I‘m loving the second in the The Stranger Times series on audio. This time around the gang at the paper is dealing with vampires, which definitely DON‘T exist!
Brendan McDonald is delightful and hilarious as ever as the narrator. It‘s hard to believe that someone could come up with as many distinct voices for so many characters as he does.

Oh. My. Goodness. I just started watching the series “Dalgliesh” and I am crushing hard on Bertie Carvel!! I think it‘s the sideburns! 😂

“There are various ways of mending a broken heart, but perhaps going to a learned conference is one of the more unusual.”

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Stranger Times publishes stories about weird and impossible occurrences: a man believes he is possessed by the spirit of David Bowie, who wants to get back to the studio and record a new album, for example. But the newspaper isn‘t quite what it seems…
The narrator, Brendan McDonald, should win an award, his distinct and hilarious voices are that good. The audio version is a must, IMO.

I DNFed this at 40%. I really tried but it just wasn‘t for me. It felt so relentlessly gloomy to me, which wasn‘t helped by the narrator of the audio. All of her voices sounded like variations on Eeyore.

#DNF

#Two4Tuesday @TheSpineView

1. Pineapple, even though it makes my mouth feel weird.
2. The whole Dr. Siri Paiboun series, because Dr. Siri marries a woman who owns a noodle shop in Laos and they often eat noodles together.

Thanks for the tag, @Sace

I have been teaching myself bridge for the last few months with books and apps. It is fiendishly complicated! 😈 #nelson #dogsoflitsy #greyhound

This series is so comforting to listen to. I think this narrator adds a lot to the experience. #comfortreads

I did the audio version, which had quite a good narrator. I don‘t think I would‘ve enjoyed it as much in print.
The premise of a new husband emerging from the attic whenever Lauren sends the last one up is frothy fun, and this is a good light choice for a summer read.
#summerread #audio

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for this baby!! Lehane does an amazing job creating believable characters. His descriptions evoke the images, but he doesn‘t ramble. I‘m on to the sequel, The Given Day, so I can stay in 1930s Florida and Cuba.

My photo skills leave a lot to be desired. Yeah, maybe don‘t cut off the title! 🤪
I‘d retake it but I already returned it to the library.

We went to this excellent bookstore—complete with a bookstore cat named Natalie—on Kauai during our trip. It‘s the only bookstore on the island, as far as I know. I bought a book on Hawaiian grammar because I‘m a nerd! 😂 #hawaii #vacation

I‘m enjoying this series a lot, but the constant references to this character‘s size (once she was described as having a “massive head”) are irritating and a bit sexist. The author doesn‘t do this with any other character, but he makes this woman sound like she‘s 7 ft tall and built like a linebacker.

Man, this irritates me! These are all I have of the series so far, so I don‘t know what the rest look like.

#bookwormproblems

I‘m very excited about the release of Katherine Arden‘s new book. I adored her Winternight trilogy and although the premise of this book is intriguing, I had sort of been hoping for another Russian setting. But I‘m happy anyway!

My current view while I wait for a tow truck. My car just lost power as I was driving to work because I think I ran out of gas 😣. Fortunately, I have John Scalzi to entertain me! Thankfully, it is FRIDAY!!! #tgif

Woohoo!!! It doesn‘t look too bad in this pic, but our district called it last night because we were going to have blizzard conditions in the morning.

Whatever shall I do with my bonus day??? 🤔
#snowday

I discovered these highlighter pencils recently and have come to love them. It feels like I‘m doing less damage to my book than when I‘m using marker highlighters. And you can control how intensely a word is highlighted. They‘re called Textsurfers (and you‘ve gotta love the name!), made by Staedtler.

