Welcome to Litsy!

I liked this one better than I liked Manhunt, but Felker-Martin doesn't present a very well developed, cohesive idea of who the villain is, which, given the nature of the main antagonist, might be a silly thing to write. The characters are more developed in this one than in Manhunt, and I cared more about what happened to them, but I still found the novel wordy overall and tedious at points, especially in the second half. #ToB25 longlist

#CoverStories Day 6: #Clouds - had to pause my reading of this book as I go over the #ToB25 shortlisted titles. Wait for awhile, Fredrik Backman, I will get back to you soonest. 💕

The story and the characters were entertaining and held my attention, but what really struck me about this book was the way it dealt with identity and the need to belong. Jane‘s identity as a mulatto, and how she felt that positioned her in society, is well beyond my experience and I feel I‘ve done some learning in trying to understand her. Read for#ToB25

#FebruaryWrapUp

#NetGalley #ARC

Black Woods, Blue Sky
The Lost Passenger

#TOB25

Beautyland
The History of Sound

Wow, all #tob25 for this month's favorites. It either says something about the quality of the longlist, or it's just a reflection of the fact that I read most of this month's books from the longlist so my favorites are statistically more likely to be from among those titles.

#WeeklyFavorites @Read4life

I managed to get myself a bingo on my February #bookspinbingo card! Lots of progress on #tob25 longlist titles, but I didn't do quite so well on my #Roll100. I need just to bite the bullet on The Glass Bead Game. It just has so many PAGES!

I hope the move is going well, @TheAromaofBooks !

Eh? I listened to this instead of reading in print/digital, and not sure if that was a good thing. But also not sure I would have liked it more otherwise. There were some clever things going on, but I felt like a lot of it went over my head, and I just generally didn‘t love it. Not a strong contender for #tob25.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ This was well written, but I just don‘t think I can recommend a book that‘s the aimless young adulthood of a self-absorbed, mediocre white dude. What does he want? Who knows? Mostly just to sh*t on the people in his life who care for him and who actually try for and accomplish things. The writing was good, but there are more interesting stories out there. #ToB25

Oops! I lost track of time and am posting this a few days after the fact. Better late, etc., etc. The March image going up reminded me. February is a very short month this year.

#WeeklyFavorites @Read4life

I wonder if this novel would have hit me quite like it did if I'd read it before January 20, 2025. Because right now it feels practically prophetic. But in addition to being prophetic, it's also a beautiful story of persevering through hardship and maintaining integrity (defined in this case as acting in alignment with one's core values) in a world geared towards profit and self-interest at all costs. #tob25 longlist