The first read of the year was an absolute corker! I loved the 90s setting; its v Scottish, v dark and kept me up way past my bedtime. And only Q9.99 on kindle at the moment.

Pic collage will only let me add 20 pics. But here‘s my #Top24of24
The other four are:
You could make this place beautiful by Maggie Smith
Britney‘s memoir
All the colours of the dark
And The Christmas Guest by Peter Swanson

Thank you so much for my lovely books ladies! Such a treat to receive book mail on your birthday! 😊 cheered me up no end! 🥂 😘 @quietlycuriouskate @squirrelbrain @TrishB

Oh! This is on 99p kindle deal today in the UK! 😃 👍

Who hasn‘t dreamed of walking out on their life and leaving all their responsibilities behind to go and join a nunnery….! I really enjoyed this quiet, thoughtful novel. But it does follow the current trend of stopping rather than ending. #nunlit

Soft pick. This was more of a police procedural than I was expecting and I think the hype monster might have got to me. Serious Jane Harper vibes with this one.

I was going to say that I devoured this book but I think it actually devoured me! It‘s been a long time since I‘ve been this immersed in a story. The characters and setting were so real. Lots of trigger warnings but I loved it.

So disappointing. The blurb promised Lord of the flies and cults in this book about a women‘s commune. There‘s sooo much foreboding but it basically goes nowhere and the big reveal at the end is so anticlimactic. It‘s more allotment gone wrong. 🙄

If Fleabag and Joe Goldberg had a baby! This is dark, witty and fully immersive. It pulled me right in from the beginning and I just couldn‘t put it down. It‘s a literary thriller about obsession and losing yourself, like if Meg Mason wrote Fatal Attraction!
It is full of razor sharp writing but it‘s perfectly balanced with compelling characters and a propulsive plot that keeps you guessing right up to the end.

Heartfelt and uplifting. This was just what I needed. ❤️ 😊

Ha!!! This Bridgerton AI picture generator is so much fun!!!! 😂

I love books about mediaeval life and nunneries so this was right up my alley. I listened to the audiobook (read by the wonderful Adjoa Andoh) and she does a stellar job. She creates so much atmosphere and brings each nun‘s voice alive. (Bit late for #authoramonth) #nunlit

Jake Gyllenhaal does a fantastic job. Loved every minute of it and I didn‘t speed it up once! (Always a good sign 😂)

This ticks all the literary boxes:
beautiful writing ✅
Not much happens/“quiet” ✅
political ✅
Format change halfway through/“experimental” ✅
It stops rather than ends. ✅
I loved it at first then I got restless. Overall I really liked it but I‘m always left a bit unsatisfied by these types of novels?! 🤷‍♀️ maybe it‘s just me. (Audio version was brilliant tho!) #camplitsy24

My #CampLitsy24 nominations! 😃 @BarbaraBB @squirrelbrain @Megabooks

At 48hrs this is a longgg audiobook. I loved the first half; her childhood in Brooklyn in the 1950s, trying to make it on Broadway then working with Gene Kelly in big MGM musicals in the 60s. The second half was more of a slog. It‘s exhaustive and exhausting at times. Still… it‘s Barbra Streisand so what did I expect?! 😂

I started this late last night and ended up reading wayyyy past my bedtime! 😂 I thought this was a riveting and gripping read and it really kept me guessing! Loved it. Thank you for getting this for me @squirrelbrain

@Birdsong28 Reminded me of your earlier post. 😂

Cor, I‘m kinda addicted to memoir audios at the moment! 😂 (This is my 7th so far this year!!) But this was utterly fascinating. A real fly on the wall look into life in parliament.

48hrs?! Ok Barb, let‘s do this! 😉

There‘s currently a kindle deal on this book (set in Naples during WWII) if anyone is interested? It‘s on the International Booker Prize longlist even though I said I wasn‘t going to look at any more longlists and I certainly wasn‘t going to buy any more. 🤦‍♀️ 😂 #internationalbooker

A soft pick. Loved the first half then it switched to 2nd person perspective and all the you youing did my head in! 🙄 but a really good ending (for a change!!) and I loved all the Mohawk stories and history. #womensprize

A true crime story of the penultimate woman hanged in Britain in the 1950s. It kept me guessing right up to the end. Fascinating and gripping. Thanks for getting this for me Helen @squirrelbrain

Ohhh 😮 👏 “She gets it from me!” 😉 💃🏻 🍉

It feels awful to say I loved this because it‘s so heartbreaking. Michelle Williams does a hell of a job! I knew it was going to be sad but Britney does not hold back. It is a crime what her family and the paparazzi put her through. I can‘t stop thinking about it. As soon as I finished, I wanted to go right back to beginning and read it all over again!

