I‘m so psyched to start our #hashtagbrigade read of this tonight! I have a copy of the Sterling hardcover somewhere that I read from the last few times I picked up Little Women but I always found it bulky and unpleasant, so this time I decided to try this Sea Wolf Press one which is larger than I‘d like for a paperback copy but has reproductions of the original illustrations which is a sure way to convince me to buy a book 🙃.

Happy Pride Littens!

🩷❤️🧡💛💚🩵💙💜🖤🤎

I‘m celebrating the first day of the month with a reread of this book which always brings me such joy!

🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈

#ReadAway2024 Update

May saw me read 7 books off my own shelves which was 60% of my total reading! Definitely my best stats yet (though also more rereads and more short reads than usual, plus I‘ve been buying books at an alarming rate… can‘t have everything 🙃)

An exploration of the idea that most of us at least of Jewish/Christian/Muslim backgrounds have come to think of god as a “big person” and why this is problematic for many in the modern world, but that there are many other metaphors for the divine. This explores some of them, primarily from the Torah, but also with a view to cultures around the world. And how they may apply to modern life.

#unhappy #poetrymatters @TheSpineView

#5JoysFriday @DebinHawaii

1. Starting to make (a little) progress on getting the house back under control
2. Chinese takeout feast inspired by the tagged book
3. Reading a book by someone I know
4. Reading time with the fur babies
5. Pride starts tomorrow!!! 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈

I was having fun when I started out following the “choose your own adventure” style path through this, but when I actually to started go through the chapters in order to see what information was really contained here I started to get more and more irritated. I found the premise is almost laughably broad making it impossible to go into depth about anything, and in calling attention to numerous stereotypes the author also trips over quite a few.

Stumbled across this while looking to use up an end of the month hoopla credit, and I can‘t decide if I feel really old or super excited that My Little Pony and I share a birthday?!

Hey #sundaybuddyread friends, Turns out the kindle version actually does have chapters, very convenient!

I went to bookmark these passages before I started reading and so case it helps anyone else…

June 2 we read through the end of chapter 8

June 9 we read through the end of chapter 21

June 16 we read through the end of chapter 33

(the page numbers in my version are the same as in @TheBookHippie ‘s if you want to go by those)

My favorite new word from this week‘s reading! #weirdwords #weirdwordwednesday @CBee

#unfurl #poetrymatters @TheSpineView

I‘m so glad I decided to revisit this before diving into Malinda Lo‘s companion novel! It was just as moving and engrossing as I remember from my first reading a few years back. And the perfect thing to get me into the spirit for Pride!

#unfamiliar #poetrymatters @TheSpineView

You know summer has hit when #hyggehour switches over from tea and cocoa to lemonade and cocktails. I‘ve missed the past few weeks, so it‘s a relief to be able to take this time to relax with my kindle, my fizzy drink and my fellow #litsolace friends.

May was definitely one of those months that felt interminable and also passed in the blink of an eye! Maybe whatever I read in June will reorient me in space-time. #bookspin @TheAromaofBooks

A wonderful, intense, pounding rainshower this morning gave me my reading buddy back for a few minutes of my morning reading! They‘ve been avoiding me for days cause it‘s been too hot for pets and cuddles. Apparently the weather is personally my fault 😼🤦‍♀️ #catsoflitsy

#NoPlaceLikeHolmes @dabbe @Cuilin I can‘t tell you what a joy it‘s been to read The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes with you both and the rest of the gang! Thank you for being such amazing fearless leaders! This book has had some real gems, this week‘s selection being no exception, and I‘m beyond excited to dive into the rest of the canon!

#bookmail ! A woman I work closely with has been writing this for a long time during her sabbaticals and was excited to finish and publish it 2 years ago, but I‘m only just now getting around to reading it. I tried to borrow the hoopla version but hearing someone else read the audio was causing major cognitive dissonance, so I figured I‘d support her and order my own copy.

JUST, NO

The first 250 pages, a fun historical fiction story, lots of problematic pieces, but I was happily able to put aside my irritation with the author and enjoy the story for what it was.

Last 250 pages, my irritation redoubled and compounded and I can‘t remember the last time I‘ve finished a book quite this angry at the author.

#sundaybuddyread

#5JoysFriday @DebinHawaii
1. It rained yesterday! Which broke the heat a bit, bringing it back under 90 & it‘s supposed to return to normal May temps tomorrow 😅😁
2. I had my last day of work for the school-year & I‘m not returning in the fall so I can focus on my health for a while. I‘m nervous about the wide open time but also excited, plus imagine all the reading!
3. Brigerton S.3
4. I didn‘t wake up with last night‘s migraine✊🏼🪵
5. 🐈🐈‍⬛

“There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.” #firstlinefridays @ShyBookOwl

Someone remind me to stop reading romance novels! They‘re clearly not my genre. Every so often they put me in the best mood ever, so I seem to keep trying, but most of the time have the opposite effect these days! I got all excited after watching the new Brigerton season and decided to reread this. This was better than some I‘ve tried recently, there were laugh out loud funny scenes, and Colin was surprisingly open minded for a man of his era,⬇️

My #doublespin this month was so much fun! It‘s rare I find an Agatha Christie I don‘t enjoy, but that also makes it rare for one of her‘s to be especially standout. I can‘t say exactly what it is that makes this one join the ranks of my favorite Christie‘s any more than I could have solved the mystery ahead of Miss Marple, but it‘s definitely something I‘ll keep pondering. @TheAromaofBooks

#undertone #poetrymatters @TheSpineView

#5JoysFriday @DebinHawaii

1. One of my favorite students stopped by my apartment with his mom to drop off gratitude salted fudge and chocolate chip blondie bars that he‘d baked himself!

