Welcome to Litsy!

Best of December for #12BooksOf2023 is Managing the Risks of Organizational Accidents, by James Reason. I am a NERD, what can I say 😂😂😂

Best of November for #12BooksOf2023 is Writing for Busy Readers, by Todd Rogers and Jessica Lasky-Fink. As someone who edits for busy readers, I found this book really helpful. It told me some things I was doing right and some things I should try.

Best of October for #12BooksOf2023 is The Last Devil to Die, by Richard Osman. I love the Thursday Murder Club series and this one provided a good stopping point for the characters to take a break while Osman writes something else for a bit.

Best of September for #12BooksOf2023 is Babel, by R. F. Kuang. Rich and thought-provoking, and as a former translator I loved reading a book with translators as protagonists.

December 2023 #BookSpinBingo wrap-up:
✅ BookSpin: An unowned book (The Stone, by Nigel Tranter)
❌ DoubleSpin: Transit, by Ben Aaronovitch
1️⃣ Bingo (O1 to O5)

#Roll100 wrap-up for 2023: I read 21 of my 36 picks, and managed to read ALL of the picks for July, August, and September! I don‘t know how many other books off the list I read because I deleted the list from my master document after the December picks were announced (I was itching to create a new list for January 😆), but this year I‘m going to track that.

Best of August for #12BooksOf2023 was The Gifts of Imperfection, by Brené Brown. As a recovering perfectionist I found this book useful, especially the acknowledgement that working on accepting imperfection is a process, not a thing to check off a list ?

Best of July for #12BooksOf2023 is The LGBTQ+ History Book. DK‘s Big Ideas Simply Explained series is excellent.

Best of June for #12BooksOf2023 was a re-read, Emily‘s Quest by L.M. Montgomery. I love this trilogy!

Best of May for #12BooksOf2023 is Stone Blind, by Natalie Haynes. I adored this retelling of Medusa‘s story.

Best of April for #12BooksIn2023: Love and Let Die, by John Higgs. This book compares and contrasts the cultural impact of the Beatles and the James Bond franchise. Fascinating!

#12BooksOf2023

Best of March: Here and Now and Then (Chen). I loooooove time travel in my sci-fi, so I loved this book to pieces. An excellent debut. It was recommended to me as a read-alike for Back to the Future, and I think that's a valid comparison, although there's definitely some Doctor Who mixed in as well.

I‘m late to the #12BooksOf2023 game, so here are my Day 1 and 2 picks.

Best of January: The Tea Dragon Society (O‘Neill). Very cute dragons and a great story. I need to buy a boxed set of the trilogy.

Best of February: Between the Stops (Toksvig). I read this in print and three chapters in, I ran off to buy the audiobook too. I love Sandi Toksvig and want to be her when I grow up 😄

Belated #DashingDecember 2023 wrap-up: 3 books and 5 articles for my upcoming master‘s degree.

The books:
Past Lying (McDermid)
The Red Right Hand, by Joel Townsley Rogers
Managing the Risks of Organizational Accidents, by James Reason

OMG it really is the middle of the month already 😳 For #DashingDecember 2023 I plan to indulge in crime fiction, because I will be on vacation at my parents‘ place. Some possibilities:

The Vanishing Museum on the Rue Mistral
Past Lying
The Red Right Hand
Golden Age Bibliomysteries

#BookSpinBingo December 2023:
#BookSpin: free choice of a book I don‘t own
#DoubleSpin: Transit (Aaronovitch)

I‘m a bit behind so scrambling to post my December 2023 #BookSpinBingo before checking the picks! I‘m going to my parents‘ for Christmas, so I‘ve added a few of their books to my list.

#BookSpinBingo November 2023 wrap-up:
✅ BookSpin: Reykjavík, by Ragnar Jónasson
✅ DoubleSpin: Blood on the Coal, by Ken Cuthbertson
0️⃣ bingos (but 2 almost bingos!)

