"Sometimes life can pull a lot out of you, Althea. Just squeeze you dry. And if you don't have a way to get back whatever's good and precious to you, it's like losing your soul." 4 siblings, damaged in different ways by the early death of their mom and a volatile, often-absent father, have to learn to find forgiveness and a way forward in this novel about the messy love, loyalty, and resentment coursing through family dynamics. Highly recommend.

😢😢🌩🌧 My beautiful day turned stormy, and I forgot I left my book on my patio 😢 A wet, swollen book is a sad sight.

Finally getting started on my Mother's Day gift. It's a beautiful patio-reading day 🌞📚🐞🌻

Wow. I got drawn in quickly! The premise is wild, yet so believable. A fundamentalist govt creates the "Pure Movement"& passes laws putting women back "in their place." Trackers limit females to 100 words/day through electric shock. It's a cautionary tale about the dangers of ignoring extremism when we could speak up then finding it's too late. The conclusion is rushed & becomes an action story, but I definitely recommend it in spite of its flaws.

3 stories, set decades apart, of families fleeing their homes intertwine in this powerful book. Though the 3 families are from different eras and regions, their stories are tragically similar. The author challenges humanity and the current rhetoric about refugees and immigrants by illustrating the desperation humans face when we choose not to embrace those who are suffering. It's an important book for YA readers and future decision makers. #YAL

This follows the lives of the Jongas, immigrants from Cameroon, trying to live out the promise of the American Dream. A secondary story of the Edwardses, the family of a Wall Street exec, highlights the pitfalls of striving. The Jonga husband/wife disagree about America vs Cameroon, staying vs going, & the best future for their children. It explores what it means to be happy, what it takes to be home, & what it is to dream of better.

I read this as part of a book club with others at my school. We have had powerful discussions that have helped me get to know some of my colleagues better and have helped me form a vision for where we need to go as a school. I am blessed to work with so many amazing educators who care passionately about our school, our kids, and our profession. I'm excited for next year!

3rd book expands Binti's universe as she continues to absorb & embrace identities and cultures, finding that seemingly opposite people and worlds can live not only together, but within individuals. It weaves politics, sociology, science,math, psychology, and a coming of age story. Okarafor creates vivid creatures & worlds,evoking classic sci fi (think Weinbaum and Clarke)while addressing core issues in our society, like intolerance and sexism.

No second-book slump with this gem! Angie Thomas did it again, creating characters we fall in love with, telling a story we need to hear, and using language in powerful ways. I will recommend this one as loudly as I recommended THUG. In other news...The sun is out, things are greening up, tulips are budding, and I'm patio-reading once again 🌷🐞🌞📚 I adore spring in the midwest 😍

I really should quit doing this to myself. I swear off Jane Austen retellings, but then one gets lots of buzz on social media, and I get sucked in. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it. It was clever in places and cringy in places. Typical of an adaptation.

Super excited that our school librarian snagged me a copy of this for the weekend! Hoping to get it done tonight so I can put it back in circulation Monday. It's been a hard one to get my hands on 👐

My reading life has taken a hit over the past weeks, but I finally was able to spend some time on me. This book story centers around a unique protagonist, Lauren Olamina. Although only a teenager, she sees the coming demise of her world clearer than any adult and begins to prepare for an uncertain, dangerous future in an America that has collapsed into chaos. The storytelling is compelling and disturbing. I highly recommend this.

Perfect combination for a Saturday afternoon 📚🍺 I may have found one to add to my favorites list. Oh, and the book is good so far too 😉 @phatsallylee @Jilly6183

Thank you, thank you @phatsallylee ! I love it all so much! Sorry I wasn't home yesterday to open it, but what a great way to start my morning!! I'm excited to dive in to these along with some recommended beverages from the east coast! #BBSRedacted @Jilly6183

It's an excellent novel, but a tragic story that blurs the lines of love, loyalty, and family. Most of the time I wasn't sure who to root for, as the characters are complex and flawed but human.

