Just re-read this after 15 years - even more powerful now. With all the comparisons drawn between current US politics and this book, one piece that doesn‘t match up is how much effort is made in the book to alter records to hide any discrepancies between what the Party is saying now vs. what they said or did in the past. In the real world, even if there is proof of something happening, it doesn‘t seem to matter when people are “caught” in a lie.

This one took me a while to read and was somewhat confusing with the mixed-up chronology but I really liked how everything came together in the end. It‘s impressive how the author was able to make me start questioning whose “stories” were true, which is what the characters were also dealing with themselves. It‘s a terrifying look at life in North Korea and makes you think about propaganda, media and truth.

This was a captivating way to spend a couple of hours! I listened to the audiobook with Jason Reynolds‘s great narration and followed along in the physical book to get the effect of the free verse.

I had to pause and re-read this a few times before turning the page. 😍

Can you guess which ones were the readathon days!? I hit 16 hours, which seems to be my usual for these #24in48 weekends. Even if I don‘t reach 24, I love how they motivate me to focus on my books, instead of constantly being distracted.

This is the only book I‘ve read by AJ Jacobs but any of his would probably be a good #swissarmyrec by combining a bit of humour, general trivia and social experimentation.

#24in48 #Hour42

This guy kept me company while I read the last half of The Wife Between Us today. I wasn‘t too shocked by the plot twists but it was still a fun read. Am I the only one who gets annoyed when every single item of clothing that everyone is wearing is described in a book? It really seemed to stand out to me in this one. #24in48 #girlybookclub #dogsoflitsy

Haha, I‘m not much of a foodie so maybe this one for the #24in48 #Hour36 #food challenge? Speaking of which...I think I‘ve been convinced to sneak out for a pub-supper during the readathon. 😬

Not my favourite book but it was one I started maybe 15 years ago and it‘s always bugged me that I hadn‘t finished it. I finally took another stab at it for the #readharder2018 challenge (yes, last year‘s 🤷‍♀️) for a classic of genre fiction. #24in48 helped me get it done!

As a kid, I devoured lots of series (BSC, Sweet Valley, Fear Street) but now I can‘t seem to get through them. I‘ll read the first 1 or 2 and then move onto something else for a while and by the time I go back to them, I‘ve forgotten what‘s happening. This is my 4th attempt at The Dark Tower. I like the books but I hate the feeling that I‘m missing details that may be important later so this time I‘m taking notes!
#24in48 #Hour30 #favoriteseries

The first book (on the left) is about the author‘s life during the Cambodian Civil War, which I knew next to nothing about, and the second one is a memoir about her life after she emigrated to the US. It made me think more about what it would be like for people adjusting to a whole different culture, especially while trying to deal with the often horrific situations they‘re leaving behind.
#WeNeedDiverseBooks #24in48 #Hour18

The library at the college I work at is getting rid of most of their fiction collection 😟, so we were all free to take any books we wanted 🙂. I was tempted to just pull my car up to the door and open my trunk...but I limited myself to what I could fit in a small box. #24in48 #hour12 #bookshelfie

Starting Wizard and Glass for the second time - determined to get through the Dark Tower series this year-ish. #24in48 #Hour6 challenge - Stephen King usually has some interesting #epigraphs.

The perfect afternoon? I think so.

This book was...not for me? I‘m a dog lover (who talks to my dog, of course!) but the “conversations” in this book were a bit too over-the-top for me. Luckily, there were lots of cute observations and day-to-day dog-isms that I was able to relate to. #girlybookclub

Not sure if I‘ll be staying caught up with the full #losersclub schedule but Carrie was a quick and easy one to start with. I had read it and seen the original movie 20+ years ago so the story wasn‘t new to me but I had forgotten some of the details. Even though Carrie‘s the one with the powers, I think her mother was the scarier one.

❄️Snow Day!! Using the surprise free time to catch up on laundry and Litsy! I finished this last week for #girlybookclub. We had fun discussing the idea of “paths not taken” and I was interested in the premise of the book but I wasn‘t a fan of the writing style. I don‘t like action movies and it felt like this was an action movie written out.

