My 8yo would like to recommend the Ben Braver series for anyone who liked Diary of a 6th Grade Ninja or The 13 Storey Treehouse series - chapter books with loads of humour - great for 7 - 10 year olds. #kidsoflitsy #chapterbooks

https://tinyurl.com/ReadingEnvy154

So I did a thing again. The lovely Jenny @readingenvy let me come on her podcast and talk about books. The photo above shows the books we talked about - you can subscribe to the Reading Envy podcast through any app OR you can listen to it via the website link above.
(look in the archive for lots of other interesting guests like @lindy and @shawnmooney too!)

#bookmail Got home to find my birthday present to myself had arrived 😍😍😍 YAY! These are all Vintage Classics paperbacks and I fell in love with the covers.

This novel takes on an epic scale, two families, two to three generations that connect the atomic bomb in Nagasaki, the end of British Rule and the beginning of partition in India, through the war against Soviets in Afghanistan and 9/11. A less accomplished writer would have drowned in all that! Shamsie juxtaposes those truly scarred by war with those for whom acts of war are intellectualised and excusable - she does it through a personal lens ⬇️

Not book related

I‘ve been a little bit lost on Litsy while I‘m having a marvellous weekend in Melbourne. I‘ve visited many times but I haven‘t been around Southbank for years. It is truly gorgeous. This is the Yarra river at night running through Southbank. Now it‘s morning and I‘m off for some shopping and tea and cakes. (Hopefully I will restrain myself around books as I have a package of 8 waiting at home 😜)

Thank you @Reggie and @Cinfhen for encouraging me to shift this book to the top of my TBR. I thoroughly enjoyed it and gobbled it up. I don‘t often read about contemporary relationships so this was fresh and different. There were dozens of moments where Jones nailed a complex emotion to the wall and left me gasping. This is a riveting look at complex people thrown into disarray by a terrible injustice. Spoiler comment below.

#maymoviemagic #modernlove

I‘m shamelessly flaunting my hand-made Mother‘s Day card to make you all smile, I hope. (Not related to the tagged book)

My funny 8yo with his #modernlove likes to let me know the jury is still out on my parenting 😂😂😂 “Thank you for being such a great mum (so far)”

#mylittleEeyore

Well that was just as delightful as a chocolate layer cake covered in ganache. (Think I‘m hungry)

I gave it 5 stars for the writing and the characters and Seanan‘s gorgeous imagination, but i do agree with another commenter that there was little action in this one. If you like dark fairytales interwoven with the real world try the series - it starts with Every Heat A Doorway

#maymoviemagic #younevercantell

#younevercantell what‘s at the heart of a novel when your protagonist narrator is naive of the truth himself! John Dowell‘s recollections of his role in the unravelling of a relationship may also be unreliable.

I loved this when I read it many years ago. But you know me, mad for a slow atmospheric classic with some awe inspiring sentences. 😋 I also loved The Fifth Queen. Any other fans out there?

Seanan McGuire makes me smile, smile, smile. This first chapter is perfection - especially this bit about bookish children. All the love for the Wayward Children series ❤️💚💛💙

#maymoviemagic #gimmeshelter

There‘s a point in this novel early on when a character is homeless and living in a local park - I wanted to swoop in and #givehershelter I read this last year but it‘s really stayed with me - it‘s a much grittier read than the cover represents!

This novel starts in the late 1830s - the British haven‘t been in New Zealand long and we see them through the eyes of a young Maori boy as he is orphaned. At 15 he has the opportunity to go to London (1846) and be a living part of a NZ exhibition. We get both his coming of age story and his eyes opening to the poverty, racism and gender shame of what he was told was the cream of the civilised world. This is fictional but it was inspired by ⬇️

#maymoviemagic #dontstopmenow #howfarillgo
#twopromptsatonce 😂
“Don‘t stop me now I don‘t know how far I‘ll go” is the kind of thing Michael Ondaatje‘s father might have said when a croquet game went wrong and he started brandishing a gun. This memoir of Michael‘s childhood is full of anecdotes and tall tales - which he admits might have grown taller with telling over the years.

