It‘s my favorite time of year! The brackets are up for the 2018 Tournament of Books! #TOB18

https://themorningnews.org/tob/

#TOB2018 #TOB

Great sequel with lots of character growth & development and plenty of opportunities for the future. Recommended, but only after reading IQ first.

Congrats to Jesmyn Ward and Viet Thanh Nguyen on being named 2017 MacArthur Fellows!
https://www.macfound.org/fellows/class/class-2017/

This post by Frankie Thomas is for all you Latin lovers out there....

https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/09/21/human-life-is-punishment-on-the-p...

I read this and thought, yep, that describes at least 80% of the Texans I know.

The big guy isn't feeling awesome today, but he didn't want to miss out on #nationaldogday. #dogsoflitsy

Woo hoo! Look what just arrived!

#GoodreadsGiveaway #bookmail

This open letter from Sherman Alexie about his book tour just gave me chills. Sending healing thoughts his way. http://fallsapart.com/

Seriously, thank goodness for ebooks. #diverted

On the road again. ☹️ But on the bright side, at least I have my old friend, Harry, to keep me company on this trip!

I am almost unreasonably excited about my current trip to the airport since it marks the end of my 3-month-long marathon of travel. I will actually get be in my own home for one whole week for the first time since mid-January, which means I will also get to hang out with one of my book clubs for the first time since December. (Not terribly excited about the book, but that's beside the point right now.) Yippee!

Fun gift from a friend who just came back from Japan. Cool to see the subtitle approach in this bilingual addition (I guess I assumed they would just swap out the text in other countries) and awesome to have a friend who knows the books ALWAYS make the best gifts!

This is my most recent (but certainly not my only) #blameitonlitsy read. And it was awesome!

#GRABBYHANDS

There was no way I was going to put a book in the middle of this spread, but it was just too pretty not to share. I'm visiting friends in New Orleans and enjoying one of their (and my new) favorite Easter weekend traditions, an amazing crawfish boil. (They put in extra veggies for me!)

Seriously - why did it take me so long to listen to all you brilliant people? Why didn't I read this months ago? Loved it.

Still traveling a ton for work (& have just finished an insanely busy month without Litsy), but decided to take some time out to enjoy a night at the ballpark (not my preferred ballpark, but, really, traveling beggars can't be choosers). #baseball

And if you haven't read Chad Harbach's book, put it on your summer reading list!

I started crying (on an airplane) at page 20, pulled myself together and then started crying again 15 pages later (and then again 15 pages later...). Thank goodness this book is only 114 pages long! So very moving. This one is experimental and is full of symbolism & poetic references, but it's the emotion (particularly in the Dad's sections) that will stay with me. #ToB2017 #ToB17

So many parts of this beautiful book were like watching a dream or reading a painting - there is some amazing prose in here. This story of a lovely friendship in uncertain times jumps around a lot and at times it's a bit hard to follow, but the overall experience was worth it. (And Melody Grove was a terrific narrator for the #audiobook.)

@tpixie - Here you go!

Slow-burn, super smart, very human science fiction. Plenty of space in this book for so many cool & complicated ideas to develop and bloom. #ToB2017 #ToB17

Wish I could have loved this, but I didn't. Then again I'm picky & got annoyed with this one early on. If I'm going to have to look up what ormolu means & learn facts about 1800's ironing, then the author should google criminology majors at Princeton (nope) before flashing those credentials (twice) and avoid easy goofs like Georgette becoming Georgina. Decent but frustrating #palatecleanser. #feistyfeb

Lots of interesting and challenging ideas and characters here, but it just didn't come together for me. Overall it felt like many of the story lines incomplete or underdeveloped and the overall effect was unsatisfying.
#ToB2017 #ToB17
#lovetitles #feistyfeb

So I've spent about a week thinking about this one & still can't commit to anything other than a so-so. I can totally see how some folks might be crazy for it while others might actively dislike it, but I'm landing in the middle of the two extremes. I just wasn't blown away by it. #ToB2017 #ToB17

Still traveling, so this is what a #DeckleEdge looks like on the road. I miss my books! #feistyfeb

I am so grateful that today we have books like this one - they just didn't seem to exist when I was a kid. Bass Reeves was no joke. #blackhistory #riotgrams

Brackets! Woo hoo!
#ToB17 #ToB2017

If you haven't read this one yet, get to it!!

#alltheworldsastage #feistyfeb

Definitely a case of the right book at the right time. I loved this one!