💕 This book! 💕I read it as my #onesittingbook for the #readharder challenge because it was short but I wish it was longer! I love how she referred to books by their author‘s name as if the books were people, themselves. It didn‘t matter that I didn‘t know much about all the books she was talking about - I still had so many pages dog-eared with cute/funny/profound lines.

Quiet is a good word for my Sunday morning dog walk at 7am. With all the intro/extrovert talk on here this week, it was fitting that I‘ve been reading this book the past couple weeks. I‘ve always known I was introverted (and maybe increasingly so as I get older?) but it was interesting to read about the research studies that have been done on this personality trait. So many of the behaviours she described had me thinking, “Yes! That‘s me!”

1. 35
2. One sister
3. No kids
4. Just started Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
5. The Cider House Rules by John Irving
6. 😬
7. Periphery
8. I don‘t like pizza.
9. Dogs!
10. None - I‘ve never been able to handle hot drinks...so maybe luke-warm chocolate??
11. At Home
12. @Ingerella

#hallowhoareyou

I knew nothing about this book before I started it. It was quirkier than I expected, which normally doesn‘t work for me, but I came around to the cynical librarian‘s voice. Bonus points for all the details about library work in the 1950s. 😊

My name is Bryanna and my #LitsyHandle is @bry ...hard to figure out that connection, isn‘t it?
I should also mention that it‘s pronounced Bree, even though it looks like it should rhyme with ‘try‘. Blame that one on my parents experimenting with the alternative spellings in the baby name book. 🤷‍♀️

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is the first book I read by Jhumpa Lahiri and now I‘m excited to read more! I never really know how to describe what kind of books I like but this would qualify: no action-packed plot or mystery, just people living their lives. The blurbs got it right for this one.

Whoa. That got way darker than I expected.

⏱📚 Just barely reached my revised goal of 16 hours but finished the ones on the top, started the ones on the bottom (came thisclose to also finishing The Namesake!), won a prize, had fun, jumped back into the litsy world and decided that I‘m going to spend more of my weekends as if they were readathon weekends. 😁🤓😛#24in48

The beast wanted to take part in the readathon too! (and was not at all thrown off by me placing books around him on the floor, like a weirdo 😐) #dogsoflitsy
The cover for Our Souls At Night seems to fit the mood of the book so well, whereas this cover of Wonder Boys...does not. I almost want to buy a new copy with a different cover.
Hour 42 challenge of #24in48

I‘m not too imaginative with my bookshelf organization - fiction and non-fiction divided, each sorted alphabetically by author‘s last name, and chronological within author.
Hour 36 challenge of #24in48.

Of course I read a book about reading for the #24in48 readathon! It was a quick read with lots of illustrations and short pages but it also made me think more deeply about how I visualize what I‘m reading - how much is actually described vs. how much I‘m making up based on my own memories and perceptions. 🤔

I don‘t know if this is definitely my oldest un-read book but it‘s one of the contenders for sure. I‘d enjoyed Tess of the d‘Urbervilles so when we had a cheap version of this at the store I worked at, I picked it up...in 2003. It has since moved with me 11 times and I still haven‘t read it. 2018 goal?
Hour 30 challenge of #24in48

Obviously, John Irving has to be part of my readathon. I loved both this book and the movie 😍. Extra EXTRA points for having the book and the movie AND the book about the making of the movie??
Hour 18 challenge of #24in48

“As far back as lunchtime I always wanted to be a Gangster.”
Hour 12 challenge of #24in48

More than 7 weeks! 😬 It‘s not my usual genre/style and it took me a while to get into but by the end, I wanted to know what was going to happen in the next books...so that must mean something, right?

I think most of my picture books are still at my Mum‘s house but I have a few of my much-loved chapter books (haven‘t called them that in a while!) with me. It‘s by the author of the BSC books, about a family with 10 children with names starting from A-J who wanted a pet. Each chapter was about a different kid so it was one of my first multiple POV books, too!
Hour 6 challenge of #24in48

It‘s been more than a year since I posted on litsy, it‘s been a hectic month at work, and I‘m still working on the 2017(!) #readharder challenge…so I‘m hoping this #24in48 weekend will help me get back into the swing of things. 49 pages left of Kushiel and then I plan on diving into something from my Christmas haul.

