New bestie!!! 😁😁💕

My creative idol Stuart Turton was such an entertaining speaker - irreverent, smart, cynical, funny - and I even managed to say a few words to him.

US Littens might be pleased to know he's doing a US tour soon too 😊

Gahhhh, she's so soggy!!!!

@Soubhiville You mentioned following Pickles' adventures yesterday, but the adventures at the moment consist mainly of complaining about the menu and (presently) drying off her wet floofs on me 🙈🙈🙈

#picklescat #catsoflitsy

@squirrelbrain @Megabooks @BarbaraBB #CampLitsy24

Thanks for organising!!! 🥰 Can't wait!

Here are my nominations (if I'm not already too late). I've gone pretty cosy 💕

To all my Litsy friends,

I want you to know how much I love and appreciate you all. To have such a kind, supportive online community to share my book passion with has been invaluable to me.

You are all wonderful 💙

Procrastinating by making book videos...

If you wanna hear me ramble on about my favourite cover aesthetic and show you some tasty examples, click here:

https://youtu.be/L6LPG_GWJFg?feature=shared

If you wanna hear me review The Last Murder at the End of the World, click here:

https://youtu.be/97wsvd8JJsM?feature=shared

(I think I might drop Stuart Turton a message to let him know I'm tirelessly promoting him like a superfan 🤣)

I found Deborah James' book extremely inspiring.

If there is one message I will take away from reading it, it is to have rebellious hope.

What an amazing person. I only wish she could've had many more years of fulfilling and happy life.

Loved it. Locked-island, post-apocalyptic murder mystery madness.

Readable as heck. Probably full of plot holes I don't give a damn about. Twisty, turny, ambitious, and totally bananas.

I continue to be a huge Stuart Turton fan. I eat up everything he puts out and love that his books are original and different from each other.

He simply can't write fast enough for me 😊💕

I bought a load of keys from Litjoy a while back and gave them to Mum so that I could "earn" them by doing various things.

Although technically I didn't meet the goals I set, I did make a lot of effort, so Mum agreed to let me have this one based on Professor Umbridge's room ??

*looks shifty*

Turns out I actually AM living in the moment after all 😅

Now if only I can find out which supernatural forces are screwing me over...

(I kid.)

This book is inspiring even to a seasoned curmudgeon like myself. Chapters so far have talked about the importance of Hope (REBELLIOUS hope 💕), awareness of Time, and now Purpose.

No one has all the time in the world, and you don't need it to live a worthwhile life 💙

Started this book on my lunch break.

Anyone who has tried and failed to improve their mental outlook over a period of many years will know how victim-blamey being told to think positive is, but Deborah James focuses on HOPE 💙☀️

I might try cultivating hope because unlike general positivity it focuses on the unknowns of the future. It's easier to hope for the future than to alter thinking on the past and present.

What do I dare to hope for?

#two4tuesday @TheSpineView 😊
Thanks for the tag @The_Penniless_Author 💕

Bit late on this one!

1) I was so excited about reading the tagged that I made a whole video fangirling over Stuey T

https://youtu.be/yZVgSUXkEqs?feature=shared

2) Does the Pope **** in the woods? 🤣🤣

I'VE GOT PRE-ORDERS COMING OUT THE WAZOO. They will probably continue arriving long after my death.

Happy Tuesday / Wednesday everyone 👍🏻

I'm late with my #bookspinbingo card for April @TheAromaofBooks but I promise I haven't peeped at the numbers or card yet 😋

Will sort out a grid soon!

Although there are some serious books here, I think I'm going to prioritise reading for pleasure over the next few months. I've been ruminating too much on heavy topics and I just want to sneak around a few Victorian or Gothic mansions and solve some murders.

This was an incredible book, but a total sausage fest.

It gets ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for being an inspiring, colourful, accessible, engaging volume, and for giving me a grounding in art knowledge that I didn't think possible from one book.

Art is discussed from a Eurocentric position, only ONE female artist is featured and some of the language is culturally insensitive to the modern ear, but this remains an outstanding work.

Thirsty for more now!

Scratch that. A few pages later and he's blaming this state of affairs on... women!

"Let any man make a calculation of his existence, subtracting the hours in which he has been thoroughly happy...
Let him do this, and surely he will laugh in utter bitterness of soul when he sets down the sum of his felicity, and discovers the pitiful smallness of the amount.
He will have enjoyed himself for a week or ten days in thirty years perhaps."

