Finished up this one, Wonder, and made a serious dent in Hidden Figures... met my goal of 12 hours during #24in48 this weekend!

Morning Readers! I‘m rested and ready to kick up my 24in48 weekend a notch. I always make it 10 hour and some odd minutes, but this time I‘m striving for 12 hours. I‘m also going to finish up some books (hopefully several) I have started but just never finished... first up is Wonder. Here I go!

I think maybe I‘m too old for this... or maybe I was just having a bad day. I finished it, but didn‘t enjoy it.

FINALLY... I made it to the top of the hold list!

I was feeling like a #24in48 failure after barely reaching 10 hours of reading last weekend... but then any time reading is a success. Hoping to do better in January!

Up next for #24in48. My first read was Because of Winn-Dixie, so it looks like I‘m on a quest to read about canines this weekend... just don‘t tell my cats! 🐶 ❤️

Working my way through this on Day 2 of vacation.

I‘m absolutely obsessed with reading all things written by Alice Hoffman. This is the third book of her‘s I‘ve read in 2018. I love her character development and how she intertwines the lives of her characters. I‘m on to number 4...

Character development ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Storyline 💯
Ending 💝💔💝

I want/need a few more chapters to work out my feelings... great book! #LitsyAtoZ

Best first line of my #24in48 book stack and hour 12 challenge...

“I realized that this would be life; to figure out how to live without her hand on my back... ...How would I ever heal from losing the person who healed me?”

This paragraph breaks my heart. 😢💔😥

Yes, Yes, Ummm no... but I always pay my fine, NONONO, Yes

#yesorno

Enjoying this as my first #LitsyAtoZ read of the year on this cold, snowy day in middle America. Hoping to share the couch with Amos... but not sure he feels the same about that. I know better than to try to join JJ under the covers on the bed... 😹❤️ #CatsofLitsy

I have three books going right now... and my holds at the library are coming at me faster than I can get them read... shear madness, but I love it! 😘 📖 👍

Is it a bad thing that the most fun I had today was putting in my HOLD request for this? I‘m #22!!!

My reading goal for 2018. It's been a relaxing although cold week at home with JJ, Amos, and the Chemistry Teacher... but tomorrow brings work again. 😒👎

First up in 2018... Happy New Year Littens and may 2018 be your best reading year yet! 🤓📚❤️

I can‘t believe only one other person read Esme the Emerald Fairy... 👑

I‘m going to bundle up for a NYE walk in this balmy -11 degree wind chill and then come in to read more. Hoping there will be room on the couch for me... Amos, will that happen?!? #CatsofLitsy

BOB has been appropriately documented with my #AbecedarianTBR for the 2018 #LitsyAtoZ challenge. Now to hold off starting any of these until Monday...

Took a little time this morning to get my #LitsyAtoZ 2018 reading list set before heading out for my walk. Brrrrr... -5 degree windchill this morning is what is waiting for me, but at least it‘s finally sunny. Will post my list later after writing it down nice and pretty in BOB. Stay warm Littens! 🌬☕️📚

First up in the #11thHourReadathon...

My top 17 reads of 2017 in no uncertain order. It‘s been a great reading year!

#17in2017

A year in the life of VP Biden... the year his son Beau died. The first 150+ pages held my interest OK but I had to read and reread several parts regarding his foreign policy work which was written in great detail. The last third of the book that dealt with Beau‘s death and Joe‘s ultimate decision not to enter the 2016 presidential race was both heart-wrenching and inspiring. (Disclaimer: not my photos... thanks go to Google.)

It‘s been a rough week... On Friday the Chemistry Teacher husband attended the service for a student killed in a car accident and then on Saturday we went to the funereal of a friend who suddenly passed away on Wednesday. But today we are enjoying a quiet, cold Christmas with JJ (who has taken over the Chemistry Teacher‘s chair) and Amos (hiding behind the tree).

Happy holidays, Littens! Peace to you all.

