This was a fun, gossipy , “oh no! She didn‘t!” kind of read about three British-Nigerian women living in London whose close friendship is severely tested by the arrival of Isobel, also mixed race, but as one character put it, “the worst kind of Nigerian - entitled, pretentious, vulgar…” The end took me by surprise 😳! Nigerian cuisine is often featured and because there are three recipes at the end, I‘m using it for #Booked2022 - contains recipes.

Thanks for the tag @Cinfhen 😊

#Two4Tuesday

1. To never tire of rereading them might be too much to ask for, but I find certain classics well worth re-reading: Jane Eyre, Pride & Prejudice, Bleak House, The Hobbit…

2. All About Eve Nigerian style!

With every positive review on Litsy, I grew more curious. Now I‘ve finally read it! I loved this family saga which concentrates on the lives of the upper class Cazalet family in late 1930s England but also gives insight in to the lives of their servants and factotum. Reminiscent of books like The Forseyth Saga yet in a style all its own. 400 plus pages but it reads fast. Tagging those Littens whose reviews encouraged me to pick this up! Thanks! 😊

#WondrousWednesday Thank you for the tag @Areader2 😊

🌸Pretty much! It‘s rare there‘s a day when I don‘t read at least a page or two.
🌼 I don‘t have children and I don‘t watch television. Reading is my main hobby/entertainment.
🌺While I read it infrequently, mystery is my go-to comfort genre-particularly Agatha Christie.

If there‘s a Wayfarers hole in your reading life, this might just be the book (clearly the start of a series) to fill it! Captain Larsen and her ragtag crew are catapulted into adventure when they board the bio ship “You Sexy Thing”. The sentient ship was my favorite character!

I‘m using this as my entry for #Booked2022 Hope Punk novel. Also my second completed book for #20in4. Thanks for the rec @Centique ! It was spot on! 👍🚀

I finished Our Wives under the Sea yesterday evening after work. Now I‘m on to reading new books which will hopefully be more fun! A Jane Austen mystery and Sci-fi recommended by @Centique #20in4

My last #CampLitsy read. A shortish book (228 pages) and yet it dragged for me. Once I finally got to the end, it was quite moving, however. Miri‘s wife comes back from an undersea expedition strangely changed. Interspersed with Miri‘s reminisces of how she and Leah met and fell in love is Leah‘s account of the expedition. I wanted more Vandermeer-like weird horror and less love story. And what was the point of Miri‘s relationship with her mom?

#WondrousWednesday

1. Hardback 📚
2. Inside 🪟
3. Fall 🍁

If anyone feels like playing, consider yourself tagged!

This was Erdrich‘s 1984 debut, a novel in stories and it put her on the literary map. Full of heart and pathos and featuring the lives, loves, and trials of the extended Kashpaw, Pillager, Nanapush and Lamartine families on and around Chippewa reservation in N. Dakota.

#RememberingJenny In 2020 Jenny took part in the Erdrich Medicine Readalong on Instagram. I spent many happy hours in the Reading Envy pub and thought of her while reading this.

A soft pick. Not too much of a mystery since the crime, criminals and their motives are revealed fairly early on. I think this is more an exploration of class in America wrapped up in a fictional “true crime” book. The narrator (who has a bit of an ax to grind) moves back to small town Maine, only to discover that one time lobster fisherman is now rich and a major benefactor…only no one quite knows where the 💰comes from. Read for #JubilantJuly

This is my #JubilantJuly stack while I try to keep cool 🥵. I‘ve got The Midcoast on my kindle at 30% read. The two #PemberLitten titles, Excellent Women and The Completing of the Watsons I‘ll finish this weekend. Next week is super stressful with work and other unfun stuff. But I‘d like to at least get a few chapters into Our Wives Under the Sea for #CampLitsy and Love Medicine for #Roll100 and #RememberingJenny. ❤️

#Litsyhumor 😂😂😂

I‘m counting this for #Booked2022 “New in 2022”.

This is my second read from Chaon and I think he might be a new favorite. His books are creepy and complicated in a way which really appeals to me. This one is about an aging hit man/cleaner/courier who‘s so off the grid, he doesn‘t even have a legal name. When he discoverers he has a daughter, he thinks he‘s being conned…or is he? Set in a believably discomforting near future America.

