@Jadams89 Thank you for the pet friendly #StuffedStockingSwap box of goodies! Theo enthusiastically approved of the toy and treats! I‘m very excited to solve the adorable animal advent calendar puzzle. The book is absolutely gorgeous! I can‘t wait to read it and add to my home library! Thank you for your kindness 🤗 Happy Howlidays 🐾

@Avanders Thank you for hosting another wonderful swap! ❄️ 🩵💙

I‘ve been hard at work baking holiday cookies. I‘ve finished 4 and have 3 more in progress. Done: cookie butter snickerdoodles, orange cardamom cookies, grinch heart butter cookies, and pfefferneuse. In progress: malted vanilla sugar cookies, lemon wreaths, chocolate oat cookies. Still have a lot to do!!! 🍪 🥄 👩‍🍳
#SaturdayChatterday

@Avanders #StuffedStockingSwap gift went out in the mail before Thanksgiving. It‘s arrived and I have received mine as well. #SSS 2024

@MaleficentBookDragon I mailed out my #JS2024 package today!

American history is just one tale of grift after grift. This installment features the doomed Freedman‘s Bank established during Reconstruction. The white trustees stole the deposits of the formerly enslaved to enrich their cronies and themselves. Black depositors are still waiting for justice. #thisbookwillprobablybebanned 💰 🏦

“Collectively, we have taken for granted that white wealth was built from Black work and Black ingenuity. Consider the fact that formerly enslaved people deposited approximately $57 million ($1.5 billion today) into the Freedman‘s Bank. They worked and saved to secure assets that they could transfer to their families and descendants.”

Page-turner memoir about being a working actress who finds herself in a cult! I‘ve never watched “One Tree Hill” but I still enjoyed reading this book (mostly for the cult situations). It‘s unfortunate that the author cover photo is so unflattering; she looks like a 50-something starlet instead of a fashionable Millennial. #BOTM

I read this last month. It‘s a solid horror novel. The tone is sort of V.C. Andrews meets postpartum psychosis. #BOTM

Happy Howloween! 🐾🧛🏻‍♀️💀🎃

I was eagerly awaiting this release even before it was featured in the NYT. This is billed as speculative fiction about what might have happened while Benito Juarez lived in New Orleans while in exile from Mexico. Herrera captures the wildness of 1850s NOLA with all the dangers from violence to illness. 🦟 ⛓️‍💥

The audiobook narrator tried to imitate Alan Watts‘ voice and speaking style, and just no. There‘s only one authentic Alan Watts. Still a good book with lots about Buddhist history.

I‘m obsessed with the cookie recipes in this book!!! This is the first cookbook I‘ve ever read cover to cover. I love the author‘s flavor combos, her use of different butter temperatures, and creative ideas for scraps. The measurements are a little weird but that‘s easy to overcome especially with a kitchen scale. Love it!!!! 😍 🍪

This book was everything I needed to read over a rainy, gray weekend. ✔️Creepy mountain health spa village in 1913. ✔️ Suspicious death in a house with suspicious men. ✔️ Mysterious plural pronoun narrator. ✔️ Sweet and charming MC. ✔️ Lush writing that makes it impossible to put down! 💀 🍷 🍂 #readme

Thank you @Laughterhp for the delightful #FFFS box of goodies! The Halloween puzzle and comfy socks are adorable! I‘ve already enjoyed a caramel and tea. The books are perfect for spooky season. The notecards are so beautiful! 🍁 Thank you for the unique gifts! I hope your swap box is just as wonderful! 🎃

To our lovely hosts, thanks again for such a fun tradition! #FallingForFallSwap 2024 🍂

I almost passed this up at the bookstore, because how many copies of Laozi‘s masterpiece does one person need? I‘m glad I gave in to my heart because I‘ve so enjoyed Ken Liu‘s magical, imaginative version! This is certainly the most inspired and creative interpretation of Dao De Jing I‘ve yet encountered. It‘s a must-read!! 🐅 🐠 🌊 🦋

Is it a novel or a collection of connected tales? I struggled a bit near the end when the tone became serious with the war. Certainly it‘s a unique exploration of sanity, culture, and art.

