This got shipped today! #jolabokaflodswap @MaleficentBookDragon 😊
Also I have received a package from @Amandajoy that has no hashtag, but I‘m assuming might be for #bestof2021? @candority or might be #wintersolsticeswap @Chrissyreadit @sprainedbrain 🤷♀️🎄🎁🛍
pickThis was a December bookclub pick. I thought the audio was well done. It‘s a great story, I really enjoy the idea of growing up around the developing dictionary and exposure to that level of attention to words.
I also liked the idea of the women‘s words, it seems like it would be tons of fun collecting those.
November‘s wrap up📚📚📚
I had a hard time deciding which book to list this under because they were all really good books! I couldn‘t choose a favorite between them. Some of these will definitely be on my best of list this year.
#NonFictionNovember- I managed 5 and one still in progress.
It‘s December, time to bring out our Isabel Allende books for #AuthorAMonth. What are you planning to read?
#AuthorAMonth is a no-pressure challenge, read as many or as few as you like. The authors were voted on by Litsy, see list for the year above.
At the end of the year there will be one prize box going to the person who read the most books. To qualify the books must be finished during the author‘s month. ⬇️
November is drawing to a close #AuthorAMonth readers. 🙂
Please comment below with the number of books by Carlos Ruiz Zafon you read. Or if you prefer to post a collage of your reading, just use the hashtag #AAMCRZ and be sure to tag me so I see it.
⬇️⬇️
What a lovely surprise @Kaylamburson ! Thank you for thinking of me 😊. I‘m looking forward to reading this, and I love the kitty bookmark. You‘re so sweet. ❤️
pickAs soon as I opened this book I felt I would like it.
In the late 70‘s the timber industry in Northern California might be grinding to a halt. Environmental science is proving that the herbicides used to keep the underbrush down so loggers can work in the redwoods is causing massive issues to animals, including humans.
I fell in love with the family who has always been in lumber as they come to grips with how their lives have to change. ⬇️
I‘m not really ready for it to be December, but I made my #bookspinbingo list anyway. 📚😊 Count me in @TheAromaofBooks !
What a way with words!
#AuthorAMonth readers, we are drawing to the end of November, and so our time with Carlos Ruiz Zafon.
Reminder that December‘s author is Isabel Allende. Time to pick up your library books or pull your own copies from your TBR. 📚🙂
Shew! I‘m impressed with myself for managing to get these out today.
#bestof2021 on its way to @ozma.of.oz (fyi the post office computer was confused by your address…. I hope it makes it to you ok!)
Other goodies headed to @AmyG @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Hooked_on_books and @Mitch . Fingers crossed they all travel safely and arrive in a timely manner!
#Plans.
@AmyG have you started this yet? I‘m 100 or so pages from the end and it‘s cracking my heart to pieces. I have to finish it this morning, everything else is on hold for the day.
@Hooked_on_books I see why you loved it.
pickThis will be my last for #nonfictionnovember.
Meg Lowman was the first scientist to dedicate her studies to the canopy- the very tops of the trees. She studies leaves, branches, life cycles of trees, which has led to studies on the creatures who live in and eat leaves. Mostly insects, but also birds and mammals.
Fun fact I learned: in many spider species the female is up to 100 times the size of the male 😱😬.
Another job I think I‘d love!
pickI received this book as a gift years ago. I picked it up now because I‘m looking forward to Groff‘s new book, Matrix.
I loved everything about this! It span‘s Bit‘s life from a child growing up on a hippie commune, to an adult living in a city and starting a family, into middle age as he moves back to his parent‘s house to care for his ailing mom.
Heartfelt and so real, Groff writes characters I feel all the way through. Great debut novel!
Who was doing Fiction/Non-Fiction #pairings? This was 100% accidental, but I find myself reading 2 books about the lumber industry and deforestation, conservation, and the impact of all of this on low income folks living in the Pacific Northwest of the US. On the right, NF, the left is fiction. Funny when reading life throws coincidences like this at you!
How are your Zafon books going #AuthorAMonth readers?
This resonates with me this weekend. I hope you all are finding time to relax, breathe, and find your own joy. 🥰🌾🍂🌻. Happy reading!
#AuthorAMonth readers, Allende is our December author. This is a kindle deal in the US today if you haven‘t got something lined up for her yet. 📚🙂
pickWhat if the drugs we‘ve come to know were gods, sort of like the gods in Clash of the Titans? And their goal is to get the mortals “worshipping” them to the giant party in the sky?
This is a great YA fantasy twist on the story of addiction, and the main character is Roxy, or as we know her, Oxy. She‘s not a villain, she‘s just doing what she‘s been created to do, right? Can she help it if sometimes things get out of hand?
