#5JoysFriday
🎷My husband‘s jazz combo concert on Sunday: big turnout, gorgeous weather, fantastic music!
💍 My husband and I ordered rings for our 10th anniversary in March, and mine finally arrived
🍻 Had a great lunch with former coworkers on Wednesday
✍🏻 Made progress on a writing project, so I had something to share at writing group
🏕️ The #CampLitsy24 buzz is bringing me joy—can‘t wait for the reveal of the July/August titles!

Valentine‘s Day used to be Valentina‘s favorite holiday—but not anymore. She believes her family is cursed to be unlucky in love. But when she meets a cute lion dancer on Lunar New Year, she embarks on a reluctant journey, hoping that maybe—just maybe—she can break that curse. This didn‘t have the complexity I loved in American Born Chinese, but as a love story, it still took some unexpected turns! Great characters, & I loved the artwork as well.

Funny, sad, quirky, and sweet—this book is a delight. Ferris Wilkey‘s family is hilariously all over the place. Her little sister Pinky Wilkey (“that‘s a terrible name,” said my husband) wants to be an outlaw—her catchphrase is “out of my way, fools!” Ferris‘ uncle is painting the history of the world on the walls of their basement. Her grandmother‘s health is a worry. Ferris‘ aunt, a hairdresser, is working through her split with her husband ⤵️

Hello, Kindred Spirits! Here is an UPDATED schedule for May/June. Since the #CHILDRENSCLASSICREAD2024 with @TheBookHippie will be reading Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm in MAY, I shuffled our schedule around so we can join in the excitement and read it together.

We'll start the Complete Journals on May 1 - which is next week!! 😱 I'll post a weekly check-in/discussion post on Saturdays.

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMJournals #LMMAdjacent #LMMReread

#5JoysFriday

💇‍♀️ A much-overdue haircut on Wednesday (it‘s ~8 in. shorter!)
📚 Seeing a family walking in my neighborhood & noticing one of the kids lagging behind the rest… because she was reading a book while walking.💜
🥗 Dinner with one of my best friends (pictured is the amazing salad I had!)
🗣️ Encouraging conversations as I‘m gathering info on becoming a spiritual director
🍽️ Looking forward to lunch tomorrow with another close friend

I‘m starting this month‘s IRL book club pick and felt the need to show off my new bookmark, which was a birthday gift from my husband a couple of weeks ago!

Just a reminder: May 1 begins the next #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead iteration! We‘ll read the Complete Journals interspersed with LMM-adjacent books & LMM rereads. The pace is ~100 pages per week, with Saturday check-ins to chat about the week's reading.

I‘ve tagged those who were interested, but all are welcome! Comment if you'd like to join—for some or all! Re-reads will pop up in Vol. 2 of the journals. #LMMJournals #LMMAdjacent #LMMRereads

Here are my nominations for #CampLitsy24! All from authors I‘ve read & loved. I‘ve tagged my top pick on this post & the others in the comments.

📚I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger—I 💜 everything I‘ve read by Enger!
📚The God of the Woods by Liz Moore—this is either a perfect or a terrible book for me to pick: a girl named Barbara goes missing from summer camp 😬
📚The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden
📚 Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino

#SundayFunday @BookmarkTavern

The oldest physical book I own is, I think, this edition of Tennyson‘s poems. As far as I can tell, it‘s from the 1880s. It‘s not in great condition—I picked it up at a library book sale for a couple of dollars!—but I love it. That cover! The illustrations! And the print is so TINY!

The oldest book in my collection that I can definitely date is from 1908, and is also a Tennyson—an edition of Lancelot and Elaine.

“Whether you apologize or not is irrelevant… When you apologize, however, you may begin healing *yourself.* It is not for us. It is for you. I recommend it.”

“Some of us choose love over power. Indeed, most of us do.”

I‘ve heard so many people say that Gaudy Night is the best of the Lord Peter Wimsey books. And now I see why.

