Spent the day in NYC. My youngest daughter loved the Eloise stories. I always said she was just as active as Eloise. Our highlight today was seeing Eloise at the Plaza.

I was thinking about Appalachian, southern Appalachian, food. Show of hands - How many of you have eaten cornbread in milk?

Here is a Southern Living article to explain. https://www.southernliving.com/food/bread/cornbread-and-milk
#Foodandlit @Texreader @Kelly_the_Bookish_Sidekick @Catsandbooks it's hard to not tag you.

I can understand why diehard fans annotate and analyze this series. I don't know what Maas is best at creating: characterization, world building, or storytelling. It is so fantastically addictive. Thank you @StayCurious for leading our group ##LitsylovesSJM

Contrariness is a value I embrace when it is to help another human being. I may have to purchase as gifts.

I do not like this book, but do not be confused by my rating. I don't like the Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury, Coraline by Gaiman, and A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness, but I do recognize good chilling novels for young adults hankering for thrills.

#QueerBC @PuddleJumper

I thought the concept was brilliant and original. Without giving anything away, I found myself wanting to save the characters. No, go left, don't call....

The paranoia was intense. I assume immigrants, whether Albanian or Guatemalan, live with daily paranoia. I don't assume, I know. They have to keep a low-key profile ALL the time. Who is safe? Who will help? The exhaustion.

After I post, I plan to look at other reviews.

I'm thrilled to be back with @texreader and hate that @Catsandbooks is leaving. I am also frightened. To be fully transparent, I abandoned these ladies when I fell into a huge depression that took me years to recover. Basically, I couldn't read. My mind just couldn't do it, and I left Litsy. No books, why Litsy? Again, I was not myself. I'm in a good place, my children are not being threatened, and I am enjoying lit again. Here's to rdg and eating

So sad it is over. It dragged in some places, but when it came to angst and action. Wow!!!!!

The book centers on a 17 year old girl who loses her virginity to her teacher. I was really hesitant, but I wanted a Samoan author. The blurb was worse. Incest. But, it turned out that they were not genetically related but from the same community, which explains some Samoan culture. They don't marry within the same "family". It turned out to be quite lovely. During pauses of sex, the teacher continued to enlighten her by discussing the history.

Parks spent the entire book comparing the ups and downs of train travel to meditation. And, it worked. I wouldn't mind reading my book on a train and observing people, humanity at its worst (hustling/body odors) and its best (sharing food and stories).

#Italy #FoodandLit @Catsandbooks @Texreader

#TodayILearned #NonfictionNovember @Bookwormjillk

I don't believe I just learned it, but it had reopened my eyes.

I had to listen once again because I was lost with Golden Son. I'm glad I did. This may be the book I can't live without. The craziest thing is that it is sci-fi, my absolute least favorite genre. #SPNBOOKBINGO2025 @OutsmartYourShelf

I don't think I have read anything as perfect as this duology. I love misty mornings, but will be wary of them for a while. The Nightmare. ❤️?❤️?Reminds me so much of Rumpelstiltskin from Once Upon a Time.

There is one Providence card that "the gang" has to find in the mist in order to save the town. Gothic atmosphere. Just perfect. #SPNBOOKBINGO2025 @OutsmartYourShelf

I doubt I will get a bingo, but I have had fun.

I do like romance. Although, every book I read isn't one. In Skyshade, Isla loves both kings, Oro and Grimshaw. Oro and Grim despise each other, but they have to work together in Book 3 of the series.

#Romantics @ChaptersofChaos

Tagging @kristi_k @Cupcake12

This book is definitely not one of my faves in this series. The mystery was not intriguing. Miss Charlotte and Lord Ingram got closer, which I liked, but overall, I fell asleep each time I tried reading. You picked the music. #SPNBOOKBINGO2025 @OutsmartYourShelf

Isla is the storm. You have to read the entirety to see if she destroys or saves the world while Oro and Grim do everything in their power to get to her while the storm sends unbelievably strong creatures and demons. Why can't stubborn girls just ask for help? Onto the finale. Croatoan ##SPNBOOKBINGO2025 @OutsmartYourShelf

I'm shocked that I enjoyed this as much as I did. There were places where I giggled. It was truly funny. The serious parts were written without banter. Touching, charming, a good read. I only chose it for the prompt. I would never have picked it up on my own. Good gravy, I love reading challenges. Seven sins in title ##SPNBOOKBINGO2025 @OutsmartYourShelf

Do you know they are filming Jimmy Stewart's biopic? Do you know how excited this reader is?
Do you further know my username is from Jimmy's favorite candy bar?
They are currently filming in West Cork, Ireland.

NEXT NOVEMBER, PEOPLE!!!!!!!

Thank you, @Jas16 for sending me book mail. I can't wait to read it.

I have always enjoyed Shirley Jackson's writing, and this is no exception. I like the fact that she researched and created a nonfiction work for children about this sad period of American history. Jackson wrote that if the girls had been disciplined, it wouldn't have gotten as bad as it did. I agree, not with corporal punishment, mind you, but something.
#ChildrensClassicRead2025 @TheBookHippie
#SPNBOOKBINGO2025 @OutsmartYourShelf

#SPNBOOKBINGO2025 @OutsmartYourShelf Will you choose my next book?

A competition turns into a happily ever after. I enjoyed it, but I wished for less predictability. #QueerBC @PuddleJumper #SPNBOOKBINGO2025 #ghosts @OutsmartYourShelf

I devoured this series. I have learned so much about 1920s India from reading about a female barrister. Women issues, which are worldwide, but seems so much worse in these books because of the different traditions. In this book, women healthcare, or the lack of it, is brought to the front. It's cleverly written. The way that Perveen handles herself in a man's world is brilliantly constructed. And, I have to wait till April for the next one.

