@BarbaraBB Saw this on Goodreads and wanted to share this with you Barbara. Seems like J. R. Lennon is a stand up kinda guy! 👍

Here are my nominations for #CampLitsy24

1. Mother Doll because I admired Apekina‘s debut
2. Piglet because I love a good “disaster woman narrative” TM pending
3. You Dreamed of Empires because I loved “Sudden Death” by Enrigue
4. I Love You So Much It‘s Killing Us Both because I love a good novel about female friendship and coming of age.

Horowitz‘ Hawthorn series, in which the author is a character, is fun fluff. In each book, Tony the character and the reader learn a little bit more about the reclusive detective. In this one, Tony is accused of murdering a critic who gave his play a bad review and while he was hoping to cut ties with Hawthorn, now he desperately needs his help to prove his innocence.

This is what I‘ve got on tap this weekend. I‘m enjoying them all! 👍

#weekendreads

#WondrousWednesday

Thank you for the tag @Eggs 😊

1. 🔪💀🕵️‍♀️for the tagged book

2. I‘m looking forward to the next Jackson Brodie novel “Death at the Sign of the Rook” by Kate Atkinson

3. I recently recommended “The Calculating Stars” by Mary Robinette Kowal to a friend. I think she‘d appreciate its feminist and scientific slant.

I preordered the newest Scarlett Thomas. I‘ve not read all her books, but I want to become a completist of her adult fiction at least.

This was a very entertaining and informative travel book along the lines of Bill Bryson or Tony Horowitz. Perrottet and his girlfriend Lesley travel along the same route as Roman tourists would have done during the Pax Romana era which made such journeys relatively safe. From Rome to Naples to Greece to Turkey and finally Egypt. Occasionally dated in language and attitudes, despite being published only 20 years ago.

This is a story of two women in Ghana and their different trajectories due their different familial situations. Akorfa and Selasie are cousins and the best of friends as children, but events eventually separate them. As with Medie‘s debut, the novel gives the reader insight into Ghanaian family life and the conflicting pressures and expectations placed upon women within that society.

All Litsy group reads this #weekendreads

Rebecca for #PemberLittens #Hashtagbrigade

The Secret of Red Gate Farm for #NancyDrewBR

Way Station for #ClassicLSFBC

Enjoying them all! 👍

Thank you for the tag @Eggs and @Read4life 😊

#WondrousWednesday

🌸 Hardcover
🌸 Fiction
🌸 Historical
🌸 Classic
🌸 Coffee
🌸 Enjoy both, but if forced to choose-physical
🌸 Enjoy both, but if forced to choose- print

#Two4Tuesday

Thank you for the tag @Read4life 😊

1. I‘m pretty excited to reread the first two Radch Empire novels as prep to FINALLY finish the trilogy and read Ancillary Mercy.

2. I have preordered Scarlett Thomas‘ new title “The Sleepwalkers” and Kate Atkinson‘s next Jackson Brodie novel “Death at the Sign of the Rook”.

This is the edition that I will be reading from for the April #PemberLittens #HashtagBrigade pick. It is pretty but it‘s poorly bound, unfortunately - too tight to read comfortably, so buyers beware of Virago naked hardbacks.

Super excited to start a slew of new books now that I‘m finally free of The Brothers Karamazov.

I‘m getting an early start on the next #HashtagBrigade book for April which is a re-read for me: Rebecca.

Nightbloom will probably be the only Women‘s Prize listed book I manage. I really liked her debut.

The other two are my #Roll100 picks for April. Route 66 AD I‘ve owned for maybe 20 years? It‘s about time!

#weekendreads

The chicken really wanted to be in the shot. 🐓

This novel tried my patience but ultimately was a rewarding read. Very Russian and histrionic at times; indulgent in the way of many European 19th century novels with its digressions. A story about four brothers and their awful father, but also a long winded treatise on morality and how to live righteously in an imperfect world.

#TheBros #HashtagBrigade #Pemberlittens

My 3rd completed book for #BooksinBloom 🌸

This was a solid start to a long running procedural series set in Scotland. The gruff cop who doesn‘t play by the rules. Cliched but still enjoyable, for what it is. A copy cat serial killer and a case that still haunts DCI Logan. Very fast paced and tense.

This is also a #BlameitonLitsy book. I‘d never heard of the author or series until @TheSpineView and @Andrew65 posted about it.

Thanks for the tag @dabbe 😊 #TLT

I‘m not sure I‘ve read too many novellas. I generally prefer long books, but sometimes 150 pages or so is the perfect length. Top of my head:

1. A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr
2. Passing by Nella Larsson
3. All Systems Red by Martha Wells

This was at times amusing but overall just OK for me. It was a bit of a rom com / family drama, when retired George, who has likely always suffered from undiagnosed anxiety, really starts to lose his grip. Meanwhile, his daughter is marrying a man her family feels is beneath her, his wife is having an affair (though he doesn‘t know it yet) and his gay son is having trouble integrating his love life with his family life. #BooksinBloom 2nd book✔️

Thanks for the tag @The_Penniless_Author 🙏

1. I think young me would have liked to be a flying horse.

2. The tagged book has fairies, which I don‘t want to be because they‘re kinda mean. 🧚

#Two4Tuesday

#LitsyTOB24 First completed book for #BooksinBloom

I liked this a lot and am glad I re-read 1984 as preparation. The book gives Julia a backstory and interesting insight and contrasts to Winston Smith without detracting from its source material. Occasionally a little longer than it needed to be.