Unfortunately I couldn‘t get a DSP edition ebook & was too cheap to spring for the paperback so I had no introduction. I thought this was mostly pro-Empire war propaganda (published in 1940) with two weakish romances. Sorry fellow #FurrowedMiddleBrowClub friends 😣. I can‘t fault the book for being of its time, but the rah rah Britain can do no wrong stuck in my craw, knowing the future. Kudos, however, for not painting all German‘s as Nazis.

Thanks for the tag @Eggs 😊 #ThoughtfulThursday

1. Books by the same author are together and I separate NF from fiction and SFF and mystery from the rest.

2. I have shelves in every room except the kitchen and bath.

3. I read ebooks from the library but rarely buy them. When I buy, it‘s usually because I want to keep it in physical form and when available, I choose hardbacks.

Wanna play? Consider yourself tagged! 😃

Thanks for the tag @Eggs ☺️ #Two4Tuesday

I. My number goal is to read 100 books and I‘m on track for that. There are a couple of challenges where I‘m falling behind, however.

2. Reading what I already own is always a goal and challenge!

If you are reading this and want to play, consider yourself tagged! 😃

Holy ‘90s nostalgia! A time travel novel which is at its heart a love story between a parent and child. Alice was raised in NYC by a single father whose claim to fame is an incredibly popular time travel novel that was also adapted into a successful TV series. On her 40th birthday she travels back to 1996 on a pivotal night.

All the references to other time travel narratives in the book were fun. Sweet story with a good message. #CampLitsy

Here‘s my wrap up for #Booked2022 Spring edition:

👑 Real or fictional royal - Fool‘s Errand

📰 Written by a journalist - Say Nothing

🌍 Author born in Africa - Purple Hibiscus

❓Make your own prompt - The Family Chao

⚓️ Nautical novel- Post Captain

🔪 Murder mystery- Bullet Train

My last book for #Booked2022 Spring edition. Prompt: author born in Africa. This was Adichie‘s debut. I thought it was fantastic. A coming of age story set in late 20th century Nigeria during a military dictatorship and political unrest. Narrated by 15 yr old Kambili, she loves and fears her tyrannical father. When she and her brother Jaja visit their aunt and see a different way to live, their lives are changed forever with tragic consequences.

I‘m glad this book introduced me to the song “Hunger” by Florence and the Machine but otherwise I wasn‘t that impressed. The descriptive writing was fine but the profanity laden dialogue was boring and I never cared about the characters or found them or their fates interesting. Not my kind of book. #CampLitsy

Hello #Furrowedmiddlebrowclub friends! This is a reminder that our July 2022 pick is the tagged title. Read at your own pace and share your thoughts with us as you are inclined.

Any Littens not tagged but want to be, let me know. 😊 All are welcome!

Thanks for the tag @Klou ! 😊 #WondrousWednesday

🐚 It‘s a mix of books I own combined with reading challenges and following book prize shortlists. I try to keep a balance of new releases and backlist/classics.

🐠 I think I am probably too harsh at times. My judgements are purely subjective, mostly based on how a book made me feel.

🐢 Today I am grateful for my friends.

Humor & satire are tricky things in novels. I appreciated the author‘s message and I did chuckle a couple of times, but overall it wasn‘t my thing. I found it too earnest generally. My preferred satire draws blood (Think The Trees by Percival Everett /The Sellout by Paul Beatty). Also, the main character was too unbelievably dense often only to propel the plot. I did like the side characters, however & I‘m glad she ended it realistically.

#20in4

My only goal in this #20in4 Readathon that starts NOW, is to finish Disorientation, which I am not loving 😐. Satire and humor are tricky and this book is missing the mark for me, but maybe I will love the second half? Once I finish it, I have a ton of books I‘m just itching to get to: Sorrow and Bliss, Your Body Made a Fool of Death, This Time Tomorrow and Our Wives under the Sea.

