#weekendreads

A very classics heavy reading weekend for me. I have some driving to do and luckily the three classics are also available on Hoopla on audio. 👍

I had such fun completing the first #OffMyShelf challenge, I‘ll try the next board too! 😃 “Story was adapted”

Paul likes Sean but Sean likes Lauren but Lauren likes Victor… This was disturbing and transgressive yet surprisingly funny at times. Students behaving badly at a liberal arts college in NH. Very‘80s. So much sex and drugs. I didn‘t realize Ellis writes all his books in the same universe with character overlap.

CW for rape l/suicide.

My last category completed for the #OffMyShelf challenge! 🥳 “Gifted by a friend”.

In the acknowledgments, we find the story is based on a real woman‘s life, Eva Panic Nahir, a Hungarian Jew from what is now Croatia who was imprisoned in Tito‘s gulag and later emigrated to Israel with her daughter. In the book, Vera makes a decision to honor her principles and her husband‘s memory at great cost to herself and her relationship with her daughter.

🔎 This is a gentle reminder for any #EBBR readers to look into getting a copy of the tagged title, the next book (no. 7) in the series, for our joint-read in August.

🔎 Another fun opportunity to channel your inner 9 year old and match wits with Idaville‘s boy detective!

If anyone wants to be removed or added to the tag list, let me know.

@LitsyEvents

#WhereAreYouMonday

This Monday my book takes me to a fictional version of Bennington College in Vermont. Ellis calls it Camden College and places it in New Hampshire, but it‘s clear from what I know about the author it‘s really his Alma mater.

The behavior depicted is often reprehensible but not unknown to me and my own second decade. I‘m surprised at how funny it is at times.

Hey ##EBBR friends! How did you fare with this month‘s title?

I did pretty well-I only missed “The Case of the Angry Cook” and I thought the “solution” was pretty tenuous. 😅

I am also curious about “The Case of the Falling Woman”. I understand the reveal, but how did the kid get a picture of a woman falling in the first place!?!?🤔 Was it his mom on a trampoline?

My #roll100 picks for August - both library borrows. I‘m going to skip No. 41 since I read it this month already. 🙊

This was a slow burn, politically plotted SciFi and I thought it was great. Lots of intrigue within fantastic world building.

Mahit Dzmare is caught between her love for Teixcalaanli language and literature as ambassador to that Empire and her understanding that she will never be accepted as anything more than other and her fear that the Empire will annex her own culture and community, thereby erasing it.

My second #roll100 for July.

#weekendreads

Will definitely finish “The Fiction Writer” today. I put it on pause to read some other stuff.

Diving in to my 🤞last two books for July. “The Rules of Attraction” is my last #roll100 for the month. The David Grossman is my last #OffMyShelf book and also on my #14Booksin14Weeks .

Thank you for the tip @ChaoticMissAdventures ! None of my libraries had a copy but I was really pleased to see my local brick and mortar Barnes and Nobel had a stack of copies. 👍 #BlameitonLitsy

#WhereAreYouMonday

This Monday finds me in Malibu, California at a cliff side mansion. So far it‘s just OK but it‘ll be a fast read in any case.

#hashtagbrigade
#allergictochunksters
#chunksterchallenge2025

I couldn‘t wait. I had to finish!🙈

This is a story of Molly Gibson whose life is changed by two major events: her introduction to the Hamelys of Hamley Hall and her father‘s hasty decision to remarry.

Love, loved, loved this chunky classic! Molly is often passive and put upon but there are lines she will not cross, and the reader loves her for her loyalty and her integrity.

#weekendreads

Really loving the tagged book which is one of my #Roll100 picks for July.

Getting back on track with #DoorstopKristen

The third title is a #BlameitonLitsy spontaneous read.

#WhereAreYouMonday

My last #CampLitsy25 book takes me to a decaying town in Virginia.

#SeriesLove2025
#OffMyShelf - in a series
#14Books14Weeks

Another gentle and entertaining outing with Mma Ramotswe and co. An adopted woman asks the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency to find her biological family and someone is sending poison pen letters to the agency. Both mysteries are solved with compassion and kindness. ❤️

#FurrowedMiddlebrowClub

The middle and upper class of a small English village rub along together awkwardly in this novel. The eccentric Mr. Monsoon, the pretentious Mrs. Rockaby, the loony Lady Tyce, etc. There‘s no real plot nor any character to root for really, but I enjoyed it on the whole. It‘s often funny and has maybe a subtle feminist edge to it at times, but as @Tamra noted, much longer would have been too long.

#weekendreads

I have two lighter books on tap this weekend, which is a relief from other heavier reads.

One for #FurrowedMiddlebrowClub and one that will fit both the #serieslove2025 and #offmyshelf challenges.

I need to get back on track/catch up with #KLBR !