Do any #nunlit or #nunlitquarterly folks have resources to clarify the whole convent vs. abbey and prioress vs. abbess thing? I‘ve always found these religious and clerical terms (rector, vicar, curate) baffling. Someone really needs to write a short handbook!! 🤓

Davis is a translator and writer. This book contains essays which are a sort of journal of her translation process. She has translated Flaubert and Proust, and the essays discuss how she makes choices and solves problems. She also records her adventures in teaching herself Norwegian by reading a difficult novel without any resources.
I found it fascinating, but then I think I am a frustrated translator.
#translation #French #classics

I enjoyed the heck out of this book! I only had a minor quibble about how much time Isaka spends inside The Prince‘s mind, to the point where I felt it took me out of the story. The ending was a bit anti-climactic as well, but otherwise I loved the very unique characters and the unique setting.

#thriller #trains #Japan

Probably one of the last few reasonably warm mornings to sit out on the patio with some cold brew and my book.

I don‘t read many thrillers because they tend to feel very samey to me, but this book sucked me right in. The translation is marvelous, the characters are a bit bonkers, and I can‘t wait to see where it‘s all going.

I‘m also listening to the audio version, read by a very good narrator.

#thriller #sundaymorning

Reading this delightful book at a heavenly spa in Santa Fe. I‘m reading and listening to the audio version. Warner‘s language is lovely, and the narrator of the audio is excellent.

#summer #summervacation #spalife

1. When little, a “stewardess” 😂 because I flew a lot to see distant family and thought it looked exciting. When a little older, an Egyptologist.
2. I am an extremely over-educated paraprofessional in a kindergarten class.
3. Lately, a lot of 70s music because reminds me of simpler times and it soothes me.

#wondrouswednesday

I don‘t really think this was a thing in 1946, the not drinking when pregnant, much less anybody noticing if you refrained. I was enjoying the book but I think the author was a bit lazy about researching the setting, and not only because of this. It really takes me out of the story.

The ‘hound is ready to get this show on the road NOW PLEASE!!!

I‘m doing the print and audio versions of the appalling saga of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos. I‘ve already seen the documentary series and the drama series but I‘m still hooked by this story.

#nelson #greyhounds #dogsoflitsy

This writer is one of the main subjects/interviewees in the first season of the podcast pictured. It‘s about the Missionaries of Charity order, founded by Mother Teresa. I just finished listening and found it fascinating. The tagged is her book about her experiences joining the MCs and eventually leaving.
#nunlitquarterly #nunlit

My #libraryhaul for the New Year. I‘ve read the first few pages of the tagged book, Cranford, and The Secrets We Kept, and those are the ones I‘m leaning toward. But I‘m also feeling in a #chunkster mood, so maybe Bleak House?

Decisions, decisions…

Happy New Year all!!! 🎉🎊🥳

The narrator for this is fabulous!! I would like him to read all the books, please.

The book itself is pretty good, too!

#audiobooks #newbooks

It‘s as if Miss Havisham moved into Grey Gardens with Big Edie and Little Edie.

#nyrb

This might be an #unpopularopinion but this is not feeling very thriller-y, and I‘m at the halfway point. Not much has happened, and the things that have happened are not very creepy.

I hope it picks up!

My first Riley Sager!

#thriller

A Hoopla question…is there a way to select chapters from a list when listening to an audiobook? It seems like the app has been updated somewhat, and I can‘t remember if there ever was a way to do that in the past. The scrubbing bar is basically useless.

Am I missing something? Any tips appreciated!
#hoopla

I just learned about Uli Beutter Cohen, who has been wandering the subway system in New York for years, asking people about the books they‘re reading. This is her new book about her experiences, and I can‘t wait to check it out! #booksaboutbooks

Thoroughly enjoying this wacky time-travel chunkster.