I fell of the #Roll100 wagon but hope to hop back on in July. I‘ve already read Fool‘s Errand 🥳! I definitely want to get to Purple Hibiscus because it will also work for #Booked2022! We‘ll see if I can also squeeze in Love, Medicine among the #CampLitsy books I have to read...it would also work for #RememberingJenny since she had a Louise Erdrich project a couple of years ago. How I miss her!😢

Thanks for the tag @EadieB ! 😊. #WondrousWednesday

1. Excellent question! Maybe Mrs. Danvers from Rebecca? 🤔

2. I can‘t remember the name, but The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell made me sob. 😭

3. Lots of authors are from California, but Kem Nunn and Rachel Khong are from the same corner of Southern California as I am. 🌴

The 2nd Aubrey–Maturin book did not disappoint. The battles are weirdly thrilling even though I don‘t know my main sail from my mizzenmast. Jack and Stephen‘s friendship nearly comes to an end over a woman and Jack‘s luck seems to be at an all time low hounded for debt on land and in an impossible ship on sea. The restart of the Napoleonic wars will either make or break him.

Read for #Booked2022 Nautical Novel @ #RoaringWolf category “Flag”.

I had to postpone my trip on Bullet Train but now my journey is finished. What a ride! Very cinematic and violent with plot twists and turns. Five(?) assassins are aboard the high speed train between Tokyo and Morioka. All have conflicting assignments from the Japanese underworld. Not all are necessarily who they appear to be. Who will make it off alive?

#JoyousJune
#Booked2022 Murder Mystery

Wow. This follow up to The Idiot is similarly funny in Batuman‘s trademark dry, deadpan style, but at about the 2/3 mark it got dark and sad for me. The protagonist, Selin lives her life as if she were a heroine in a 19th century novel and my heart ached for every stupid decision she made. Batuman is such a smart writer. I think she is doing something big and Proustian with these books.

1st book finished for #JoyousJune & also read for #CampLitsy

Thank you for the tag @Roary47 and @MoonWitch94 ! 😊 #WondrousWednesday

1. The tagged book is set mainly at 1997 Harvard (Massachusetts, USA) but with side trips to Turkey and Russia.

2. Last 5 ⭐️ read was a re-visit of The Hobbit.

3. I‘ve preordered Kate Atkinson‘s upcoming novel Shrines of Gaiety.

Pardon me while I drop all three planned books for #JoysofJune and instead start Batuman‘s sequel to The Idiot for #CampLitsy!

Honestly, I only read up to page four and was already laughing. 😂

These are the three books I‘ll be making my way through for the #JoysofJune Readathon!

Waiting for the audio of Post Captain to be available from the library. Until then, I‘ll stick with the print.

Disorientation was a #CampLitsy longlister that I wanna really read even though it didn‘t make the cut!

Bullet Train‘s hype has me curious! Plus translated Japanese fiction is something I virtually never read. Time to expand my microcosm!

Thanks for the tag @RaeLovesToRead , @Eggs and @Klou ! 😊 I pick

Swimming pool 🏊‍♀️
Ice cream 🍦
Paperbacks 📖
Road trips 🗺

#ThoughtfulThursday

Feel like playing? Consider yourself tagged!

Coming of age story about Mallory, a lonely coed who has an affair with a older, married female professor her freshman year of college. This unequal relationship will have repercussions throughout Mallory‘s adult life. The writing style reminded me favorably of Katie Kitamura: deceptively low key with a lot unsaid under the surface. This was an impressive debut.

#Booked2022 “Make Your Own Prompt”

My prompt is “Modern takes on Classics”. The tagged is a reworking of The Brothers Karamazov (which I‘ve never read) set in the present day with three second generation American-Chinese brothers and their domineering father and long-suffering mother. It took a while to orient myself, but once I did, I was hooked. Family ties, secrets, lies, plus a murder! I‘m quite keen now to read the Dostoevsky original too!

I enjoyed this novel in short stories about a plague that ravages the earth‘s population, an earth already like our own, beginning to show the consequences of environmental abuse caused by humans. It‘s not a cheerful book by any means, but it‘s also not completely devoid of hope. Some chapters were stronger than others, but on the whole, this is a solid pick. 👍

#CampLitsy

⭐️ No. I‘ve read books that have made me curious,but I‘ve never visited a place only because I‘d read about it.
⭐️⭐️ Unfortunately, I have once or twice read a book a second time without remembering at first that I‘d actually already read it! 🙊
⭐️⭐️⭐️A favorite author is always a reason I will read their books, no questions asked. But generally I rely on synopses to influence me.

