Welcome to Litsy!

May‘s #roll100 is brought to you by #ALSpine partner recs. The tagged was on @vivastory ‘s list last year (miss you!) and Azadi was not on @Emilymdxn ‘s list, but her review a couple of years ago made me pick it up. Red Pill was a #tob pick I never read. May should be an exciting month!

Well friends, I somewhat petered out on #ToB at the end.
Here‘s my rankings—top are favorites and the middle 2 rows I feel pretty good about in general, and the placement of those could move around at the drop of a hat/reading a judge‘s opinion! (With the exception of 2am —nope!)
The bottom row I didn‘t get finished. I was enjoying Volcano and made it halfway before the library loan was sucked back into Libby. I‘ll finish when I can. Bailed on 3.

I did it! #ToB2023 #ToB #ToBCompletist

I feel as though a lot of people are not giving this read the time it needs to get going. It is a very slow burn, but beautifully written. You really get to know the main character. #bookspin #tob @TheAromaofBooks

The Shards is taking the coveted favorite book of the month slot for February. I had a feeling this was going to be the case because I LOVED the book and the narration by BEE. March is going to be particularly difficult because I have a few TBRs that look amazing. #ToB #Februarypick #2down

Some parts I loved, some parts I skimmed. These are the notes of a girl growing up, discovering her creative self, becoming a writer. The writing is unique, I enjoyed how she writes about herself and about all those books she‘s read during her life. The stories she has written and shares in the book are less interesting. A light pick, a worthy contender of the #ToB longlist!

Finished my 10th (and probably final) #tob23 book. I went in with low expectations (not sure why since I loved Station Eleven) & was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it. A time travel book about a pandemic. Clearly Mandel had some fun with this. I enjoyed how all the pieces came together even if I'm unclear on the meaning. But there's no question that Mandel can write. There's a confidence to her prose that's reassuring. Pic of Obie who 👇

Here‘s my own #tob list, in order of best to worst. That means that Seven Moons, at the bottom of my list of books that I actually read, is likely to win, just as it did the Booker! 🤣

Interestingly, whilst I loved my top 3 reads, I kind of felt that none of them were ‘different‘, ‘quirky‘ or ‘challenging‘ enough to have made the shortlist. I think that Nightcrawling, Rabbit Hutch and Volcano are the sort of books that should be on there.

I decided against reading this when it first came out after seeing tepid reviews, so I wasn‘t excited when it popped up on the #tob2023. But, turns out, I really liked it! Some parts were a bit heavy handed and others could have been explored more thoroughly, but overall it was a satisfying story with the heft and messiness of real life.

#ReadingAmericas2023 #PuertoRico