Welcome to Litsy!

One of the best books I read in 2025. Orphaned French heiress, guardián loses all her money. Sh it‘s always been great to be female. Epic!

Thanks to @CuriousG for the book and for the chocolate and thanks to @MaleficentBookDragon for hosting/organizing the #jolabokaflodswap once again. Merry Christmas 🎄 🎅🏻🧑🏻‍🎄

I had high hopes for this literary novel of strength, defiance, and a fight for life. While I enjoyed it, I didn‘t love it. The beginning of the book was slow, and it took forever for Marguerite to be abandoned on the island. This story failed to evoke the emotional response I had anticipated. I maintained a neutral stance towards the characters and didn‘t feel a strong connection to them.

Full Review abookandadog.com/blog/isola

I‘ve been spending this snowy afternoon reading this book for my IRL book club and enjoying this wonderful yearly newsletter from @TheLudicReader ! Thank you so much for sending it and for the lovely extras, too. I love the little wood ornament! 😘😘

#middlegrademonday @Karisimo @daisey

I taught middle school from 1994-2005, so my choices skew towards books between the 1970s -1990s). Three favorites that don't incorporate a holiday per se but definitely encompass winter:
•The tagged: DOGSONG: my favorite by Gary Paulsen.
•HATCHET: Also by Gary Paulsen. Love and miss that man.
•JULIE OF THE WOLVES: By Jean Craighead George. We must have a woman hero for “Pete“'s sake! 😀

#weeklyfavorites

4.5⭐️ I know that this book is considered to be quite divisive and readers really like it or really don‘t like it, but I really like it. There were lots of things that I liked about and it didn‘t hurt that I learned something about Canadian history that I didn‘t know about until I read this book. #2025 #bookclub #basedonatruestory #historicalfiction

Good old-fashioned adventure in straightforward prose, the 16th century journey to New France (and back!). Loved Marguerite‘s insolence & naïveté, the nature writing, subtle foreshadowing, the feeling of tale telling, the research integrated & not overexpositioned, villain villainous but not overwrought. Lovely pacing. Female devotion, religious or otherwise. 2025

301 The girls were silent as they tried to understand a country with one flower.

This might be my favorite book of the year. Although - not for the title.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Middle Grade Novels in Verse are quickly moving up my list of genres I never turn down. The emotions match the pace and thought process of the characters. This one has history, climate issues, some suspense, and sense of belonging and/or being left out all tied into the story arc.