Welcome to Litsy!

I‘m so excited to have @Texreader as my #AuldLangSpine match this year. I know it‘s a great match because I already have a lot of her list on my TBR! The 4 pictured are likely to be my January reads since I have all 4 on hand, but I‘ll probably pick up Four Seasons in Rome and/or Baking Cakes in Kigali on audio to get in some great-sounding new-to-me reads, too! Looking forward to some great reading! Thanks @monalyisha for your matchmaking skill!

4.5⭐️ One of my favourite books; I really liked the strong female characters and liked that their work at Bletchley was the emphasis rather than the romantic aspects. It‘s probably one of the better #wwii novels out there. #2025 #bookreview #historicalfiction #bookclub #fiction

TOP SECRET entices you to read this book. Filled with history-intrigue-love-hate-jealousy and a pinch under your arm for control. From love to hate to love. History personified!!!!
MOM

The older I get the more I appreciate The Wizard of Oz and Alice and Wonderland references. This book absolutely drug for maybe 60% of this book for me. The last 40 moved really well. Good book for loyalty to country and friends and loyalty to country versus friends.

#DDay #JuneSpecials

This book was approximately 300 pages too long. The “friendship” between the three main characters was never believable, I don‘t think anything happened in the first 450 pages, and the whole thing was just boring. I am surprised so many people loved it - it was a real yawn for me! (21)
⭐️: 2/5

Three women worked at Bletchley Park breaking Nazi enigma codes during WWII, where they became friends and even started a book club! But the friendship is torn asunder because being were sworn to secrecy, they couldn‘t reveal what they learned in their jobs to prevent unspeakable tragedy. Worse yet, a traitor may have been in their midst jeopardizing one of their lives. The remaining disenchanted friends had to decide whether they should ⬇️

I loved this reference to Manderley!! Anyone else pick up on that? #authoramonth @Soubhiville

This started out a bit slow but when it got going-my goodness. I couldn‘t stop listening! I both read and listened to this one so I could spend more time with the story-it was that good. She is such an amazing writer, really drops you into the historic world and the way she wove the different element together was masterful. Highly recommend! #AAM @Soubhiville #authoramonth

I read this for #AuthorAMonth & it was a solid historical fiction read. I agree with the comments I‘ve seen by several others here that say it was a bit too long. Overall, an enjoyable book & interesting enough that I dug deeper into the history that was portrayed here.

Exciting, engrossing historical fiction about three women who worked at Bletchley park during WWII and the impact that time -- of personal freedom on one hand and intense secrecy on the other -- impacted their lives. It is on the melodramatic side but interestingly, some of the most astonishing elements were drawn from true stories. (I was a little uncomfortable that Prince Phillip is a major character.)

One of the characters is almost (cont)

I‘ve started my third Kate Quinn book tonight for #authoramonth @Soubhiville

Considering the hype for this WWII book, my rather “meh” feelings about it are sure to be unpopular, but I just share in the love for this one… I thought it dragged on, didn‘t maintain suspense, didn‘t really establish the friendship between the three women convincingly & was pretty predictable… I enjoyed the audio performance but maybe I‘ve just read too many books set in this era to be wowed any more? I didn‘t hate it, but really didn‘t love it!

This was a solid read for #authoramonth. A bit overally long and melodramatic at times but still enjoyed it. 👍

Good but a bit too long. #authoramonth @Soubhiville

@TheAromaofBooks Thank you so much! Made my day to come home and find my #BookspinBingo prize waiting for me. Made for an amazing Friday! I can‘t wait to read this one and I‘ll do so for the #authoramonth challenge in April. Thank you again for all your time and effort managing #Bookspin .

Scrolling through my photos and I saw this Enigma machine that I saw at Hôtel des Invalides in Paris.
It made me think of Kate Quinn‘s The Rose Code!

I love free read Fridays!! #teachersoflitsy

I listened to this one as an audiobook. I liked it, it was long. It was good for re-building Lego sets, cleaning, working on puzzles. It was an interesting story about women that were code breakers during WWII. It was my first Kate Quinn book.

#AboutABook #BasedOnATrueStory @Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

IMO Kate Quinn is the master of weaving historical record into her fictional narratives to create something doubly compelling. This is the first of her‘s I read and it remains my favorite.

I had joined a bookclub and suggested this novel because Ihad found it interesting and liked the characters. The other members declined it based onthe fact that the paperback version was longer than 500 pages.
After a couple more meetings I found out that they would decline any book longer than 300 pages and would only want to read mysteries and thrillers. I stopped going,

1. When I was a kid, I wanted Laura Ingalls to be my roommate, but she‘d probably watch the faux news channel all day the way my current “roommate” does.
2. The main characters in the tagged book are roommates at Bletchley Park.
#two4tuesday

I‘m going to visit my daughter in a couple of weeks and she had (barely) started this here over Christmas but left it behind, perhaps because I hadn‘t read it yet (it‘s mine) so I thought I‘d read it and take it to her when I go.

