Welcome to Litsy!

I really liked Beautyland and the Book Riot podcast folks love this one, so I figured I‘d give it a try. I made it almost halfway through but I just don‘t care. It isn‘t grabbing me at all. So, on to the next.

Needle felted the world‘s tiniest amanita while finishing up this audiobook. I enjoyed it a lot - the intertwining stories of all the characters came to a good ending, which I liked all the more because it wasn‘t “perfect.” Solid Pick. #audiocrafting

#audiocrafting to a book set on Christmas Eve Eve, which has been a gritty, melancholy pleasure.

I think it wanted to be the book equivalent of a jazz blues song, but I find that kind of melody soothing, and this I didn't. Enjoyed the writing, not sure I was meant to enjoy the characters. Felt like the author decided the only way to humanize was to focus on everybody's bad moments, in such quick succession that you're really only left with a vague feeling of disappointment, as the mood turns too late with too little resolved.

Good to have options ✅

Pat‘s turn on the staff pick selection.

Three stories on a course toward each other. Delightful, sad, funny, deep. I loved the main characters. As soon as I finished the book I wanted to know, “What happened next?” The mark of a great book, IMO. ❤️

I need a break from espionage so I picked up this one.

It‘s a delight. It has so much heart and depth. It‘s also laugh-out-loud funny.

📕 2 A.M. at The Cat‘s Pajamas by Marie-Helen Bertino
🖊 Tyler, Anne
🎬 They Shall Not Grow Old (Peter Jackson WWI
doc)
🎼 Thomas Newman (composer)
🎶 True Blue - Mark Ronson Feat. Angel Olsen

#ManicMonday #LetterT
@CBee

Doing my first re-listen of an audiobook! I think about this book so frequently, I figured I should go back to it! 😁

A mourning 9-year-old who just wants to sing, a divorced schoolteacher, and a disgraced club owner come together for an eventful Christmas Eve Eve. This was a quirky book with clever writing but it‘s been a couple weeks since I finished it and it just didn‘t have staying power. At the end of the day, I‘m left with the impression that this was a little bit of a love letter to Philadelphia, which is a neat take. My December #bookspin

Who needs pajamas?

This book set at Christmastime has been a pleasant surprise! So much charm without being cheesy!

This book is why I love reading 🥰 - to linger in the moments we miss each day, that add up to a lifetime.
This may be the one to shake me out of my slump 🤞🏻 - it‘s the first book in a while I just couldn‘t tear myself away from.
Thanks for the random pick, @Caterina for my Bingo/Make Me Read It! 🙂

😂😂😂👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 #LitsyHumor

#BlackCat #FallisBooked @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @OriginalCyn620

A much-belated review—but I enjoyed this. Very slice-of-life, so if you‘re looking for a gripping plot all wrapped up nicely at the end, then this is not for you. But I found it hilarious and charming, and I just fell in love with Madeleine and Lorca and Sarina and Ben. Thanks are due to many Litsy reviews for putting this on my radar, and an impulse library checkout for getting it onto my February reads! #blameitonlitsy

I have the whole evening to myself tonight (glorious!) with no plans but to finish these two lovelies: fifty pages in one, seven poems in the other.

“Your mother loved everything... Flamingoes, your father, when people slipped. Not when they would fall outright and get hurt. When they would lose their footing for a second. She‘d laugh so hard she‘d turn purple.”

😂🤣 I‘m only 20 pages in, and this is already hilarious and delightful.

I‘ve been meaning to read this book for forever.
So glad I finally did. It‘s a riot! 🎶

A favourite pick about the #MusicoftheNight

#MusicalNewYear @Cinfhen @vivastory

I haven‘t read this and don‘t own it, but it couldn‘t fit the prompt better. 🙌 #MusicOfTheNight

From Goodreads: Madeleine Altimari is a smart-mouthed, precocious nine-year-old and an aspiring jazz singer. ... After bravely facing down mean-spirited classmates and rejection at school, Madeleine doggedly searches for Philadelphia's legendary jazz club The Cat's Pajamas, where she‘s determined to make her on-stage debut.
#MusicalNewYear

Hour 42 Challenge: Swiss Army pick - a story of Christmas Eve Eve and so much more. Winnie and I are still on the couch readathoning. #24in48 #dogsoflitsy

The Hour 6 Challenge for #24in48 (yeah, I‘m a bit late... I like to sleep) is to post an epigraph, dedication, or opening lines from your readathon stack. I thought I‘d use this one even though I haven‘t started the book yet! I like this:

Mom,
You said, “some people invest in prizefighters, I‘ll invest in you.”

And now, it‘s 7:18 am on a Saturday and I went to bed at 1 a.m.—so I think I‘m gonna go get some more sleep before diving back in.

Still on my TBR - Fifth grader Madeleine is an aspiring jazz singer. The Cat‘s Pajamas is a Philly jazz club on the brink of closing. I‘m hoping these two worlds collide at 2 a.m. 😀

The blurb says: “Over the course of one magical night, three lost souls will search for love, music and hope in the snow-covered streets of Philadelphia...” Sold 😀

This could fulfill the Popsugar prompt: Book That Takes Place In A Day.

#cabaret #MusicalNewYear

@Jas16 thank you so much! It has been a long week at work and this was a nice surprise to come home to! #jb

A very enjoyable book. Charming characters that stir compassion in the reader, an interesting storyline, and a couple unexpected twists. Really captures the feeling of gritty city life, while also demonstrating the importance of a tight-knit community. Takes place at Christmas time, so although it's not really a Christmas book, it suits the time of year well. A good measure of humor to boot.