When Harriet Vane returns to Oxford for a reunion, she is drawn into a poison-pen mystery at her alma mater. That‘s the essence of the plot, but the mystery and the Oxfordian context ends up serving as a vehicle for Harriet‘s own growth as she confronts her own avoidance of the past. ⬇️

This was a perfect rainy-day, lazing-on-the-couch read. Sweet and cozy, with just a touch of magic, it explores two young adults navigating a relationship and questions about their futures. And it made me crave tea and baked goods. 💜

Goodness, this was excellent. And what a gorgeous cover! The summer after she graduates high school, Daunis is grieving her uncle‘s death and her grandmother‘s recent stroke, when she is drawn into an investigation of a meth ring in her community. Daunis embodies so many aspects of between-ness: in the transition from high school to adulthood, she is caught between the world of her mother‘s wealth & privilege and her Ojibwe heritage ⬇️

I had planned a little personal readathon on Friday/Saturday last week, since I had no plans, rainy weather, and a stack of library books. Then I came down with a cold on Sunday. So for the past few days I‘ve continued the readathon for different reasons! From Friday through Tuesday I finished a book every day. Maybe today I‘ll have enough energy to get some reviews posted…

Today I discovered three checkouts and two holds in my Libby app that I did not check out or place. I‘m assuming/hoping it was some kind of glitch. Has anyone else ever had this happen—random books appearing in your account as on hold or checked out?

I canceled the holds and returned the checkouts so they would be free for someone who actually meant to have them! Someone who really likes the “Fred, the Vampire Accountant” series…

I‘m in the middle of two very appropriate titles for today‘s eclipse and #MiddleGradeMonday (although Lunar New Year Love Story is YA rather than MG). The bottom left photo is on my porch: the peak of the eclipse here in Southern California, seen via shadows through our rose trellis. The bottom right photo was taken by my nephew, in the path of totality in southeastern Indiana!

This had been on my radar for a while, but I didn‘t read it until it showed up on my Education for Ministry reading list this year. Cone explores the parallels between the cross and the lynching tree, and the way the cross provided a radical identification with Jesus for the black community during the era of lynching in the United States. It‘s a measure of my own privilege that this is a parallel I‘d never considered. Never had to consider. ⬇️

Unintentionally matched my mug to my book this morning. 😁

One of my favorite Littens going way back is @DebinHawaii —and she‘s celebrating a whopping 500K Litfluence!! As a thank you for all the Litsy joy over the years, she‘s doing a #500KGiveaway. 😊📚💜 To enter, check out her post and share 5 things that give you joy! My five things are pictured above, clockwise starting with my adorable baby grand-niece, then my Education for Ministry group, my husband, finishing a good book, and RAIN. 😁

This was…odd but fascinating. It follows the planet Sask-E‘s development over three “generations” (lifespans have been greatly increased, so each generation spans hundreds of years). I loved the world-building: there are persons from a number of different species (moose! cats! naked mole rats! bots! a cyborg cow!), powerful corporations gunning for profit, a utopian underground society…and that‘s just scratching the surface. (Cont‘d) ⬇️

#LibraryHaul from today—because obviously I don‘t have enough books at home already. 😆

Everyone in My Family… is my IRL book club‘s pick for April. I have Firekeeper‘s Daughter borrowed digitally, but it‘s about to expire and there are people in line, so I can‘t renew it. I have no excuse for the other two. My rationalization: it‘s gloomy today, it‘s supposed to rain tomorrow, I have no plans—maybe I‘ll have a spontaneous personal readathon? 😁

I finished this short book early in March and have been thinking about it ever since. It‘s by no means a traditional narrative—it feels more like a mood than a story—but still, it‘s packed full of so many ideas and so many layers. The premise: what if the children of enslaved pregnant women thrown overboard during the Middle Passage survived and adapted to live underwater? The story centers on Yetu, the Historian of that underwater society. ⬇️

I forgot to post this over the weekend—my mother-in-law made these for me for my birthday! Harry Potter House-themed “book” pillows. She used white corduroy for the “pages” and HP House fabric for the front and back covers.

I‘m not a fan of J.K. Rowling herself, and I see a lot more issues with the books now than when I first read them, but my love for the world & the characters persists. And I‘m definitely in favor of clever homemade merch. 😊

“Religion and politics are natural enemies; both provide a sense of belonging and self-actualization to the masses. Tension between the two is healthy and necessary. When one appropriates the other, history shows that oppression—leading to death and human suffering at a woeful scale—is the inevitable result.”