12 inches last night on top of the 6 we already had. The Interstate is closed down and the county has pulled the snowplows off the roads due to blizzard conditions. Upper right picture shows the doors to my school 😯 Just came in from digging our vehicles out of the drifts, and now I'm in front of the fire trying to thaw. Rest of the day/night = a fire and a good book. ❄❄#snowmaggedon

This book was a lot of fun! The bitchy back and forth among the school moms, the snarky, hilarious voice of Bernadette in her correspondence, and the smart insightful voice of her daughter Bee, all made for great dialogue and storytelling. This book reads so quickly, I was near the end before I realized it. This was another instance of "right book, right time."

There's so much to process from Book 2! 😯 I'm loving the cultural struggles and complexity of the worlds Okorafor has built. I'm looking forward to seeing how she ties it all together in Book 3!

Original and intriguing, and for a novella, it touched on a lot of topics, such as tradition, intolerance, social class conflicts, and war. Hopefully the next two in the trilogy explore those topics more. I'm excited to continue reading about this powerful female character.

Toni Morrison
Jane Austen
JK Rowling
Edgar Allan Poe
Ray Bradbury

I love this challenge, but wow this was hard! @britt_brooke

Looking forward to starting this one as I settle in for the night. #fridaynightbookclub @JoScho @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Oh how I loved this book ❤ It's a beautiful novel about loneliness and abandonment, resilience, the majesty of nature, and love. One of the best aspects of this novel for me was the author's ability to capture time and place. I was there as the story unfolded...and what a beautiful story it was.

Today's much better than yesterday, and this weekend it's supposed to get up to 40° Mother Nature is drunk again 😂 @wanderinglynn #hellothursday

This book was fantastic! It pulled me in immediately with a wonderfully written prologue and kept me hooked through the layers of small town drama and periodic flashbacks from multiple perspectives. It worked well to have parallel mysteries, decades apart. I would definitely read this author again! Thanks for recommending it as my next read @Mitch @Librarybelle @LapReader @gradcat @BarbaraBB !

Wow. Reading this book is a journey, a trip through through time, place, and all the emotions. Boyne is a master storyteller. This is the best novel I've read in a very long time. Highly recommended!

School is cancelled today and tomorrow for the ridiculous wind chills, so I'm probably not moving from this spot for the next 48 hours 🔥. I'll be finishing up The Heart's Invisible Furies soon, but I'm having trouble choosing where to go next. What advice can you give, Littens? #isthisthenorthpole?

It's ridiculously cold. For the next week, we are to have the coldest temps we've had in more than 20 years. Wind chills of 50 to 60 below are predicted for Wednesday...for goodness sake. I may not go outside until spring, so it's a good thing I have a seriously big tbr stack, including my latest Half-Price Books haul.

I had no idea that Mary Shelley was a) the daughter of feminist and author Mary Wallstonecraft, and b) led such a tragic life. How did I miss this in all my college lit. classes?! I feel like someone owes me some tuition money back 🤯

This is a good YA fantasy novel. The characters were interesting, the plot unpredictable, & the world building complex. That being said, it didn't live up to the hype for me. In talking with fans, I expected to become really invested in the story & characters to where I couldn't put it down and would want to dive right into the sequel, but neither held true. Again, a good book that I think suffered for me from too high of expectations.

Colorful characters and an engaging storyline make this an enjoyable read. The development of the town reminded me a bit of Beartown, and the character of Britt-Marie was a little reminiscent of Ove, but for me, this one comes in a distant third behind Backman's two other books I've read.

The inside glimpses into her childhood, her young adult life, her marriage, her family, and her life as FLOTUS help us to understand both the magic and the everyday qualities of the Obamas. I found it a wonderful read that took me through a range of emotions and reminded me of the hope I once felt and know I will feel again. I highly recommend this read!