This was a fantastic novel about three women who met during WWII and worked at Bletchley Park decoding German military codes. Now seven years later they have to reunite to find a traitor and save themselves.

Probably the only thing I didn‘t like was the convenience of the timing of an event near the end. Thinking more about it, they likely would still have figured it out (in a different way) before the very end. And wow! I was surprised at how much in this story was real! The characters, some based wholly on a real person and some on a mix of people. But even the events… so many of them really happened.

1. Yes, I had a goal to reach 100 books and I‘m ninety percent there.
2. The Rose Code by Kate Quinn - tagged
3. The Fourth wing

#CloakandDaggerChristmas - mystery set during wartime

A soft pick. The book was exactly what the author intended, but I prefer historical fiction without the romance. This is the story of 3 women who work at Bletchley Park during WWII and how they betrayed each other and were betrayed by a society which had little respect for them once the war ended. I did like the details about code breaking and the monumental effort of wartime intelligence.

#Weekendreads

I‘m slowly plugging away at the Lepore essays. I hope to finish the tagging this weekend for #CloakandDaggerChristmas . Then I can really hunker down with the two Sci-Fi novels for #ClassicLSFBC and #LitsySciFiBookClub .

Mab, Osla, and Beth come from very different walks of life to work at Bletchley Park, the top-secret home of WW2 code breakers. Life at BP is full of mysteries, and among them someone might be spilling the secrets. I thoroughly enjoyed Kate Quinn‘s character development, historical references & mystery. 10/10

One book down for #SummerEndReadathon

I didn‘t love this book, but I enjoyed it. The story was a bit long, and then it wrapped up quickly. Also, the Kindle version had some typos, including some weird line breaks for the word codebreakers.

I did find the characters and the actual codebreaking interesting, even when some of the personal interaction was a bit overwrought. We should have a good book club discussion.

Europe during WWII? No thank you!

Lothlorien? Yes please!

#sundayfunday

The Rose Code is the current mystery read. It‘s a bit long.

Ten Women is a little depressing, so it‘s slow going.

Children of God has been riding around in my car since the book club meeting on Tuesday. I might have to return it to the library unfinished, because someone else has requested it. I stopped putting off the hold on a book to take its place.

Nothing finished this week, in other words.

#RushAThon

This was good near the end when the pace picked up, but most of the book kind of dragged. It should have been about half the length, and as with most dual timeline books, I found one story more interesting and unfortunately in this book it was the story that less of the book was devoted to. I hope someday this dual timeline trend will die off.

This book is sooo highly rated ; it is a good simple story easy to read and well researched but overly long ! My goodness at 656 pages it should have been edited down to 400 some chapters were just totally unnecessary but still a good if overly long read for anyone interested in that period , it was my village bookclub pick if it hadn‘t of been I doubt I‘d have bothered

April village bookclub read and another one on the April #bookspinbingo 6% on kindle and already an intriguing 🧐 start with a young Prince Phillip & a society debutant / enigma girl , think 🤔 it‘s gonna be a winner 🏆

#temptingtitles #April2023 #withacolor

Another historical fiction home run for Quinn! Following the lives of three women serving at the British codebreaking headquarters, Bletchley Park, during WW2, Quinn expertly weaves history, friendship, betrayal, and romance together as she writes about this insular world. BP comes to life through the pages, and visiting is now on my bucket list. A little verbose (600+ pages), but this story held my interest, and my heart, unflinchingly. 5⭐️

My April choice for #12Booksof2022 would easily be in my top ten for the year, if not top 5. The Rose Code is a fabulous book with some key surprises at the end and covers the work of the code breakers at Bletchley Park in the Second World War.

Also notable mentions for two books from my favourite series, A Room Full of Killers, Book 1 in the Fabulous Matilda Darke Series by Michael Wood, and Six Graves by Angela Marsons. Love Kim Stone books.

You know you‘ve got the best bestie when she surprises you with a Christmas ornament filled with your favorite books from the year.

Day 7 #AdventRecommends April Book 1

Simply loved The Rose Code by Kate Quinn, another of her excellent World War II stories, this time focused on the code breaking activities at Bletchley Park. A great story that has some surprising twists and includes some detail on Prince Philip before he married Elizabeth, soon to become Queen. Strongly recommended.

@emilyrose_x

Here is my list for November #bookspin! Excited to see what comes up. 😀

This was good. A little predictable.
I enjoy Quinn‘s writing and her interweaving of history and story. I like that she does her research.
Strong women, history, a bit of love and intrigue.
Recommend.

My #HHS package has mailed as planned! Estimated delivery in Texas is Tuesday. I‘ll update and tag the lucky (I hope she agrees!) recipient then. A terrific swap and season. @wanderinglynn

Another Kate Quinn. She‘s becoming an auto-read for me.

Kate Quinn is slowly but steadfastedly becoming one of my favorite authors!