I‘m one hour into this and have already looked up how to get to Positano, places to stay and restaurants. Just checking to see if that‘s normal 😂

Oprah - one of us 😂

Things I hide from my family.

I ended up going to see Jesmyn Ward last night and man - am@I glad that I did! First of all, if you‘re not familiar with the moderator, Regina Bradley, go and run and buy her book, Chronicling Stankonia. Bradley‘s grandmother was murdered in front of her eyes and she remarked that one of the things she admires most about Jesmyn is her ability to let us sit in grief with the characters in her books.

I should clearly go to this, correct?

When a Kindle is the only barrier between him and your pizza slice.

I finished this three months ago and loved it so much that I haven‘t shelved it. It just sits here on my desk - hogging up room I don‘t have.

Just another Saturday night 🫶 Please note I‘ve had this rug since I started Litsy. I don‘t think it was meant to last this long 😂 #Bitsy #BabyCakes

I didn‘t love it but I didn‘t hate it either 😹. It started out great but then went off the rails for me. I felt like the author was really trying for something that she just quite couldn‘t pull off. I liked the premise of rewilding wolves in Scotland but some of the plot points were just ridiculous. My favorite thing about this book was that it introduced me to Werner‘s Book Of Colours. If you‘re a sensitive reader, stay far away from this one.

I LOVE IT @smalldogs_bigbooks2419 ❤️❤️ It‘s perfect and I can‘t wait to put it together! Thank you!! 🤗 #puzzleswap

Après le petit déjeuner ???☕️

I loved this - it was comforting every time I opened this book and returned to Boyne City to check in on Jane and her crew. Heiny is a great writer who is able to brilliantly capture mundane moments and ordinary people and make them memorable. “If she were a Crayola crayon, she‘d be Blue Bell.” For fans of Elizabeth Strout.

Spotted someone reading in the wild today at lunch.

@smalldogs_bigbooks2419 head‘s up! #puzzleswap

This was predictable and yet also funny and charming. This book lets you revisit mid-90s NYC while also revisiting your early adult years when you thought you had to have everything all figured out (because you just knew that everyone else your age was ahead of you with their careers and love lives). Great if you‘re in a book slump or just in need of a palate cleanser.

Going to give this one a whirl.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫This was cute and I‘d definitely read another book in this series. Loved the setting in a touristy town in Oregon and there are enough rabbit holes in the mystery to keep you guessing. Recipes included in the back of the book.

#GroupS
Here are a few selections

#GroupQ #Round13 #LMPBC
@ozma.of.oz @WanderingBookaneer @LibrarianRyan thoughts on these?

@suvata

It‘s his month so I‘ll let him have it. 🐈‍⬛

I like the Shakespeare references in here after reading Hamnet.

It‘s a baby dragon and a cat - that‘s all you need to know! But also great for readers getting into chapter fiction. Love the smart and compassionate character, Zoey.

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a brilliant idea, conceived and executed by a clever young woman, must be claimed by a man.”
😂

This is charming, earnest, and funny. I‘ve enjoyed getting to know Franny Banks in 1995 NYC. 1995 was three years prior to one of the greatest ever films being released: You‘ve Got Mail. 😂 Don‘t worry - Bitsy is also in the car. We needed a Dunkin‘ pick-me-up and if I was going, we were ALL going!

“The gift of close reading translates into the gift of perspective. Thoreau can look at Walden and see not only the subtle changes in the place as the seasons progress, he can see the layers of humanity upon the land, the past, present, and future existing all at once…Read so closely that the landscape you‘re in or the book you‘re reading becomes you. It is through such constant, intense close reading that you can touch the edges of your soul.
👇

I picked this book up because I loved the cover and it ended up blowing me away. This is a delightful read if you love nature writing.

“…I forgot all the imperfections when the wood
thrush returned and the notes drifted
through me
it slung its song straight into my heart the harmony
it made with itself
hung onto heaven pierced my
soul brought back love
from a place I‘d never known”

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Such a lovely book but I can see that it may not be everyone‘s jam. It actually reminded me a lot of Lincoln In The Bardo in the sense of how does a child‘s death affect a family.

PS we‘ve adopted my friend‘s mini Schnauzer (after he became too sick to care for him). His name is Miles.

Hope everyone in the Litsy Fam is doing well!

I‘m not sure I‘ve ever read a memoir so earnest before this book. Sean lost his dad to suicide at age 12 and he takes you through trying to reconcile his feelings over it. Before I finished the book, my own dad died and I found solace in Sean‘s words. The circle may never be unbroken (the circle of abuse, poverty, depression, addiction), but Sean gives you hope that even though it may continue, you can still be okay. ❤️

We had to put our beautiful BFG to sleep this week due to him having an incurable disease that was becoming painful for him. He was always by my side while I was reading and I‘ll miss him terribly. 💔 Thanks to @LeahBergen for giving him his beloved nickname.

