I never updated on that GenmaichaTea Shawl - it's done now!
Tagged is my current read (via Libby)

#crochet #litsycrafters

With Gouda Friends being the obvious fill for #dairyfairy, I'm done for #fourfoursin25 !

I‘m ashamed to say I know more about Tuskegee than about these abuses in my own backyard. Library borrow.

Loving this NK Jemisin graphic novel.

Plucked out of my Little Free Library. Thanks, unknown book friend!

On my hook: Marinus blanket in Sultan Pastello gradient cotton #litsycrafters #crochet

September is done! #WickedWords @AsYouWish

Best: Gouda Friends was a pretty fun romance.

Worst: Road Trip, URGH.

Graphic novel well worth checking out: The Puzzling Fate of Millicent Graves: this is really fun. Read it for yourself or gift it to a middle grade person in your life.

Surprise fill of the last prompt for September! Wait, how is it September already??

#WickedWords @AsYouWish

Well I got through 224 pages of Gouda Friends while we were at the emergency vet with this fellow tonight, so I'd say it's pretty good. Friends to lovers, and yes there is cheese.

Why vet? The elderly Mr Darcy took an awkward fall off a table and jarred his arthritic hips badly. No fractures thankfully and we took the opportunity to run bloods which were all good. He's on 3-5 days of bupe, nsaids and pregabalin then review

Cathy Yardley hasn't let me down before, so fingers crossed for this unicorn chaser. Hard to go wrong with cheese.

Make that two redeeming features. I promise I'm done now.

#WickedWords @AsYouWish #game

OK, Road Trip does have one redeeming feature, which is that the title is Damson colour, completing my New York autumn/winter #Pantone2025 #readingchallenge !

How is this book a snoozefest that also makes me furious? How are people calling it a “cute romcom“?



It features no chemistry btw MCs, dual timeline that doesn't justify itself, a road trip that doesn't make sense, miscommunication trope, a stalker, alcoholism, and an attempted rape. Every man in this book, the MMC included, is absolutely irredeemably toxic and should never be allowed a woman ever again. I loved The Flatshare, but hated this.

This was a cute little graphic novel about three monsters who are trying to fit in (and not be killed by monster hunters). Some allegory going on about systemic violence and the Klan, but I'm not sure how well it worked. Also found family, be yourself, yadda yadda.

#Mask #WickedWords @AsYouWish

This is a highly original take on Three Fates myths - I really enjoyed it!

#email #WickedWords @AsYouWish

Also done #FictionalTraveler already! September is English-Speaking and I read a greatly-updated graphic re-imagining of the Huckleberry Finn story. It's excellent. @julieclair

Off and racing with #MonthlyNonfiction2025 for September - this graphic nonfiction book about the Redbone rock band. It was just so-so for me, but interesting in parts.

 @julieclair

Finally some movement on my #fourfoursin25 #fourfours reading challenge! My first prompt fill for months, #picketcricket . Only one to go!

How's your challenge going? @thebacklistbook @clwojick @TheAromaofBooks @lizpixie @AbigailJaneBlog @CoffeeNBooks @ReadingRachael @mcipher @AbigailJaneBlog @PageShifter @Jas16 @willaful @bekakins @ImperfectCJ

#WickedWords wrap for August. I think my pick would be Lost in the Moment and Found, though Ballad wins in the Exceeding my Expectations (which were low) stakes. @AsYouWish

"Happy birthday, Haymitch!"

#firstlinefridays @ShyBookOwl

Working on a GenmaichaTea shawl in this very fine and soft Sultan Deluxe cotton. #showandtelltuesday @Catsandbooks

Completed! X was last, of course. #LitsyAtoZ #LitsyAtoZ2025 @TexReader

Annnnd... once again I just plain adore an Olympus, Inc book. This one's a sapphic (both MCs are bi) romantic suspense. It's set in an island festival, with the romance being between a single-mum burlesque performer and a fallen-from-grace influencer/photographer. It's body positive and sex work positive and fun. Also, there are murders.

Extra kudos to Healey for writing an X book to finish off my #LitsyAtoZ #LitsyAtoZ2025 @TexReader #LetterX

This is an absolutely superb graphic memoir of George Takei's life. I learned a lot more about his political activism, and about the forces that led to him leading most of his life closeted. The book brilliantly balances this sadness with fire and hope and joy.

Reading George Takei's second graphic memoir. It's very good, albeit with the pervasive sadness of him needing to be closeted.

Library haul: local "Indigiverse" graphic novels by Scott Wilson and Molly Hunt. These new superhero stories are based in First Nations lore and language.

Another instalment in the Wayward Children series that I absolutely loved. No surprises there.

And the last word for August! #WickedWords @AsYouWish

Random allusion to monster-fucking romance novels in Saga 12 🤣🤣 👹❤️

Continental Drifter is an excellent graphic memoir about a childhood spent between Bangkok and Maine, and the search for belonging.

