Hi to my #lmpbc group members! @Kayla.Adriena @shellleigh33 @sharread The choosing books part gets me excited every time! Here are some books I‘ve been meaning to read. Let me know if any look good to you! 🤷🏻‍♀️

So many tears with this one. Sad tears, happy tears, you name it. The writing style and story felt quite similar to Cerulean Sea though it was a standalone in a new setting. I liked it a lot, though not as much as Cerulean Sea. I hope to get to debrief with others who read it.

It‘s been weird for me going from reading almost 200 books in 2020 to now going about 4 months without finishing a book. Hoping the focus for reading continues. 💗

It‘s so cool that you can tag bookstores now! I spent a good long time walking around in Labyrinth yesterday. It wasn‘t crowded and everyone was masked, so it didn‘t feel that dangerous. It was so calming to be surrounded by books again. 💗 I came out with these 2 lovelies. The sequel to Thursday Murder Club I was looking for, and the other one was an exciting surprise by an author I like. I wore this Indie Bookstore Day sweatshirt, fittingly.

I got a library card in my new state today!! I‘m really excited because it looks like a great library. 💗💗💗 Here are my first 2 borrowed books. Which should I start?

Last night we visited a new-to-us bookstore and it was delightful! In addition to some wonderful new releases (TJ Klune‘s new one for example!!) they had the tagged book from the backlist of one of my favorite mystery authors. Then today I saw the number was selected for #bookspinbingo. I‘m excited to dive in! The cats were very cute during my photo session, when I put the books on the many packed book boxes (can‘t wait til we move and unpack!).

Hi, friends! It‘s been a while! I haven‘t been doing a lot of reading lately but I want October to be the month I spend time on Litsy again and read when I can. I filled out a #bookspin list for the first time in several months and I‘m excited!

I feel a little out of the loop on what books are getting buzz lately. Suggestions are welcome! 💗

Moving day is tomorrow! Aghhhhhh! How I wish I could pause with a book amidst all this craziness! 🙃

The move is almost here! I‘ve changed my Litsy name since I won‘t be in Lititz any more. How lucky is it that I‘m moving to another L town? 😋 Things have been pretty hectic lately and I haven‘t had the focus to read at my normal pace in months. But I‘m super excited for a new job and new town and will definitely be back on Litsy soon. It‘s my favorite corner of the internet. 💗💗💗 Hope to connect with some NJ Littens!

I just received my book back after its 4-month #lmpbc journey. When I reread my inscription I realized how much has changed. I finally DID get a job last week, and we HAVE been vaccinated! That‘s a lot to celebrate.

So for my job, I‘m going to be moving to Princeton, NJ in the next few weeks! Any Littens in the area? 💗

Hi to my group mates from #lmpbc! Here are some options for my book for our literary fiction round. The grey cover that‘s hard to read is the tagged book. Let me know your thoughts! @staci.reads @Hestapleton @Mynameisacolour

If you wanted to sign up for the next round of the Litsy Markup Postal Book Club, you still can! We have one spot left in group V, where we will focus on literary fiction. Head over to @suvata for the link if you want to join me, @staci.reads and @Mynameisacolour ! ☺️ #lmpbc

This was utterly delightful. Clever, lots of heart, poignant parts mixed in with plenty of comedy, and mysteries that to me were unsolvable. Thanks to @BookishBelle and @Annie1215 for their margin notes and @Pogue I hope you like it too! I‘ll be mailing it tomorrow. #lmpbc

So I‘ve been in a reading slump for a few weeks but not any more! I loooooved this book and flew through it! Hilarious, outlandishly creative plot, great female characters, sweet, fun dialogue. I‘m going to be recommending this one to everyone this summer!

It‘s not this book‘s fault that I‘ve been really distracted by my job search lately and read it in tiny fits and spurts. So I didn‘t love it, but it could very well just be me. If there‘s a sequel, I would read it. The characters had potential.

Can anyone suggest some good RECENT books in the action-thriller category?

My father-in-law just shared that he hasn‘t really read since the start of the pandemic because he hasn‘t been able to visit the library. Oh no!! He used to read daily and I want to help, but my thrillers are more mysteries or psychological and not as much “automatic weapons fire,” which is his favorite part. 😋 Any recommendations from 2020 or 2021? Thanks, Littens!

I can check another book off my TBR! I‘ve been wanting to read this book for years and now that I have, I don‘t feel a need to read the rest of the trilogy. The characters were so over the top and unlikeable that I didn‘t connect to them. As a satire it was good, but I didn‘t need to be in that world any longer. I bet the movie would be fun, though, because of all that opulence!

Meh. I wasn‘t too impressed with this story about teenagers and their bad judgment. I usually like MG and YA, but I didn‘t connect with this one. I also didn‘t totally buy the portrayal of anxiety; I‘ve seen other novels present it a lot better.

