In Rome near our flat, it looks to me like this statue has just lost a beloved character in his book and needs to take a moment to reflect.

I‘m looking forward to giving Mind of the Raven a second chance in paper, since I bailed on the audio. Thank you Holly! I‘m excited to read all of these. It‘s perfect timing for The Marriage Portrait, she‘s the #AAM for July. And I love mango, about to open this treat up. 💕

@Mitch I love the flower themed birthday gifts, thank you! I‘m going to bring the journal for travel notes in Italy 🇮🇹. 💕

As you can see, Venkman has claimed my birthday gifts from @AmyG 😆. He‘s going to read Demon Copperhead first. Thank you Amy! I can‘t wait to dive into these. 💕 I‘m going to use the dachshund to hold bookmarks, it‘s perfect for that!

Your package came yesterday @AmyG , thank you! The little mouse candle holder is so cute 🥰. To be opened soon- first caffeine ☕️

My May wrap up.
Books I loved this month: The Great Believers, The Bone Shard War, The Language of Butterflies, Body of Work, Ducks.
The only one I didn‘t really like was Void Star.
🖤📚🖤📚🖤

I have enjoyed other books by both these authors, so I‘m not surprised I liked this one.

It‘s got a lot of info about trans and nonbinary identities and terminology, which I think is great. I felt like in some places the “teaching moment” overcame the story a little, but I think that‘s due to how much I regularly read on those subjects. I hope it finds audiences who will learn from it.

Definitely still a pick for me.

Happy May! Time to pull out our Ursula K Le Guin books for #AuthorAMonth. What are you planning to read?

#AuthorAMonth is a no-pressure, no-commitment Litsy challenge. The goal is to celebrate the works of a particular author each month. Authors were chosen through polls by Litsy participants. Read as many as you like, skip months when needed, it's entirely up to you! ⬇️

I was excited for this when I read the blurb. It‘s about a woman in her 70‘s who runs 2 “wee bookshops” in New Zealand. She had a very tumultuous life before settling into her bookselling role.

Unfortunately the writing was lacking for me. While many interesting things have happened to Ruth, she just grazes over events without allowing much emotion to show through.

There are cute snippets of interactions with customers, the best bits.

Big CWs

I got your package today @Mitch 😃🎂 Thank you! I‘ll open them this weekend.

Like others have said, I don‘t feel guilty rereading a favorite, and my happy-place book is The Starless Sea. I tend to read it every fall.

A song for the guilty pleasures playlist that stays stuck in my head forever: Call Me Al by Paul Simon. If you‘re my age and watched much MTV, you know how fun this music video was. My husband and I BELT this song when it comes up on our playlist. 😁

Of course I actually listened to the audio, because I love her inflection and hearing it in her voice.

I hope her book covers will always be in this bright with animals format, and that she‘ll do many more.

This felt like a frank hang out with a good friend. Good stuff!

May is drawing to a close #AuthorAMonth readers. 🙂 I hope you‘ve enjoyed reading Erik Larson‘s books.

Do you have your Ursula K Le Guin books ready?

Now may be a good time to update your Google form tracking your #AAM reads. If you haven‘t started your form yet here is the link to do so:

https://forms.gle/TeytXus8tg53LGnk9
⬇️

I got your package today @Hooked_on_books , thank you! I‘m going to admire them on my mantle until next weekend. Since I‘ll be gone on my actual birthday, I‘ll open them a bit early. Yay!

Since I‘ll be traveling in June my #Bookspin list is mostly things already in my kindle and very short works, with the exception of #AuthorAMonth, #CampLitsy, and bookclub reads. 😁✈️📚

In the acknowledgments Klune says he wished this were the book he had spoken to his sensitivity readers about, but the world isn‘t ready for that book. I think maybe that‘s the book I would have liked to read?

This was a low pick, almost less than that. It makes me sad to say that. It just doesn‘t have the same heart for me as Cerulean Sea and Whispering Door.

If you‘re letting “puppet” in the title hold you back, don‘t. The relationship ⬇️

It‘s a perfect day for patio reading!

Every month #NaturaLitsy brings a wonderful nonfiction nature book into my life and I‘m so glad!

Fascinating and fun to read, I really enjoyed this month‘s selection. Thanks for organizing @AllDebooks , looking forward to discussing on Saturday.