I really don‘t like it in books when we, the readers, find out information before the characters. We‘re then left reading pages and pages waiting for the characters to catch up!! Plus way too predictable. (The octopus didn‘t add much to the story, even though I loved him, it felt like a trend ticking exercise. He was not in the story nearly enough!!)

I sobbed my heart out finishing this last night. It‘s a fictional story of the Brontë sisters, told from Emily‘s perspective. I knew it was going to be sad but it was so much more than I expected. The writing is so beautiful and their lives were so hard. Thank you for getting this for me Trish. Absolutely loved it! Best book I‘ve read so far this year.

This was just the right side of charming for my frazzled brain. I love this author‘s style (she‘s Ann Patchett‘s mother and it shows in her insightful descriptions). It is fun and easy to read but never so sweet it made me roll my eyes. A dance teacher, looking forward to retirement, has her sister move in and her grown up children getting up to mischief. A comforting, easy read.

I enjoyed this cozy mystery. Lots of likeable characters to root for and baddies to boo with plenty of twists to keep ya guessing.

Don‘t you just love it when a book lives up to the hype!! I absolutely loved this. The audio was seriously addictive.

I was nervous going into this as I love Little Women but it did not disappoint! It‘s a retelling from Marmee‘s PoV but it‘s also so much more than that. There‘s lots of history and the family‘s backstory (which is largely based on Louisa May Alcott‘s real life family history). It is fascinating and beautifully written. Defo one of my fav books of the year. ❄️ ❤️ 🌲

These are my 5 star reads for the year! 🌟 #top23of23

Don‘t you just love it when you completely forget you preordered a book then it suddenly appears on your doorstep like a gift from the book fairies! 🧚‍♀️ 🪄 💫

I loved this! If Dickens and Sarah Waters had a child… it would be this book! It had Bleak House/Fingersmith vibes with a twisty, turning plot and fiendish characters galore! I would recommend binge reading tho as there‘s lots to keep track of. (I‘ve had a busy week so I‘ve only been reading a little bit each night and it was hardwork to remember everyone and their connections etc) Defo one of my top reads of the year. 👍

Thank you so much ladies for my birthday books! They sound so good! I can‘t wait to read them all! 😃 📚 @TrishB @squirrelbrain @quietlycuriouskate

Not quite 99p kindle deal but almost! 👍

When your TBR stack accidentally colour coordinates itself!! 😀 ❤️ 🤍

99p on kindle at the mo. This is a good collection of short spooky stories. 👍

Here‘s my #top10summer2023reads. I‘ve had a lot of bails but some really good books too. 👍

I loved this. Set during a heatwave in 1970s rural Italy, a young lad stumbles across a boy trapped in a hole. I don‘t normally like books from kids points of view but this was done so well (like Lord of the Flies or Mockingbird). This will stay with me a long time.

Set in the 1970s, this is a Judy Blumesqe coming of age story. Charming, nostalgic and easy to read this was just the palate cleanser I needed. I loved it! Thank you so much for sending this to me @squirrelbrain

This is dark, gritty and bleak. I absolutely loved it. It ticked all the dystopian boxes for me. I went in with v low expectations so I was pleasantly surprised.
Really enjoying campy litsy. What am I gonna read when it ends?!?! 😟 #camplitsy

I really enjoyed this. It was a book of two halves for me tho and I defo enjoyed the first half more than the fantasy/romance heavy second half. Not as good as American Wife but Curtis is a fav author now and I want to read all her books. 😁 #camplitsy23

99p kindle deal. Sounds charming. 😁 ⛪️ #nunlit

I am loving the TV show The Bear. Can anyone recommend a good book about a family run restaurant please?? (I‘m more interested in the family run business drama side of things than the cooking side 😉)

So excited to read this!! Which means I‘ll either read it next week or in the next 2-3 years! 👍

Wow! Has it really been 7 years?! So grateful to have met you lovely bunch of book pals! Such a lovely platform and I‘ve made some truly fantastic friends (GladstoneNerds!) and especially enjoying the Camp Litsy reads and discussions this year. 👍 😉 📚

Disappointing. When I hear the words Dark Academia, it sets my expectations sky high. Which doesn‘t help. I liked the location but there wasn‘t enough atmosphere or interesting plot for me here. I found the tarot cards stuff frankly boring. At one point, she says that the history of tarot cards is often left out by historians… I think there‘s a reason for that!!! I liked the ending tho, good twist. 👍

Disappointing! The writing is very literary (No chapters, really long sentences and paragraphs) it feels ranty and smug. We are given so much background for the characters, pages and pages, yet they‘re still stereotypes (the evil billionaire, the idealist eco youngster, money grabbing baby boomers). The set up and some of the plot is interesting but then there‘s too much tomfoolery. #camplitsy23

I absolutely devoured this book! It was so entertaining, in a Fatal Attraction kinda way. You know it‘s going to end bad but you can‘t look away! Loved it!! Can‘t wait to discuss with #camplitsy23 👍 💛