I love having a rare day all for myself- a bookstore visit and rose hot cocoa afterward at my favorite cafe. #CurrentlyReading

And my scream-laugh could be heard from outer space. #JaneEyre

The author's personal narrative here is not always overly compelling, but the account of the work undertaken is phenomenal. Theatre of War makes an ancient tradition alive and present on military bases, in hospice centers, carceral institutions, homeless shelters, mental health facilities and more, doing exactly what theatre, at it's best, is meant to do- challenge, inspire, heal, create community, and bring us into dialogue and reflection.

This was a mixed bag for me: when a one-night experiment between Ben and his bff Maxie yields a surprise result, Ben decides he wants to raise their baby. I appreciate the author flipping the script on teen pregnancy but this book absolutely stressed me TF out! My geriatric ass felt so deeply for poor Ben's mom doing the most to make her sweet but naive son understand the gravity of his choice. Glad I read it, but this one is firmly for the Youth.

A lovely summer picnic with the Betsy to my Tacy in an idyllic place requires the source material. #BetsyTacy #MaudHartLovelace

So true, so unfortunate, so completely funny. I've been very excited to start this, and even the dedication doesn't disappoint. #CurrentlyReading

This book features:
-An utterly despicable, spoiled man-child of a narrator
-Fragile masculinity and misogyny galore
-A 5-year-old child who says that "morning is healing" and describes the weather as "breathtaking"
-Not one female character who ever behaves like an actual human being instead of a pair of sentient breasts

But it also includes the passage outlined above and goddamn if my idealistic, theatre-loving heart didn't cry when I read it.

What object are we being compared to today, ladies? Why today we're key lime pie! 🙄 (I can't believe this is real, and I can't believe I continue to read it.) #MenWritingWomen

It might be a bit of a somber choice for poolside reading, but it's also exquisitely lovely and reminding me to just breathe and be and enjoy. What more could you ask for on a sunny Sunday free of any responsibilities? #CurrentlyReading

Backyard reading day featuring some lovely flowers and a criminally underrated Austen tome- Edmund notwithstanding. #PemberLittens #CurrentlyReading

I've been a Caitlin Moran fan for a long time, but this one didn't do it for me. I was skeptical from the start; I get frustrated with the line that women have it easier than men, which is where Moran begins, and I also think that many of men's problems - aggression, violence, emotional disconnection - result in great harm to women and shouldn't be our job to fix. I agree with Hannah Gadsby's brisk admonition to guys: "Sort your shit out." ???

I was already on the fence about this book, which I'll talk more about when I review it, but shit like this is not helping me to embrace it. Here Moran is addressing men's fears of being falsely accused of rape, and attributing those cases to nothing more than women being "crazy". Which sucks from a feminist perspective but is reprehensible from the perspective of understanding and reducing stigma again people living with mental illness. ???

Library of America really got me wrapped around its little finger... #BookHaul #NewIn

Added a new Chiltern to the collection today! Sadly I'm a smidge too late to enjoy it along with the #PemberLittens but I still can't wait to dig into this GORGEOUS edition. #ChilternClassics #BookHoarder #NewIn

I'm a big believer in the power of applied theatre, and was very excited to discover each of these titles in small bookstores as I traveled earlier this year. It feels like they'd be good companion reads so I'm starting now with the tagged book. We'll see where it takes me! #SeeMoreTheatre #DoMoreTheatre #ActOut

The surreal epilogue to last night's read: an imagined conversation between author and Bard, capturing so beautifully what I love about Shakespeare. ❤️

This was a re-read for me, but I liked it even more on the second go-round. Equal parts personal memoir, Shakespeare tutorial, and a meditation on kink, fetish, sex, and love, the author takes us through her journey of understanding and exploring her sexual identity and the ways in which Shakespeare's plays and characters illuminate her own life- and the ways in which her experiences color her interpretations of his work.

On Fridays, we drink and read YA. Congratulations on making it through another week, Littens! #BooksAndBooze

Randomly found a new bookstore when driving through a nearby town and of course I had to immediately swerve and stop in. I wound up spending way too much due to their banging Pride display which led me to this little gem (that I should have read years ago!). The main event here for me is the lovely friendship that springs up between Mark and Kate during one wild, random night in the city. A quick read and not particularly deep, but very sweet.