On the eve of Christmas Eve a group of characters go about their lives in Philadelphia getting expelled from school, finding out they are in danger of losing their business, and hoping to reconnect with an old crush. They all find themselves at the The Cat‘s Pajamas at 2 am where their dreams may come true or be reinvented. I went into this book expecting to love it and am disappointed that I didn‘t feel quite so strongly about it. Still a pick.

This book is sadder than I was expecting from a Christmas story, but it‘s very well written and I adored all the characters.

Talking books at @RoscoeBooks Love this group!

Getting in the Christmas spirit

I finally finished this delightful little book (in spite of Hank‘s attempted distraction). It took me a bit to get engaged with all of the different story lines. Once I did, however, I found myself rooting for them all. I kinda love that the little girl at the center of the story is a bit of jerk. I stayed up way too late last night finishing this, but once I was in the last third of the book I couldn‘t put it down. Charming little book!

“Uh, yeah, Mom. So are we reading tonight or what?” #HankTheBulldog #DogsOfLitsy

Our first hosted-at-our-new-home #bookclub was a huge success! Everyone brought goodies, plus some lovely unexpected housewarming gifts! We had a delightful feast (especially with @MrBook ‘s famous baked ziti entree!), and a splendid discussion. It‘s a lot more work than meeting at a cafe, but it was thoroughly enjoyable. 😊👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 (Pictured above is only the appetizer course!) #PoconoBookClub

#BookNLunch! Cheesy flatbread, cauliflower-potato soup, and a V-8. Mmmmm!

Reading on my phone instead of my Kindle because I love the way the Kindle app handles immersion reading (playing the audiobook alongside reading the ebook). 😊

Happy reads & happy eats!
#audiobook #immersionreading

#BookNDinner! First share at our new place 😁👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻! We have a working oven now! (Long story, lol.) So, to celebrate, I've made my trademark dish that I haven't made since college! I'm not going to say how long ago that was 😆, but it was longer ago than some of your kids' births 😎. My unique 6-layer baked ziti dish ☺️! @BookBabe said it was AWEsome for my first go 😋. I have some tweaking to do. #MrBookBookBabeKitchen

This book was just what I needed. A childhood adventure, mixed with real-life adult issues (without being too heavy). You know those stories where you're like "oh, i hope these certain things work out this certain way" but then some of the things work out differently, but in a really nice way? It's like that. I read mostly upsetting books... A wholesome tale with a happy ending was exactly what i needed before spooktober haha.

7 | #OctoberXFiles

It‘s Christmas Eve and there is only one place to be...#MeetMeInTheDark, 2am at the cat‘s Pajamas 🎷 🐈

I went looking through my kindle for something short and lighthearted to read, as this last week or so has been pretty rough for me emotionally. This one is doing me well so far. Cute and sassy and heartwarming.

Finishing up this charming novel, which is the last book in this rotation of the #LMPBC the #AustralianEdition This one was @LeeRHarry book choice. Once I‘ve finished this, I‘ll be sending both @Michelle_mck choice & this one off to Lee. Sorry for the delay lovely, thank you so much for your patience. Really enjoying this so far, feel so sorry for Madeleine. I understand putting on a prickly persona to keep people out of your business #bitchplease

I loved loved loved this book. It was equal parts sweet and sad. In the novel we follow 3 people over the course of one day who all end up at the Cat's Pajamas at 2 in the morning. I loved that this book didn't sugar coat life and that there were no true happy endings. It was enjoyable and satisfying to see where the day took these characters and how that influenced those around them. #summerreads

I decided to let lover pick out my next book because I had no idea what I was in the mood for. He picked this one because of the name. It is actually surprisingly very cute and quirky. #summerreads #ebook #librarybook #cloudlibrary #winterthemed #holidaybook

This book was delightful. The story takes place over the course of one day. A motherless child, a lovestruck teacher, a school principal who becomes uncharacteristically amorous when a particular child sings, a bar owner and his compadres all try their best to do the thing that will make their heart sing. It‘s witty with great descriptions. I was committed to and will miss all of the characters. Thanks to @AmyG for the book.

March 7: #MarchInBooks Books and music; thought this was fitting as one of the main settings is a jazz club in NYC 😜

Thanks to @Kaye and congrats on 50K!
🤰39, Jimmy Carter
🎉Google said British Columbia day?
😢Wednedsay's child
👰2007
🚂 One After 909
😸 Tagged
😎18
🕰Physical clocks, 4
📚3
🌏Only 11?! Lol... I'm stuck on the eastern seaboard!

At 2 a.m. three lost souls finds themselves in one of Philadelphia‘s legendary jazz club.

#fiercefeb #nightinthecity @Cinfhen @batsy

This book was totally an impulse buy based on the cover (you can't really tell, but it's sparkly 😍). Madeleine is a 9 year old girl, raised in NYC who can't seem to fit in anywhere other than a late night jazz club. She's sassy and independent, and not even an elementary school expulsion can stop her.

The book is set over the period of one day, and has multiple intertwining storylines. Had it just focused more on Madeleine, it would've been a 🤘

This is me, mailing a box of baby clothes, baby shoes, and the tagged book (for mama) to my Aunt‘s great-granddaughter Jude in Kansas City and the box falling in to a postal black hole where all the updates occur at 12:17 pm and say it‘s “in transit” to the destination. Lies! @stacybmartin feels my pain.

Started this book last night, and so far I'm really enjoying it! I love the cover, too 😍