I started this book while waiting for my daughter at the library, and just finished the intro, about the widespread cultural impact of West Side Story, when I looked up and saw on the display in front of me, a book called A Place for Us.
![[tagged book]](https://image.librarything.com/pics/litsy_webpics/icon_taggedBook@3x.png){kind=icon}
A Place for Us: A Novel
I got 35% and had far more favorites than I expected! I don't generally think of myself as an 80s movies fan. I tagged “Beetlejuice“ because i watched it during a very depressed time of my life and it made me laugh so hard, I'll always be grateful for it.
I think I've watched all the movies on the list I want to watch.
Doing a hybrid #BookSpinBingo card this month. This includes five books from my #BookSpin list, including the BS and DS, plus a number of general categories. I'm too eager to read some of these to wait!
Had a good #BacklistReadathon month! Read books by D.E. Stevenson, Holly Black, Rebecca Serle, T. Kingfisher, Taylor Jenkins Reid and a story by Anna Marie McLemore.
My #TBRTarot read was Rebecca. (made into a movie twice.)
#ChildrensClassicRead2024
So fun to revisit Pippi! This is the edition I had as a child.
I read the 2020 translation in ebook and found some differences from mine. Pippi refers to “fly poop“ -- I was positive I had never seen that, and indeed it was “fly speck“ back in the day.
And while in the old translation, Pippi ate a “rosy mushroom,“ in the new one it's a “beautiful red death cap toadstool.“ I'm not sure which I find more appalling! 😂
A book I love so much, I will never, ever see the movie. I own a hardcover, gorgeous old paperback, and ebook. Back before it was reprinted and digitized I had a second emergency backup hardcover.
27. different time of year than Last Book.
28. different format than Last Book. (audiobook)
29. same source as Last Book. (library)
30. more words than Last Book's title.
31. same country or world as Last Book. (America)
32. published same decade as Last Book. (2023)
33. title has fewer letters than Last Book's title
34. title starts with one letter above or below the first letter in Last Book's title.
35. fewer pages than Last Book.
“She has big brown eyes, a gift for climbing trees, porch railings, and rock walls, and an insanely vexing habit of mixing up potions and leaving them all around the house to become murky jars of pond water and expensive wasted spices. Her pixie cut has grown out in quarantine into a sort of surfer-boy cut. I once asked her to invent the worst name in the world and her answer, almost immediately, was “Pubert Squelch.“
Didn't love either of my #BookSpin books this month, but I read them!
Also read three other books from my list: Alone Together, edited by Jennifer Haupt; The Other Half of the Grave by Jeanienne Frost; Serendipity edited by Marissa Meyers. And I didn't like them much either! I guess it's been a grumpy month, or maybe nothing can compare to a total eclipse of the sun. 😁
“Hours passed, like a kidney stone.“
The moments of wit or interest aren't nearly enough to make up for the curmudgeonly feel of the book overall, to say nothing of the casual racism, homophobia and transphobia. I originally DNF'd this and I wish I'd stuck with that decision, since I used to love this author.
#DoubleSpin
The narrator was excellent, with a charming Australian accent, and it seemed like a book that should be made for me -- boys falling in love! Online friendship! MUSICAL THEATER! --but I just found the story so dull. And kind of depressing, with the main character being bullied so much.
I've hung out with quite a few romance authors, though I don't know if anyone would have heard of them. (Erin Satie, Olivia Dade, Cecelia Grant, Megan Frampton.)
Got to meet Lois Bujold at a signing and have her sign a book for my mother-in-law, for her 80th birthday. Possibly her oldest fan, though who knows?
The author kept going to this well for far too long, IMO. I may read the second book though, just because it's narrated by Will Watt and I suspect he can make anything interesting.
Short comic about lockdown experiences, particularly for queer folk. Some are too true to be funny.
“And there ain't nothing y'all fear like hearing
the holy truth
pouring out of the mouth of some dumb hillbilly.“
pickThis first seemed too similar to the first book in the series, but then the plot veered and I wound up liking it much more. The characters are very relatable: both Russ and Rory have serious issues with their parents, but he's responded by trying not to attract any attention, and she's responded by acting out for negative attention. Working at summer camp together, they learn to trust and rely on one another.
“I don't trust poetry. You think you're reading about an intense love story, but then you find out it's actually about a shoe.“
Not a huge pick for me, but I liked it more than I expected to. Yay for sex positivity in New Adult romance. Main criticisms are breaking the fourth wall a little too much and a ridiculously perfect happy ending.
Can't remember all my justifications, d'oh!
Crochet ballet: 1950s housewifery complicated by the installation of a new kitchen. Knitting is involved.
Solar troller: Just the perfect book for this prompt. She calls him at the break of dawn and dispenses snarky insults.
Floral laurel: characters named after flowers.
Lupine goldmine: fields of yellow flowers.
Mortal portral: Yup!
Retail Greyscale: Shop with a very weird, creepy museum.
I made my card really easy this month, because I'm traveling. Considered just passing entirely for April, but where's the fun in that?
Well, this month was just sad. I read two books featuring professional skiers -- was there one ski hill cover? NOPE.
I got Big Fab Bingo!
Yesterday
Still Missing/Beth Gutcheon Loss, wistfulness, trying to hold onto the past
Get Back
Role Playing/Cathy Yardley Two people crushed by circumstances finding themselves again
Ticket to Ride
A First Time for Everything/Dan Santat Travel
My Guitar
I Must Be Dreaming/Roz Chast Surreal
Norwegian Wood
Til There Was You/Kathleen Eagle
Main character is a forest ranger and most of the book is set at his station.
