Whoops! Late to post my (nonfic heavy) #ReadingBracket2025.

Aimee Nezhukumatathil will *always* end up on the board whenever she‘s got a book to enter into the fray.

Titles written below (for those of us who struggle with tiny print):

Jan: The Witching Year by Diana Helmuth
Feb: Moominland Midwinter by Tove Jansson
Mar: Bite by Bite by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

Wild: Giving Up the Ghost by Hilary Mantel 🏆
Wild: Eight Bears by Gloria Dickie

Anyone read any good, contemporary, offbeat, funny fiction lately?

Everything on my shelf seems to be diametrically opposed: weighty, dark, lyrical, and poignant OR a floofy romance. I‘m looking for something more like the titles pictured. Witty, modern, and not *necessarily* sweet (but it‘s okay if there‘s some sweetness, too).

*It should probably be noted that I‘m not a fan of massively unlikeable characters.

Check out my (very red & angry) new tattoo!

It‘s a memorial tribute to Moxie (my pet house rabbit), taken from Brian Wildsmith‘s picture book “The Princess and the Moon.”

My artist (who just happens to be a descendent of Owen Chase, first mate onboard the Essex — the shipwreck that inspired Moby Dick! 🐋) used a process called “bloodlining” to get the color bleed right. Pretty bad-ass, tbh.

She said I sat like a champ. 🏆

On my love/hate relationship with StoryGraph stats:

I almost never categorize the books I read as lighthearted. Yet, it‘s one of the biggest pieces of my moody pie! How? Eg: Unreliable Narrator is tagged as lighthearted. Written by a comedian, it‘s mostly about living with depression. Kind-of the opposite of lighthearted! The point is “things feel so heavy”; then, “how do we go on, anyway?” Finding the light is not the same as BEING lighthearted.

Are there sentences I wish Choi had never penned (or at least had edited out)? Yes. Chief among them, “It reorganized her thoughts with such an intensity that she had the sudden urge to pee.” Still, this book is *compulsively* readable. I loved the sci-fi story-within-a-story that Penny crafts for her Creative Writing course. And I‘m a sucker for both misfits *and* an epistolary component (be it letters, emails, or texts)…👇🏻

“By the time I was ten or eleven, everyone had moved on from sticker collecting—everyone, that is, except for me…I particularly loved the fruits…

God, I loved scratch and sniff bananas. They didn‘t smell like bananas; they smelled like the Platonic Ideal of bananas. If real bananas were a note played on a home piano, scratch and sniff bananas were that same note played on a church‘s pipe organ.”

I used to try to read aloud to my pet house rabbit and, though she was my little soul-twin in many ways, she was decidedly uninterested; she preferred a cozy silence.

Bite by Bite will go down in personal memory as the first book I read aloud to my pup. He *loved* it. We started with Nezhukumatathil‘s essay on potatoes. Jett is now my “best spud.” 🥔 He also loved the chapter on maple syrup. As such, I‘m unable to rate this book objectively.

My March reads, roughly in order of enjoyment (from least to greatest). The bottom row features all of my favorites.

I keep shocking myself with how many books I‘m managing to read each month. Either this is my new norm, thanks to deleting my social media accounts (and what a confirmation of my choices that would be!) or it‘s going to taper off at some point. With the gradually warming weather, I‘m starting to let myself dream of beach reading…

Quite possibly the most three-star book I‘ve ever read. 😅

Too many small details, which I normally don‘t mind, but it doesn‘t feel like they add anything (e.g. “I dropped the keys into the bowl on the table”; “I slid the bin from the shelf and lowered it to the ground”; “I pulled onto the shoulder…sliding the gear into park”; “I opened the door, getting out of the truck”, “I reached out…I pushed it open…My eyes widened,” etc).👇🏻

In recent years, there‘s no show I‘ve been more obsessed with than “Joe Pera Talks with You.” I‘m mentioning this because I subscribe to Jo Firestone‘s newsletter; she plays Sarah. Sometimes, she lets her friends (and fellow comedians) take over her newsletter for her. One such installment was written by Aparna Nancherla. In it, she mentions her forthcoming book. This one. I can‘t say I recommend the book as much as the show but…it was okay. 👇🏻

I can‘t count the amount of people to whom I‘ve enthusiastically gushed about this book!

Wholly compelling & nuanced characters (Niamh, I love you), great writing, a vivid setting, horrifying scorpion snacks, the gleeful destruction of every binary, and Spice Girls references *aplenty.* I‘ve heard the series described as a direct & oppositional response to JK Rowling‘s TERFdom — and yes, it‘s (needfully) that — but it stands on its own, too!👇🏻

I‘m at a lakehouse in upstate NY with two of my high school besties. We‘ve hit up 3 bookstores in 2 days. 🤓 This is my haul from the most recent stop.

It‘s BONKERS windy here! Obscured book title tagged. 🐈‍⬛

It‘s hard not to compare this to Erica Berry‘s Wolfish (tagged below, which I also enjoyed). Eight Bears is less of a memoir and more just straight-up science journalism and travelogue. It‘s also *far* more organized. Previously, if you‘d asked me how important organization was to me, I would have scoffed. I tend to think of myself (and my taste) as being sort of dreamy, floaty, and tangential. But Gloria Dickie proved me wrong! 👇🏻

Another book down for my kids‘ fantasy book club at the library. I think they‘re going to love this one. Clear sentences, a shorter page length, whimsical illustrations, and some higher thinking about cruelty vs. kindness & how to manage deep emotions (anxiety, loneliness, abandonment, loss) make it an appealing & balanced book.

