“No offense, but I'm not sold on romance. The relationships portrayed in these books are problematic. They're not realistic or attainable.“

“Problematic relationships are completely attainable.“

Attractive, expressive art is the highlight of this Regency romance graphic novel. The characters really come to life and I especially love how George, a trans man, is drawn, always completely himself even when forced to wear a skirt. (There's a wonderful section at the end in which the characters themselves explain the historical basis for the black and queer characters in the story.) cont.

I'm feeling very behind from last month and have a lot of library holds coming in, so giving myself a nice stress-free board. I hope!

#BookSpinBingo

Three bingos this month! I added my extra books to the sides for a complete record.

#SeriesLove2025 : Rattling Bone; The Shadowhunter series graphic novels; The Cruelest Month; A Rule Against Murder

#AllergicToChunksters: Lark Rise to Candleford; Project Hail Mary

#ReadOrDonate: The Prince by Elizabeth Minogue, donated

#MonthlyNonfiction2025: Organizing for the Rest of Us by Dana White;
Congratulations, the Best is Over by R. Eric Thomas

I included ebooks I deleted under donated and did *not* include freebies under bought. 😏

Thanks to Puddlejumper for the template.

A remarkably good month! I made an attempt to fill the last three spaces but just didn't have anything I wanted to read. On the bright side, I deleted some freebies. 😇

All books that I might never have gotten to if it weren't for Litsy. ❤️

#WeeklyFavorites @ReadForLife

The Celebrants is a pretty good read. Reason to Believe, just really not what I wanted to read about right now. The Book of Love is a *chunkster* and also a disturbing read, so I'm going pretty slow.

#Roll100 @Puddlejumper

#BookSpin February

Such an intriguing book, and an intriguing theory. A good time to be reading books that help me understand monsters of the human variety.

This was the #QueerBC book from, what, October? Also my choice for “featuring a cryptid“ for @Faranae's #URC. I can't imagine a more interesting cryptid!

My husband not only left our nice warm bed to make me breakfast, he did so when he was just at the part where Gamache explains the murder. Greater love hath no man!

A soft pick for me, because the illustration style mostly feels distant and unemotional to me, and unfortunately like a corporate training manual. This is one of a few comics in which I felt the style worked with what the words were trying to say.

Wow, what a yarn! It took me a while to get into the golly-gee-whiz tone of the first person narration, and I confess I skimmed over a lot of the scienc-y parts, but it's a great story that had me smiling through my tears at the end.

#AuldLangSpine

For the #AuthorAMonth folks reading Sayers: https://grolierclub.omeka.net/exhibits/show/imaginary-books/dorothy-imaginary

An #AuldLangSpine book, a #Roll100 book, and a just for fun book.

Read the Malinda Lo story for #QueerBC, and some of the others. Lo's is a lighthearted “Roman Holiday“ plot in a not particularly different future. Kind of meh, honestly. I liked Mason Deaver's “boy band members ran away for the weekend and fall in love,“ and a love triangle story that ended, as so many readers hope they will, in a polyamorous relationship!

I read most of these for school or because I thought I *should*, but these two I love.

#TLT

Finding it hard not to feel very cynical about the premise of this, especially today.

As a teen I adored the romance in Farjeon's Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard, but also appreciated the book‘s distinction between romanticism and love, so it was interesting to see her exploring similar themes here. The question is left more open-ended, but I ultimately found the book pretty sad, despite its humor.

#FurrowedMiddlebrowClub

“You name will be branded in society. Women will draw their skirts aside as you pass. Men will refuse your hand at baccarat. You will be ruined, financially and socially. You will be dis-Almacked!“

Oh my, the end of “The Bastard...“ makes all the rest worthwhile!

#FurrowedMiddlebrowClub

So the current situation, if I have it correctly, is three men in love with one woman, and one man in love with three women. 😂

#FurrowedMiddlebrowClub

A very subjective #FourFoursin25 choice, but it makes sense to me.

I liked this considerably more than the second book, though there are always several things in a Penny book that make me go “huh?“ And I do NOT like Clara being messed with!

This is--sort of--my first #AuldLangSpine book. I'd already read Here for It by R. Eric Thomas, so instead listened to his next book of essays. It was just as good and very timely. Even though he's a gay Black man and I'm a straight white woman, I relate so much to his issues with mental health, and his continued work on his identity and his marriage.

Thanks to @monalyisha for her hard work hosting and @dariazeoli for a great list!

Kneeling in the fragrant moist grass of the village green Clara Morrow carefully hid the Easter egg and thought about raising the dead, which she planned to do right after supper.

#FirstLineFridays

Racing and game, dicing and dancing, feasting and opera-going left him little time for sleep. His appetite was insatiable, his vitality enormous. He amazed even Casimir, accustomed to all debauches, and none of the entertainments to which he was bidden outrivalled Tarletan's in splendour. They frequently went on till after midnight.