Okay, everyone should read this. It‘s a beautiful story of friendship and love and complicated life and art in the 80‘s in Chicago, in a gay community at the height of the AIDS crisis. It‘s so touching and frustrating and heartbreaking and I really loved it. Great very real characters with messy real lives, and I just wanted to hug them and hang out with them and cry with them. Thanks for bringing this book into my life @AmyG 💕

What a fascinating world Andrea Stewart created in this trilogy! A world of floating islands, with magical creatures of multiple kinds, elemental magic, and plenty of political upheaval. Terrific characters, several I got pretty attached to. It was totally worth the year-ish wait between each book. I‘d recommend it, and I‘d read it again.

I discovered book 1 through Jenny Lawson‘s Fantastic Strangelings bookclub (through her Nowhere Bookshop.)

This isn‘t what I was searching for on Libby, but boy did I laugh when I read the title. And yes of course I tagged it to read at a later date. How can I resist a title this ridiculous? 📚😆

New release day! This‘ll be up next on my audio list, can‘t wait.

I love that she continues to have these bright background animal covers on all her books. 🧡

A pretty good dystopian, though I don‘t think it‘s one that will stick with me. I‘d call it a low pick, #borrownotbuy.

Hi #authoramonth readers 👋. May is halfway over already. Can you believe it? I hope you‘re learning interesting things with this month‘s nonfiction author Erik Larson.

June will bring us to Ursula K Le Guin, so start finding her on your personal shelves or putting in those library holds. I‘m excited for some sci-fi/fantasy! 📚

#weeklyforecast @Cinfhen

My week of reading looks great! The top row are in progress and I‘m enjoying them all. If I can finish Bone Shard and Camp Zero I‘ll move on to the bottom two much anticipated. 🙂 I‘m using Great Believers for #booked2023 #setintwotimeperiods.

Montross reflects on her time as a medical student in the dissection lab with three other students and their cadaver subject, whom they dub Eve. She goes into class unsure what her feelings and reactions will be, and I thought beautifully combined her personal experience with the history of human anatomy study and anecdotes from her life.

I know it‘s very niche, but great book if you‘re interested in the subject.

Maybe the best graphic novel I‘ve ever read. I didn‘t know much about the oil industry in Canada before reading this.

Kate wanted a quick way to pay off her student loans, so she got a job far from home at the Alberta oil sands where she knew she could make a lot of money quickly. No one warned her about how difficult the isolation and the misogynistic treatment she‘d be subjected to would be.

Content Warnings

I think this is a case of wrong medium for the book… I listened to the audio and was confused at the beginning with the number of characters and the complexity of the plot. I suspect I would have liked this better in print.

Interesting themes of AI and renewing youth to the point of almost immortality. There is a ton of detail, easy to get lost because of that.

This is a graphic novelization of the novella Rain from Joe Hill‘s Strange Weather collection. I didn‘t realize that when I bought it and when it immediately felt familiar I had to look it up. Even so, I‘m glad I got to read this. The artwork is lovely, and I really like the characters and story. I mean it‘s lovely for horror😆. There‘s even a Sphynx kitty cameo (things don‘t go well for him though, if that‘s a deal breaker for your horror.)

This is the third part of a trilogy of photographic books that document the loss of East Africa‘s wildlife. I also read the second, A Shadow Fall, this weekend. The photos are remarkable, but of course the subject is heartbreaking. The author/ photographer started a nonprofit to help with protecting the parks there in the 2000‘s.

For you @dabbe 😁 and @hannah-leeloo I saw your post earlier.

I used to be a fire performer, pictured here with staff. But the things I‘m guessing maybe no one else on Litsy has done that I‘ve done are Fire eating and fire breathing. I toured with a circus doing this and Bellydance. The good old days, 😆🔥.

I hope some others will play along- what unusual thing have you done?

What a beautiful and unique book! It has a wooden cover with cutouts, and these beautiful illustrations, which are very old masterpieces that have been slightly altered to add the main character, Johannes, a wild dog.

A middle grade novel from the point of view of Johannes, who lives in a huge park and is friends with lots of different species of animals. His greatest joy is running and being free. I loved it.

Caleb and Camille Fang are performance artists. They do impromptu performances in shopping malls with audiences who are unsuspecting and probably never know that the chaos they‘ve just witnessed is supposed to be art. Their kids Annie and Buster are raised taking part in these fiascos.

Kevin Wilson is incredibly good at weird, while still giving me characters I care about and root for.

May‘s #bookspin, also #booked2023 for #weird .

I only heard of this when @Eyelit recommended it to me.

