Last short story. Liked this one more than the other two. About a woman looking for love and falling for a hunter who visits their village one winter but things don‘t go according to plan…

Short story, part of an Amazon collection I downloaded a while ago. About a dystopian future where only the rich and famous get to have kids. Interesting premise but I wasn‘t wowed by it.

Short story with shifting perspectives. I didn‘t like any of the characters but I don‘t think you‘re supposed to, which made it a hard read despite it being 28 pages.

Major trigger warning for rape.

Not in the system so I suggested we add it.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This debut novel about a competitive swimmer obsessed with mermaids reads like a fever dream or like when you‘re underwater for too long and are desperate to breathe. It‘s intense and there‘s no coming up for air.

I enjoyed it but I feel like the community on goodreads disagrees. It‘s definitely a mood.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Finished reading in bed. So-so. I predicted a lot of what was going to happen, but that‘s okay for a holiday read.

Haven‘t found a bookstore yet so switching to my kindle for the next one!

🏝️

Flying to Aruba and reading this!

My friend gifted it to me, it‘s an ARC. Does anyone know of any book exchanges or little free libraries on Aruba? I just want to give it away when I‘m done 😂

At JFK and man do they have a lot of copies of this book!

My #BOTM choice! Excited for this.

I meant to add The Future by Naomi Alderman as an add of but I forgot and shipped it already. Whoops 😅

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I ordered this from #botm without really knowing what it was about. I loved the depictions of Palestine and character progression of Yara. The talk of art, food, and mental illness ticks a lot of boxes for me.

So interesting to read a fiction book about someone with #cptsd! I‘ve read a lot of non-fiction about it but this was my first fiction book where complex trauma is directly stated.

If you know of any others please share them!

Plane reading. Almost finished it while flying from Halifax back to NYC!

Very interested to read at the moment as it‘s about a Palestinian mother who moved to the US and focuses on the daughter born in Brooklyn, Yara. She‘s grown and married herself but lives in a strict household despite having some freedoms (she works at the local University) she still feels oppressed by her life and yearns for more. Beautiful descriptions of her time in Gaza.

Told myself I‘d only buy the tagged but Carmilla looked so cool!

#bookhaul #brooklynbookfest

Today!

I love the brooklyn book festival but I‘m trying to rein it in this year, I still have unread books from last year 😬

#brooklynbookfest

I made my first crochet amigurumi!

He‘s a thresher shark 🦈 and when I ordered the yarn and hook online I had no idea how large it would be! Whoops 😅 😂

Didn‘t use this book, I used a series of YouTube videos. Lots of mistakes but it‘s okay for a beginner!

Any other marine bio fans out there? 🦈🪼🐙🐠

#poetry

#poetry

#poetry

Kindle airplane adventures! Cottage read #7.

Beautiful little poetry collection about mental health and love. I‘ll put in some quotes after this.

Cottage read #6 and last day here!

Very sweet story about a man and his cat, travelling around Japan together. Beautiful illustrations. A slow contemplative pace.

Must read for cat lovers.

Soft pick.

#LGBTQBookBingo and Cottage Read #5

The first book by a woman from Equatorial Guinea translated into English and it‘s a queer book!

Was a little stilted and hard to connect at times, though the struggle to be accepted is worldwide. I wish we got more of her life after the book ended.

The afterword was great and am important read about the use of corrective rape when lesbian women are outed. Lots of trigger warnings for this one

Cottage read #4

Don‘t know why I bought this when I didn‘t like the previous one but whatever. It‘s a novella and I thought it would be a quick read (it was).

It‘s from a series where a cleric is collecting stories from various parts of a fictional land and writing them down to preserve them. Some animals can talk, and the tigers in this story can take a human form.

I found it boring and didn‘t understand the references. I won‘t read the next.

4⭐️

Pretty impressive first novel but I felt the pacing was a bit off. It took >100 pages until the events in the blurb happened. And the end felt rushed.

If I was writing it I would have structured it differently. But overall it is a great novel! Set in Nigeria, it‘s about a 15 year old girl, Kambili, who learns to laugh and love outside of her fathers strict rules after she goes on a trip to visit her Aunt in another town.

Cottage read #3

Rainy day today for cottage read #3.

Been on my TBR for too long, Purple Hibiscus is up next!

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Cottage read #2.

Ambrose Zephyr has one month to live. He decides to visit as many places as he can with his wife, starting with the letter A (Amsterdam) and moving down the alphabet one city at a time.

A cute story, quick easy read, more like a long short story than a novel. Just felt it was lacking depth and emotion.

Starting cottage read #2 after walking my parent‘s dog, Winnie!

Up at the cottage! Book #1.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A strange book, but interesting and a quick read about a man who turns into a Great White Shark. Ultimately I wanted to know more about the mutations that turned people into animals, but it was mainly about relationships. And love.

I liked the short chapters and premise, but didn‘t like the beginning and, as usual, I wanted more context. Also as a scientist, a mutation can‘t turn you into another animal 🙄

Current reading location: my parent‘s backyard.

Are you a gardener?

I‘d have such a huge garden if I didn‘t live in NYC.

Made a “quick” stop into City Lights Bookshop in London Ontario and bought a Canadian book and Purple Hibiscus.