#joinin #catsoflitsy

This will finish up my #AtoZ challenge. That makes two challenges completed for the year. As work is done for 2017, maybe I can finish up one more reading challenge next week. ❤️📖🌲

Listening to the second book in the Kopp Sisters series and baking for a weekend bake sale... let's hope this is the first and last disaster of the day.

Confession - I've yet to turn down a reading challenge.

Question - Do you allow yourself to use a book for more than one challenge?

In 2017 one of my goals was to use a book only once... I'm so close to finishing three challenges but don't know if I'll make it through any. Since my fascination with challenges is that they tend to make me a more diverse reader, I'm rethinking my whole "I can only use a book once" rationale... Thoughts?

1. Water for Elephants
2. Sara Gruen
3. Me Before You
4. Alex Cross
5. Into the Water
6. Small Great Things
7. My Name is Lucy Barton

#7GoodThings

Oh, the feelings this short story evokes... ❤️

"Noah-Noah, promise me something, one very last thing. Once your goodbye is perfect, you have to leave me and never look back. Live your life. It's an awful thing to miss someone who's still here." ~Fredrik Backman

This book is why I am glad I wait until the last moments of a year before picking my favorite read of the year. This is so much more than a book about hockey. Before reading this I thought Backman's best work was A Man Called Ove, but I was wrong. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

And this is what happens when I get up to grab another box of tissues... now I have no blanket. #catsoflitsy

Feeling a little under the weather so I'm listening to this while lounging on the couch with the gray cat.

"You aren't going to like me very much." Opening line on this reading Sunday.

This compelling page-turner set in Australia is our December book club read. My initial suspect list was way off base. I'm looking forward to our discussion to see if others were as surprised as I was.

Embarking on some John Grisham novels I didn't know existed until I heard him speak at an event earlier this week. I read all his early legal thrillers but didn't realize he wrote about sports, too.

I picked up the audio version of If I Run from the Audiosync free downloads this summer and started it Monday at work. (I've been plugging numbers into a spreadsheet, so work hasn't required a lot of brain cells this week!) The storyline was interesting and I decided to go on with series... hoping to finish this one up today.

Finished this up today - what a story! Makes me sad it took me so long to read it. Now for next week's book club discussion and movie viewing.

I needed a "Q" book for my #AtoZ challenge, picked this up, and so glad I did. A compelling story about a wounded veteran trying to find her way back to normal - whatever her new normal will become. The story switches between the present and flashbacks - sometimes it was hard to pick up the change quickly and I had to reread a paragraph or two but that was a very small inconvenience in what was a great read. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A good read about how love can make a relatively normal person do really crazy things. People have commented that the book didn't live up to the hype it has received. I did want more from it but I don't think there was more to give. With only one side of the story known, it's hard to make sense of why this happened. It would have been interesting to include more about the buildings that burned and their owners, but I'm weird that way!

Absolutely LOVE book mail day... 🤓

Change in the weather here... temps dropped overnight; but JJ and I got out the blanket and made a pot of coffee before settling in, so we're good!

First up... it's the start of my October vacation.

Just finished the audio version today... stunning, vivid writing of a story we all need to read.

Starting this today and hoping to see at least a sliver of the eclipse.

I picked this book to fulfill a challenge category (book with one word title) as I get closer to completing a reading challenge... and I'm so glad I did. It's the story of Marie, an average person growing up in Brooklyn... just your average someone who comes of age during WW2. McDermott then takes us into her married life and widowhood.

Picked this up at the library Saturday After twentysome one-sided crushes, Molly finally has her first boyfriend. A realistic story of first love written mostly in dialogue. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Hubby went on vacation last week while I had to work... I was surprised by this text Wednesday afternoon. First, I've never known him to seek out a bookstore on his own and second, he always tells me I have too many books. And what makes this even better - he's on Book #2 this summer when typically I can only get him to read one! ❤️❤️❤️