2. Takeaway spicy dal soup made a perfect breakfast on a chilly morning

3. An especially pretty sunset

4. The selection of caffeinated teas I ordered for summer arrived!

5. After several weeks of exhaustion I‘m starting to feel more human again,🤞🏼!

#understand #poetrymatters @TheSpineView

Finally starting to get a little strength back after several crazy draining weeks causing a major flare. But I‘m still trying to spend most of my time in bed so I don‘t overdo it and end up right back where I started. Luckily kitty and Miss Marple are helping me out. This is one of the most all consuming stories I‘ve picked up in months! Just read 100 pages straight through without even noticing!

#underscore #poetrymatters @TheSpineView

I connect to, and fall in love with, something different in each of Jane‘s books, but this is one of the few where I connect to the leading women in a way that I actually see whispers of myself in them and their actions. I know I always say I‘ve just read my favorite, but I actually think it may be true this time 😂 I‘m slowly rereading all her works so eventually I‘ll get back to you also on my favorite at 41.

I found this opened up even more with a second read. I get why this isn‘t a popular book on Litsy, but I like experimental fiction & poetic writing & I‘m so impressed by what Rhys was able to do with Antoinette & Rochester‘s characters. The way she was able to open up their backstories, make them each both sympathetic & callous, and leave you in sync with the source story but also have things still feel ambiguous. #hashtagbrigade @BarkingMadRead

@TieDyeDude #tuesdaytunes

I‘m voting for Barbie Girl by Aqua

One my baby sister played on repeat when she was in middle school and I was in high school and no inducement would get her to change the track 🤮

#TuesdayTunes @TieDyeDude

I‘ve been listening to Me all week, so this has pretty much been my playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/285EOSTB2SmIT1whQmMy8B?si=kucfv8AAQK2HM9wrK4Sd...

#underhand #poetrymatters @TheSpineView

When you nostalgia watch a 90s movie loosely based on one of your favorite 80s books, and then get hit with insomnia you clearly have to reread the original book. Or relisten, if the audio is all that‘s available on Libby in the middle of the night. It holds up surprisingly well for a light teen read written in 1972.

I wasn‘t expecting the miniature version of 100 Flowers to be quite this miniature, but ever since I discovered miniature versions of coffee table art books I‘ve been looking for (used if possible) ones to look at in bed when I‘m too sick to read or watch TV, so maybe a truly tiny one is actually just what I needed. I can keep it by my bed right within reach. #theuniversealwaysknowsbest

#underground #poetrymatters @TheSpineView

#underfoot #poetrymatters @TheSpineView

#underdog #poetrymatters @TheSpineView

#5JoysFriday @DebinHawaii Deb, I really appreciate you encouraging all of us to cultivate this gratitude practice. Today is not normally a day I‘d take time out for gratitude as I‘m getting dressed to go to a funeral, but it‘s exactly when I need to. ♥️🙏

What a great list! And I totally failed with 43% Somehow I still haven‘t read They‘re Eyes Were Watching God! So that‘s at the top of my list, along with Lincoln Highway and Tell the Wolves I‘m Home. #TLT @dabbe

#undercover #poetrymatters @TheSpineView

I had my last tutoring session yesterday with a student who‘s been reading this on and off all year to practice his Hebrew decoding skills, but leaving it in the middle of a chapter was driving me crazy 🤪 and reading children‘s books is good for my language skills, so I pulled it off the shelf and read it for my own amusement this morning 😄

There are a few collections out there that you can never read enough times, that you open and immediately it‘s like coming home.

#weirdwordwednesdays #weirdeords @CBee

My favorite word from my reading this week!

#underbelly #poetrymatters @TheSpineView

1. Feeling grateful for my friends, my furballs, and all the privilege I was born into this world with that makes a difficult life much easier.

2. I‘m hoping the world becomes kinder, one of my students experienced some serious antisemitism from a kid in another class yesterday, which I think was meant as a mean spirited joke, but has left me reeling. I‘m hoping people prioritize peace and humanitarian needs over politics and ideology. ⬇️

#TuesdayTunes

While listening to this memoir the last few weeks I kept thinking about the fact that I actually became a Brandi Carlile fan because my bff and I went to an Indigo Girls concert at a tiny venue in Main somewhere during their Despite our Differences tour, and she was their opening act. And while I liked her set, what actually captured me and got me to buy her cd and go back and listen to her music more carefully was that she sang ⬇️

#uncharted #poetrymatters @TheSpineView

This is a brief fictional biography of Frida Kahlo, told entirely from inside her own mind, focusing mostly on her relationship with Diego Rivera, and her chronic illnesses. Drakulić and I don‘t have the same vision of Frida, but I can tell this story was incredibly well crafted because instead of dismissing it I found myself alternately questioning my own vision, and arguing with the author inside my head. #bookspin

Work sent a teacher appreciation bookstore gift card to my email today, so obviously I immediately went on an online book buying binge and realized I MUST have twice the number of new books that the gift card covers…ooops 🙃😂🫣