Took myself out on a reading date at the coffee shop.

These are loosely linked short stories in which fictional people tell their eccentric and chilling stories to a fictional interviewer in Berlin. There is a blend of German, Soviet, and Cuban aspects that I find fascinating. This will probably get 3 out of 5 stars from me.

I‘ve been listening to the audio as I read the physical book, which is my favorite way to read these days.

While the last of summer lingers in Oklahoma, I‘m doing a Margaret Mead themed reading. My undergraduate degree is in anthropology so this feels like a throw back to my college days.

The past two weeks have been so stressful that I couldn‘t even read. But I‘m beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and tonight I jumped back into a few books I had on pause.

Reading outside during Oklahoma summers is challenging! Luckily for me, it‘s bearable in the shade this evening.

I can only manage one book at a time. So that means that my decision to start this behemoth of a book has slowed my reading life down to almost nothing! I‘m learning a lot but I‘m ready to get back to reading other things soon.

“In the spring of 1966, Lila, in a state of great agitation, entrusted to me a metal box that contained eight note-books. She said that she could no longer keep them at home, she was afraid her husband might read them.”

#24in48 Hour Twelve Challenge 🐈 many thanks to my cat, Kiwi, for willingly serving as a book holder as I read 🐈 #catsoflitsy

The books from my own childhood are at my mom‘s house but this book is from my own children‘s baby days. My babies are 19yo, 17yo, and 15yo now. Some of the most treasured memories of my life are the days when my little ones would bring me whole stacks of books to read to them. #24in48 Hour Six Challenge

I‘m finally awake and ready to get started on #24in48 !!

My main goal is to finish this book. I‘ve read about 71 pages this past week so I have about 400 pages to read for the readathon. With the support of my loving Pi, that seems achievable! #catsoflitsy

I‘m not going to lie; it took a long time for me to become invested in this book.

However, by the end of the book, I finally began to identify the underlying themes and became enthralled by the time, place, and circumstances unfolding in the narrative.

This book satisfies the women in translation task in the RW challenge and the book with a cover you hate in the RH challenge.

This was a 5-star book for me with zero hesitation.

For me, this book was a chance to just LISTEN. No judgments, no seeking answers to the “race problem”... but just listening to a Black man speak of his experiences and his feelings about being Black in America.

I read the entire book out loud to myself. I found an easy rhythm to his words and I enjoyed how his thoughts naturally flowed from one topic to another.

#boutofbooks

Earlier this year, a friend sent me a care package of books in a variety of genres, including this romance set in the holiday season. I saved it for months and now it‘s finally time to pull it off my shelves! I think this is the first romance I‘ve read in 10+ years.

Saw this making the rounds and couldn‘t resist! My #bookname

B: Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
R: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
I: In The Shadow of Man by Jane Goodall
D: Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama
G: Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
E: Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
T: This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki
T: The Sleepwalker‘s Guide to Dancing by Mira Jacob

I had to smile when I saw hygge defined in the introduction as “cocoa by candlelight” considering the candle I just bought last night. 🕯🧡☕️🧡

A gorgeous new independent bookstore just opened up in my city‘s downtown! I‘m so excited to have a great place to bring my laptop and work, surrounded by books. Today I bought my first Olive edition and some book darts. #MagicCityBooks

Found these two books on my library‘s sale shelf for a grand total of $1.50! I‘ve been finding new hardbacks on the sale shelf so regularly that I‘m tempted to make daily visits so that I don‘t miss any. 😁

This book was not to my reading taste. Partly because it‘s an off-kilter and strange story, but also because I could not develop any kind of attachment to the characters.

White Trash has lots of good information about a topic I‘m interested in but it‘s written as a dry, academic, fact-dump that dulled my enjoyment of reading it.

My November #BOTM selections have arrived! I plan to buddy read Artemis with my boyfriend. I love sharing books with people I love.

My Non-Fiction November TBR!

I am using this month as an opportunity to focus on finishing the behemoth People‘s History that I started over 7 months ago. I am also finishing up the last section of White Trash for a book club. I will be glad to have a fresh slate once these two books are done.

Bad Feminist will be my first non-fiction by Roxane Gay, and I am so excited. And finally, it‘s the perfect season to learn about hygge!

Don‘t let the cheesy 1970‘s cover put you off this!

This is a well written contribution to the high-fantasy genre, by a woman author no less! It‘s somewhere between the style of Chronicles of Narnia and Lord of the Rings, including the subtle Christian overtones. Joy Chant was a well regarded author in her time, but sadly, she dropped out of sight by the early 1980‘s.

This is my Book Outlet sale haul, all for about $36! I learned that best way to shop on Book Outlet is to use your TBR list and search for the individual books. I found so much more than I do through just browsing the selection.

I can‘t wait for the next sale now! (But maybe I should be focusing on actually reading the books I‘ve bought...)

There‘s a Goodwill just down the street and on weekends, I can‘t resist checking out their latest book donations. They have the books all thrown in giant yellow hampers and my short self leeaaans over the edge and sorts through them, one by one. Most of the books are utter crap. But then I find gems that make it all worth it. 💙

This weekend I scored two books I‘ve had on my TBR forever & who can say no to a Bill Bryson book about Shakespeare!

“Time was not something we thought of as an item that possessed an ending, but something that would go on forever, all rested and stopped in that moment.”

So far I am finding this to be beautifully and brutally written. It really does have an ethereal, endless feel to the writing. I‘m struggling some with the numerous depictions of cruelty towards the Indian tribal members, but I also appreciate the unflinching honesty of it.