Meant to post this yesterday, but I got distracted. My favorite #bookishgoods are these Out of Print totes. I keep several on hand & give them as children's gifts - just take the bag to a monogram shop (or someone crafty), have the child's name stenciled in the borrower line & drop a book in the bag if you're feeling extra nice. Cute "wrapping paper" & an excellent library bag! #riotgrams

Just okay. I think this one was either not weird enough or not developed enough for me to really engage with it. I really liked Anna (the mother/narrator), but I didn't like some the jumps the plot took in the second half. Those episodes felt rushed and/or unnecessary - I think this book would have been way more ominous & more solid without them. #ToB17 #ToB2017

Heads up, ToBers! Brackets are on the way! Just in time, too (for me at least), b/c I'm already wondering about which of the books I've read would make good first round v later round matchups. Any ideas on first round matchups? Anyone ready to call a winner yet? And on another note, what are the odds that I'm actually going to have to read SoK?
#ToB2017 #ToB17

When you realize crack cocaine is your favorite character in a book, that's a pretty good sign that you've found your #favoritevillain (and a talented author). Scotty isn't the only villain in this one, but he is definitely unique. #riotgrams

#changedyourmindabout

Probably the easiest #feistyfeb prompt of the month. Litsy totally changed my mind about social media! Thanks to all of you who make this place so amazing!

I don't make a habit of rereading books, but P&P is the one standing exception to that rule. I revisit it every few years and am never disappointed. (I rewatch movies all the time, though....)

#mostreread #feistyfeb

#onewordtitle #riotgrams

Surprised I haven't seen this one yet today for the #shadows (or in this case, #TheShadow) prompt. I never actually finished this book, but admit that I loved the movie. #feistyfeb

#whereiread? Wherever I am. Car, train, bus, boat, plane, standing, sitting, lying down, waiting, walking, running, driving (thanks #audiobooks!), sofa, chair, bed, floor, kitchen, living room, den, bedroom, home, hotel & in between. Really, did you even need to ask? #riotgrams

All of the sudden I'm traveling a ton for work, so here's my super sad hotel room #shelfie and my I-have-no-idea-what-I'm-reading-next-but-it-will-probably-be-on-my-kindle #TBR. #feistyfeb #riotgrams

So I finished this book by my self-imposed deadline (i.e., today) to move it from its 3-month stay on my TBR stack to my read stack, but I'm having difficulty sorting out my thoughts on it. Hence this quote. Weird, dense, unsettling. Not sure where I'll come out on this once I have a little more time to process it. #ToB2017 #ToB17

Um, my self-imposed Jan 31 deadline for reading The Vegetarian is, you know, tomorrow. So I guess I know what I'm doing tonight.

On another note, the big guy is not nearly as excited about my other upcoming #ToB reads as I am. Version Control is in the lead for my post-Vegetarian choice. #ToB2017 #ToB17 #dogsoflitsy

Not the strongest entry in the Longmire series, but still entertaining. I love these characters and the setting. My version of comfort reading.

Can't quite articulate why I liked this one so much, but I did. Sharp & often hilarious commentary on gender, class & race meets drugs/hookups/drugs/sobriety meets impending apocalypse meets totally meta storytelling. Sounds like a mess, but it's beautiful. Thanks #ToB for bringing this & The Feminist Press to my attention! #ToB2017 #ToB17

Uneven & unpolished, but still an interesting (enough) novel to keep me reading. In my opinion, though, almost every aspect of the story was incomplete and/or underdeveloped & the ending felt rushed. The ethical discussions felt like attempts to make the book deeper, but I just didn't buy it. I didn't hate it but thought it could/should have been better. Ultimately a little disappointing. #ToB2017 #ToB17

I seem to recall putting this on my OverDrive holds list many moons ago, but for the life of me I can't remember why I did that. In any event, the wait made me feel obligated to read it when my turn came around. Completely bland, typical Grisham. Going with the so-so because it's neither horrible nor great within its genre (even though this book deepened my dislike of the Grisham legal-ish, thriller-ish genre itself).

Surprised at how much I liked this one. I was a little unimpressed by all the jumping around among the 22 (mostly) white (all) male characters until I finished the book & realized Bachelder had been using relatively quick narrative strokes to create an emotional whole. Surprisingly tender story about male friendships & neuroses, ritual, change & renewal, and the comfort of being part of something bigger than yourself. #ToB17 #ToB2017

I debated using this book for 3 other challenges this month (#epistolary, #fortheloveoffonts & #bookwithinabook), but I decided to focus on its #endpapers (side note-the dust jacket is incredible, too.) This physical book was an amazing, interactive reading and design experience (if not the most exciting story).
#readjanuary

The King of cookbooks. #royals #readjanuary

This is the book that taught me to be really careful about how I respond to friends' book recs. A friend told me "hey, this is my favorite book" & I said "great, I'll read it." And I read it & HATED it. (Current reply: "oh, that sounds interesting.") This book also taught me that miserable reading experiences can be good investments in friendships - it's almost never a waste of time to learn about a friend's interests. #recommendedby #readjanuary

Finished this one last month but forgot to post a review. I think I would have preferred a single POV to the multiple POVs in this one, but overall a pretty good modern western. A little predictable, but I wasn't looking or anything too serious here. Not quite strong enough to be a pick.