👍👍 from me but CW ⬇️
pickI absolutely loved the poetic way Jahren writes about plant life. The beginning part in which she describes growing up in her Dad‘s laboratory made me laugh out loud. The many instances of “but don‘t try it.”
I found the parts about struggling to keep funding for her research disheartening. And of course reading about her struggles with depression too.
But really this was an incredible read, I‘m glad to have picked it up. #NonFictionNovember
pickCal Flyn visited sites all over the world where humans have left, for one reason or another, and nature is in different ways creeping back in.
Some high points- endangered sheep coming back from the brink in demilitarized Cyprus, pupfish in the Californian Salten Sea able to survive in water hotter and saltier than any other species, types of lichen which may be able to absorb heavy metals from contaminated war zone in Verdun, France.
“I remind myself: if one goes in search of nature in its wildest forms, you shouldn‘t expect it will be pleased to see you.”
The author visited Swona, Scotland, a small island off the tip of northernmost mainland Scotland. It was abandoned in the mid 1970‘s, and the cattle and rabbits raised there were turned loose and have rewilded. Flyn found herself attacked or threatened by Arctic Terns, seals, cattle, and Great Skuas.
This is the location⬇️
#weeklyforecast @Cinfhen
I‘m enjoying both Lab Girl and Islands, and hope to finish at least one of them today.
Damnation Spring arrived in the mail yesterday and I read the first couple pages, so I guess I‘m reading it now 🤣. It‘s nice when something sucks you right in like that though. Totally unplanned.
Embers and Roxy are cued up for my next audiobooks. And Exile and Pride is my last myTBR rec from my last batch.
If you participate in #AuthorAMonth and you like tracking your challenges on StoryGraph, guess what? I just made a challenge for us over there for 2022. Here‘s the link:
https://app.thestorygraph.com/reading_challenges/9b7b9b04-8cca-4f99-af82-a554d56...
Would you be interested in going back and entering this year‘s books? If several people would be excited for that I‘ll make a 2021 challenge as well. Comment below and I‘ll tag you for that.
It‘s been a slower reading week for me. NonFiction just takes longer to digest.
I hope to finish Islands of Abandonment this weekend, and maybe also Lab Girl. They are both excellent.
I picked up the second Percy Jackson to give my brain a break, but honestly I think I‘m going to bail on it… not connecting, so it‘s probably destined for my LFL.
I came across this on FB and it made me think of fall readers transitioning into winter readers. Made me think of my Litsy community. 🍂❄️🧡🤎🤍
I didn‘t think to take a photo of the box, but my #wintersolsticeswap package is on its way north! May it travel safely. #wss 🌲❄️📚
#AuthorAMonth
I have to say The Shadow of the Wind has some of the most beautiful bookish quotes of any book I‘ve ever read.
I hope you are enjoying your Carlos Ruiz Zafon readings. I can‘t believe the month is almost halfway through!
pickI really enjoy Jennifer Ackerman‘s writing style. This is her second bird- topic book I‘ve read, and I‘ve another on my TBR shelf.
Things I learned:
-House Sparrows aren‘t native to North America, they were brought by Europeans and now are among the most plentiful birds here. Mockingbirds also.
-Alex the African Grey parrot could understand a lot of human speech, and could answer questions about color, quantity, and more!
-So much more!
It definitely would have been nice to spend the whole day like this, but alas, I had to go to work. I‘ll be back to Venkman and this book in a little bit. Snuggle to be continued.
Has the last week really been so busy that I‘m only now getting October‘s wrap up posted? Yes apparently so!
I have to say all of these were really good.
We are a family who cherish our weekend naps together. I caught Sietje and my hubby in a cute moment when I woke up first. Sorry this is only book related because I went from here to the library to read until they woke up 💙.
Well now I‘m doing 3 swaps this winter 😊📚.
Go to @candority for more info.
I hereby announce the winning authors for 2022 #AuthorAMonth!
#AuthorAMonth is a relaxed reading challenge. There is no commitment. Read as many as you‘d like by the chosen author, skip months if you need to.
Litsy readers voted and these 12 authors came out on top 😊.
At the end of the year there is a prize box for “Most Read.” To qualify books must be finished in the appropriate month. ⬇️⬇️⬇️
pickCan I just send you over to @Megabooks review of this one, because it says exactly what I‘m feeling.
Yes, I was uncomfortable listening because I see myself in that title- a progressive white person perpetuating racial harm. I‘ve learned and I strive to keep learning. This isn‘t a thing we can learn once, it‘s ongoing education and we must seek out more ways to be better, all the time.
Excellent book, as is White Fragility. Big recommend.
pickI loved this just as much as the first one. A high school for magic wielding teens, filled with monsters, and most years a tiny percentage of the class makes it through the graduation hall that‘s just a basement filled with things that want to eat them? Yes please.