Happiness is spending a quiet Sunday morning in bed with an awesome new book. I won this ARC from a GR giveaway and I‘m really enjoying it. It‘s readable, interesting, and entertaining, in equal portions.

If you have a #PageHabit subscription, did you get a short story this month? I read this one last night and though it was well-written, I didn't enjoy it much. I think it's because the narration was deliberately ambiguous and I was left a little confused about the intended messages. Even though I wasn't a fan of this one, I do hope PageHabit continues including short stories!

Loving my new socks from #PageHabit!

Deaf introverted woman, enjoys busy cities. #boutofbooks #insixwords

It's not too late to sign up for the Bout of Books readathon! http://boutofbooks.blogspot.com/?m=1

I scored the Neapolitan Novels for $12! Visiting the used bookstore is the best treasure hunt ever. PS - I just noticed these are placed out of order and now I can't unsee 😜

1️⃣ I located a specialist doctor my son needs and scheduled an initial appointment. This is something I've been stressing about and I'm so relieved to have this successfully completed.
2️⃣ I would LOVE to take a vacation to Europe or NYC. Maybe once my kids are grown and on their own?
3️⃣ Strawberry shortcake, for sure!
4️⃣ I am going to try to squeeze in trips to a couple bookstores while out and about tomorrow and I can't wait!
#friyayintro

#boutofbooks starts Monday, August 21st! This was my very first readathon ever and I'm excited to participate again. If you'd like to join, you can sign up at http://boutofbooks.blogspot.com

These are the books I'd like to read this week. I'm already close to finishing Alias Grace so hopefully I can get started on Solar Bones by Monday.

Literary Fiction #PageHabit Box arrived a couple days ago! It includes the annotated hardback, a Field Notes blank notebook, a book light, and a bookmark. So far with this box, the authors and books are unfamiliar to me. Anyone else familiar with this one?

With the help of Olive-snuggles I have finished my first book of #24in48. This book is beautiful but brutal. I've logged 3.5 hours so far!

#24in48 Hour Twelve Challenge: tell me either: 1) which three audiobooks you‘d recommend for a roadtrip and why, OR 2) if you could take a roadtrip to any three bookish locations, what would they be?

1️⃣ I would go visit the Brontë parsonage and the moors they loved.

2️⃣New York City, with a map of every bookstore's location

3️⃣ um, predictable but I'd be totally lying if I didn't name Hogwarts. I'd be Hermione's adopted twin sister!

This is my small bookcase. I am thinking of consolidating all my hardbacks on my large bookshelf and sorting by color. I love those colorful shelves I see people with! #24in48 #shelfie

1️⃣ Just north of Tulsa, Oklahoma
2️⃣ This is my second #24in48
3️⃣ Originally, RinceyReads on YouTube
4️⃣ Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood 📚
5️⃣ When no one's home, I love to sing REALLY loud so that my voice echoes off the floors and walls
6️⃣ Here on Litsy, of course!

I enjoyed this sad, thoughtful book, written in deceptively simple language. I especially liked that it features a Black American community without framing the the story through interactions or relationships with white Americans.

Got my first literary fiction #PageHabit box this week! Other than BOTM, it's been a while since I've had a #bookbox and I enjoyed the anticipation and the excitement of opening it.

I've not heard of this book or the author but the premise sounds interesting & I like that it has author annotations on sticky notes throughout the pages. Overall, I'm not blown away by the box but I like it enough to keep my subscription active for July.

1️⃣Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA
2️⃣ I don't remember where I first heard of Litsy but I like it because it's focused only on books and not overwhelming (like Instagram can be for me)
3️⃣I recently watched the 1995 adaptation of Othello after reading the play. Kenneth Branagh's performance was 💯
4️⃣When I was a little girl, my granddaddy and I rescued a box turtle in middle of road and put it in his backyard. Mr Turtle hung around for a long time!

I'm enjoying this! I find that in the advanced sciences I have to read overviews of the topic on a regular basis to refresh and further my understanding. This book has short sweet chapters that leave me with digestible ideas and concepts.

So I couldn't resist giving the new literary fiction PageHabit subscription a try! I signed up within minutes of becoming available. So now I'll have this + a BOTM subscription. First box shipping out next week! #PageHabit

I have cleaned my room, changed the bedsheets, wiped down my Chromebook, and readied the book pile. Weekend introverting may now begin! 👩🏻‍💻 📚☕️

We're heading to the local March for Science today!

I have a crappy head cold, so no work for me today. On the plus side, I spent some time outside with a book and a box of tissue! 🌞📘💦

I got this book in the Book Riot Quarterly box two years ago and I'm just now getting around to reading it!

Kiwi loves read and snuggle time! Also, I'm enjoying The Catcher in the Rye more than I expected to. #catsoflitsy

This was a phenomenal non-fiction book. It was readable, engrossing, and I learned SO much about things I knew almost nothing about before. I would recommend this to anyone who has any interest in gender roles, feminism, Afghanistan, the concept of freedom, patriarchy, or the potential pitfalls of good intentioned humanitarian work in a foreign context.

I quite enjoyed this sweet epistolary novel set shortly after WWII. It's charming and life affirming, and the protagonist, Juliet, is an independent, clever woman. Plus it's a story about book-lovers and what book-lover doesn't enjoy that?

I'm telling myself that if I can just get thru 8 hours of (very boring) work, I have this weekend TBR to enjoy!

Blacksad and Introducing Kafka are part of my new foray into graphic novels. Hoping to read them both by end of weekend.

The Howard Zinn doorstop is for my new in-real-life Non-Fiction Bookclub. I'll be reading it slowly over next month or two.

And The Underground Girls of Kabul is my next regular read. Has anyone else read it?