Welcome to Litsy!

Happy New Year!!!! 🎆
Starting off this year like I finished the last…behind (still working on December‘s #FoodAndLit. But the German Cabbage and Sausage is a New Year‘s Day tradition).

This line hit.

I was sceptical at first but it turned out a very different and interesting read! Especially the villain's motivations were something unexpected and I liked the philosophical questions behind the overall story.
Could've been 50 pages longer to tie up some of the loose ends, but maybe there is a direct sequel planned?
???/5
Also I got "99 Red Balloons" stuck in my head for the next days?

#foodandlit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

I really wonder sometimes...when people research books and incorporate words from foreign languages...does anyone check those at all??

Well, nobody cared to check the German words in this one. Not even little bit...on the bright side: I'm still laughing at "freundschaftsbezeigungen" which is not a thing. German famously allows you to lump words together, but they have to be actual words.?

Does someone share this specific bookish problem??

4.5/5 ⭐️ I really loved these characters and the magic of this world. Only complaint is that there were multiple points that weren't wrapped up and it ended on a cliffhanger. There is a second book but it is not a continuation of the story but new characters in the same universe.

#FoodandLit Buddy Read Germany 🇩🇪

Hello #FoodandLit Buddy Readers! 🇩🇪

I'm quite enjoying this book! I like the different POVs and the magic. I have an idea of who's tampering with the balloons but we shall see. Thoughts on this one?

repost for @Catsandbooks & @Texreader:

Final #FoodandLit #BuddyRead is The Girl with the Red Balloon 🎈

This is a casual read-at-your-own-pace buddy read. Anyone is welcome to join! Please let me know if you would like to be tagged in the check-in posts.

For 2023, instead of buddy reads we will have a large book list that everyone can add to in order to help you find books for each country!

Final #FoodandLit Buddy Read is The Girl with the Red Balloon 🎈

This is a casual read-at-your-own-pace buddy read. Anyone is welcome to join! Please let me know if you would like to be tagged in the check-in posts.

For 2023, instead of buddy reads we will have a large book list that everyone can add to in order to help you find books for each country!

Not a shabby (or shallow) view.
#bookncoffee

“What oppression like this did was inhibit individual connections. Personal connections created a community, and community wasn‘t the opposite of individualism. We were collectively a whole made of millions of moving parts, each of us our own gear interlocking with another gear and turning the world a little farther in the right direction.”

#QuotsyAug19 | 5: #Balloon

📷: Made with Typorama

A slow build, but I enjoyed it better by the end. Btwn Ellie & Kai's investigation into the use of magic balloons to murder & scenes from WWII, this can be a pretty heavy & somber read. Locke builds good character relationships, & explores the reasons why people make the choices they do, whether it's to resist, run away, fall in love, or do things that seem unthinkable. Not the right time for this book for me, but maybe the 2nd in the future.

Finished (FINALLY!) The Girl with the Red Balloon earlier this week. I was excited to read this book, especially after meeting the author at the NoVaTeen Book Festival this past March. The book took a great twist near the middle as it turns into something of a murder mystery, but the book doesn‘t really stick the landing. In general, the book spins its wheels a lot.

My favorite this month was The Girl With the Red Balloon! #aprilwrapup

While most of this novel, so far, has taken place in 1988 East Berlin, there are also chapters set during 1941 Poland. The Poland chapters are difficult to read. There is nothing glamorous or romantic in this part of the story. This is not a criticism. Locke simply captures the grim state of this part of the world in WWII. #ColdWar #WWII #YA

Tonight's our wedding anniversary, so I'm getting my #BookandBeverage in early for #SpringintoReading. Hubby loves me in all my nerdery, but he will draw the line at me posing my Kindle next to the wine at anniversary dinner! 😂

This second chapter works so well even though it switches from Ellie‘s POV to Kai‘s. Some writer‘s might use Ellie‘s ignorance of the situation as a way to explain what‘s happening, but Kai‘s POV actually works better here because of all the things he does know and doesn‘t share right away with Ellie. #POV

The Journey to the Past Panel was so interesting!
“I like to set my books in a time period that‘s at a precipice of change” Katherine Locke
“The line blurs between research and procrastination” Robin Talley
“History is like a Hydra” and “The irradiated water worked fine until his jaw fell off” 🤣 Libba Bray #NTBF19

I‘ve been doing a lot of Cold War research during the past year, so Katherine Locke‘s reference to JFK (without directly mentioning him) has already won me over. Looking forward to hearing her speak at this Saturday‘s NoVaTeen book festival. #NoVaTeen #NoVaTeenBF

"The Holocaust happened not because of one person, but because of many people believing in an ideology promoted by a charismatic man at the right time and place, and millions of people colluding. History is not singular. Events do not happen in a vacuum."