#BookSpinBingo Another good month. Making a lot of inroads on my TBR. Of course, I'm also adding to it daily. 🤷🏻♀️
Friends, I am going to New York City! Any lesser known delights I should be sure to catch? We're going to see the eclipse and then my husband has business meetings, so I'll be on my own some of the time.
Starting off the #TransRightsReadathon with this short follow up to I Wish You All The Best.
Argh! I just downloaded the ebook of this to check something and discovered it has AUTHOR ANNOTATIONS which weren't included in the audiobook! So now I have to read the whole thing again! 😂
“The Manhattan Phone Book (Abridged)“ by John Varley (found in the collection Blue Champagne.)
“Best Seller“ by P.G. Wodehouse (From Mulliner Nights IIRC)
“Unknown Number” by Blue Neustifter (originally posted on Twitter.)
I'm trying to get the Litsy app for my android phone because I'm going to be away, and it's not findable in the play store and the link on the Litsy home page doesn't work. Anyone know what's up?
19. different source. library-> owned
20. more letters than Last Book's title. 12->14
21. set in a different region of that country. Small town -> London.
22. same genre. historical romance
23. title are the opposite color. gold/blue
24. at least five years newer. 2017->2024
25.set in a different country or world . US->UK
26. shorter. 384p->283 p
27. has a higher GoodReads or StoryGraph rating than Last Book. 3.91 -> 3.94 (cut it fine!)
A soft or maybe mixed pick. This story is like a very slow and looooong train wreck. It's got a weird structure, an enormous cast, and a lot of nervous anticipation. But it's also got intriguing family dynamics and characterizations, and very strong depictions of love, addiction and grief. I don't regret the 6 or 7 hours I put into it.
#BookSpin #DoubleSpin
#MiddleGradeMarch
I honestly don't know what to think of this. Perhaps I'm too old for it or maybe -- since it was recommended by my mom -- not old enough.
This is the second time I've been surprised to realize Maynard is more than 10 years older than me, because her depictions of life during the time I was growing up are so authentic. This is a suspense story, loosely based on real murders in Marin county, but also a vivid and fascinating look at unsupervised adolescence. The family relationships are loving, flawed and sometimes deeply sad.
#BacklistReadathon
1. I chose my own name! My birth name started to feel childish to me and had other associations I didn't like. I chose Willa for a number of associations but one is in honor of my theater teacher, whose name is Wilma. Though I utterly hate when anyone calls me Wilma. 😁
2. IIRC, I read the tagged book on my 40th birthday, and it put the name “Willa“ into my mind.
This could be considered cheating for the #BacklistReadathon, since I have read the original novella before, but this new edition is three times as long, including a second novella and an epilogue for both. It's two touching stories about Edwin and Marius, long time lovers who weren't able to stay together but go on to form meaningful, healing relationship with others. Lots of drama, especially in Marius' story, because he is ornery AF. 😂
“How are you so smart?“ I asked, suddenly confronting myself with the fact that a cat was typing and understood theories of class and labor. “No offense, but your brain is the size of a walnut.“
HOW ARE SO MANY HUMANS SO UNINTELLIGENT? Hera typed back. THEY HAVE BRAINS THE SIZE OF SEVERAL WALNUTS.
Again, I'm so glad #BookSpin got me to read this; as someone who's in both autistic spaces and parent spaces, it was just the book I needed. The authors, with commentary by other autistic advocates, demonstrate how to build bridges between two communities that often feel very at odds, but have the same basic goal: the well being of autistic people.
This was... pleasant. Despite the title and general look, it's low-conflict, and I mainly kept reading because there wasn't any particular reason to stop. A couple of plot points irritated me towards the end, but if you just want something that goes down easy, and isn't embarrassing to read in public 😆 it's in Prime reading right now.
A combo of memoir and comic pieces, largely about the internal conflicts of being gay and growing up Evangelical in the South. I think my favorite bit may have been about God creating the world while working for a ruthlessly capitalistic heaven, but many parts had me laughing out loud or close to tears.
Do get the audio if you can; I suspect his work loses something on the page.
Really enjoyed this geeky and queer romance between two middle-aged introverts just trying to be themselves, which read kind of like the inverse of the standard small town romance.
And I somehow -- okay, many graphic novels -- filled my #BookSpinBingo board during this short and exceptionally grueling month!
#BacklistReadathon : enjoyed Between Georgia by Joshilyn Jackson, DNF'd Tell the Wind and Fire by Sarah Rees Brennan
A soft pick, for fans only. I didn't care for the lack of structure here; it's just interviews pieced together, some read by the people who actually said them and some not. I found it a bit confusing, and I wasn't that interested in the parts that weren't directly concerned with the making of “Airplane.“ But once into that, it was very interesting and often funny. Plus, #ISpyBingo 😁
Happy to have finished both my #BookSpin and #DoubleSpin for February! So far this year I've read five of my original books and DNF'd 3. Take that, TBR!
(Don't ask me how many I've added...)
I gave myself a choice for #15 because I really didn't want to take The Encyclopedia of Fairies off my list, but my library hold may not come in in time.
Fun graphic novel revenge fantasy, taking a sly swipe at literary men.
#BookChain
“search Instagram and you'll find more than sixty million posts tagged with #SelfCare. They run the gamut from beachside yoga to triumphant mommy blogs to 'curative' smoothie recipes. If we use social media as our guide, self-care appears to be... anything that looks good in a photo?“
I'm glad #BookSpin finally got me to read this; it's suspenseful and surprising, and I loved the authentic look at online bonds.
Interestingly both of my spins for this month featured true conscious AI, and both are very positive portrayals. I wonder what ART and AI/CatNet would think about the regurgitated nonsense posing as AI now.