Gratuitous pic of #nelson with his lovey/pillow, Lambchop. 🐑 ❤️

I rarely read romance but I picked this up on audio because it has rave reviews. And I see why; it‘s an original premise for romance and it‘s quite funny. The narrator is excellent, but I have learned that audio sex scenes make me cringe 😳. #romance #audioromance

I requested that the library purchase this right before the pandemic and then forgot about it. This first of a trilogy is gritty noir set in Sweden in 1932, with a queer protagonist. So yeah, I‘m pretty sure it‘s a one-of-a-kind!😄 #lgbtqia #nelson #dogsoflitsy

Oy! At the 80% mark this book is really starting to feel like a slog. The paperback is over 700 pages and I haven‘t been that enthusiastic about it since I started. I enjoyed The Lies of Locke Lamora—the first book in the series—much more than this. #isitoveryet

Current location ☀️📖
I was a teenager of the 80s so all the references to that time are a lot of fun for me. 😊

#summerreading

I‘m visiting my dad in California and brought the tagged book for his partner. I got it out of a #LFL and passed it on to her; I‘m currently reading the sequel. Attica Locke has created a complex MC in Darren Mathews. I especially appreciate her depiction of his toxic relationship with his emotionally abusive mother, having some secondhand experience with this myself. #summerreading

After falling into a Gutenberg rabbit hole, I discovered this. I‘m still reading the fourth Poldark novel, Warleggan, but I need a little non-fiction in my life as well at the moment. #patioreads

Patio reading on this breezy morning with #nelson my reading buddy. I am enjoying this series so much. Graham has created such memorable, complex characters in a beautiful setting. I can see why Cornwall became a popular destination for Poldark fans.
#greyhounds #dogsoflitsy

1. Chicago
2. Chicago, but I spent ages 2-college in California.
3. One brother, 9 years younger.
4. Don‘t remember being read to. My dad was a big reader and encouraged me, but I don‘t think he liked to read children‘s books. The first book I remember in general is Richard Scarry‘s Busy Busy World (I think).
#wondrouswednesday @Eggs

Thanks for the tag, @wanderinglynn

“He was looking at the spire. As the web of low-lying cloud scurried under the wind it seemed to breathe like a living thing. Sometimes it inhaled the light of day, and then its pallor enriched to the colour of a primrose; a moment later it waned, and pulled the misty air over it like a veil; and whether it brightened or waned it seemed to be flying towards him against the scudding sky so that he felt that ⬇️

This book is thoroughly delightful and the narrator is perfect! Highly recommended!

#audiobooks

“Drawing his hand over his chops Sir Peter assumed an air of patience, and began to expound in easy language the doctrine of the sacraments, of the sacramental virtue which sets the priest apart from the ruck of the world. Pedantic fool! thought the prioress, saying courteously: ‘Of course Undoubtedly. How clearly you put it.‘

‘We shall miss your explanations,‘ added Dame Helen with sturdy malice.”

Mansplaining, 14th century style

I‘m enjoying the heck out of this audiobook!! I already loved Terry Pratchett but I had never read any of his children‘s books. The narrator is hilarious when he reads the dialogue of the Nac Mac Feegles (Wee Free Men). I read somewhere that they speak with something of a Glaswegian accent, though I‘m sure Stephen Briggs is laying it on very thick and funnifying it. #audiobooks #childrensaudiobooks

Miriam Black knows how and when you will die.
This was the first book in the Miriam Black series, and I will definitely be reading the second. I realized after I began that it was just what I needed at the moment: very little description, just action and dialogue and a plot that never stopped moving forward.

But in the midst of the chaos and violence, there is this. 💙💙💙

#georgiarocks #democracyinaction

“Car lights strobe through busted motel
blinds.”

My first Chuck Wendig, and I think it‘s just what I needed right now. Nelson graciously offered his services as bookmodel! 🐶❤️
#dogsoflitsy #greyhounds #nelson

#firstlinefridays
@ShyBookOwl

We have a new family member!!! This is me with Nelson. He is a four year old retired racer from Florida. We had been on a waiting list for him since July and we got him earlier than we expected to, and we are so excited! He is very sweet and super chill, basically a couch potato. And did I mention that he is the size of a pony?! Eighty pounds, and you can see how long he is in this picture. ❤️ #greyhounds #dogsoflitsy #nelson