How April #bookspinbingo ends is with 13 completed books, 2 bails (which I know count for bingos but I keep track of them separately), and 2 bingos! It‘s been an up and down month for me emotionally but a pretty good one for reading. My favorites were Moonflower Murders and Anxious People.

The tagged book is on my list for next month. I‘m ready for the number drawing on Sunday, @TheAromaofBooks ! Thanks for doing this each month! 💗

... Interesting. Well, this book has been on my shelf for years, and I‘m glad I finally read it. The storytelling voice was really strong, but ultimately I think the whole novel was less than the sum of its parts. Maybe it would have worked better as a collection of vignettes? I think the author is talented and the characters were interesting, but I didn‘t feel it worked as a complete story somehow.

Last night I was feeling down and wanted a quick middle grade read to distract me. I picked this one and it was a good choice for what I was looking for. Izzy was a great main character- an eleven year old who goes through family and race-related situations with an inquisitive attitude. A good introduction to many heavy topics that would be great for a young reader. I always like Draper‘s books. 💗

Anthony Horowitz is the best. Seriously, I have loved every one of his books. This one was so clever!!! A book within a book format with clues that are right there for you to see... but I didn‘t see a single one of them until everything was revealed. Such a satisfying read!

This was really good! Less than sympathetic characters but a twisty plot about a famous author writing under a pseudonym and her assistant. Once I got into it I just kept reading and reading. 🤷🏻‍♀️

So in my previous post I mentioned that I had gone to celebrate #IndependentBookstoreDay but hadn‘t actually liked any of the swag that my store had. I found that on Bonfire they are selling shirts and sweatshirts with the various official designs for this year! I am probably going to get something and I figured I‘d share the link! https://www.bonfire.com/store/independent-bookstore-day/ I think it‘s only available today.

My husband @wanderer15 and I went to our indie bookstore today for the first time since the start of the pandemic. I had ordered books from them at different times during the lockdown and done contactless pickup, but this time we felt comfortable being fully vaccinated and wearing masks to go browse. It was so nice! 💗💗💗 I came away with this birthday book haul. Where to begin??
It was also indie bookstore day but none of the swag spoke to us.

Fun! This one reminded me a lot of Ruth Ware‘s One By One with the reunion in a ski resort gone wrong vibe. A very fast read and a strong debut!

Also fitting because even though it‘s the end of April it‘s in the 30s outside today! Brr...

With Fitz keeping me company in case I got scared, I finished up this round‘s #LMPBC mystery last night! It was good, and I hope the rest of my group likes it too. I enjoyed reading your comments, @Annie1215 ! I felt a little distracted during parts of it, which I‘m chalking up to my ever-present job search. But overall Gardner did a solid job and some of the plot points were really clever! I liked Emmanuel and Lotham best.

Off to @Pogue now!

Awesome book in free verse about the lived experience of Ellie, a budding writer who is bullied at home and at school because of people‘s perceptions of her weight. This book should be in all middle school libraries.

Ok, the ending raised it from a so-so to a pick for me! The pacing overall was great, but it initially bothered me how there were so many judgy (sp?) descriptions of how women look. And I can‘t blame it on misogyny: the author and main character are women. But that lessened in time and overall I think book lovers will enjoy this story about books, teaching, writing, libraries, etc. Especially if you have 3 fuzzy reading companions!

Mostly I‘m just happy to finally have this off of my TBR list after many years. It was ok. Started off kind of slow and definitely felt a bit dated to me (it‘s only from the early 2000s, but it just felt a little out of touch?). The main guy‘s defining characteristic seemed to be horniness, both in the present day and in his high school memories. All the descriptions of women‘s breasts got old. The end got better but I still didn‘t love it.

I received this amazing package today from @Tattooedteacher ! Thanks so much! This book, which is the middle grade version of a book for adults, sounds delightful! And the tea smells delicious. Thank you!

Wow. Incredible. I feel so lucky to have been the final reader in our #lmpbc round to read this so I could see everyone else‘s comments. What an experience! This is sure to be in my top 5-10 books for the year. 💗💗💗💗💗 @sharread @shellleigh33 @BennettBookworm

Backman is in a class by himself.

I finally read @SReed151 ‘s book and it was fantastic! Just so well written, with humorous and heartfelt stories about life as a teacher. Shannon‘s teaching experiences run the gamut between pre-school and college, so there is something for everyone to relate to. I really recommend this to anyone who is a teacher or has ever had a teacher. 😋 Congrats on your book @SReed151 !

Thanks so much @MaleficentBookDragon ! It was so above and beyond to not only send back my original #lmpbc book but to also send a book from my TBR. How thoughtful!! I‘m psyched to read through everyone‘s comments from our Agatha round. 😁

Solid YA book that I read in a day! It took me a little bit to get into the characters‘ teen way of speaking (I felt so uncool) but then I was all in. For me, it was a great book to borrow from the library but not own, but I get the sense others loved it more.