#Roll100 picks for December 2023:
A Stake in the Kingdom (Tranter)

Les poisons de la couronne (Druon)

Doctor Who: Tenth Doctor Archives, Vol. 1

I opted for book 9 on my list because book 90 was also a Nigel Tranter novel 😂

Thanks @PuddleJumper for hosting such a fun challenge! Looking forward to 2024!

Not going to set a particular goal for #NovelNovember; just hoping to read consistently!

For Christmas reasons, I am banned from buying myself books after November 1. This year my best friend, who went to London in the fall, spoiled me with some British Library Crime Classics and a Bletchley Park puzzle book! The BLCCs:
The Port of London Murders
Post After Post-Mortem
The Edinburgh Mystery and Other Tales of Scottish Crime

#BookSpinBingo board for November 2023:
#BookSpin: Reykjavík, by Ragnar Jónasson
#DoubleSpin: Blood on the Coal, by Ken Cuthbertson

Both of these are library books due back fairly soon, so I‘d better get cracking!

I have five holds waiting for me at the library, so I was finally able to round out my #BookSpinBingo list for November 2023. Lots of non-fiction. Most excited about Patrick Stewart‘s memoir!

October 2023 #BookSpinBingo wrap-up:
❌ BookSpin: a book I own (I was gunning for a bingo rather than a spin 😂)
✅ DoubleSpin: A Man and His Cat Vol. 6 (Sakurai)
1️⃣ bingo (O1 to B5)

#OutstandingOctober 2023 wrap-up: 5 books read, and I‘m one book short of a bingo on line 2 from my original plan:
✅ The Morning After (Hébert) + ✅ Jigsaw (McBain) + ✅ a not-owned book (Moon of the Turning Leaves, by Waubgeshig Rice) + a free space
I plan to fill that space with Ann Cleeves‘s latest, The Raging Storm, this week.
Thanks for hosting, @Andrew65 ?

#Roll100 list for November 2023:
1️⃣ The Stone (Tranter)
2️⃣ Doctor Who: Transit (Aaronovitch)
3️⃣ Tordotcom Publishing 2022 Debut Sampler (ed. Moore)
I opted for number 100 on my list because book 1 was also by Nigel Tranter and I thought that was a bit much 😂
And the Tor.com book is actually 46 on my list; I‘ve read both 47 and 48! Love seeing that progress 😄

Hurray for mid-month readathons! I like having these opportunities to focus my efforts on getting a bingo on my BookSpin board ? I have a few possible routes to take:
1️⃣ The Archer Files + Doctor Who: Silhouette
2️⃣ The Morning After (Hébert) + Jigsaw (McBain) + a not-owned book + a free space
3️⃣ A Man and His Cat 6 + not-owned + free

September 2023 #20In4 wrap-up: finished 2 books
✅ UNIT: Extinction (Big Finish audio drama)
✅ The Last Devil to Die (Osman)

A fresh board and fresh possibilities: October 2023 #BookSpinBingo is ready to go.
#BookSpin: a book I own (so an extra free space 😂)
#DoubleSpin: A Man and His Cat Vol. 6 (Sakurai)

September 2023 #BookSpinBingo wrap-up:
✅ BookSpin Volkswagen Blues (Poulin)
❌ DoubleSpin Verdict of 13: A Detection Club Anthology
1️⃣ bingo (O1 to O5) (it helped that I had a couple of free spaces 😂)

Leaving a few free spaces even before the free spaces in the October 2023 #BookSpinBingo list.

The September 2023 #20In4 is perfectly timed, because I am on vacation from now until 10 October 🥳 I am going to my parents‘ place, and my mum has the new Richard Osman, so that‘s my top priority for this weekend. Also hoping to get some audio reading done on the train.

I read book 83 on my list in February (I love seeing that I‘m making progress!), so I‘ll replace it with book 82. Here‘s my October 2023 #Roll100 list:
1️⃣ More Stories for Late at Night (Hitchcock)
2️⃣ Doctor Who: Silhouette (Richards)
3️⃣ La fée carabine (Pennac)

Belated #BookSpinBingo board for September 2023:
#BookSpin Volkswagen Blues (Poulin)
#DoubleSpin Verdict of 13: A Detection Club Anthology

Ready to go with my September 2023 #BookSpin list! I have two comics, a novella, and a short story collection on there, as well as some free spaces for library books that come in over the course of the month. Or maybe I‘ll work on the pile of books I borrowed from a friend?