#whereareyoumonday

I‘m in Portland, Oregon at an IKEA store. Only one chapter in so far.

#weekendreads

Two main books to focus on for #CampLitsy25 and #NancyDrewBR but also still keeping up with #HashtagBrigade and #KLBR . 👍

#OffMyShelf “started before”

A powerful novel about resistance in Nazi Germany based on true events-both depressing and hopeful to read now.

“As it was, we acted alone, we were caught alone, and every one of us will have to die alone. But that doesn‘t mean we are alone, Quangel, or that our deaths will be in vain.Nothing in this world is done in vain, and since we are fighting for justice against brutality, we are bound to prevail in the end.”

Taking stock of my #Roll100 progress at the half year mark. The majority have been owned books from my shelves and I hope I can keep the momentum up in the second half.🤞

Many thanks @PuddleJumper for making this happen! 😊

#mellowmonday

This is something I have to remind myself of frequently when fear holds me back.

Thank you for the tag @KadaGul 😊

#WhereAreYouMonday

The present day story takes place in London, England while the “fictional” story within a story is set on the Côte d‘Azure. Super fun, these books are like brain candy for me. I like reading them but have no memory of the story a mere few weeks later. ?

Another month and another #EBBR title to read or re-read! Time for all those participating to hunt down a copy. So far I‘ve been lucky that my library system has them available in ebook format.

This blast from the past is a group read available for all. If anyone wants to be added or removed from the tag list, let me know. 😊

My #Roll100 picks for July. Two are from my shelves and the tagged is one I‘ve long wanted to get into. Can‘t wait!

👋 Hello #FurrowedMiddlebrowClub members! This is a reminder that our bimonthly pick for July is the tagged title. I‘m looking forward to this novel about village life in the mid century…it‘s my catnip, one might say.

All are welcome to join this group read. Read at your own pace, but please do tag the group if you review or post on it so we all can like and comment.

If anyone wants to be tagged or be removed from the list, say the word. 😊

#whereareyoumonday

I‘m in Nazi Germany this week. Not a fun place. But I think this is going to be a good book - worth reading and a particularly timely reminder.

#EBBR

My solved to stumped ratio was particularly bad in this one! 😬 Though, IMO, none of the solutions were particularly convincing. Was the author running out of ideas, I wonder?

Also, it was unpleasant reading due to one incident of animal cruelty and racist portrayals of indigenous Americans. The fact that it was the Seminole, however, it does help geolocate Idaville as being in Florida or one of its neighboring states with a coastline.

#whereareyoumonday

While still visiting Norway and England in other books, today I am concentrating on Costal Maine, the setting of this collection of stories/vignettes by Sarah Orne Jewett, who was a writer much admired by Willa Cather.

#offmyshelf “most recent TBR”
#ohcanada

This novel brings an important aspect of Canadian history to light-the use/abuse of indigent British children as indentured servants in Canada in the 19th and 20th cent. Told from the present with flashbacks to the past by Winnie to her granddaughter.

I‘m glad to have read it. However, I didn‘t like the writing or storytelling style personally. I found it too basic, the characters felt one dimensional.

#weekendreads

I have a lot going on this weekend, but I hope to at least have enough time to finish the #ohcanada pick and #EBBR and #NancyDrewBR . Those are quick ones.

I‘m reading the Sarah Orne Jewett b/c of the podcast “One Bright Book” and it takes time to digest.

The bottom two are also slower for me #hashtagbrigade and #DoorstopKristen #KLBR .

#whereareyoumonday

I am going to be in medieval Norway for the next couple months for #KLBR #DoorstopKristen. Enjoying it a lot, though I know it‘s also at times going to make me sad.

#Roll100
#OffMyShelf “Out of your comfort zone”
#14Books14Weeks

A good friend gave me this book, it‘s very much not what I usually read. But I‘m glad I did. There are no easy fixes or answers. Boyle asks only that we have compassion for our fellow humans.

“The strategy of Jesus is not centered in taking the right stand on issues, but rather in standing in the right place-with the outcast and those relegated to the margins.”

My #TimeTravelTop5

1. Life After Life - Kate Atkinson
2. Kindred - Octavia Butler
3. Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut
4. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
5. Version Control - Dexter Palmer

I had to use the internet to remind me of what I have read that fit. There were some titles I‘ve read but don‘t like b/c romance was the focus - not my cuppa.

Do you have a favorite time travel book? Post ‘em or let me know in the comments! 😃

#wondrousWednesday Thank you for the tag @Ddzmini 😊

1. Be satisfied with enough.
2. 🙊😻📚
2. The book I am reading “Woodworking” by Emily St. James.

If you‘re reading this and want to respond, consider yourself tagged!