These are all favorites from my youth, except for When You Reach Me, which I loved as an adult.

#TBT @Dabbe

A group of college friends come back together to throw “funerals“ for each other in times of crises, so that they always know they're loved. An entertaining read that had many resonant passages for me, but it felt a little lacking in real depth somehow. Perhaps it's because we spend time in the minds of five different people and it's not that long a book. Or perhaps the echoes of “The Big Chill' and “Peter's Friends“ make it feel too theatrical.

I think I can live with my result.

“We've reached the tipping point,“ Naomi said, pouring a shot of Don Julio; it burned with a smoky finish.

“How do you mean?“ Jordy asked.

“I just figure at a certain point, life takes more from you than it gives.“

1. Taking rain walks with my daughter.

2. Lovely book of poems, with pictures based on the editor and illustrator and their family. I'm sad to learn Rogasky died in 2011.

He had an urge to return to Bogota. It was fascinating to him, the idea that all the things his parents had escaped were now here, and all the things they wanted for their kids were now there. Random gun violence, political unrest, supply chain issues--those were now America, Marriage equality, socialized medicine, and reproductive choice--those were all Colombian.

Everyone was on the same ticking clock. They might fool themselves into thinking that more time affords them opportunities to do more things, that the future is open-ended. But the world is simply too big. We weren't meant to see everything, we weren't built to do everything, we aren't capable of knowing everything. At a certain point, peace has to be found with the choices we've made.

I made this bingo card for people doing @Faranae's #URC. This is *only* prompts related to the title and cover, to make it easy to check for them. (I had to leave out the “rhyming in title“ prompt to make the board even.)

I just can't do it anymore. They're finally getting together and I'm not even indifferent, I'm actively put off. 😞

It's not hoarding if it's books.

This is a free ebook today, only on Kobo. https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/blind-tiger-3

Here Comes Treble by London Price (not in Litsy.) Trans m/m romance. I had mixed feelings about it, and was very annoyed by the cliffhanger ending.

https://willaful.wordpress.com/2025/01/03/here-comes-treble-by-london-price/

Can anyone tell me which edition of this has the preface by Godden? I'd really like to read it.

I've always known Godden as a children's writer, and this starts out like a classic E. Nesbit story: a large family of eccentric kids finds themselves basically on their own for a summer of idyllic freedom. But as 13 year old Cecil discovers, there's a dark side to being unsupervised -- you're also unprotected, and when you have siblings, responsible. A powerful story I felt through my bones.

#BookSpin

I can't decide which of these covers is more utterly wrong.

This was cute, but I'm not surprised there was never a follow-up. (I'd probably read it if there was, though.) The characters are such YA cliches, not what I expect from Novik!

The art style took a little getting used to. I don't know the correct way to categorize it, but sometime the characters are gorgeously stylized, and then they're drawn much younger to express their emotions. It's effective, but also a bit creepy.

Anyone have a nice template to use for #BookSpin and #DoubleSpin books for the year?

So hard to pick only 3 favs. But I can name any number that SHOULD be on the list. Harriet the Spy. Half-Magic. (I don't think Eager was on the list?) A Freddy the Pig book. The Secret Language. The Changeling by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. Something by Ellen Raskin. Something by Jean Little.

And there were definitely some books I was giving side-eye to. The Hobbit, sure. The Lord of the Rings? And put the YA books on their own list.

#TBT

Felt more like watching a mediocre sit-com than reading a book.

Another scary paranormal adventure, with queer romance, for the team from The Forgotten Dead. More at my blog: https://willaful.wordpress.com/2025/01/08/rattling-bone-by-jordan-l-hawk/

#TBRTarot : a very icy setting!

#BookSpinBingo #SeriesLove2025

#ISpyBingo : moon and fence on cover

I wish I'd read this last year, because it's exactly what I had in mind for @Farnae's #URC prompt for a book set where being queer is dangerous. Books where, despite everything, queer people are everywhere.

The queer subtext in Ostertag's books finally... comes to the surface. Gorgeously illustrated graphic novel about friendship and peer pressure, first love and coming out. Like everyone else, I was dying for an epilogue, but can understand why the author might not have wanted to provide one.

This was a perfect choice for “Pilot Islet.“ #FourFoursin25 @lauredhel

We're visiting Calistoga, CA and though I don't buy print much anymore, I had to get something from this charming bookstore! I love that they have a Pride table in the kid's section in January.

Also charmed by the giant ornaments at the hotel and this shop window... hub thought it was an umbrella, I thought it was a lampshade, but we eventually identified it as an extremely cool skirt! Sorry the picture is so bad.