A charming cozy. T queen asks Georgie to spy on the infamous Ms. Simpson, while a childhood friend attempts to kill her. I think I will continue with the series.

I know how to play now. LOL!!!! #SPNBOOKBINGO2025 @OutsmartYourShelf this one has several Halloween colors on its cover.

I'm going to miss Jack's adventures. The last book I started in September. I'm glad that @OutsmartYourShelf is flexible with #SPNBookBingo2025. This might be reaching, but ...you can't ignore the number.

This woman can write. She doesn't shy from the ugliness of war, famine, struggles. There were times I drowned in the way she described life. Just beautiful and pure. I will definitely read her novels. There beginning of the Revolution was clearly started by #MenofLetters @OutsmartYourShelf #FoodandLit @texreader @Catsandbooks

I am so glad this book landed on my radar. I learned so much. Very emotional read. The amount of determination and courage to research the Home Army women fascinated me. A hero. @OutsmartYourShelf #Research

I will not doubt the spiritualism of the Indigenous Peoples. I devoured this book this weekend. A little girl is sent to an insane asylum because she communicates with animals. The inhumanity. I just can't explain how devastated I feel.

#SPNBOOKBINGO2025 @OutsmartYourShelf

Prose is my refuge, but my poetic breath is inextricably, intimately linked to the Nicaraguan landscape.

#FoodandLit @texreader @catsandbooks

This book is beautiful!!!

Way out of my comfort zone!!!!! Sexual adventures galore!!!! Learned a few things in my old age.

I loved this book. A very serious topic ( what does a 25 year old do when told she has inherited the gene that causes breast cancer?), but had funny moments throughout the journey.

I would have missed out of a great book if not for #QueerBC @PuddleJumper

#TurnthePage 3 out of 5 @Bookwormjillk

I hadn't known that I needed a collection of novellas in my life.

#TurnthePage @Bookwormjillk 2 out of 5
#LitsylovesSJM @StayCurious

I really can't explain how I feel. Slow beginning, but when the siege began- BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! I couldn't keep up. Ready for the finale. #TurnthePage @Bookwormjillk 1 out of 5.

If I can finish 5 of my current reads, I'll be happy. #TurnthePage @Bookwormjillk Thanks for doing this.

This was beautiful. Written in verse of a family of color dealing with the effects of traumatic brain injuries caused by football. It tore me apart. It will be a wonderful readaloud.

It is not listed in the database. I have trouble believing the main plot: a 17 year old American-born, raised by 2 Japanese emigrants, is smuggled to Korea before being arrested as a traitor. Pretending to be clueless, she saves a dozen GI from the Philippines. After she transfers "her men" to an American sub, she believes it to be sunk. She moves to Tokyo, where she then sabotages airplanes. Impossible, right? Tremendously good story, though

I was completely charmed by this book. The respect she showed in order not to tame, yet she showed such compassion and protection when being faced with modern humanity's growth.

It was very relevant to me because I chose to live in the woods. I love nature. I love observing nature. And, I hate when there is a change, such as a new development being raised for new homes.

Glad to be back with Judy Bloom. The bullying was hard to read. My word. #ChildrensClassicRead2025 @TheBookHippie

Grateful for the Litsy member who suggested this. I really enjoyed the imagined anger of Penelope. There were more women's perspectives than in The Silence of the Girls, including the goddesses, but I appreciated Barker's writing a tad bit more. Of course, Song of Achilles is incomparable. Hope I can find some more Homer retellings.

A beautiful story of twins - sister and brother - and a memorial for the 8 Chinese who were on the doomed trip but were shown discrimination during the investigation. I hate that their stories were not kept.

I imagine the ocean, with its swirling, watery fingers knitting together the two lives I have lived.

#FoodandLit @Texreader @Catsandbooks

Perveen Mistry 3

Each one is better than the last. I appreciate learning the culture of Zoroastrians. There is so much I don't know.

Another harrowing tale for Kell, Lila, Rhy, and Alucard. Rhy and Alucard have a family that is so precious, the way the adults care and trust each other. Except for Lila. New characters. New villains. Can't wait for book 2.

My goal was to finish five books. 4 out of 5 is not too shabby. Thanks @Bookwormjillk for #SummersEndReadathon

You can certainly see when school started back.

I will never feel the horrors of a community trying to exist and thrive in a "normal" world, but through books like these, I can begin to understand.

A young woman who lost her hearing at 4 is thrust into a life of spying on Bell. Just wanting to be heard, she is to learn visible speech, mouth patterns created by Bell's father. It is not reading. It is simply a way to make sounds because talking with hands is barbaric.

Book 4 #SummersEnd

I can't wait to read the next one. Love the triangle. Love the adventure. Love how the society mirrors ancient Rome.

Book 3

#SummerEnds @Bookwormjillk

Another great mystery set in pre-independent India. Another great learning experience.

Book 2

#SummersEnd @Bookwormjillk

I was riveted from the first page. You know what the twist is going to be, but when it comes, it twists your heart so much that it takes you weeks to recover.

Book 1

#SummersEnd @Bookwormjillk

Thank you, @Texreader !!!

I have read so much fantasy this year, and I don't regret not one little fairy iota.

The ending blew me away. Another boon, my 14 year old was willing to discuss it with me.

I just want to pull petals off a flower. "Cardan loves Jude. Cardan loves her not."

Alas, my last reading day is tomorrow, so I probably won't find out any time soon. I will hopefully get an hour in each night going forward.