“Today‘s evangelicalism preaches bitterness toward unbelievers and bottomless grace for churchgoing Christians, yet the New Testament model is exactly the opposite, stressing strict accountability for those inside the Church and abounding charity to those outside it.”

“This is the gospel we are to proclaim both in word and in deed: To be a Christian is to sacrifice not for the benefit of those we already have around our table but for the betterment of those we have never considered to invite.”

“The notion that God was ‘calling‘ on Christians to ‘take back‘ their country—especially by force—is laughably incompatible with the teachings of Christ. It was Jesus who subverted the authorities with teachings of obedience and edicts of nonviolence; it was Jesus who mocked His captors for brandishing weapons as they arrested Him.”

This was excellent but challenging, because the content is so troubling. Alberta offers a detailed, nuanced look at the rise of Christian nationalism in the US, going back to Jerry Falwell & the “Moral Majority” of the 80s, & exploring the current political landscape from the Trump years through COVID, BLM, & beyond. Woven throughout are interviews with pastors & Christian leaders (both Christian nationalists & those troubled by the movement). ⬇️

I finished this Lord Peter Wimsey mystery at the beginning of March, and it has now been thoroughly eclipsed by Gaudy Night, but I‘ll try to review it on its own merits.😆 Lord Peter & the faithful Bunter get stranded on New Year‘s Eve in Fenchurch St. Paul‘s, a village in the East Anglian fens (the setting immediately endeared me to the book!). The bells of Fenchurch St. Paul‘s play a major role in the life of the village & in the story itself.⬇️

April #BookSpin and #DoubleSpin picks! Of course neither one is from my own shelves. 😆 I can #BlameLitsy for both: The Velvet Room has been on my radar because @TheAromaofBooks recommended it, and Saltus is from @monalyisha ‘s #AuldLangSpine list. I‘m really looking forward to both!

I don‘t think I‘ve read Heidi since I was a kid—I was amazed at how much I remembered! Idyllic days on the Alm with Peter & the goats, Heidi‘s bed in the hayloft, the way she hid away those soft rolls to take back to the grandmother, Klara‘s visit, Peter & the wheelchair—it all came back to me!! I didn‘t remember the strong (almost heavy-handed) Christian message, but even so, I loved seeing Heidi‘s growth & childlike faith. ⬇️

I finished my #FellowshipofTolkien re-read of this last week—it was as beautiful & tragic as ever. This time, I was struck by the themes of pride and jealousy, and sacrifice—the ruin caused by the first two, and the redemption found in the last. The world Tolkien created is so rich and deep—and I loved revisiting it for this buddy read. Thank you @Daisey and @JazzFeathers for hosting!

Well, as usual, if I‘d organized myself better I could have had a #BookSpinBingo. But when I should have started reading my #DoubleSpin, I was in the mood for a mystery instead of MG fantasy, so Gaudy Night got checked off instead of The Girl Who Drank the Moon (which I‘m reading now!). I did finish my #BookSpin, as well as a good number of others this month, so still a win!

The first sentence of the book blurb hooked me immediately: “A small independent bookstore in Minneapolis is haunted from November 2019 to November 2020 by the store‘s most annoying customer.” But this wasn‘t at all what I expected—I‘m not sure why I thought it would be cozy and lighthearted (bookstore ghost story!). Somehow I didn‘t pick up on the setting/timing and the difficult topics that would of course entail. But my expectations aside…⬇️

My book club‘s February read, this was thought-provoking and made for a fantastic discussion. The premise is immediately engaging: a man‘s dreams have the power to reshape reality. But the way that premise plays out turns the whole “what if your dreams could come true” idea on its head. What if someone else manipulated your dreams and subsequently reality itself for their own (semi-altruistic but ultimately misguided) ends? ⬇️

I‘m finally catching up my last few reviews from February. This was the last book I read for the #MaryWestmacottBuddyRead, and while it was worthwhile, I think it was the weakest of the bunch. The Westmacott novels have all been so rich in their character development and examination of human nature, but here, the plot she chose to explore these particular characters didn‘t seem to serve her purposes well. (Cont‘d) ⬇️