In the aftermath of WWII, forty-something Lucy Cottrell is weary of life in London and jumps at a chance offer to spend three months in the Swiss Alps. What starts as a restful holiday quickly turns into something quite different when visitors begin to descend. It's a very simple plot but a book incredibly rich in detail- the lush descriptions of scenic mountains, fresh air, and walks in the woods are irresistible. The very best armchair travel!

I'm a Percy Jackson fan for life, and a book centering my fave Nico? SOLD. The drama feels like it wraps up fairly quickly in spite of the length (did we need *that* much time with the trogs?), but I loved every bit of Nico facing his demons and he and Will's sorely needed Deep Chats. It got a little preachy for me at times, but all in all I love the unabashed queerness of the whole thing. So glad this was my kickoff read for Pride; go pick it up!

In 2018 I was on a disaster work trip full of cancelled flights at both ends and a dinner with people holding Very Important Titles in a restaurant so intimidatingly fancy that my regular-person ass cried in the hotel afterward from pent-up anxiety- but I was reading a Samantha Irby book and it kept me laughing. I'm listening to her new book on a work trip again, this time a bit older and wiser. But I still appreciate having her voice with me. ❤️

I had the good luck to catch Kimberly Akimbo on Broadway in January, and it's hands-down my favorite new musical of the season. I spent last night watching the Tiny Desk Concert over and over and crying too hard at it. This cast! This composer! These songs! Shout out to understudy Miguel Gil killing it in this performance. Join me in obsessively watching:
https://www.npr.org/2023/05/19/1175215859/kimberly-akimbo-tiny-desk-concert
#SeeMoreTheatre

Conversations with friends. #PemberLittens

Another one I bought in the winter with an eye toward a joyful spring read. Inspired by the life of Gwendolen Howard and interspersed with her own writings, this book tells the story of 'Len' who quits her life as a concert violinist in London to live alone in a Sussex cottage studying birds. Her relationships with her birds are deeper than any she shares with fellow humans, lending the story a slight melancholy- but it's also completely charming.

Here in Detroit, the weather is ever so slightly starting to turn to spring. Celebrating that today with some early flowers and a book I bought in the depths of winter, just to look forward to reading it in the fresh air with a little sunshine. So glad that day is finally here! ☀️💛 #CurrentlyReading

Three cheers for making it through another week! How are you celebrating Friday night, Littens? For me, it's a flowery vodka drink and an adaptation of P&P that I'm fairly skeptical about. Either way, the #BooksAndBooze combo is making my night! #PemberLittens

This week I pulled out the original recording of The Gospel at Colonus, one of my favorite pieces of theatre- a setting of "Oedipus at Colonus" as a modern parable within the frame of a Black Pentecostal church service. The music is incredible, and a gospel choir serves as our Greek chorus. It inspired me to re-visit the original, as well as Antigone- both still absolute bangers. And yes, that is a CD because the dream of the 90s is ALIVE, y'all!

Thought I'd start my latest #PersephonePick tonight but naturally, #TomKitten had other plans. 🖤 #CatsOfLitsy

One last day lecturing in this gorgeous place about the incredible life and art of Federico Garcia Lorca. In working on the opera "Ainadamar", it's been a gift to rediscover Lorca's poetry and plays, and to fangirl nightly about his theatre work with La Barraca. And after the performance? REST! #SeeMoreOpera #DetroitLove

This author's novel Queenie was my hands-down favorite of the year when I read it, and I've been looking forward to starting this one. Seems like the perfect thing for this sunny Saturday! #CurrentlyReading

I love being married to a reader- our Friday night date night is a trip to a bookstore, and then grabbing a coffee to read in companionable silence. Feeling ultra lucky tonight! #ReadingAboutReading #NewIn

I love having a lazy Sunday with nothing to do, and I especially love filling that time with my favorite Austen! I'm generally not a fan of the "radio play" adaptation but this one is better than many. I like the actor playing Wentworth and Florence Pugh is a fantastic narrator. And as ever, I'm struck by the complete badassery of Mrs. Croft; anyone else a huge fan? #CurrentlyListening #audiobook

Had to break out a decoy book so that #TomKitten would let me read. Anyone else have a pet who needs to be all up in your shit at all times? 😂 #CatsOfLitsy

Burnout is real, y'all. Not sure how to combat it aside from making the most of every rare day off. Today it means pj's all day and a new YA read, and it feels like bliss. #CurrentlyReading

Bring a new book home and immediately lose it to the cat! Life with #TomKitten. #CatsOfLitsy