#WondrousWednesday

Thanks for the tag @Eggs 😊

Thanks for the tag @PaperbackPirate ! 😊

#Two4Tuesday

1. If “moody” means depressing, then no. I don‘t like depressing books. For example, I‘ve never read Tess of the D‘Urbervilles. I‘m not sure I could take it. But if “moody” means atmospheric, then yes!

2. The tagged book is wonderfully atmospheric and in that sense, moody. The Cornish coast, Manderley‘s East Wing that no one uses, creepy Mrs. Danvers, Rebecca‘s memory haunting the pages...

Excellent story from multiple perspectives which illuminates the richness and history of Deaf language and culture in the US. The main characters are Charlie, a teenage girl with a faulty cochlear implant learning sign language for the first time and February, the hearing child of Deaf parents who is now headmistress of a school for the Deaf. Highly recommended! 👍

#CampLitsy
#20in4

I am so happy to have tomorrow off work and Monday is a holiday. I am a little busier than on a normal weekend/day off but still hoping to get some pages read! This stack is my most recent library haul. I know I won‘t finish all but hope to at least complete the tagged by the end of this #20in4 readathon.

Thanks for the tag @MoonWitch94 😊

#Two4Tuesday

1. I love Dickens‘ supporting characters! Some favorites are Mr. & Mrs. Bagnet from Bleak House and John Wemmick from Great Expectations.

2. I prefer strong supporting characters! They enrich the story, IMO.

Thanks for the tag @ravenlee ! 😊

💠 Reading the tagged book with the #Pemberlittens

💠 I have it both on audio and in ebook from the library.

💠 I think it‘s probably ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

💠 I occasionally use the highlight function on the kindle but I don‘t write or underline in physical books. I sometimes use a sticky note when I want to keep track of a quote for later.

#ThoughtfulThursday

#WondrousWednesday

1. I have a back and front yard, but I am not much of a gardener - only plants which thrive upon benign neglect survive. 🌺

2. If I ever decide to get into proper gardening, I‘d love to grow both vegetables and flowers. 🌺

3. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett . 🌺

Thanks for the tag @Eggs 😊

What can I add to what my #FurrowedMiddlebrowClub friends have already posted so astutely about this book? 😃

Nesbit was primarily known for her children‘s books and while this was aimed at adults, it definitely also has a smidge of a fairytale to it. Set just after WWI Jane and Lucy leave school, only to discover their guardian has squandered their inheritance. Undaunted, they look on the bright side and forge a new (and more exciting) future.

Now that I‘ve finally read ‘em all, I can post my #Booked2022 Winter edition summary:

1. About a cult or religion-Cultish
2. Title repeats-The Sea, the Sea
3. Set in China-Do Not Say We Have Nothing
4. Weather term in title-Cloud Cuckoo Land
5. From Black owned publishers-Maud Martha
6. Non-patriarchal society-Outlawed

Now on to the rest!

What do Scientology and Soulcycle have in common? A targeted use of language to create community, ritual, meaning and a common sense of purpose. This book was fascinating and thought provoking. My biggest take away is the concept of “thought terminating cliches”. I‘ve been subject to them but also guilty of using them myself! 😱

#Booked2022 - Winter edition - About a cult or religion.

My readathon goal is to finish all three of the books I‘m in the middle of at the moment. 🤞

#MarvellousMay

I used The Millions “most anticipated” book list and whittled it down to these for the Tournament of Books Summer Camp 2022. I don‘t read a lot of front list books, so it was a bit of a struggle to choose but now I‘m totally excited to see what makes the cut! 🐓

#CampToB2022 #SummerCampSuggestions2022

Read for #Booked2022 Spring - Written by a Journalist. It was interesting to see how the disparate threads would match up in this nonfiction account of an abduction and subsequent murder in N. Ireland in 1972 backgrounded by the rise of the Provisional IRA. It was a difficult book to digest at times because it‘s a complicated situation which has morphed now, decades later into an all too fragile peace. I thought it was excellent, tragic & honest.

1. I dream about characters or plots from books I am reading all the time!

2. I‘ve read Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice three times each.

3. My priority for May is reaching and enjoying Memorial Day weekend! I took Friday off work too.

#WondrousWednesday

Thanks for the tag @Eggs