This was one of the first satirical books I've enjoyed, even though I think I would need to read it a few times to understand all of Beatty's intended messages about "post-racial" America. I loved the way his humourous lines just seemed to sneak into the writing so elegantly.

Overall, I enjoyed this wide-ranging collection of essays about our feelings when faced with the injustice, poverty and suffering of others (and also how we want others to react to our own suffering). It brings up questions like: why do people volunteer for gruelling ultra-marathons?; what is it like, as a prisoner, to have visitors who can come and go while you remain confined?; why do we watch documentaries about people being treated unfairly?

Remember that science fiction prediction that "in the future", food will be in pill form? To me, that would be glorious. I've always been a selective eater (sounds better than picky, right?) and I begrudge spending money, time, & energy on cooking & eating (except when it comes to junk food!???) This book gives a brief history & analysis about how we develop our attitudes toward food when we're young and what we can do to adjust them as adults.

I sometimes don't like prologues because their style and setting are often so different from the rest of the book but I thought the one in My Brilliant Friend provided a great way to frame the story. I liked the book but what made me especially interested in reading more was finding out what happens to Lila and Elena to lead up to the events of the prologue. I'll definitely be checking out the rest of the series.

When I read, I like to look at maps to help visualize the setting. I think this is the first book I've read set in (a somewhat fictionalized) Ghana so I had a lot to learn. This is also the first mystery I'd ever read (!) so I was having fun with the progression of clues, characters and twists...but then the main detective's violent outbursts turned me off and made me less immersed in the whole story. 😠

? "Troy and Abed in the Morning!" ? This was overall quite a serious graphic novel about the purpose of life, art and relationships but I did appreciate the random humourous details, too.

I'm waiting for our library to have Saga Volume 6 available but in the meantime, I thought I'd try another Brian K. Vaughan series. The premise is an interesting one (all males on Earth have died except for one man and his monkey) but I was getting frustrated at some of the protagonist's careless behaviour, which seemed unrealistic and merely a way to add some action. I'll give the next volume a try, though.

I spy with my little eye...Joe Hill!

🗝One of the reasons I'd never been interested in comics before is the never-ending-ness of so many series. I like how this one has a limited number of issues so I knew it wasn't going to continually add new plots without any resolution. I liked that most of the characters were just regular people dealing with real-life issues (well, ya know, in addition to demons and magic keys!) 🗝

My book is due back at the library tomorrow but I keep getting distracted by our neighbo(u)rs! 🇨🇦

I haven't spent much of my life in the "dating world" but this was still fun to listen to and a lot of the discussions can be applied to general social situations and how technology has changed them. It also made me want to rewatch Master of None...

I had so much fun with this one! It was exactly what I was looking for during the Halloween season: a quiet creepiness, tense waiting moments, and fear of the unknown. I flew through it in a few sittings. #AllHallowsRead

I had never actually read any Poe so I figured I'd try some before October is over. I started with The Tell-Tale Heart and next up is The Pit and the Pendulum, accompanied by Peanut Butter Fudge Crunch ice cream. 🍦🎃

I was pleasantly surprised by this one. I was working as a bookseller when it first came out and I remember brushing it off as a sappy memoir/inspirational self-help book...which it kind of is...but it was more practical and straightforward than I was expecting. I admire the author's ability to be both realistic and optimistic about his situation.

If I had read this as a teenager, I would have LOVED it. Fifteen years later, it was still a fun book but I thought some of the more serious plot lines were resolved a bit too simplistically.

Welp, there goes Monday night. I remember hearing about this show years ago but had completely forgotten about it until now. My mind isn't in reading mode tonight so this is a good replacement. Thanks @bookriot 😀

I couldn't participate in the #readathon today 😢...so here's a throwback to last year's! Luckily, the pup was happy to snooze and cuddle most of the day. 🐶 #dogsoflitsy