I FIND THIS SO SOOTHING. Really takes the pressure off. Even I can manage 10 days in 30 years!

They have told me this before. Most of it anyway.

This may be the basics, but it's also the FUNDAMENTALS.

This is a really good summary of self care and simple therapeutic tools to manage symptoms of anxiety, depression, stress, grief, & emotional turbulence.

Later chapters on attachment and living within ones own values also provide invaluable information.

It won't cure your problems, but I would endorse this book as a good place to start.

LEGO D&D?!?!?!?!

I need dis.

It even has a gelatinous cube.

Considering that she's been getting premium DELUXE CUDDLES, you'd think Pickles would be looking less unimpressed 🤣🤣

#picklescat #catsoflitsy

This was a good short story / novella, but possibly suffers from being overhyped.

Claire Keegan creates an emotional impression with her writing, but sometimes there's a thin line between life affirming and clichéd, between heartwarming and twee. I think she mostly succeeds.

This is a quiet and moving tale about life, morals, charity, luck, priorities and responsibilities. Time will tell whether it leaves a lasting impression on me.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

1/ The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters
2/ One Day
3/ Assassin's Apprentice

You're all tagged!
Including you @The_Penniless_Author

#threelistthursday @dabbe

And look what arrived today! It's the Goldsboro version! (See previous post) 💕

So which one do you all like best????

@Leniverse is encouraging us all to read crime this Easter as per Norwegian tradition so will get started right away 😜

#whoworeitbest #Eastercrime

STUART TURTON HAS A NEW BOOK OUT! And it sounds every bit as bananas as his other ones!

Can't wait to dive into this one...

If you wanna listen to why I love Stuart Turton so much, I've posted a #booktube vid. He's my number one autobuy at the moment.

https://youtu.be/yZVgSUXkEqs?feature=shared

Thanks for the tag @The_Penniless_Author 😊💕
#wondrouswednesday @Eggs 💕

1) Stuart Turton is the main author that can't write fast enough for me!

2) The Murder of Roger Ackroyd maybe? Mystery is my fave genre, although I also love fantasy and literary fiction.

3) Robin Hobb!!!! Working my way through Fitz and the Fool.....

When your Illumicrate gets requisitioned...

#catsoflitsy #picklescat

https://youtu.be/l33gmM4KWlg?feature=shared

My unboxing video this month is pretty rubbish because I'm exhausted and it's kinda showing 😅

On the plus side though NEW BOOK POT!!!!!!!!

And the book this month is very beautiful.

Those of you who have sharp eyes may also notice Pickles making a brief cameo 😸

Educating ourselves on the history of art.

Pickles says that whilst appreciating the vitality of Rubens' work, she finds it a bit grainy and aesthetically prefers the softness in the portraiture of Raphael...

Just kidding. She's a philistine.

#picklescat #catsoflitsy

I'm rubbish at remembering individual short stories, so allow me to present 3 of my favourite short story collections...

1) The Complete Robot (Asimov)
2) The Thirteen Problems (Christie)
3) Someone who will love you in all your damaged glory (Bob-Waksberg)

Thanks for the tag @The_Penniless_Author
#threelistthursday @dabbe

This is something that can be difficult to understand for people who are naturally cheerful, because what can be the harm in positivity, right?

Sadly, it can feel very lonely and alienating if it jars with your inner experience.

It's OK to stop trying to gaslight yourself.

I recommend cat pictures, self-deprecating humour, distraction, music, videogames, tea, ranting & light exercise instead.

Whatever gets you through!

You're not alone 🫂

This #blameitonLitsy purchase is turning out to be rather delicious!

It's like a skankier Jane Austen 🤣

Thanks for the tag @The_Penniless_Author 😁
#two4tuesday @TheSpineView 😊

1) I always end up playing the Two-Handed weapon wielding Orc-type character whenever I play D&D or Skyrim...

If Pokemon count, I'd be a Snorlax.

2) Harry Potter. That may be an obvious choice, but I'm sleepy 😄⚡️

Trying to read about the history of art when a wild Circlefloof appeared 😐

#picklescat #catsoflitsy

My copy of Ordinary Monsters is so enormous that I am considering buying a Kindle copy because it's so hard to hold up 😅

This was incredible. I was thoroughly absorbed from start to finish.

