Welcome to Litsy!

I‘m slowly making my way through this one in 20-minute bites each night, while my kids do their evening reading time for school. Wow, Henry Ford was such a crank. And SO SO SO on the autism spectrum. Between him, and Dr. Kellogg up at the Battle Creek Sanatarium…what the heck was going on up there, Michigan? Also, Ford reminds me of H. Ross Perot, but with antisemitism and paranoid xenophobia. #readingtheamericas #brazil

Having read a number of books about piracy (thanks to #readingtheAmericas) I have a decent grasp of its history. This is a fictional account of Blackbeard‘s life that follows closely to how he is viewed by modern historians. He was a bombastic pirate who chose to scare the bejeezus out of people to get them to surrender, which worked marvelously. Supposedly he never killed a soul until he was in a battle against the British come to arrest him.⬇️

https://apple.news/Aoerj8gG6TD-92HJbEezumQ

Reading in the tagged book about Hugo Chavez‘s disastrous years as dictator, it‘s true the more things change the more they stay the same. And having read many books last year for #readingtheAmericas and the USA‘s historical support of South and Latin American dictators 😡, I finally understand and support reviving these sanctions.

I feel a little more knowledgeable thanks to Litsy!

#foodandlit

This recent history of Venezuela once again made me realize how little I know about what‘s going on in the world. Thank goodness for books and reading challenges. #FoodAndLit @Catsandbooks @Texreader Still #ReadingTheAmericas @Librarybelle @BarbaraBB

I didn‘t get close to finishing #readingtheamericas2023, but I want to continue it, so I‘ll be #readingtheamericas in 2024 as well. I‘ll be using the books in the Around the World in 80 Books challenge on Goodreads as well. Anyone else still #readingtheamericas in 2024? @BarbaraBB @Librarybelle thanks for hosting and have a good time #readingoceania2024!

2023 was an excellent year. I finished the challenges I set out to finish. I read lots more than just books for challenges, such as several books about the history of Italy for my epic trip there and at least one chunkster, Papillon

Thanks to some overlap here are the totals:
#LitsyAtoZ 118
#Foodandlit 20 for 12 countries
#AuthoraMonth 13 for 12 authors
#ReadingtheAmericas at least 50 for 50 countries
#SeriesLove2023 17

Thanks to all the hosts!

#USS #WinterGames

Hi, Ugly Sweaters and all @WinterGames Participants:
I will try to post a Readathon bulletin every day in the hopes that it will help you and me keep track of all of these wonderful reading events. I fit them all on one board, so all you have to do is look at this board as your first step to see which readathons you participated in for that day.

Shoutouts and thank-yous to all of the wonderful Litsy hosts is below. 🩵❄️🩵

This is a book of stories, no doubt, but the vast majority are a minute or shorter! Less than a handful are 3 or fewer minutes. It could be hard to grasp some of it since they are so short and I listened to it rather than read it. But some “stories” were so profound, I‘m going to have to find the IRL book. The author was from #Uruguay but he shared morsels from all over the world: quotes, news, history, thoughts. But I did love his references ⬇️

Shakerism attracted the poorest of the poor in #SaintVincentandtheGrenadines, mostly descendants of slaves, who couldn‘t afford the “fees” to belong to the established religions. Shakers worshipped God with their whole bodies, shouting and (heaven forbid, apparently) jumping, which those opposed attributed to barbaric African culture. After decades of oppression, a law was passed in 1912 prohibiting it. Then came decades to try to repeal it. ⬇️

Yesterday and today I finished the last two books of the #readingtheAmericas challenge hosted by @Librarybelle and @BarbaraBB that I‘ll review separately. For every year I‘ve participated in their continent challenges I feel I have gained so much as a person learning about our world. This year‘s challenge hit close to home, since it is home. Thank you ladies for hosting these amazing challenges

And now…gearing up for #wintergames!! @Emilymdxn