Welcome to Litsy!

I‘m a sucker for time travel (even non-Delorian related!), plus with all the accolades this received (Goodreads Choice Winner!), that my hopes were high! It starts strongly, with the narrator joining a new department in a near-future UK. Her role is to acclimate Lt. Graham Gore from rescue of certain death as part of the Erebus expedition to the modern world. His Victorian sensibilities are the fun, but gloomy tangents & redundancy bog the pacing.

Very engaging. Select people from the past are brought into today to study the effects of time travel. They‘re assigned minders. Chaos, humor, romance ensues. I need a sequel.

Explored this cute bookstore in Mendocino, California and bought the tagged book.

I didn‘t finish this in time for the new (to me) book club, and nothing I heard during the meeting made me want to run home and plow through the rest of it. I‘m sure it‘s fine—just not really my cup of tea.

I did, however, laugh out loud when the MC described Guinness as tasting like “angry marmite.”

Next month‘s selection, on the other hand, sounds very interesting.

Introducing my new reading buddy, Tiramisu! She‘s three years old, and she was a good mama to her kitten but now wants to live a quiet life as an only cat. We‘re still adjusting to each other, but I‘m so happy to have a cat in the household again.

I‘m not sure yet how I feel about the tagged book. It‘s for a new book club…

#hyggehourreadathon

Thinking about moving through time, a future self, and the effort of trying to change the past, made me realize how little I think about the future. Watching “The Ministry of Time” pulling the strings in the background, a force you never quite know whether to root for or fight against, I wonder if I don‘t plan for the future because it seems too tough to pin down. It makes you wonder: what bad will be good and what good will turn out bad…

Perhaps not a book I would usually read . I often read the books the book club I used to belong to read. This was one of them. It took me a while to get into it but at some point I began to really enjoy it. The history , the concept of time travel and perhaps changing history though don‘t think you have to time travel to do that ,just be a dictator and rewrite it. 😏 Loved Graham. Twists and turns. Crime. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I made a choice not to read this when it was getting all the hype, then had to read it for book club this month. It was an ok read for me, that somewhat hooked me by the end. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

I'm nearly three quarters into this one and only just now feeling truly invested. The MC is really cold and unfeeling, and I understand why she's written that way, I guess, but it makes it hard to give a sh*t about her.

Happy Sunday! This sounds like such a fun concept. I look forward to diving in. 🤓

An interesting concept, with some engaging characters, but the pace was unbearably slow at times, the author going of at slightly preachy-sounding tangents too often. And one of the least engaging characters was the main character herself.

Book 79/80 #Read2025 @DieAReader

One of the MCs was on Sir John Franklin's final ill-fated expedition
#voyager
#charactercharm @eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Lazy day of reading.

I knew this would be my favorite book of the year before the first chapter ended. Audio was excellent. Ending a little messy. Ready for the sequel.

Last 5 years of my career

How amazingly brilliantly epic was this?! I loved it, the deeper meanings, the gorgeous relationships and that terrifying instability of the world.

I‘d heard so much about this book but I don‘t know how I feel about it! I liked the idea of the storyline but some parts just didn‘t work.
Part spy, thriller, time travel - there was a lot going on. At times it confused me (doesn‘t take much!)
There is a romance story but it isn‘t about the romance which shows in the writing style.
A creative story that at times made little sense but weirdly I liked it. 3🌟

Starting this tonight. I blame it on Litsy 😂

I'm going to need to sit with this one a while before I can decide how to review it. I love so much about it, but something is keeping me from a wholehearted 5 stars. What I know is that I love Commander Graham Gore. This was my July #Doublespin @TheAromaofBooks

Read for book club. Humorous at times, also sad at times, slow plot, time travel concept got complicated toward the end. I'm not a big fan of time travel - it hurts my brain 😆

The Ministry of Time takes place in the near future when the British intelligence services have come across the ability to time travel. They decide to take some people from points in history when they would have died anyway and bring them to the present, calling them ‘Expats‘, to see if they can adapt to life in the present.They have ‘bridges‘ to watch out for them and teach them our modern ways.This was a really great story;(cont. in comments👇🏻

Thoughts on the Women‘s Prize longlist, with my fave tagged. See previous post for the shortlist:-

Ministry of Time, Kaliane Bradley ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (I fell hard for this!)
The Artist, Lucy Steeds ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Birding, Rose Ruane ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Dream Hotel, Laila Lalami ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Nesting, Roisin O‘Donnell ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Dream Count, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Crooked Seeds, Karen Jennings ⭐️⭐️

I found the LL stronger than the SL, some great reads.

A mild pick. 3.5 or 3.75. I did enjoy it and it was an easy enough read. Graham Gore was a fantastic character and it had some clever writing for him. It didn't make me feel any particularly strong feelings, however. Chose it for my library's book club and can't wait to see what the other members think of it.

I‘m sorry, it‘s probably me. I can‘t figure out what is happening and I don‘t care. Where is this going?! I am bailing at page 105 - if you can‘t capture my heart or curiosity by page 100, I am outtahere. I have too many books 📚 coming off hold and not enough time! 🕰️
#May2025 Book46 (Going to go watch Murderbot now 🤖)

This was so highly recommended that I expected to be disappointed but it is so compelling and engaging.