A dark exploration of what it might be like to be brought back to life as a clone, with added twists and turns. This is not really a murder mystery, nor pure sci fi, nor lit fic, but incorporates elements from each genre to create a stunning whole.

I couldn't put it down.

Which cover do you like best? US on left, UK on right.

Great title, cover, & concept, but I didn't get much out of this.

I left with little idea of who the writer is as a person despite being privy to her inner thoughts. She's a bunch of contradictions & the messy feel of this book might reflect her inner chaos or it may just be poor structuring.

Sometimes empathic, sometimes mean-spirited, in turn insightful and blinkered. There's no real conclusion, just the meanderings of a soul looking inwards.

Catsitting #pebblecat 💕

Would I shamelessly post pictures of my sister's cats for likes? I hear you ask.

Totally.

Top heart is Barnaby, bottom heart is Evie. Honorary #catsoflitsy 💕💕💕 and total snoodlefloofs.

Apparently Pickles pooped on the carpet since we've been away in Wales. Glad I missed that episode! 😅

This was a cute YA romance with kpop themes. It was OK, but didn't bowl me over.

Maybe my crusty old heart is just getting harder to warm, or maybe it was all just a bit formulaic.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

#pop24 - begins with X (also works for book about kpop)
@Megabooks @jenniferw88 @BarbaraBB @KarenUK @Kelly_the_Bookish_Sidekick @MissHel @AshleyHoss820 @Ruthiella @OriginalCyn620 @BookBelle84 @graciouswarriorprincess @WJCintron @Branwen @BarkingMadRead

Love my new Kindle Oasis so much. Don't have a cover for it so carrying it around in this Strange the Dreamer book wallet thing. Its ridiculously big, but look how cute it is 🥰🥰🥰

The TMI essay-memoir I didn't know I needed...

Having read 'wow, no thank you' I delved back into the Irby back catalogue. At first I thought it would be a flop (ENOUGH WITH THE RECIPES ALREADY) but it went from strength to strength.

'My mother, my daughter' made me cry in public, and some of the later essays made me laugh out loud.

Irby is the queen of oversharing and an essayist to watch.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Hello sexy... 💕

Thanks for the tag @dabbe 💕

- Sitting Pretty by Rebekah Taussig - an incredible piece of writing on disability activism

- Black and British by David Olusoga - a scholarly, tightly-researched work on the history of Black people in Britain

- The Body is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor - a book about how we as a society rank bodies and how to blast this attitude with self-love

Wanna play? @The_Penniless_Author @julesG @Yuki_Onna

I'm getting a bit of a whistle-shop tour of the history of architecture with The Story of Art.

Gombrich explains things in a simplified, narrative way that makes it easy to understand. I'm hoping this will help me when I go back to the more complicated books on architecture that I was struggling to digest.

I'm looking forward to getting to the paintings though.

https://youtu.be/gk1maXwYYt4?feature=shared

^ me talking about body positivity and reviewing this excellent book 💕

Hopefully Winter won't last much longer now 🤞🏻🤞🏻

https://youtu.be/XIewv7kCSAM?feature=shared

^ this month's Illumicrate unboxing video

Apologies for my appearance 😅 I should probably start making more of an effort, haha.

Does it feature Pickles? No... sorry.

False advertising? Yes... a little.

#catsoflitsy #picklescat

PopSugar Reading Challenge 2024: A book with an enemies-to-lovers plot

Faebound was straight-forward, cheesy, and obvious, but I absolutely gobbled it up.

I finished the book immediately needing the next instalment, so that's got to be a huge thumbs up.

I'm gonna round up to 4 stars because it's just what I needed, but I will reserve final judgement until I've read the whole trilogy.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Yesterday I stood on my Kindle.

Now it is just pens.

Cannot reset. Cannot use touch screen.

Just pens 😢😢

Where on Earth am I going to store these beauties?? 😵😵😵

Just a lovely book about a woman who befriends an octopus, and the friends surrounding them.

Sweet and moving, with a real sense of place, and characters I cared about, Remarkably Bright Creatures is feel-good fiction at its finest.

I loved Marcellus so so much. He made the book shine.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

#two4tuesday @TheSpineView 😊💕
Thanks for the tag @The_Penniless_Author 😁

1) Nearly 3 years ago I packed up my life in York and moved back in with my parents. 3 years?!?! What am I still doing here?

2) The tagged is one of my favourite books of all time. Apparently another adaptation has come out recently. I need to watch it because the film was cack.

Nandos! 💕💕💕