My #FallingForFallSwap box arrived a few days ago! Now I just have to count the days until October 1st! 🍂 #FFFS

Cory Doctorow‘s entertaining treatise on interoperability. 💻 🛜 🆓

This explained why I feel the way I feel about being a wage slave. I‘m resistant about being plugged in to social media and dislike my employer‘s attempts to connect every work action to data. This mess we‘re in globally is quite a spiraling web. Wake up!

I think I found this book because it was recommended by the NYT. It‘s an engaging history about cancer research and the author‘s family struggles with various cancers. It‘s a nice blend of personal and medical history, but it‘s a bitter sweet story. 🧬

Mikita Brottman has a talent for finding and telling the most unbelievable true crime stories. Her other books were more philosophical and poetic. This tale is the literary equivalent of a Polar Pop or Big Gulp. Buckle up for raunchy crimes among evangelicals, sex addiction, life insurance, and gators! 🐊🥤🔫

Page-turner examination of the corrupting influence of extreme wealth and blind faith in technology. This won‘t be the last book I read by Douglas Rushkoff. A true visionary!

A neuroscientist turned journalist shares years of research about how climate change effects our brains. It‘s not good news, but it‘s a great book.

What a fun end of summer swap box! I‘ve already started A Silent Fire and think it will help me be a better nurse. Nutrition is key in the fight with chronic inflammation. I‘m excited to try the Alaska Sourdough recipes (I needed a starter)! Thanks for the fun pen and cookie cutters 🤩 Theo LOVED the cod skins!!!! Thank you so much! 🥳 #LLSS #LitsyLove

I found this novel uneven but interesting. It‘s definitely not a typical dystopian story; there are more fantasy and sci fi elements. It‘s a little like Robin Sloan condensed a fantasy series into one book. A bit of a mess but in the best way. 🦫

I bought this book based on the description: “wildly imaginative, genre-defying, and delightfully queer adventure—a swashbuckling saga, a medieval novel noir, a meditation on the miraculous, and a monastic meet-cute.” No regrets!

I am weak weak weak for WWII history books about thwarting Hitler. This book is a sort-of biography of Sefton Delmer, a German-born Australian who revolutionized Britain‘s propaganda war against the Nazis. I couldn‘t put it down! 📻 🚬

LvdB is one of my “must read” authors, and this was my most anticipated book of 2024. What I love about her writing style is that it‘s never what you‘d expect. Even if you think you know what‘s going on…you‘re probably a little wrong. If you enjoy surprises and Florida weather, this might be for you! 🌴

Pros: 1) short chapters 2) excellent primary sources 3) varied personal accounts and perspectives. Cons: 1) way too long; needed better editing 2) unnecessarily extended section about Lincoln‘s train journey to D.C. 3) for all the protraction, the ending felt rushed. #BOTM (Background: insanely difficult puzzle of Paul Klee painting) 🔥 💣 ⚔️

EVERYTHING anyone could want to know about “Who‘s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” The play, the movie, the actors, directors, producers. More interestingly it examines changing mores in the 1960s with regard to marriage and relationships.

I listened to this audiobook because it put me to sleep. I enjoyed hearing about different aspects of medieval travel. The author covers a variety of destinations and reasons for travel (i.e. pilgrimage, trade, exploration).

It wasn‘t a great play when it first premiered and it didn‘t age well. Vonnegut‘s problematic misogyny and homophobia really sticks out here. A necessary read for Vonnegut completists but everyone else may skip.

Do yourself a favor and read this book. 🍄

Complete your graphic novel bingo with this book about Percy Bysshe Shelley‘s famous Peterloo poem that doubles as a mini biography of women‘s labor activist Pauline Newman. 🔥

I liked this story about Cherry‘s time as a flight nurse in England. Maybe it was the British countryside but this book didn‘t feature the same derogatory language about Asian cultures. There‘s even a mention of African American troops and how they play the best swing music. My favorite detail is that preparations for evacuation flight nursing involves having hot coffee ready to drink! ☕️

I took my time reading this amazing book because I loved it so much! Zen perspective on the 6 paramitas.

