Welcome to Litsy!

if you‘re like me & were sold this book as sapphic mermaids, that is false advertising to a criminal degree. this book really has no discernible plot. a family grows up on a magical island full of secrets. what kind of magic? you‘ll never know. what secrets? secret ones. why do people turn to statues on a cliff side when they die? no clue. the mix of folklore and magical realism was cool but also I might be dumb bc idk what happened in this book

One of my favourite things about autumn is the gloaming, the time when day is finally giving up its fight against the night, the sky is half spectacular colour & half midnight blue with the first stars peeking out. There‘s a breeze that‘s getting cold enough to put a jumper on and I could hit pause and just stay in that moment forever. Perfection. #Scareathlon #TeamSlaughter 6points #PointsTotal-897

Day 2: #7Covers7Days #CoverCrush

@GypsyKat I know you have some stunning covers in your collection - are you up for posting a beautiful cover each day for a week without an explanation?

Such a lovely and slightly magical read! Got a little creepy at the end, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Kind of a sad book, but a beautiful one. I really liked how fairytales were so important to the characters and the quiet magic.

Lesbian mermaids (perhaps), selkies (maybe), & islanders who most definitely turn to stone on a clifftop when they die—there are magical elements in this Scottish novel that is otherwise quite realistic in its setting & portrayal of family, siblings, grief, loneliness & first love. I love the fluidity; not knowing what to expect next in this richly-imagined story, layered with myth & real emotions & a prose style that gives me tingles. #LGBTQ

Added bonus for readers who love language: the chapter titles are either Scots words, or ballet terms, or boxing terms, AND there‘s a glossary at the back.

[Mara has read a book chosen for her by Pearl. I‘ve edited and shortened their exchange that follows.]

Pearl: “I thought it might be time for a change. A new story. A love story, maybe.”
Mara: “You think it was a love story?”
Pearl: “You don‘t?”
Mara: “It can‘t be a love story. At the end, you don‘t know if they end up together. Love stories have a happy ever after.”

The Ross girls were raised on fairy tales. The kind of books that would curdle your blood. Ravening beasts and handless maidens and hacked-off toes. Stepmothers dancing to death in red-hot shoes. Mermaids turning into sea-foam, ugly sisters having their eyes pecked out by birds, little red-hooded girls being eaten by wolves. All sorts of lovely things.

I‘ve read three novels in a row that have passages about jellyfish. What‘s up with that?
https://lindypratch.blogspot.com/2018/09/emma-hooper-esi-edugyan-and-kirsty.html...

(Photo by my friend Dee)

I splurged on a book depository order because the prices were so good! And I‘m super excited to get to reading these 😍 #bookhaul

My mum and I took a short day trip to the beach 🏝 today, thankfully most tourists were already gone. It was very quiet and the sea was astonishingly flat. We walked for a while and enjoyed the sun ☀️. At lunch time it started to rain (German summer!), so we ate fish and ice cream and returned home. I‘m nearly finished with #TheGloaming, and I like the feeling of sadness through the writing very much!
#Summer #beach #cover #holiday

HAVE A LOOK AT ALL THESE BEAUTIES💜.
Summer of Salt by Katrina Leno: a mysterious island, magical 🧙‍♀️ girls and lesbians!
Tess on the Road: character driven story with lots of feminism and some dragons 🐉
Circe by Madeline Miller: lesbian greek☀️ heroes and gods!
The Gloaming by Kirsty Logan: another mysterious island and lesbian mermaids 🧜‍♀️
#birthday #gifts #newbooks #coverporn

#Stack2 for the #24in48 #readathon is a pretty diverse bunch. Last time I was reading similar books & found I got bored so this time I have magical short stories-The Gloaming-horror-A House At The Bottom Of A Lake-thriller-Deep Water-crime-Closeup On Death & magical realism-The House At The Edge Of The World.