#maymoviemagic #youngandbeautiful

I read this when I was #young and it made me think differently about the perceived need to be #beautiful. Probably very outdated now - it‘s nearly 30 years old - but back then, this was the first voice I‘d heard questioning the way women were represented in media etc.

I am so so #backlist, I‘m like a deep sea diver for books 😂😂

#maymoviemagic #weveonlyjustbegun

This prompt made me think of an old 80s YA book I loved and I remembered this quote from. As a kid Eric‘s adored older brother takes him out to fly kites at night. Its something he remembers as he‘s becoming an adult, facing up to adult stuff, with his brother far away. He‘s only #justbegun when he learns his brother is very ill, and maybe the difficulties of adulthood are more than he expected.

#behindthewheel #maymoviemagic

This is an under the radar book I never would have got to except that it was a favourite of this sweet intellectual guy I used to work with. A young tow truck driver routinely wrecks cars as part of an insurance scam - then one day he‘s told to wreck a beautiful white Cadillac that might have been driven by Buddy Holly. Cue a change of heart, some drugs and a cross country adventure.

A short, sharp slash of cold water in the face - this book takes you inside the heads of a young man and woman on their wedding day. Different hopes, different backgrounds and different fears but truly in love. McEwan takes one night and two people and everything that lead them to that point. He‘s so good at unfolding hidden motivations, the psychology of a moment, the tiny details that mean so much. I will think about this for a long time.

#wondrouswednesday

Thanks for the tag @batsy
1) The Bone People - studied it in both high school and Uni
2) Wuthering Heights - read it maybe four times now?
3) I keep a notes page on my phone - not very high tech of me!
4) autumn leaves from my walk yesterday
5) wanna have a go @youneverarrived @Kdgordon88 @Ericalambbrown 😊👍

#maymoviemagic #highwaytohell

Ok so this might be the 3rd time I‘ve used this for a prompt but It‘s So Damned Good. My favourite YA fantasy ever - next to no romance, frightening magic, the most sarcastic cat in any book ever & a huge library with forgotten rooms!

But specifically the role of the Abhorsen is to make sure the dead stay dead. When anybody reanimates them or summons demons, it‘s her job to send them back down the #highwaytohell

I didn‘t realise this is actually Part 2 of Stephen Fry‘s autobiographies - must go back and read the first now! I loved this but then I love Stephen Fry. It‘s like having him sit down for a coffee and tell you all his stories from Cambridge through to becoming famous. It is FULL of detail about specific theatrical productions, scriptwriting etc so if that doesn‘t interest you, this isn‘t for you. It‘s also full of his particular self loathing 👇

#bookmail

Look at the lovely parcel that arrived in the mail last night from @CarolynM 💕💕 I‘m so stoked with all of it Carolyn - I‘ve been lamenting my lack of depth in Australian novels and this great gift is going to improve that! The card and bookmark are super lovely too 😍
I am putting together a little NZ gift for you! Have you read any Janet Frame by the way?

Thanks for the tag @Dragon 💕 #whatwouldyoudo

1) I have this really old children‘s bible that I used to get out as a kid when I had nightmares. Gonna need that if I‘m losing my library 😭
2) I‘ll let my newer books go if someone can help me save my classics and first editions shelf
3) never had a s‘more. I think my daughter microwaved something up once but we don‘t have the right biscuits here. Give me a tub of icecream to mourn my books over!

Pretty much how I feel about leaving my corporate career and All The Pointless Meetings. 😂

This was painfully, beautifully sad. A boy brought up in poverty in Switzerland in the aftermath of war, taught to “master himself” to be neutral and controlled as his country has been, to cope even when cold and hungry - and the talented, precocious and fragile friend he cares for so deeply. Through his story and that of his parents we see the legacy of bitterness vs the potential that might remain for hope and passion. 5 stars.