For those #NancyDrewBR #LittenDetectives keeping count every time she gets coshed on the noggin! 😂😂😂

This is my TBR for the readathon #BooksinBloom hosted by @Catsandbooks which runs from today to next week Friday! Hopefully I will finish all of them by then with maybe the exception of #TheBros . 😬🤭

Anna and her grown daughters must downsize and leave their upper middle class London lifestyle. She decides to take a small cottage near to where she grew up in Scotland. Spoiled Helen is outraged and weak willed Rosalie agrees. Only bookish Jane sees the practicality of it. The first half of the book is delightful. The second half veers off into a predictable and slightly squicky direction. Still, overall enjoyable. #FurrowedMiddlebrowClub

#NancyDrewBR

“That‘s why I think they won‘t do it again”, Nancy replied. Probably they‘ll pick on a different place. Good luck! If you run into trouble, yell!”

Sound advice learned from Carson Drew in the last book!!!🙄😂 Just scream really loud when you‘re in danger ‼️

#weekendreads

1984 re-read as prep for Julia, still chugging along with #TheBros , the remaining three are for pure pleasure (and for #Roll100 , #FurrowedMiddlebrowClub , and #NancyDrewBR ! )

This is probably the last #LitsyToB24 entry I‘ll manage before the voting starts. I liked it, though it was more violent and brutal than I expected. I didn‘t realize it was about a series killer. It felt overstuffed with issues that Sheriff Crown is working through and the plotting was occasionally awkward IMO. Titus Crown is a great character, though. That‘s where I think Cosby excels. This could easily been the start of a series.

Spent the weekend in San Luis Obispo with a friend. We went to the local annual library book sale, naturally, and I picked up a few gems. 😃 The vintage Modern Library editions were tempting, but I unfortunately didn‘t find any titles that appealed.

Hiya #FurrowedMiddlebrowClub friends! It‘s time for our next bi-monthly read, this time a title by fan favorite D.E. Stevenson. I‘ve only read her Miss Buncle books and a previous group read “The English Air”. I‘m looking forward to diving in. As usual, read at your own pace, post at will, and tag the group if you do! 😃

#LitsyTOB24

While elements of the plot felt maybe a little by the numbers, I really liked the two main characters and was particularly invested in their fates. Two women fall in love in a small Kentucky college town in the 1950s. Unless one was Gertrude Stein or Rock Hudson, you can imagine at the obstacles faced by homosexuals in this era.

#LitsyToB24

A soft pick. The story was great and while the narrator, could be annoying, she does show growth by the end. I didn‘t mind the footnotes. I think Mia is also neurodivergent and this helped demonstrate it. But for such a propelling plot (a dad goes missing and the only witness is his severely, non-speaking autistic son), it was too long and I really disliked the foreshadowing - just tell the story- the reader can figure out the rest.

#weekendreads

Hoping to wrap up my two #LitsyToB24 books this weekend. Still plugging away at my #ClassicLSFBF but considering DNFing it. 🫢 Continuing with #TheBros chapter a day read along. 👍

I ended liking this more than initially expected. It‘s a gentle novel, occasionally funny, but it lacks focus. In 1991, Emily moves to NYC after college, makes friends, loses friends, gets a job, etc. In 2005, Emily is married with a demanding job, a small child & some of her 90s past popping back up. Next to the other two coming of age stories in the #LitsyToB24 it doesn‘t stand a chance.

#52BookClub24 Chapters have dates
#pop24 coming of age

Beautiful cover but the story telling style was not for me. I know people IRL who have cut themselves off from their family as well as those who have been abandoned by family, and yet no one‘s behavior felt real to me here. And there was far too much repetition in my opinion. The Little Women retelling aspects were interesting, however.

#LitsyToB24
#52BookClub24 Includes a wedding
#pop24 at least 3 PoV

#weekendreads

I‘m kind of hating both my #LitsyToB24 books and Dhalgren is a bit of a chore. ☹️ And #TheBros is only a chapter a day. Hopefully my reading pleasure will pick up soon. 🤞

Two novellas and three short stories, each set in a different African country; all are devastating and heartbreaking. 💔 Most feature children. This is fiction, but we know it is rooted in truth: exploitation, religious violence, ethnic conflict, poverty, despair.

#The52BookClub24 Sticker on cover (Oprah)
#Pop24 Title complete sentence
#TBRtarot (January) YOU in title
#Roll100 February

#MaryWestmacottBuddyRead #LMWBR

A soft pick, it rehashes some of the themes from the other novels and I found its dual narrative structure a little weird. Still, an interesting psychological portrait of sorts.

Shirley has always felt the weight of her older sister‘s love for her until Shirley falls for a faithless lover and marries him. Llewellyn gives up a powerful career, based on faith in his visions. Eventually their stories converge.