Another for #MiddleGradeMarch! I loved The Indian in the Cupboard when I read it (and its sequels) in 4th/5th grade. (I‘m reluctant to re-read—I‘m skeptical whether they would hold up.) I remember seeing I, Houdini in a list of other books by Lynne Reid Banks, and becoming low-key obsessed with reading it—partly because I loved stories told from an animal character POV, and probably also partly because my library didn‘t have a copy. ⬇️

I had great plans for #MiddleGradeMarch and I‘ve only read two. 🤷🏻‍♀️ This was one of them! I LOVED Paterson‘s books when I was a kid—The Great Gilly Hopkins, Bridge to Terabithia, Jacob Have I Loved—so I picked this up a while ago out of nostalgia for a favorite author. Of course it sat on the shelf for years. 😆 This is so different from the ones I loved as a kid, but it has the same depth of characterization that I responded to back then.⬇️

April #BookSpin list! The number of books I‘m planning to/need to read from this list is overly ambitious, so I‘m hoping the BookSpin fates are kind enough to pick ones already on my “assigned” list. 😆

Here's a weekly schedule for the next #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead iteration! This includes the Complete Journals with LMM-adjacent books & LMM rereads slotted in roughly chronologically. The pace is ~100 pages per week, and I'll post Saturday check-ins to chat about the week's reading. Those who were interested are tagged, but anyone is welcome! Comment if you'd like to join—for some or all! (Cont'd) ⬇
#LMMJournals #LMMAdjacent #LMMReread

😂 😂 I couldn't resist the premise of this one: Great British Bake-Off meets murder mystery. As a contestant on the beloved “UK Bakery Tent,“ Shauna gets more than she bargained for: juggling both baking and crime-solving in an attempt to save the show. Full of GBBO references, this was a delight.

I'm a Prepared Juggler-Sipper-Hoarder. Sometimes a Snuggler. How about you?

“For of us is required a blind trust, and a hope without assurance, knowing not what lies before us... And yet we also love the Earth and would not lose it.”
“…the Valar bid you earnestly not to withhold the trust to which you are called…Hope rather that in the end even the least of your desires shall have fruit. The love of Arda was set in your hearts by Iluvatar, and he does not plant to no purpose.”
#FellowshipofTolkien #Silmarillion ⬇️

I enjoy coming across and learning new-to-me words, especially when they‘re as cozy and tasty as this one. Although I also have to admit: at first I read that it was “made with oatmeal and madness,” which would be a very different kind of dark gingerbread indeed.

Way to lay on the guilt, StoryGraph. Yes, I‘m aware it‘s been on my To-Read since December 2007 when I purchased a copy for 50p on a snowy evening in Edinburgh. What StoryGraph doesn‘t know is that this isn‘t the book that‘s been on my TBR the longest, it‘s just the one that goes farthest back in my Goodreads TBR. Someday. Someday it will be read!

Another belated review from January!

I have been blown away by the depth of psychological insight in each of the Mary Westmacott novels. This was excellent as well, but also at times excruciating to read—mainly because of that depth of insight. Christie gives such a clear view of each character, and the motivations behind their actions, while simultaneously showing their inability or refusal to see others with the clarity needed. ⬇️

SUPER belated review—this was my book club pick in January. 😆

I LOVED this. It checked so many boxes for me: court intrigue, a mysterious curse, an intriguing & thought-provoking magic/religious system, and a humble & clever protagonist who‘s more than he seems. I loved the main characters & was infuriated by others. I‘d heard Bujold was good, but somehow missed reading her until now—this will definitely not be the last book of hers that I read!

I appreciate a good map, and it‘s especially appropriate for this book focusing on the workers shaping and caring for the land and ecosystem on the planet Sask-E. But I‘m also loving that there is a “Tooth Ferry” on this map. And a city named Tustin… since there‘s a Tustin here in Southern California just down the freeway from me! 😂

This is my copy of Heidi—it‘s my mother‘s childhood copy, published in 1945. She wrote her name and address on the front endpapers! Some of the illustrations are lovely, although I never picture Heidi with such short hair (even though this is the same copy I read as a child). #ChildrensClassicRead2024