Highly enjoyable YA fantasy. It feels a little like Uprooted and Graceling, which I also read this year in my SFF catch up. I foresaw where the plot was going early on but it didn‘t prevent me enjoying the ride. 3.5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Probably one of the last sunny days out on the water. (no filter) This book is So Good. I have to take a break to clear the lump in my throat though - 😢

School holidays and the rumpus room has been taken over by a huge blanket fort. Or lair. I am being reliably informed that it is a LAIR. 😂

#thingstodowithclothesdryingracks

Inspired by the LaurenReads booktube video, the kids and I are having a “cosy reading night” to start the school holidays - pjs, books, blankets and snacks 😍😍

Mind blowingly good. This reads like poetry. Short, insightful and raw as only the hardest truths can be.

Eve is a child and then later a teenager in a poor and violent place - thin and vulnerable and alone, humanity batters and abuses her. We see her story, her community from her perspective and three others, all of whom are in peril. Devi understands surviving when life is rock hard - this is a unique perspective on poverty and victimhood
*TW*

#anglophileapril #creep

He‘s a #creep who knows how to #creep about. 👍 And a wee standing ovation for Andy Serkis who brought him to life outside of my head. 🙌🙌

#audiowalking Listening to Bookriot‘s SFFYeah and checking out some more of my local beaches. Immediately inspired to read more SFF - it is my year of SFF after all 😂 - so I really want my hold on this book to come in!

#bookmail

A delivery from Abebooks - exciting because I couldn‘t find these in NZ or new online. I love this site - and a note if you‘re in the Southern Hemisphere - filter your search to UK bookshops because the postage is so much cheaper than from the US.

@batsy when I first started following you on GR I noted some of your 5 star reads to add to my TBR - so these are two of them. Truly #blameitonbatsy 😂

This was heaps of fun. A mystery in the vein of Flavia de Luce or Amelia Peabody. It‘s London in the inter-war years and Georgie (or rather her ladyship Georgiana) might be 34th in line to the throne but she is also flat broke - and dogged by troubles, including a dead body in her bathtub. A deliciously light, tongue in cheek, cosy, with plenty of tea and cakes. 😍

Some books are less about plot than capturing a feeling or illustrating something deeper, beyond feeling, rooted in the soul. This is that type of book
Edna has a seemingly happy life. She has not noticed she is not happy. Something in her awakens. A realisation that her choices have been mapped, that she is caught where she is, being something she never chose to be.
Chopin beautifully portrays her confusion and conflicting desires. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

#bookmail

Thank you so much for the book and the pretty card and cool pin #booksaremagic @CarolynM It was so lovely to receive and cheered me up after two weeks of fighting this flu that won‘t go away 🤧🤧🤧 Litsy friends are the best 😘
Onwards and upwards and into the books again!

I‘m so pleased - my 8yos reading has taken off this year. His new teacher has a homework points system so he gets points every night he reads. It was just the extra motivation he needed and now he‘s reading for an hour a day and wanting more and more books 🙌
Three new series he loves. He wasn‘t going to read Nik and Tesla because the cover didn‘t appeal to him but I said just try 5 pages - “this book is actually excellent‘ 😆 #mumwasright

This was a lot of fun - made me feel like I was visiting Singapore and being stunned by the opulence of grand homes, couture fashion and meticulously planned parties. I got caught up in the characters and rivalries enough to burn through the pages - which almost never happens to me with lighter fiction. A solid 3.5 stars and I think I‘m gonna be saving for another trip to Asia. 👍

#anglophileapril #closetome

I love the Cure so much, I have to go with something that feels like it‘s in the same gothic family. And the lyrics do say “I‘ve waited hours for this, I‘ve made myself so sick” and Robert Smith said it was about a nightmare. Definitely Edgar Allan Poe territory then!