The storms in Oklahoma delayed the arrival of this book. Once I started reading it I couldn‘t stop! It‘s a must-read for anyone interested in medicine, human subject research, and whistleblowing. Excellent read!!

I love when the right book appears at the perfect time! This beauty surprised me in the mailbox last week (I subscribe to Transit Books, but their publishing schedule is irregular). Bonomini is an out-of-print, forgotten Argentine writer, and Jordan Landsman translation brings his unusual style back to life. I adored these little stories and eponymous novella! 🇦🇷 #TransitBooks

1 - I consulted the star signs so many times the spine split completely in two
2 - Isak Dinesen was a favorite author from early adulthood. I particularly loved Seven Gothic Tales and Anecdotes of Destiny
3 - Christian Kracht‘s Imperium: a Fiction of the South Seas

@iread2much

This is an interesting work of psychology. It‘s a collection of essays inspired by Jungian theories of the collective unconscious and dream symbolism. Of course, Jung‘s essay is the stand-out of the bunch. I listened to this but got the paperback to reference images and interpretations of art. Very interesting book!

It really hit me that there‘s real danger in these stories. Nancy and her gal pals get way too close to a house explosion. These books also make me nostalgic for a time when roadside motels served meals and weren‘t scary dens of drug use and desperation.

“Throw Down Your Arms” Sinead O‘Connor‘s reggae album
“NFR” by Lana Del Rey IYKYK
“Chopin Nocturnes” by Arthur Rubinstein(perfection)
#TLT #ThreeListThursday

It took me longer than I expected to finish this book. I blame the narrow margins and dense text. This book will make you think and send your mind wandering in a good way. I looked at most of the 100 pages of footnotes. It‘s a very rewarding read! @JamieArc I didn‘t plan to finish this book at the same time as this puzzle (both from you) but life is serendipitous in that way! 🤩

Carlo Rovelli is quickly becoming one of my favorite writers. He has a knack for explaining complex quantum physics with ease, but he‘s also poetic and philosophical about life. His prose is beautiful and a joy to read! 5-star book! ⭐️

It still surprises me when I‘m the first to review a book on Litsy that I feel should be more popular. I read this to learn more about CBT practices to help me be a better psych nurse. If you are familiar with Thich Nhat Hanh‘s mindful Buddhism and Viktor Frankl‘s logotherapy, this book is in the same vein. I found it very motivating and insightful. #CBT

Cherry is Chief Nurse of an evacuation hospital on an island in the South Pacific. These early novels actively implore girls to study nursing so they can join the war effort. Cherry and her troop of nurses get bombed and treat soldiers close to the combat zone. It‘s a reminder how fierce and tenuous the war was with Japan. Unforgivable: the derogatory language about Japan. I can‘t wait until Cherry has adventures in civilian nursing. 🌴

It‘s an almost unbelievable true story about one man‘s fight with DuPont about water pollution with forever chemicals. I read this book several weeks ago, but Biden‘s EPA just now set limits of known carcinogens PFOAs in public drinking water. There‘s a great documentary based on this book as well as a movie. 💦

Were you looking for a history of early modern Italian beauty culture? Look no further! There‘s everything from hair lightening, skin creams, hair removal, and poisons! The author also shares some (arsenic-free) recipes so readers can experience authentic renaissance beauty! 🪞 👄

This was a swift audio history of the world through the lens of infectious disease. I never considered how the Palatine and Ciprian plagues likely influenced the rise of Christianity. The book starts slowly with Prehistoric and Neolithic plagues but the pace picks up when people formed settlements and began growing crops. 🦠

This is the first biography I‘ve read about Lord Byron. I liked how the author organized the book around letters so one can hear Byron‘s voice. He lived quite a wild life!!!

Nancy‘s back on her home turf but she‘s still hanging with her cousins George and Bess from the previous adventure. The criminals in these books are terrible! I did like the snake bite first aid. 🐍 Also Nancy learns how to decode cyphers in one evening. Either she‘s a genius or everyone is really dumb…