Welcome to Litsy!

I suppose this one needs some expectations management. Don‘t come to The Orchid Thief looking for a profile of an interesting man or an account of a baffling crime. Treat it more like a memoir, the story of Orlean‘s lost year (or two) following orchid obsessives around Florida and reading the police blotter for intriguing stories about plant crimes. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/the-orchid-thief-susan-orlean/

#Read2025

One of my #Roll100 Feb picks (#82 Any Non-Fiction) & also a #BlameItOnLitsy rec from @Kitta (on one of my posts about The Art Thief she recommended this one in the museum theft true crime genre). In this case a 20-year-old American flautist & fly-tying enthusiast steals 299 rare bird skins from a UK museum. I‘d have thought all the detail on fly-tying would have bored me but I found it & the crime fascinating. It reads like fiction.

Read this in two days. I couldn‘t put it down! It‘s a great example of narrative nonfiction which is why I couldn‘t stop turning pages. A look at the lives and world of the men that were responsible for the “lie detector” test and the cases that made this a household name despite its flaws. Really well done. #MCBC pick for February.

When there are too many victims from a county, or city, years and months are assigned: Los Angeles County John Doe 1980. Los Angeles County John Doe 1999.

Sometimes when you look at a photo of someone that is ‘missing‘, you just know they‘re gone. Something within you knows it. I had this feeling when seeing Jacob Grey‘s photo in the beginning of this book. The book largely focuses on his disappearance, but mentions other missing people throughout the chapters. The author spent a lot of time with different people, and mentions that there is a belief that the paranormal or the supernatural ⬇️

15/100 I guess I've watched too many westerns, because I found this kind of dry. The Dalton Gang was one of the last big outlaw gangs before the beginning of the 20th century, and their exploits are well know and often overly fictionalized. I don't know why, but I found the lawmen more interesting than the outlaws. 3 ⭐⭐⭐
#Read2025

#FeelinTheLove

You know it‘s become a weekly habit for more than you when the airport barista knows your name & starts looking for your mobile order when they see you walk up. 😆
Headed to Hilo for the day.

I think I‘ll be able to finish the tagged book on my flights. It‘s pretty interesting & I‘m learning about the #WeirdLove & obsession some people have for feathers & the Victorian art of salmon fly-tying. 🎣

Latest book club pick. 🩸🩸🩸🩸 🎧
I cannot understand how she got away with this for so long?!?!? Did she start out actually believing or hoping her idea would work or did she know from the beginning that it would never work? I find it fascinating the kinds of people who can be so brazen with their lies and how they manage to fool intelligent people. Ego is definitely a dirty word. Greed is another.
#MonthlyNonfiction2025 @ julieclair (Jan) ⬇️

A little late posting my February #Roll100 picks but here goes:

#60 Any Retelling (of Sense and Sensibility-also reading for #Pemberlittens #JaneAustenThenAndNow ) Would work for #6 Any Kindle too since it‘s been in my Kindle TBR a while.

#42 Any Mystery (also reading as part of @JacqMac ‘s #AuldLangSpine list)

#82 Any Non-Fiction (a library e-book loan)

I‘m excited about all 3 of these! 📚

This book is a heartbreaking, infuriating and powerful memoir of one man‘s time on death row in AL for thirty years. Thirty years of his life that were stolen from him, for crimes he did not commit. It‘s an up close look at poverty, racism, and a deeply broken system that was never right from the start. Bryan Stevenson of EJI fought like hell to get Anthony‘s freedom, against all odds and with no cooperation or care from the state. Had it not⬇️