Thank you for the tag @Eggs ! 😊

#Two4Tuesday

❤️ No plans

❤️ Any book is as good as another, IMO but if someone wanted to read something romantic, I‘d recommend Captain Wentworth‘s letter from Persuasion… I can listen no longer in silence.” ❤️❤️❤️

Thank you for the tag @BeeCurious ! 😊

#Thisorthat

1. Hardcover
2. Fast reader
3. Stand alone
4. Buy
5. Night Reader
6. Read on sofa
7. Enemies to lovers
8. Without music
9. One PoV
10. Long chapters

At first I found it pretentious and stilted but the story grew on me and I found myself curious to know what would happen next. Set in an alternate history America, the widow of X tries to unearth her (in)famous wife‘s history and learns secrets that make her question her relationship. Was she just another person to be used and subsequently discarded by X?

#LitsyToB24
#The52BookClub24 - grieving character
#pop24 - book about a writer

While parts of this really sparkled for me, I needed more of a cohesive plot than it provided. Overall this was a heartwarming story about a mixed Jewish and Black neighborhood in Pennsylvania in the 1930s. The first half centered around Jewish immigrant Moshe and his American born wife Chona and the second half on African Americans Addie and Nate and their ward, Dodo.

#LitsyToB24
#52BookClub24 character-driven novel

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

I am hoping to finish at least two of these this weekend, though not #TheBros of course.

Third in the Aubrey-Maturin series - I loved it. Jack finally gets a command and is commissioned to sail to the Malay Peninsula, first stopping in India. There‘s espionage, romance, bromance, a naval battle, a duel at dawn, tragic death, sudden squalls, the literal doldrums…just fantastic.

#SeriesLove24
#pop24 - published under a pen name
#The52BookClub24 - features the ocean

Strangely creepy, though not horror. I think it‘s because the narrator withholds so much information until late in the book. It‘s sort of hypnotic. There was an “accident”, severe injury, a trial, but the reader doesn‘t know what is connected and what isn‘t.

#Roll100
#pop24 A book that contains video games (RPG mainly but there is also mention of arcade games-close enough 😂)
#52BookClub24 Set in a city starting with the letter M (Montclair)

Question Two: The subtitle of the novel is “An Ambiguous Utopia”. What does that mean to you now after having read the book?

Follow up-would you rather live on Urras or Annares?

I‘ll post a couple of questions, even though I‘m not sure how many people actually read the January pick. 😂

Question One: Le Guin chose to have a male protagonist. In what ways, however, did you find this to be a feminist novel, if at all?

Side note- did you like Shevek as a hero/protagonist?

A compelling coming of age story which was both familiar and disturbing. Fay and Nell are best friends at a NYC private Quaker high school navigating teenage insecurity, solipsism, and queerness. Their friendship is insular and uneven, with Fay leading and Nell following. Seamlessly told in flashback by their adult selves, regretful and nostalgic.

Read for #LitsyToB24
#Pop24 Fiction by a trans author
#52Bookclub24 About finding identity

Amazingly, I read all of my January #Roll100 books. 🤯 This is my February pile. Two are from my shelves, which is a bonus.

Inspired by @TheKidUpstairs and @BarbaraBB here‘s my #womensdozen using only the short list and winners. Purposefully no overlap with my #bookerdozen with either author or title. Some are my favorite books of all time.

1. The Poisonwood Bible
2. Bel Canto
3. Purple Hibiscus
4. Old Filth
5. The Observations
6. The Tiger‘s Wife
7. Life After Life
8. The Goldfinch
9. Do No Say We Have Nothing
10. The Idiot
11. Girl, Woman, Other
12. Piranesi

1. Moon Tiger by P. Lively
2. Never Let Me Go by K. Ishiguro
3. Possession by AS Byatt
4. Disgrace by JM Coetzee
5. The White Tiger by A. Adiga
6. Bring Up the Bodies by H. Mantel
7. The Luminaries by E. Catton
8. Milkman by A. Burns
9. A Month in the Country by JL Carr
10. The Hand Maid‘s Tale by M. Atwood
11. Any Human Heart by W. Boyd
12. Fingersmith by S. Waters
13. Cloud Atlas by D. Mitchell

The #bookerdozen can go up to 13! 😆

Similar to her debut novel, there‘s a lot of mundane description in this book that‘s either going to work for a reader or it‘s not. I liked it. There was a lot about Bunny I could identify with, both good and bad. Capitalism, corporate greed, human indifference, the corruption of the oil industry, US complicity, etc. is all reflected through the lens of one ordinary person‘s life. The book is a wake up call and warning.

#LitsyToB24

Other than the two I‘d read prior to our vote, this is the first #LitsyToB24 book I‘ve read. I really enjoyed it. It‘s less baggy than his debut, more focused, but still with a sharp satirical edge. After 20 years together, Jack and Elizabeth must reevaluate their “soul mates” status, a less romantic version of their origin story; the hopes and fears they‘ve never expressed. All this against the background of the insanity of 21st century America.