#whereReyoumonday

Reading very much out of my comfort zone, I‘m in East Los Angeles in the current century with Pastor Gregory Boyle and the congregants and residents of the area in this nonfiction account of Boyle‘s outreach efforts.

#weekendreads

I have two library books on my kindle this weekend. Should finish Stag Dance by Sunday. 🤞

Thanks so much to @Andrew65 and @Tove_Reads for hosting the #ShelfSweeper readathon in May. I was uncertain at first but I managed to read all six of my planned books. 🤩 I appreciate this kick in the pants to dust off (sometimes literally! 😂) a few of those lingering tomes and read ‘em!

@batsy is right. This book is 🍌👖! Per the introduction it‘s one of the first novels to feature a female (amateur) detective. The “Lady” definitely shares some characteristics with Marion Halcolmb from The Woman in White. She‘s subverting Victorian ideals of femininity but apologizing for it, more often than not. In some ways this book made me think the fairytale Bluebeard in the protagonist‘s effort to find out the truth about her husband.

#beachreadsfindaway

See original post https://litsy.com/p/SEhEWG5NakJx for a chance to win a book of your choice by telling @vivastory your idea of a good beach read!

I think by definition, it‘s supposed to be lightmaybe because one is easily distracted on vacation? But if you want to read War & Peace on the sand, by all means. I took the 800+ page I Claudius/Claudius the God on vacation once. Another time The Name of the Rose. Both excellent!

#WondrousWednesday

1. Now I don‘t care, but as a kid, I wished I‘d been named Naomi. I thought it was pretty. 😊

2. My current feral cat living in my front yard I usually call Fluffer Nutter Butter instead of Tom. He is very fluffy. His now deceased brother I called Skinny Minnie instead of Tim. 😻

3. It‘s not a favorite, but I assumed Bryony was a made up name when I encountered it in Mary Stewart‘s “Touch Not the Cat”, but it‘s for reals. 😅

#Hashtagbrigade
#ChunksterChallenge2025 Bitsy chunkster 544 pages
#AllergictoChunksters

I‘m not sure if I love or hate the ending? Set in the mid 19th cent., this is the story of Maggie Tulliver who, were she a man, would have had the education and success she deserved. She‘s smarter than her father, who favors her, and her brother, who loves her but holds her back. Phillip is her intellectual equal. Stephan I think she‘d eventually tire of…

Murdoch is for me an acquired taste and only to be enjoyed in measure. She‘s impossible to read quickly.

This is farce set in late sixties London, Bradley Pearson is a retired civil servant and unsuccessful novelist. Told from his POV, which is questionable, it‘s what happens when instead of writing his magnum opus, his life falls apart, with no little help from his own ineptitude, jealousy, and solipsism. Wickedly funny at times and quite dark.

#WhereAreYouMonday

I‘m only 100 pages in, but this is a kind of a Victorian detective novel where I suspect the sleuth will be traveling a bit between England and Scotland looking for clues and witnesses to overturn a “Scotch Verdict”.

#weekendreads

Trying to get to my #Roll100 picks before the end of the month! 🤞

Hello #EBBR armchair detectives! I hope all are having a good weekend, especially if you are in the US and have Monday off. This is a quick reminder to get your mitts on the next book for June.

I vaguely recognize the cover of this one, so may have read it before? 🤔 We‘ll see if anything feels familiar when I dive in.

This monthly buddy read is open to all! If anyone would like to be added to or removed from the tag list, let me know. 😃

#WhereAreYouMonday

I‘m in Nebraska with Alexandra Bergson and family as they try to farm and prosper while so many of their neighbors fail and move back to the cities to try their luck.

This is also the fourth book on deck for the #ShelfSweeper readathon. 😊

#FurrowedMiddlebrowClub

A charming Cinderella story, though I felt a little sorry for bad-girl Cora. Also, when Bunny fainted, I laughed, it was so melodramatic- which was I think not the intended reaction. 😂

Aesthetician Ann, from an impoverished but proud and upstanding middle class family, meets cute Sir Timothy. Will class differences hold back true love? If you‘ve ever read Susan Scarlett before, you know the answer. 😍

#OffMyShelf “indy press”

After the intensity of “The Trees”, maybe Everett just wanted to have a little fun? This book is pretty goofy, with just the slightest edge. It did make me laugh. A James Bond like spoof. Professor Kitu (born Ralph Townshend) has made a career out of the study of nothing. When he‘s approached by a super villain who wants to harness nothing to achieve world domination, he agrees. He‘s up to nothing. Nothing happens. 😂

Hello reading friends. I hope you all had fun reading this month‘s #EBBR book. I missed the solutions for three of the cases! 😅 My powers of deduction seem to be getting worse!

I must say, winning a pie a day for a month in The Case of the Blueberry Pies sounded delicious! 🥧😋