#BookMail Finally received my signed copy of The Gloaming from Goldsboro Books. Does anyone else have issues with their shipping times? It‘s not coz they‘re based in the U.K, book depository is too plus it‘s free snail mail shipping and they come faster! The book is gorgeous, plus I love the authors little waves under her signature.🌊🌊🌊

I am a bit torn about this one as I loved the magical parts but couldn‘t really get into the romance element. Logan does a great job in combining two worlds that first might seem at odds with each other but maybe I was really just looking forward to a story of magic. The mundane problems of love relationships then felt a bit tedious for me. But that‘s a totally subjective and maybe current mood related opinion. The book as a whole is wonderful. 😊

Spending the next week by the sea so what better book to start this morning than this one? Well, except for maybe To the Lighthouse (which I recently reread) or The Waves (which is also in my suitcase). 😊 I‘ve heard so much and can‘t wait to dive in (haha, see the pun? 🤪) Any Isle of Wight Littens maybe who wanna meet up? 😃

Oh, how I needed a book like this ❤️ a book that made me stay up way too late on a Sunday, just because I had to finish it. A book that made me forget about my deadline and my thesis for a while. A book about fairytales, “mermaids”, an enchanted island, love and grief.

All the dessert talk from @BarbaraTheBibliophage ‘s #sassySunday tag made me cake-hungry. So, after eating dinner I went on a cake hunt, and I‘m now enjoying my finds with my current read 👌

#currentlyreading #TreatyoselfSunday

#Riotgrams #day3 #FavoriteTitle I love the word “gloaming”. It‘s always been my favorite time of the day, as a kid we spent a lot of time driving to the beach or the river I always loved that time when you‘re packing up to go, the sun is sitting on the horizon, a breeze has picked up and you put a jumper on over your swimmers & sit on the rocks to watch the sun go down. Bliss. I borrowed this pic off twitter coz my copy is in the mail from the U.K

A #femaleauthor I really love is Kirsty Logan. She writes fairytale inspired novels and short stories, and so far I have enjoyed everything I have read by her. Also, her books are normally really, really pretty 😍

The tagged book is still on my tbr, but if you like fairytales-inspired books that are beautifully written, I can definitely recommend the other three books 👍

#ReadingResolutions

This book was supposed to take much longer to get here and I thought I wouldn‘t get it before my trip. 😍 it‘s so beautiful! It‘s a naked hardback and I just want to keep petting it.

New in. Isn‘t it pretty?

So, I might have done a thing. While feeling sorry for myself at work, a little e-mail just wanted to let me know my favourite online book seller was doing a #WorldBookDay sale. So here‘s to that #bookbuyingban 😂

Technically, I‘m breaking my ban, since I‘m not under 20 unread books yet, but some of them are preorders, so they won‘t be delivered until May. Hopefully I can get under 20 before that, so I‘ll win my bet with my bf 😄

#bookhaul

Today‘s amazing sunset, the last rays of a golden sun peeking through my library window.

This mystic time the poets call the gloaming,
A lingering salute to end of day
Comes long enough to usher in the nighttime,
And welcome in the moon & star display

This half-light often brings quixotic dreaming,
Lulling noisy birds to join the quietude
A gift from god for those of lonely spirit,
Bestowed on them to bless their solitude

Joyce Johnson.

This book had some beautiful passages in it. These are just a few I felt I HAD to share. Feel the love Littens 💗💗💗

This story is a fantastical meld of folk/fairy tales and magical realism. I found it hard going to begin with but the story is captivating and I became so invested in the characters that I couldn't put my Kindle down until I'd finished it. A beautiful literary fiction that I recommend. 🌟🌟🌟🌟 and a half

#NetGalley #TheGloaming

Started this book yesterday evening - a #NetGalley ARC that is published on the 19th of this month. This is the second book in a series and I haven't read the first book so I'm a little confused at the moment but the writing is lovely and the story has captivated me, plus the cover is beautiful.

#NetGalley #TheGloaming #coverlover