Being in the animal care field- currently as a groomer, but I‘ve been a shelter manager and a vet tech as well- I could absolutely relate to Dr Fine. If you‘ve ever wondered what it‘s like working with animals, or how those of us who do can deal with the grief of losing our clients (your pets, and our own), this is for you.

Have tissues. You will need them.
Content Warnings. ⬇️

Wow, I feel like each month my #aardvarkbookclub box shows up earlier. This sounds so good, and I absolutely loved Friday Black so I expect it will be. 😁📚

It‘s my Litsyversary! 7 years, wow! I‘m so glad to have this bookish place and all my Litsy friends. ☕️ Toasting with tea, Here‘s to many many more! 📚💕

My May #12Challenge book was The Poisoner‘s Handbook. It‘s nonfiction about toxic substances through modern history that have been used in murders and accidental deaths.

I felt there was too much chemical breakdown for my head to absorb, I guess a lighter version might have been better for me. Still, it was interesting, and touched on such things as arsenic, lead, radium, and Ethel and Methol alcohols.

May‘s reading wrap up 📚🙂 (and Venkman.)

Best fiction of the month: The Bandit Queens, Bernadette, and None of This Would Have Happened.
Best Nonfiction of the month: Wilding and Hijab Butch Blues.

The Bandit Queens takes first place for my April fiction #2023ReadingBracket. But it couldn‘t stand up to The Mercies from last month, or the winner for the year so far: Black Sun. 📚🖤🌞

My nonfiction #2023ReadingBracket was quite tough to pick this month! Wilding came out just barely on top.

Yet so far this year I‘m going with Just Mercy as the best nonfiction. 😅 whew, tough choices, all 4 of these were excellent reads.

Happy May! Time to pull out our Erik Larson books for #AuthorAMonth. What are you planning to read?

#AuthorAMonth is a no-pressure, no-commitment Litsy challenge. The goal is to celebrate the works of a particular author each month. Authors were chosen through polls by Litsy participants. Read as many as you like, skip months when needed, it's entirely up to you! ⬇️

Here‘s my #IndependentBookstoreDay haul. 🙂📚 Two of these were free ARCs (tagged and Vera). I bought more than I intended to, but can‘t say I‘m surprised by that 😆. I had preordered Lives of Puppets and Boneshard War.

It was an amazing day, so much fun.

Have you seen this new David Eggers? I started reading it there (at Book People.) It has a wooden cover and beautiful illustrations. It‘s from the point of view of a wild dog, fun so far.

Independent Bookstore Day was a huge success! I didn‘t know that Kinokuniya had stores all over the world. The Austin store isn‘t listed on Litsy, that‘s the one we visited, not the tagged one. Several of these were first time visits for me, and we went to Book People as well but I forgot to get a photo. Book haul photo tomorrow, I‘m exhausted and I‘ve got some reading to do 😉📚🖤. I definitely splurged, but what a great day!

It‘s today! @Eyelit and I have a whole day planned. I‘m so excited to get out and support a bunch of our local indies. Also vegan tacos for lunch. 😁📚 Photos and bookhaul posts tonight!

May is almost here already! Time to post my May #bookspin list. @TheAromaofBooks

I had a blast listening to this. These characters are fun, and I couldn‘t help supporting the ladies as they planned the downfall of the abusive men in their lives. I‘d definitely recommend the audio, terrific narration!

I thought this was a pretty good YA story about race and class in Suffragette era Atlanta GA. It had a few surprises I didn‘t expect.

We‘re headed into the last week in April already #AuthorAMonth readers. I hope you‘re enjoying your reads by Ruth Ware!

In May our author is Erik Larson. You may want to place your library holds or orders now. 🙂📚 I‘m ready for some NonFiction.

I think this is the only graphic memoir about WWII and specifically Auschwitz that I‘ve read. It‘s very good, but of course difficult subject matter. I‘ve wanted to read it for a very long time, and even more so because it‘s a banned book. Which is ridiculous. It‘s so important that people are exposed to this part of history.

I liked that the author was interviewing his dad to get his survival story, it gave context and a view of post-war life.

I loved this insightful audiobook. Lamya H writes about gender, sexuality, racism, religion, and just navigating life. I really appreciated her comparisons of events in her life and the lasting impression they have had on her thoughts and actions to the Quran.

I think her Quran stories were my favorite part. I loved the way she brought each character to life and tried to really dig into their experiences and emotions.

So good. 5🤩