I use book shopping for therapy when my daughter goes back to college. 😔

This YA book has won a ton of awards, and now I see why. There's nothing else like it out there. It's an adventure, it's historical fiction, it's a little mystical, and it's a fantastic romance between two male teens. It also tackles topics of race and sexism in the 18th century. This was 500 pages of fun! #YAL

@Jilly6183 is hosting a unique swap that looks like loads of fun. Even if you don't sign up, the sign-up form is worth a visit and a read 😂. Go to her page to find the link!

I fell short of last year's totals, but I read some fantastic books this year!

#ReadInTheNewYear #NewYearEats

There's a little over 6 hours of 2018 left here. My wild New Year's Eve plan: making progress on these two books, playing board games with the family, eating homemade pizza, and watching the countdown shows. 🎉🎉🎉📚📚🍕🍕🎲🎲♣️♦️♥️♠️🤗 #ReadInTheNewYear #currentlyreading #hour1

In Alice Walker's foreward to this book, she states, "We are being shown the wound." Hurston documents her interviews with Cudjo Lewis, the last known survivor of the last known slave ship, which brought him to the US in 1860, 50 years after slave trade was outlawed. Told directly in Cudjo's dialect, Hurston as narrator is barely present, choosing instead to let the old man tell his own story: a story of tragedy and loneliness. #ReadInTheNewYear

This books is fantastic! While the writing is geared toward a YA or even middle-grade audience, it is worth reading for all ages. The history of women's suffrage in the U.S. is told through the the stories of the activists who led the cause. I've read a decent amount on the topic, and still found new information in this. The tone is inspiring, and ultimately, the book is about more than history; it's a call to continue fighting for equality.#YAL

✅Jane Austen as crime-solving heroine
✅an intriguing mystery
✅Well-researched period references
✅abundant and vividly described Christmas traditions from period setting
✅interesting characters based on Austen's actual family and contemporaries
= a perfect Christmas break read
🎄🎄🕯🕯🎁🎁🎍🎍

Here's my 18 best of 2018. These also represent my first year on Litsy, as this month is my joining anniversary 😊. #18in18 #18in2018

It's a quiet night before tomorrow's chaos. I hope all my Litsy family find moments to slow down and appreciate the simple joys of the season. I appreciate this community of readers so much! Happy Christmas, all!

Thank you, @BethM ! I'm so excited to read Parable of the Sower, and the malted milk balls, Lindt chocolates, and hot chocolate...gah! Thanks, @MaleficentBookDragon for organizing this fun #jolabokaflodswap ! Merry Christmas, all!

Sorry I'm late, but my #jolabokaflodswap package was received a few days ago and sent out yesterday. I feel terrible that I sent it out later than planned, but I'm crossing my fingers it gets there on time. Thanks @MaleficentBookDragon for organizing!

This was super cheesy and not exceptionally well done as a mystery, but it was fun, and I enjoyed it. It made me roll my eyes more than once, but it also made made me nostalgic for this dynamic duo.

This Pulitzer-Prize-winning King Lear retelling, which is set in my home state (and mentions my relatively obscure home town a couple times), has been on my tbr for years. It's every bit as dark and twisty as you would expect of a book based on a Shakespeare tragedy. The characters are complex and rather unlikable, but the imagery and description are fantastic, and plot surprised me many times.

Get out there, friends, if you haven't yet. Don't throw away your voice.

McCourt's prose is a little tough to follow at times, leaning periodically toward stream-of-consciousness as he tells stories of his teaching career. He mocks himself frequently, blending sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking, stories of the students and adults he encounters as he navigates his way through the world of educational pedagogy and philosophy.

I love the concept, but I tend to be tough on Austen adaptations. This is a story of home, family, tradition, and roots more than a love story, but that's okay because the former is done well. The author isn't as passionate about the love story, so it's sweet, but not necessarily powerful. The character of Darius (Mr. Darcy) is flat. Still, it's worth the read, and I applaud any effort to reignite interest in the classics. #YAL