August 2023 #BookSpinBingo wrap-up: I was reading, just not my spins!
❌ BookSpin: First to the Front (Rinehart)
❌ DoubleSpin: If Walls Could Talk (Worsley)
0️⃣ bingos but very close in a couple of places.

#20In4 August 2023 wrap-up: finished two books, both 4-star reads.

✅ The Swift and the Harrier (Walters)
✅ The Maintenance of Headway (Mills)

I‘m working this weekend (we‘re slammed at work and I‘m acting manager, so not much time during regular hours to get my own work done 😩), but I‘ll make time for some #20In4-ing where I can. Main plan is to finish The Swift and the Harrier, which is overdue at the library 😅

Because I read book 4 on my list last month, I will replace it with book 5. This gives me the following #Roll100 picks:

1️⃣ The Eleventh Doctor Vol. 1: After Life
2️⃣ The Eleventh Doctor Vol. 2: Serve You
3️⃣ The Archer Files (Macdonald)

Not going to say no to lots of comics 😂

August 2023 #BookSpinBingo board is set. Both spins are library books this time!
#BookSpin: First to the Front (Rinehart)
#DoubleSpin: If Walls Could Talk (Worsley)

July 2023 #BookSpinBingo wrap-up:
✅ BookSpin: The Invasion of Canada (Berton)
❌ DoubleSpin: Thinking, Fast and Slow (Kahneman)
1️⃣ bingo (B1 to O1)

Belated wrap-up for July 2023 #20In4: all I managed to do from my list was start The Librarianist. I did, however, finish The Case of the Baker Street Irregulars, which was a lot of fun.

List for #BookSpinBingo August 2023 is all set! I have a lot of non-fiction on the list…we‘ll see what strikes my fancy.

Top priorities for #20In4 July 2023 edition:

Finish Fell Murder (Lorac) for #GoldenAgeCrimeClub
Start (and hopefully finish) The Librarianist (deWitt)
Start UNIT: Extinction (Big Finish audio drama)

#JubilantJuly 2023 wrap-up: 3/4 books on the list.

✅ A Question of Blood (Rankin)
✅ The Tale of Princess Fatima, Warrior Woman
✅ The Cat Who Saved Books (Natsukawa)
Silver in the Wood (Tesh)

Also read 🎧 Missy Series 1 (Big Finish) and 📖 The Third Man (Greene). And I got a #BookSpinBingo!

#Roll100 picks for August 2023:
1️⃣ Like Love (McBain)
2️⃣ Hope to Die (Jackson)
3️⃣ The Maintenance of Headway (Mills)
A couple of series and a book that I bought over 10 years ago! Good assortment 😊

For #JubilantJuly 2023 I‘ll be ambitious and aim for two bingos on my #BookSpinBingo with these books:

A Question of Blood (Rankin)
The Tale of Princess Fatima, Warrior Woman
The Cat Who Saved Books (Natsukawa)
Silver in the Wood (Tesh)

#20In4 readathon wrap-up for June 2023: I met my goal of finishing one book (The Sea Mystery, by Freeman Wills Crofts) and got halfway through another (The Secrets of the Bastide Blanche, by M. L. Longworth). Not a bad weekend!

July 2023 #BookSpinBingo board is set. Both spins are books I own 😄
#BookSpin: The Invasion of Canada (Berton) (which I‘m currently reading!)
#DoubleSpin: Thinking, Fast and Slow (Kahneman)

June 2023 #BookSpinBingo wrap-up:
✅ BookSpin: The Twyford Code (Hallett)
❌ DoubleSpin: Sword of Honour (Waugh)
0️⃣ bingos (a rather sparse board)
Onward and upward!