Studied this short story back in uni and liked it (much better than some others I was reading - I‘m looking at you Fanny Burney 😂)

#90sSpringFling Musical memories from me 😝. I was less rocknroll than I‘d been in the 80s (blame my husband!) and it was mostly pop and dance music, I did a lot of clubbing in the early 90s. But when I was home it was likely to be : Cranberries, Sugar Ray, Travis, Lightning Seeds, Ricky Martin, Sarah McLachlan, Robbie. And not pictured - Jamiroquai, Macy Gray, Bic Runga, George Michael, Eternal, Mavericks, Pearl Jam, Savage Garden, Supergroove

#90sSpringFling
I turned 21 in 1992 - and looking at my 21st photos it was all about Big Hair, shortish skirts and black stockings. (very corporate look 😛) These girls are all still my friends 20 plus years later. (Best friend who geeked out with me over Anne of Green Gables every week top left) And I started dating my husband in 93 (top right) - we‘re both wearing burgundy jackets 😂😂

Thanks for the blast from the past ladies - so much fun!

Now I‘m a little bit in love with a ship called Art. #scifiproblems
Another definite pick. These are great, one sitting reads. My favourite introvert AI character ever 😍

My elderly father has been frail for the last few years and I keep him supplied with books. After a few years of war books, mountaineering books, sea faring books, I‘ve started pushing him a little out of his comfort zone. He turned it back on me by insisting I read this book straight after he finished!
I‘m so glad I did. I had heard Yeonmi‘s speech and been so moved but there is so much more in this book. ⬇️

Strawberry and vanilla tea in a mug my 8yo bought me - he thinks it‘s funny - heaven knows what “mum things” he‘s ascribing to me! Now to hydrate while reading (why is it still so hot? 🥵)

Thanks so much for this book @batsy I really enjoyed it! I‘m fascinated by this period but I‘d never read about the re-education process. The descriptions of life in the little mountain village were so vivid. The boys were unlucky but also unsubdued, their small rebellions wonderful, but ... I‘ll say something else marked with a spoiler!

After loving Amy and Isabelle last year I was keen to read more Elizabeth Strout. This one doesn‘t disappoint. It‘s quite a different experience, I don‘t think I‘ve ever felt so much weight and pain in what a character doesn‘t say. The truth of Lucy‘s past is like a stone in her throat, an anchor around her neck - she can‘t voice it, and it remains a block between her and the world. The tension of that imbues the whole book with longing.

It seemed appropriate that I was reading this book when we first heard about the massacre taking place in Christchurch. One a literal reaping, direct and visible in the sight of the world - the other that Jesmyn writes about, a gradual reaping, less acknowledged, at the conjunction of racism and class and poverty.
I know nothing about rural poverty in the US and this was illuminating, fascinating and heart breaking.

Yesterday was a dark day in New Zealand. 49 important, unique, beloved people taken from this life and more fighting for their lives in hospital.

There are no words to express this horror.

We cannot abide, we must root out and stand up against racism and intolerance in its smallest and earliest forms - as soon as we see or hear a sign of it - or we become complicit in allowing this evil to grow in our midst. 😰😰😰

You know you‘re onto a good thing when you finish a book in one sitting and immediately order the next. I am officially a Murderbot fangirl. 😍

Have you read this @Reggie ? Feel like falling in love with an introverted AI with built in weaponry? Or is that just me? 😂😂

Alien landscape from reddit Imaginary Worlds u/incredible

This was a nice read - Lucy, a young librarian, who is herself a bit lost in the world, ends up aiding and abetting a young runaway. I really enjoyed Lucy‘s relationship with her father and their Russian roots - but I struggled with disbelief at times over the runaway plot. Still a very likeable 3.5 stars and I look forward to reading more from Makkai.

Elizabeth Berg‘s introduction to the book probably is a better guide to the book‘s tone and content than the description on Litsy. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️