Me: Oh - ok. That‘s a long time but maybe by the time that rolls around, I‘ll have gotten to read some other things. *places hold*

30 mins later: What‘s that notification from the library? That hold came in?! The 8 week hold? I WAS NOT READY! 😂

New Rick Bragg book coming in August:

Speck is not a good boy. He is, a terrible boy, a defiant, self-destructive, often malodorous boy, a grave robber and screen door moocher who spends his days playing chicken with the Fed Ex man, picking fights with thousand-pound livestock, and rolling in donkey manure, and his nights howling at the moon.

https://www.amazon.com/Speckled-Beauty-People-Lost-Found/dp/0525658815/ref=nodl_

☕️📙📝

I‘ve wanted to read this since NPR listed it as a 2019 favorite on their Book Concierge. So far, I really like Tomlinson‘s writing - it‘s very reminiscent of Rick Bragg‘s storytelling.

Just disregard the look on the BFG‘s face. There are some cardinals that nest outside our window and they drive him bonkers.

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2 This was a pleasant surprise. While some of the dialogue sounds very much like it‘s been hashed out with therapists, it also shows Gould‘s keen insight into human nature and life and it helped prop up the stale prose. I also felt everything was underdeveloped: the characters, the plot, even the setting fell flat at times. And yet, despite all of this, there was still a spark to make this compulsively readable. Emma Straub fans will enjoy

Happy Holidays!
XOXO,
Bitsy, The BFG, Grey Cat, Robbie, Mr. Bird

Football, starting a new book, quasi napping with the BFG = Sunday

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Because I‘m 15 in my heart - I paired this with Taylor Swift songs:

Chapter 1 (Coming Home) Shake it off
The Logan Era: Dear John
The Jordy Era: Tolerate It, Mean, I Forgot That You Existed
The Tea Cake Era in Eatonville: Delicate, End Game and Out of the Woods
The Tea Cake Era in the Muck: Lover, Willow
The Janie Era: Invisible String (except the invisible string is about her and not a man)

I was going to start another book but began reading passages from this, so I think that now I‘m officially in the midst of a re-read.

I‘m going to bail on this one. I can already tell it‘ll just be a so-so read for me and I won‘t even remember it in six months.

“Oh you‘d like your book back? I don‘t think so.”

Confession: I was away from the bookish world SO much in 2020 that I was completely unaware that Helen Macdonald had a new book out.

Yesterday I bought a copy of The Peregrine and then went online to see who had recently written about it. The New Yorker ran an article in 2017 http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-beauty-of-j-a-bakers-the-peregrin... and after reading that, I was reminded of Derek Walcott because he was referenced in the article. And then I spent a couple of hours this morning reading some of Wolcatt‘s poetry - which is amazing. #bookishsidetracks

Me: “Maybe if I download an audiobook it‘ll force me to go outside and take a walk.”

Also me: “Or I could just listen to it while doing this.”

I went to the library today for the first time in forever and my absence was long enough for me to forget my library card PIN. When the librarian was helping me change it, she asked what I wanted the new PIN to be and I spit out 4 numbers and then hesitated bc I didn‘t know why I was choosing those numbers and I wasn‘t sure I‘d remember them. All day I was trying to figure out those numbers. Then it occurred to me that it‘s the husband‘s bday 😂

Confession time: I‘ve read two books in 2020. Two. I read The Dearly Beloved and The Heart‘s invisible Furies. I didn‘t pay attention to new book releases - I have some idea of some “hot” new releases this year, but for the most part - I‘m not quite sure what all was released. So I‘m giving myself grace to accept that this just wasn‘t a reading year for me. ❤️ Bitsy and the BFG were happy to have me work from home for most of the year.

Today is the first day that my library is (partially) opening back up (they closed in early March) with curbside pickup of holds. Was I supposed to be putting books on hold during all of this?! 😂 Now I‘m just gonna have to wait for @MicheleinPhilly to support her local indie and mail me the good summer releases...

👋 currently reading like it‘s 2017 over here.

I spent my business trip scouring the local library. 😂

Good news about 2020:
1.Half-Price Books is down the street from my office
2. I formed an IRL book club - we‘re meeting tomorrow

Bad news about 2020:
1. The bottom picture represents my pile of work and because of it...
2. I haven‘t read a single book in 2020 (including the one I‘m supposed to have read for the book club...that I formed...that meets tomorrow)
3. I had to put today‘s date on a form earlier today and I put that it was 2018...

There are a lot of informative discussions taking place on Instagram about American Dirt. I‘ve reconsidered reading it and will choose something else. @Lupita.Reads has some great suggestions for Mexican American authors in her stories.

I saw this review as well:
https://tropicsofmeta.com/2019/12/12/pendeja-you-aint-steinbeck-my-bronca-with-f...