feeling murdery, and Karen Swan is one of those authors who is SO popular (in a small uk public library) I can always call it research. I used to listen to Joanna Penn‘s self-publishing podcast, and you have to admire these authors who manage to churn out 2 books a year (if she is a real person. PLEASE tell me Karen Swan is a real person, someone?)
Mysterious strangers in Irish coastal villages, 1 living, 1 dead. Who are they, and how will their secrets unfold?
The library‘s new books shelf had a bit of a theme going on. And somehow I‘ve never read John Boyne, so now seemed like the time.
I‘m finally reading a book. Let‘s see how long that lasts!
Set in an apothecary‘s physic garden in 1851. When Jem (Mr Flockhart) uncovers a skeleton as she‘s clearing away deadly nightshade, there appear to be links to her parents.
I‘m not 100% convinced by anyone yet, but the story‘s quite gripping.
#Audioflatpacking!
It‘s WET 💦 out there, and I‘ve finally splurged on shelves-with-drawers-in. I‘ve been after them for months 😁
📻 Podcast-listeners of Litsy! 📻 (of course you listen on an old fashioned radio!)
You‘re probably aware of this one already, but I‘ve just discovered & am really enjoying it. Women writers choose & chat about 5 life-changing books. And they get good people on!
In case you haven‘t heard (again I‘m sure you have)- Women‘s Prize are doing a Non-Fiction prize next year- this seems to feed in really well!
Other podcast recs always welcome!
The Warwick Prize for Women in Translation Longlist has been announced - an interesting prize that sadly doesn‘t lend itself to reading along with - just a month from longlist to winner.*
I‘ve read one (A Line in the World - thanks @Mitch !), own one other (Chinatown), and have heard of 3 more books and 2 more authors. Anyone read any? Recommendations?
Full list at https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/womenintranslation/longlist2023/
I‘ve declared Friday my lunchtime reading day, in an attempt to actually read *something* in a week.
Really loving this book. But it‘s Way Too Big!!
If anyone needs a slow, gentle read, this is quite gorgeous and very relatable (even the bits about chipboard!)
Interviews with the remaining residents of a small village in Sweden, laid out as poetry. It reminds me of an up-to-date version Ewen Maccoll‘s Radio Ballads but on paper.
This was last year‘s joint winner (with Tomb of Sand ❤️) of the Warwick Prize from Women in Translation- this year‘s should be kicking off in the next few weeks.
Started this this morning, which Emma somehow remembered I was after the best part of a year ago - thank you @Oryx !
A trip from the UK to Singapore on a Maersk general cargo ship (a tad bigger than these ‘teensy‘ ships in the docks here - one day I‘ll post a picture to show just how teensy they are 😬), and an insight into the global shipping industry. Fascinating and really well-written- I think I‘m going to enjoy this!
Still working my way up to Scotland from Gladstone‘s. Still reading Every Rising Sun - a way overdue ARC and retelling of 1001 nights. Far from perfect, but very enjoyable nonetheless. And this is a very pretty journey, with not-bad coffee 👍
Slightly to my surprise I enjoyed this a lot. Rarely seen short stories of ‘terror and the supernatural‘ (or at least a little spooky. Terror - not so much) from crime writers of the Golden Age. I particularly enjoyed The Witch by Christianna Brand and Personal Call by Agatha Christie.
As a side-note, probably as well not to live in Devon if you want to avoid being murdered/haunted by 1940s crime writers 😁
I really liked this - mostly. The ending… hmm.
A very quiet novel of a mother and (grown up) daughter and the space between them - what connects them, and what keeps them apart, and what they expect from each other. It‘s very well observed, but I wanted something more.
If you had a lit fic bookclub, this could make for some interesting conversations.
My library hold came in 🎉
I really want to read it now.😁
It‘s 803 pages long😳
This will not be coming on the train with me tomorrow 😞
And it looks Soooo good! Oh well.
This morning‘s reading. A story of mothers and daughters and the space between them. Very readable so far, if very white-pagey (I don‘t even know what I mean by that. Sparse? Stripped back? The pictures in my head aren‘t coloured in, somehow Rachel Cusk‘s Outline springs to mind).
Anyway, we‘ll see. Happy Saturday, folks!
Well, that was quite a ride! Robin Hobb is an incredible storyteller (as a rarely-reads fantasy, big books or series reader, I‘ve finished the trilogy in 9 months, which is quite bizarre!). She‘s just kept pulling me back in. And (eventually) we even got dragons.
Time for a few months away, but I‘ll definitely be back to this world and (presumably.some of) these characters.
“You are confusing plumbing and love. Again. “
Yes, I‘m still going with Fitz & (thankfully) The Fool. Robin Hobb is a master storyteller. I‘d decided I was DEFINITELY giving up after this book. Buuut… I‘ll probably need to carry on after a (long) break. She‘s kind of genius.
9 hours left, and 7 days before Libby eats the audiobook. I REALLY don‘t want to be left with waiting for 3 weeks for the final 90 minutes! (Ramps up speed to x2.5 😬)
It‘s a #bookreport! Two weeks running - what is the world coming to?!
This week I finished Blood River. It‘s a good, interesting read, well told, but not easy, as the author follows the trail of Stanley along the course of the Congo River.
And I only have 12 hours of Assassin‘s Quest to go. But 9 days before it returns itself. Will I make it?! (No). She‘s such a good writer. I thought this would be enough Hobb for a looong time, but now…
Firmly Not-My-Usual, but actually worth a try.
These are gentle stories of life as a 1960s rural policeman in a Yorkshire village. They‘re the series that Heartbeat was based on, but I found them a little more charming, and they probably contain a little less action than the TV series.
Very much Of Their Time (1980s) so you‘ll have to put up with ‘oh those funny women drivers‘ & the likes. But generally good-humoured with excellent narration.
Yay!
Xigxag gave me a half-price voucher, for being such a rubbish customer (strange but true), so I‘ve finally got my audio copy of Fire Rush.
Sadly, it‘ll have to wait a month or two, because I‘m in full-Fitz mode, but Yay! all the same.
(And I do love that cover.)
Ooh look! A #bookreport - haven‘t had anything to report in quite a while! (Hi Cindy 👋 @Cinfhen )
Finished Constable Across the Moors and, you know what? It was quite enjoyable. A very gentle set of stories of a young policeman in 1960s Yorkshire. Dated in parts, but good-humoured and fun.
Blood River has become the book I‘m READING. Flicking between shocked, angry and fascinated. V good.
And back to Fitz, who is doing his own river crossing
Bank holiday reading. The beach seemed like a bad idea. The park, on the other hand, is looking nicely empty.