Loved this horror typewriter by the entrance.

“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”

Airplane reading! Toronto here I come!

Excited for the #botm pick!

Nothing like a good bookstore in an airport!

Travelling up to Canada for a week to spend some time with my family. We‘re going to Lake Simcoe and staying in a cottage by the water.

Hopefully I can get some more read from my TBR and make a dent in my yearly reading goals!

Picked my #BOTM!

#WonderousWednesday #catsoflitsy

1. Cinema va home - depends on the cinema to be honest, when I lived in the UK they had a great one! I‘d go often, but in the US not as much.

2. Childhood hobbies - knitting and embroidery! Here‘s a sweater I made for my cat! 😸 Also circus arts 🤸🏻‍♂️

3. Home vs dine out - I love eating out but I also love cooking! I have some intolerances so I cook almost everyday and eat out/get takeaway once a week.

@Eggs

No entry for this story in litsy so I‘m tagging another of her novels.

This translated short story is haunting because the depression of the main character is palpable. It feels familiar, those thoughts of death - not so much a longing but a “what if I just died today?” feeling.

She spends her days wandering a department store. Buying, browsing, not really feeling or facing her grief.

It‘s interesting and well written. A pick for sure.

How do we add books to litsy? I couldn‘t find the entry for this short story.

Starting this today.

Here‘s my ditto from Pokémon Go Fest NYC! I waited 2 hours in the merch line to get plushies lol, but no regrets. He‘s adorable ☺️

A writer really coming into their own! Emezi tells us the story of the life and death of Vivek Oji. Beautifully told and rich language you can sink your teeth into; I loved this. This should be on your TBR if you like literary fiction.

I‘ve read Freshwater and You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty and this was way better, more fully developed, than the other two. I‘ll definitely be reading anything else they write!

#LGBTQBookBingo

Oh no my book! 😸😱

#catsoflitsy #littenkitten

Finally getting started on this one! #botm

It was international cat day yesterday! So here‘s my babies cuddled on my lap.

They‘re bengals, which is a breed of cat made to look like a little leopard. They‘re very active and only 5 months, still kittens, so getting a photo of them together is very hard! 🐆🐆

#catsoflitsy #littenkitten

I went through a reading slump at the start of the year and am trying to decide where to change my reading goal. I was hoping to read a book every two weeks but I stopped reading entirely from Feb to June. To reach that now I‘d really have to step it up and I don‘t want reading to be a chore.

Do you ever change your goals to make them achievable after you‘ve set them?

Apparently I‘m one of the few people who enjoyed this #camplitsy23 read 😂

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

A pandemic rages through the world and Neffy, a marine biologist, signs up for the first human vaccine trial. The book is bleak and almost dystopian. If you‘re a fan of exciting action, this is not for you.

I identified with Neffy. I worked in marine bio & love cephalopods. But while the marine science was correct, the vaccine science was not. It bothered me.

Willow giving the book a nudge.

Expecting this to be intense as it‘s about a pandemic! So far I like it though. How people respond in times of disaster is always interesting for me.

#catsoflitsy #littenkitten #camplitsy23

Love the description of this one. So much magical realism and such a strange story! I can‘t wait. #botm

Excellent memoir about child abuse and resultant cPTSD. Very informative, it has references to other books and articles throughout, but reads like a story of her healing journey.

The first part was hard to read. The abuse she suffered may not have been the worst ever, but it was still horrific. I went through emotional abuse not physical, and have the same diagnosis so it was an interesting read! Would highly recommend.

#cPTSD #MentalIllness

Very powerful book. I think I‘ve been doing this my whole life and I‘m just beginning to be able to feel emotions again. #cptsd #mentalillness

Read on my kindle so no cool book photo. #LGBTQ2023

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Love the end of this trilogy. I found Hoa‘s chapters quite slow going but as a stone eater he‘s supposed to move slowly, so only removing half a star.

Very deserving of all the awards it‘s won. I‘d highly recommend the broken earth trilogy to anyone interested in fantasy! Diverse cast of character with female mains. A type of magic I have never heard of. And beautiful & engrossing.

Great book, I read it in two days! Very captivating and I learned a lot about the how books go to publication. The main story is about June stealing her friend‘s novel though.

There was a lot of cringy sentences from the main character, June, despite thinking she‘s in the right the whole time she can be very racist. It‘s a part of the plot but it‘s uncomfortable.

Also TW brief mention of rape. I wasn‘t expecting it and it threw me.

#camplitsy23

It‘s not a big number like some of you but yay 8,000!

I‘m off and on on this app, you guys make it wonderful but life gets in the way sometimes.

Willow “helping” me with my knitting.

In love with my new yarn bowl from Cotta Ceramics.

#litsycrafters #catsoflitsy

@CBee here‘s Willow! She looks a bit more brown than usual here, she‘s a silver/mink bengal.

Book haul with one of my new kittens, Hazel! Expect to see a lot of them, because I‘m obsessed. #catsoflitsy

Better late than never for #camplitsy23 July read Yellowface. Going to start today and hopefully catch up.

“Alex didn‘t really know what she had missed, only that she was homesick for something, maybe for someone, she‘d never been.”

Oof. I know this feeling too well.