I had this on my library Libby eBook holds and too many came in at once. I delayed it and now! finally I can get to it. You may recall a recent post where I placed a block showing all the other great titles this compares to (but I got it confused with Cheerfully Refuse when I created the image 🤦🏻‍♀️) This pic shows all the mushrooms in my front yard after an all day rain.

#WonderousWednesday @Eggs

📘 I purchased two books at an indie bookstore. Tagged and The Fragile Threads of Power by V. E. Schwab
📘 I do review books. Here and GoodReads and on occasion Amazon.

Play? @AnnCrystal @@Kshakal @BethM @Cupcake12 @TracyReadsBooks @peaKnit

Not the best written book I've ever read, but engaging nonetheless especially toward the end of the book. Genre of sci-fi with time travel.

I run two book clubs at the library I work at and this is one of our April reads. While I think this will lead to an interesting discussion, it wasn't a pick for me. I loved the historical parts of the story, but the modern day storyline bored me.

I can understand why others like this one so much. It is unique, with a mix of genres you don't normally see, but it just wasn't for me.

Oh I loved this as much as I hoped I would. It‘s a time travel story, it‘s a love story, a friendship story. Read it even if you don‘t think you want a time travel story; I defy you not to fall for Commander Graham Gore.

Great to catch Kaliane Bradley speak about her last book - and hear about the new one too...

I'm 1/3 of the way done with the 2025 #botm reading challenge! Both The Ministry of Time & We Could Be Rats were 5⭐️ reads.

#april #bookspinbingo #bookspin #doublespin

It‘s been years since the Melbourne Writer‘s Festival remembered that not all readers are into Lit Fic! I‘ve booked in for Kaliane Bradley and Lev Grossman - quite excited! Now to read the books 🤣

https://mwf.com.au/program

Book 8 #wpf25

I didn‘t expect to love this, after all the comments by Littens I respect, when it made the WP #longlist.

I actually didn‘t mind the first half but then it grew just a bit silly and repetitive, around the introduction of the ‘strange machine‘.

I found I didn‘t care for any of the characters and just wanted it to finish. #listcompletist 🙄

I‘m still months away on my library hold on the Libby app but thanks to Fast Reads - I snagged an e-copy - dropped all my other books and devoured this one. There‘s lots going on in this novel - there‘s time travel of course- there‘s rumination on immigration - the tragedy in Cambodia under Pol Pot - civil servants - the Franklin Expedition - a hot romance . Two thumbs up

I missed a week, so here's my mid-month #WeeklyFavorites post. @Read4life

I've yet to meet a time travel storyline that doesn't become tedious at some point, and this one is no exception. However, it's less tedious than most, and I really like the premise and the tie-in to actual historical figures. The steamy bits are nicely written but maybe a little more detailed than necessary for what the book is meant to be, but I really like the characters and was disappointed to say goodbye at the end. #tob25 longlist

I took time out from reading the tagged, which I'm really enjoying, to go see some live music. I'm kind of disappointed that the trumpet and saxophone players (and perhaps the others at times) were just pretending. I guess I've been going to the symphony too much and expect that if someone is on stage, they're actually going to be performing music. I probably could have listened to the album while reading at home, but it's good to get out.

While I didn't care much about the romance part, I liked how the book was constructed and the different themes: loyalty, time travel and the constant rewriting of the future, how history is written, etc. Good choice for a book club.

#Roll100 #BOTM

First up will be the tagged as it‘s on the Women‘s Prize longlist.

@PuddleJumper

Almost bailed on the book when I was only 10% in….then again at 50%….then decided to just finish the damn thing.
I think this was a “don‘t judge a book by its cover” except in reverse. The cover was so pretty, but the story itself was not.
Interesting premise, but thought it was overly long and at times confusing. Some funny moments and some interesting twists towards the end, but not enough to overlook the first 80% of the book.

Sounds good!

My journey
😀😀🥱😀🤔😴😵‍💫🥺

Loved the premise. Loved the beginning and as I‘d read other books about The Terror & Franklin‘s Arctic expedition I immediately connected with Graham, one of the MC‘s

But it got boring. I started not to care. Almost bailed, but had heard the latter part of the book was good. Not for me. Didn‘t enjoy the ending. Glad it‘s over.

Moving on…..
3 stars because parts were great. Sadly, the sum of parts was just so-so.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

I was really interested in the premise of this book and I enjoyed it up until the last quarter of it. The remaining quarter and ending felt sudden and abrupt, and felt like a bit of a let down. I also found the main female protagonist annoying and frustrating at times. Overall, I had high hopes for this book and it definitely fell short.

I loved the premise of this book and am a sucker for time travel stories, but this never held my attention.

January reading wrap-up 📚 I finished 6 books this month, 3 of which were 5⭐️ reads and one a re-read of an all-time favorite (In Other Lands).
🥇The Ministry of Time
🥈Stamped From the Beginning
🥉Potions, Poisons, and Policies

Thinking about time travel makes my head hurt.

Reading this made my heart hurt.

I loved every second of it.

#Bookchain2025 progress! #Bookchain @TheAromaOfBooks