I‘m excited for tomorrow‘s draw for #bookspinbingo! This month I‘m looking to continue my progress on reading books I‘ve owned for a long time. The rest are mainly library books. @TheAromaofBooks

This book was sort of mind blowing. It just made me think about my relationship with my body and attitudes towards bodies in general in a whole new way. I really admire how the author sees the idea of radical self love as a revolutionary movement with the power to make so many changes. I suspect I‘ll be thinking about this for a while, which is a good thing.

This was my last March read. I completed 15 books but this one gives me my sole bingo!

Solid memoir. The author used a factual style that was effective, though I usually prefer more of a touchy feely vibe. She organized it as a series of vignettes about her life experiences. I would have also enjoyed reading about her personal experiences but this focused mainly on her academic and professional ones. It‘s her choice what to share, but at one point it implied she was in a serious relationship and she‘d never mentioned that at all.

So sad! There were so many parts that made me cry. The story was strange and creative and some elements remained unanswered at the end. I agree with @IuliaC that the translation of this series might not be the best. I‘m glad I read it but now need to read a bit of something lighter/happier before going to sleep.

Thanks to @BennettBookworm for putting this on my radar years ago. I finally read it and it was lovely. Just beautiful. I actually think it resonated more to read it after a year in lockdown. I will be thinking of this for a good long time.

I‘m not the biggest fan of short stories as a genre, but I thought these were great. Each one felt like a little snapshot of a life. There were intriguing ideas about religion, sexuality, family dynamics, morality, and more. The collection overall was also quite short, so I really flew through this.

Eeeeeeee! Excellent new detective duo of Lillian Pentecost and Willowjean Parker. I love the female, queer, and disability rep in this 1940s-style mystery. I hope the rest of my #lmpbc enjoys this as much as I did!! Can‘t wait to read your comments!
@Pogue
@BookishBelle
@Annie1215

Just to confirm, I‘m mailing this to @Pogue correct?

Very interesting! I‘d recommend this book to people who enjoy info about words, their origins, and speech patterns of different demographics. It was based on a combination of research and anecdotes, I‘d say. I didn‘t agree with all of Montell‘s points but I definitely found a lot of food for thought! Some of it echoed what I remember learning in a Linguistic Anthropology class 20 years ago, but some was more recent/relevant.

I really liked book 2 of this series as well! A great mystery set in a community theatre. I‘m definitely going to read the rest of the series!

I‘ve had this on my shelf for years now, so I‘m very glad to finally have read it. I did like it, but some parts more than others. I wouldn‘t say it‘s a new favorite. But I absolutely am thinking about flowers and their meanings differently now! It makes me want to go back and remember what flowers I had at my wedding and then decode what they meant. 💐🌺🌼🌸

What a great read. This collection would be a great starting point for anyone wanting to deepen their understanding of the lived experiences of people with disabilities. At every turn the writers are pushing back on overused tropes of inspiration porn and the ableist assumption of praying for a cure. I am glad I read this and look forward to finding more in this field.

This is a definite #blameitonLitsy read! Specifically, I stacked this after reading @BookishMarginalia and others‘ posts. This book was great! Fast paced, ballsy, sweet, and I loved the main character Finn. I wonder if there will be a sequel?

This book was phenomenal. Taussig is an excellent storyteller who writes about her lived experiences as a member of the disability community. Everything is presented with such nuance. This would be valuable to read on its own or as a complement to other Disability Studies books, for either disabled or nondisabled people. I read the library‘s copy but will buy one because it was that good.

Here is my #bookhaul from my favorite indie Aaron‘s Books! I ordered these a few weeks ago and they arrived today. So excited to dive in!

-Giant Days 13 to bring my collection up to date (love that crew!)
-Fortune Favors the Dead for #lmpbc @Pogue @BookishBelle @Annie1215
-Nina Hill because I loved it when I borrowed it from @BennettBookworm
-Mrs Mohr because my group mate suggested it and it sounds awesome!

I‘m all ready for the #bookspin and #doublespin draws and the bingo board tomorrow! Thanks again to @TheAromaofBooks for organizing, as always! ☺️☺️☺️

This month I read 3 from my longtime TBR list, and I‘m hoping to make more progress in March. Those are the ones with a T next to them!

My #lmpbc book has returned to me! Thanks @sharread I‘m currently in possession of 3 books...😬 @BennettBookworm never got to read the tagged one in the rotation, so I‘m sending that to her. Once I finish Anxious People (hers originally) I‘ll send that back to her. AND the main problem is that I never sent How to Walk Away for Feb.🤦🏻‍♀️@shellleigh33 do you mind a delay in getting it back? If that‘s ok, then all 3 are coming to Suzy next.