But Naomi Novik, your cliffhangers kill me! I‘m sure I have to wait another year for the next installment… This makes me understand readers who wait for series to finish to dive in.
pickRead by the author, Swan Dive is a dance memoir and Georgina- “Gina” or “Paz”- frankly discusses her over 20 years with New York City Ballet. She touches on the blatant misogyny and racism in the pro-ballet world, as well as her laundry list of falls (hence the title) and injuries. But at its heart this is a memoir of the love of the dance. Paz has had some amazing experiences, and I‘m glad she shared them. 💕
Yes! I‘m looking forward to both my #BookSpin and #DoubleSpin, and they both fit well for this month‘s topics bookclub: “Something You‘ve Obsessed About.”
Islands of Abandonment is about areas that people have moved out of and how nature is moving back in, which is something I‘ve spent a ton of time thinking about.
Kicked, Bitten, Scratched is my life as an animal caretaker. I‘ve done many animal jobs, currently a dog groomer. 🐕🐩🦮
It‘s time #AuthorAMonth readers! Here is the poll to vote for next year‘s Authors.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CSSFKWV
#AuthorAMonth is a no-pressure challenge in which we read books by a voted on author each month. Read as many or as few as you like. At the end of the year there is a prize box for “Most Read.”
There will also be randomly drawn prizes- everyone who has read at least one Author a Month book during the year is entered. ⬇️
pickThis book was amazing. I loved it. The audiobook is very well narrated, and the accents all sounded spot on to me.
I found Inty‘s condition of being able to feel physical sensations that anyone she is looking at is feeling incredible. I‘ve never heard of anything like that before.
Be warned- this is dark and shines a light on man‘s worst evils. If you need content warnings this likely isn‘t for you. See spoilers below.
It‘s November, time to bring out our Carlos Ruiz Zafon books for #AuthorAMonth. What are you planning to read?
#AuthorAMonth is a no-pressure challenge, read as many or as few as you like. The authors were voted on by Litsy, see list for the year above.
At the end of the year there will be one prize box going to the person who read the most books. To qualify the books must be finished during the author‘s month. ⬇️
Candy is gone, along with TONS of books! This will be a Halloween tradition for us. The parents were really happy about the book idea. I was happy to see so many middle grade and young adult books chosen.
#weeklyforecast @Cinfhen
It doesn‘t seem I‘ll be finishing either Once There We‘re Wolves or The Last Graduate today, so they‘ll have to carry over to November.
My next reads will partly depend on the #bookspin draw, but these two are cued up on Libby for #NonFictionNovember, so I‘ll likely start with them.
Happy Halloween Friends!
I can‘t believe it‘s already the end of October, the last day of #AuthorAMonth VE Schwab. I‘m so glad it seems everyone has enjoyed reading her books!
Please comment below with the number of books by VE Schwab you read. Or if you prefer to post a collage of your reading, just use the hashtag #AAMVS and be sure to tag me so I see it.
#AuthorAMonth is a no-pressure challenge in which we read books by a voted on author each month. ⬇️
pickI thought this was a fun mystery. I loved the setting and the characters. Mystery isn‘t usually my genre, but the characters made it for me and I will check out the sequel some time.
Content warning in spoiler comment.
My poor pumpkin Sietje isn‘t feeling well after getting her shots today, so I‘ll be spending the evening reading in bed with her. Hopefully a little TLC will have her back to normal in the morning.
I think my #bookspin list is ready for Nonfiction November! I‘ll probably skip on Bingo so I can relax into mood reading more. But as always I‘m excited to see what you pull out of the hat @TheAromaofBooks !📚📚📚
Can Sietje and I squeeze in one more spooky book before Halloween? We‘re gonna try 😁📚🖤.
pickWow. I loved this. It‘s historical fiction about the Dakota people being driven from their lands, having families divided by war, children forcibly removed to white schools and foster homes. Most chapters follow Rosalie‘s life from the 70‘s through ‘02, but some are about her ancestors and other women close to her.
It also speaks of how agriculture became corporate and how pollution has inundated the land.
5⭐️ and 👍👍 for me.
pickI grew up in the North Eastern US, and I feel like my education included learning about slavery in a way that was sensitive to the needs of children but also was truthful about it‘s horrors.
This book explores the history of slavery and how it‘s facts are entirely entwined in every region of US history. I feel it‘s a must-read, and I‘d love to see it become part of high school curriculums.
I‘d highly recommend this. 5⭐️
![[tagged book]](https://image.librarything.com/pics/litsy_webpics/icon_taggedBook@3x.png){kind=icon}