And it has a lighthouse on the cover, so that's July done! #ISpyBingo #ISpy @TheAromaOfBooks

Also. Bangkok is Somewhere Hot @julieclair #FictionalTraveler

Fully up to date with my #goodreads Summer Challenge! Are you participating? How are you going?

Great title, but a disappointing read. Lack of formatting was very offputting. But my biggest critique was pacing/plot. This felt like a poorly-edited first half of an overlong book. There were threads I expected to be part of a denouement, like certain recurring social media commenters, but the book just tailed off half-heartedly at the end instead of anything happening or any significant personal growth occurring.

Found a piano, so November grid is done! Eleven prompts to go...

#ISpyBingo #ISpy @TheAromaOfBooks

I‘m really enjoying the art in the new Wizard of Earthsea graphic novel . Atmospheric and beautiful .

Found the sixties in this graphic memoir! #WickedWords @AsYouWish

Also my August nonfiction for #MonthlyNonfiction2025 @julieclair

Is this a cheat? Nah, it's a flexible challenge! #WickedWords @AsYouWish

I picked this up for the Goodreads debut challenge, and I'm quite enjoying it so far.

Cute, magical, queer graphic novel.

#WickedWords @AsYouWish

I was tentative going in, but ended up really enjoying this! It's not super pace-y or anything, but I thought Collins adeptly trod the balance of writing a character who we all know turns out terribly.

#WickedWords @AsYouWish

Finally found #lightning ! And I have a book out of the library with a piano on the cover.

#ISpyBingo #ISpy @TheAromaOfBooks

#dogsoflitsy

That is all

Finally found a Z book! #LitsyAtoZ #LitsyAtoZ2025 @TexReader

Only X to go now, and I know what I'm reading there (XO, Xena by Kate Healey)

This was a sweet, magical graphic novel. Good fun.

The 2nd half of the #Pantone2025 #readingchallenge is HEEERE!

This challenge is based on Fashion Week seasonal trend colours, this time for the northern hemisphere Autum and Winter. Please note there are TWO grids - for London (orange border) and NY (mauve border).

To play, just find a colour in a book cover, then plonk the cover into the grid. There are no other rules! Colours are listed in text in comments. Share and enjoy.

@litsyevents

The 2nd half of the #Pantone2025 #readingchallenge is HEEERE!

This challenge is based on Fashion Week seasonal trend colours, this time for the northern hemisphere Autum and Winter. Please note there are TWO grids - for London (orange border) and NY (mauve border).

To play, just find a colour in a book cover, then plonk the cover into the grid. There are no other rules! Colours are listed in text in comments. Share and enjoy.

@litsyevents

Another entry for the lettering hall of shame, but I am excited about this new project on the hook. Malduguns Fen Fire Sweater by Linda Skuja. I'm doing it as a light cotton top. #litsycrafters

I'm not sure what to say about this, except that I don't think it's as clever as it thinks it is.

Words springing to mind are “leaden“, “trite“, “superficial“, and “gimmicky“, but if I said all of that you'd think I hated it. I didn't. It was just meh.

I think I just like my books about stereotypes and marginalisation to have at least a smidgen of intersectionality. A tiny nod. A soupçon.

BUT it did fill Acclaimed Titles in my GR challenge.

Beautifully illustrated book of creation stories from the Yindjibarndi people of northwestern Australia.

#MonthlyNonfiction2025 @julieclair

#WickedWords @AsYouWish

More than halfway through and still waiting for this metafiction to live up to its hype. I'm not sure whether it's just me, or whether I still judge every author using 2nd person in comparison to NK Jemisin (and none of them are NK Jemisin). Maybe it will all come together before the end?

Anyhow, I've finished #WickedWords for July @AsYouWish

MG Australian riff on AYTGIMM. MC is a comp swimmer whose teammate and BFF wants to ask her out, but she is not ready . She gets her first period at his house, which she's also not ready for.

The drama lies mostly around school r'ships, a new kid, MC's rival on the swim team (who has troubles of her own - child abuse mentioned, not sexual) and dealing with having been abandoned by her mother who has run off to India.

#WickedWords @AsYouWish

This fae novella was lovely. #WickedWords @AsYouWish

This was a rather lovely little graphic novel set in a magical Benin-inspired fantasy world.

With Okupe being Nigerian, that's a wrap on the Formidable Reading Challenge! #urc2025 #URC @Faranae #frc #frc2025

I've put all the other prompts into a grid for the Ultimate Reading Challenge - and have only three to go there.

Making a woollen baby pinafore as a followup to my recent baby blanket. Have I acquired a baby in the meantime? No. Have any of my friends? Also no.

#litsycrafters #crochetandabook