"The people never mentioned in history books still made history."

Sometimes you spend hours (?!?!) making a list of all your TBR books and then spend another 30" looking for ANY of them on OverDrive.

Well... Guess I'll just pick a random for my first read of 2019.
Hoping it's a good one!

I really enjoyed this book - normally I avoid books about the Holocaust (Night and Schindler‘s List destroyed me) but this was done in such an interesting way that it just drew me in and kept me reading. After reading this and The Night Circus I‘m realizing that books about magic just entrance me and make me so happy. Those two books are my favorites I‘ve read this year and I need to find more like them!

Friday - When I share one of my blunders from the week and allow you to laugh along with me, with the intention that you feel better about your own (and if it is bookish I share it here on Litsy too):

Yep, that is paper from the sharp white cheddar cheese in my sandwich. Yep, it took me a few bites to realize. Yep, I was reading. #BookNerdProblems #ForRealFriday

I have a to do list a mile long yet snuggled up reading just trumped every single task.

This was a Big Library Read pick, which made me curious enough to read it. Plus, it has magic in it. I'm a sucker for magic!
Ellie sees a red balloon and grabs it. She instantly time travels to 1988 East Berlin where the world is still chaos and the wall is still intact.
To put it simply- balloons are a magical way for people to be saved from death. Ellie wasn't supposed to be sent back in time.
Parts were confusing, parts were intriguing...

Read as part of the #biglibraryread and was greatly surprised. 😊

I read this through the Libby app after hearing about the #BigLibraryRead
I enjoyed the magical, heartfelt story. I took the advice of the author to reread chapter one when I finished. Superb advice. #LibraryEBook

A wonderful #biglibraryread

I just completed this from the library Big Read. The ending was not what I expected, but it was perfect. The time travel element was interesting. I could have done without the F-bombs, but other than that, ⭐️⭐️⭐️

“Fear was the foundation to all types of walls...” TRUTH

Oh. Oh this book. I'm not going to be able to tell you what I think about it without giving spoilers, so please just read it yourself. It's... It's beautiful and tragic and brilliant
#biglibraryread

Likely to be finishing this today. It's such a brilliant book, I thoroughly recommend taking part in the #biglibraryread to get it immediately

Hi. Has anybody heard anything about this?! I opened my Libby app tonight and this was the first thing I saw. It seems like a pretty awesome program! #biglibraryread

I'm not far off finishing this #biglibraryread already! It's brilliant, I thoroughly recommend it

Starting this tonight.

This seems outrageously cool. https://biglibraryread.com

Any Littens doing this? #biglibraryread

Change of plan! Since Circe is the book for next month, I'll postpone it until then. Instead I'm taking part in the #biglibraryread for the first time. Never even knew this existed!

#YAWednesday

📷: Google Books

Has anyone read? I‘d love to hear reviews 🤗 #bookmail

Loved this one about a modern Jewish girl who goes back in time to East Berlin in 1988, and how another girl saved her grandfather from a Nazi death camp.

So many quotable lines in this book! I really enjoyed it.

I was in a local public library‘s teen room co-leading a workshop on using fanfiction to get better at writing when I tripped and fell and this book somehow came home with me.

Reading & tea on a rainy day 👌🏼 Finally feeling like fall after a week of summer weather, which I love in the summer but starts to feel wrong once the leaves have started falling. 🍂🍁

(Also, hi Litsy! It's been a while)

Oh my gosh this book blows me away. Locke wrote some really beautiful words that touched my heart and made me cry. Ellie is the granddaughter of a Jewish holocaust survivor visiting Germany in present day. Magic happens and she time travels to East Berlin in 1988 and lives 6 months in a whole different world. I loved every single character in this book as they all had their purpose and were amazing. It's gorgeous. I highly recommend this book!

"But it didn't feel like enough for me. That people had to suffer so the wheels of history could turn. It didn't feel fair. There had to be a way to help the people around me now, before the protest and the wall came down and reunification happened."

Might as well be 2017, people still suffer... What is this life?

"The people never mentioned in history books still made history"

1. Northern NJ
2. The Girl With the Red Balloon by Katherine Locke
3. What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons & Goodbye Vitamin by Rach Khong
4. Nancy Drew mysteries
5. ???
6. When We Set the Dark on Fire by Taylor Kay Mejia

#letstalkaboutbooksbaby