Phew, this week has been over the top work-wise, and I'm not able to read as much as I'd like. But at least I have this audiobook for the commute! It's definitely my favorite of Alice Oseman's novels, and I'm living for the narrator voicing Angel and Juliet. Both characters spot-on. #audiobook #CurrentlyListening

Swing Kids but make it sapphic!!! OK, were you really a 90s teen if you weren't completely obsessed with Robert Sean Leonard and Frank Whaley stickin' it to Kenneth Branagh and Christian Bale by defiantly dancing away in WW2 Hamburg? So how could this book about queer swing girls fail to disappoint? I was fully sold on the premise and though I did enjoy it, the characters and action here feel very removed from the real horrors of the war. 👇👇👇

Seeing out the weekend with a glass of Gamay Noir and a title that's been on my #TBR for far too long! #CurrentlyReading

Oof, this one really got me. Young orphan Willie Maryngton dreams of being a soldier in WWI. Just as he's about to join the action, the war ends; years later at the outset of WWII, he is now too old for combat. This short novel packs a skillful punch- right as I started to become a little frustrated with our characters, the ending came along and turned me upside down. Don't investigate too much of this one beforehand- just read and enjoy the ride!

Finally knocked it off my #TBR! Laskin's account is hugely compelling for the most part - it slowed for me in the sections devoted to some pretty detailed meteorology. But on the whole, it's a harrowing account of a tragic, unforseen event in the midst of what was already a fairly grueling and bleak existence for so many. I appreciated the nods to Laura Ingalls Wilder without letting her stories, so well-known to me, overtake any of the narrative.

Will I ever not feel sadness upon finishing this book? Decades of reading it and the answer is a firm NO. First off, my BFF Laura growing up will always feel like a betrayal to my little kid heart, and second, it feels so wrong to leave her in a strange new environment after all previous books end with familial hearthside singing. I love this book, but it'll always be a bittersweet ending to me. (Yes, ending. The First Four Years? Don't know her.)

Enjoying a cozy Sunday with some #MiddleGrade titles. It's snowy here in Detroit, at last! Hope everyone is keeping warm and enjoying some down time. #KidLit #CurrentlyReading

I've been really wanting to read these as companion pieces, and January seemed like the time to do it! Though the two books are not about the same events (Laura's "Hard Winter" was 1881, while the Children's Blizzard came seven years later), they seemed like great books to read in tandem. Also curious to know if there are any other "Little House" kids who LOVE The Long Winter as an adult? No? Just me...? #CurrentlyReading

This YA love story between two girls at a Scottish boarding school was somehow exactly what I wanted to read in this moment. Amelia leaves her Texas home for a school in the Scottish Highlands only to meet and fall in love with a fellow classmate- who happens to be a princess. So much about this was utterly ridiculous (Scottish royal family?!) but I don't care one bit because it was sweet and fun and silly and don't we just need that sometimes?

I've been in NYC for the last few days, mostly to see some great theatre, but I've also had the chance to visit a few cool bookish sites, too- the Drama Book Shop, 1804 Books, the Argosy Bookstore, and the JP Morgan Library (pictured). I have too many thoughts about Morgan's life and his unending thirst for acquisition to try and get into it here; but this visit did inspire me to finally pick up the tagged book about Morgan's personal librarian.

I've been waiting two years to see this musical and I finally got to go today and THIS happened?!?!? The composer playing the lead, singing his own story, and entire company coming together to make sure the show still went on was one of the most incredible things I have ever experienced in the theatre. I am overwhelmed and grateful and gonna be re-living this for quite some time. #SeeMoreTheatre

I really should not have bought this but I'm also a million percent not sorry in the slightest! #BookHoarder #PemberLittens #NewIn

Add my voice to the chorus of absolute raves- this book is a stunner; staying up till 2 am to finish it on a work night is probably a huge mistake but also the only correct decision. This historical YA coming-of-age novel weaves together themes including McCarthyism, immigrant experiences, first love, and LGBTQ life pre-Stonewall without ever being heavy-handed. And the San Francisco setting is beautiful, too. A complete knockout, top to bottom.

Looked back at my 2022 "Books Read" list and here are my faves of the year! At the Pond and No One is Talking About This both moved me in really specific ways, and the Herzog was a gorgeous fever dream. Typically I wouldn't include a re-read in a #YearInReview post, but reading Wuthering Heights with the #PemberLittens was so much fun and truly one of my favorite reading experiences in a long time. Can't wait to see the stories to come in '23!