At the end of each meeting, we always make corner bookmarks. This time, it‘s twirly, leafy Green Man mustaches. 🍃

Yeah…that was great!

It‘s been a bit since I stayed up past midnight to finish a book but this was worth it. I only want to read about unlikeable characters from now on if it ends like this.

That the author thanks her “beloved sphynx cat, who sadly passed away as [she] was completing this novel”, stating “I would have started a death cult for you,” only makes it better. I know the feeling. R.I.P. Moxie Crimefighter. 🐰 Long live Samantha Allen!

“I had developed a habit of making tea and not drinking it. Small swamp waters multiplied on every hard surface of the apartment.”

The kind of novel which immediately makes you jealous that you‘re not a 30-year-old debut author with a longlisted book being considered for a prestigious award.

Callahan‘s stream-of-consciousness style might not be for everyone. But it is for me — and it lends itself to some brilliant one-liners. My favorite might be, “She said that coincidence was a religion and that she was agnostic.”

The form fits the plot exceedingly well. 👇🏻

Beth Brower, author of The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, on what she looks for in a March read.

I think this might be what I look for *always.*

“I didn‘t think you were that keen for marriage…”
“Yeah, but that was with you,” he said.
“Cheers.”
“No, I mean, the future you decide with a person is different for every person, isn‘t it? It‘s not like you decide what you want, then someone fits into that. We decided we wouldn‘t have gotten married. Lucy and I discussed…that we would…”
“All these things we thought about each other…funny how wrong we were.”
“We weren‘t wrong…we were growing up.”

“I had never known a feeling as unbearable — as sour, wrenching, and unshakeably sad — as pity for a parent.”

It‘s a testament to Alderton‘s writing (& my own healing) that I was so immersed in the story, I didn‘t even think to compare it to my formative heartbreak until 3/4 of the way through! Being “ghosted” by someone you care about, when you‘ve been lead to believe that what you have together is valuable, is so damaging to your self-worth. I love that in her novel, Alderton suggests we trust our friends to be keepers of our hope. Just for a while.👇🏻

This romance, featuring the statue of a medieval knight who comes to life and the museum conservator working to restore him, was somehow both more ridiculous and less ridiculous than I anticipated. 😅

The author says she took some liberties with “Griffin‘s speech patterns, because if he really spoke like someone from the early 1400‘s, he and Emily would struggle even more to understand each other.” And that‘s all well and good but…

Reading about Paddington‘s home — the cloud forests of “darkest Peru” and the creatures who live there, including the pictured hummingbird. It‘s called a Sparkling Sunbeam and being reincarnated as one is now my plan for the afterlife. They‘re so pretty, are a part of something called “the brilliants tribe” (how aspirational!), they‘re a species of Least Concern, & they build those tiny little moss cups as their home and live in the clouds.

Sold.

Moominland Midwinter was my pick for February, given that I read and loved it first. But I can see Giving Up the Ghost potentially sweeping the whole board.

I‘ll tag each of the remaining books below (to make it easy for anyone who may be considering adding them to their TBR).

#ReadingBracket2025

This is the face of someone who has just applied for admission to Sophie Blackall‘s “Workshop for Writers of Picture Books” (published and unpublished) at her farm retreat in upstate NY. What a stupidly amazing opportunity that would be! It‘s beyond competitive (10 spots), so I‘m not expecting miracles.

STILL.

Wish me luck! 🤞🏻

“I am writing in order to take charge of the story of my childhood and my childlessness; and in order to locate myself, if not within a body, then in the narrow space between one letter and the next, between the lines where the ghosts of meaning are.”

“You need to find yourself, in the maze of social expectation, the thickets of memory: just which bits of you are left intact?”

“I was (and am) unsure about how I am related to my old self, or to myself from year to year.”

“It was afternoon: that time, around three o‘clock, when a day seems to pause and yawn, before stretching itself and ambling towards teatime.”

“Since then I have always been addicted to something or other, usually something there‘s no support group for. Semicolons, for instance, I can never give up for more than two hundred words at a time.”

Have you ever wanted to burst into a round of applause at the end of a book? God, this was so good.

Hilary Mantel‘s memoir isn‘t especially uplifting. Her story is shaped by institutional — specifically, medical — neglect. It makes the pleasure I took from being welcomed inside her brain, where I could luxuriate in the craft of her sentences, feel almost shameful. I‘m choosing to feel wonderstruck (and a bit star-struck), instead.

What a writer!

Just a few chapters in, I texted a friend in my book club and lamented, bluntly, “I don‘t like our book.” The fact that I came around is a surprise to me!

I never did come around to Rendon‘s writing style, however. Her short, declarative sentences are not my cup of coffee (nor are they my peanut butter cookies). More variation of sentence structure would‘ve gone a long way. 👇🏻

I‘ve felt sort of scattered and dissatisfied lately; I think those feelings have transferred to my reading life, too.

For the second month in a row, I read more than I typically do. But the vibe is off. 🙈

I did read two books I absolutely adored: Moominland Midwinter and Giving Up the Ghost. I hope that same passionate energy guides me and focuses me in March.

I‘m still reading the last two. But I‘ll be done before the clock strikes noon!

“It‘s a life skill: finding the sweet spot between solitude and loneliness.”

“It is time for me to take up skipping…I don‘t want to but I have to try. I‘d rather turn the rope and say the rhyme than skip…

[Hopscotch] is better than skipping, but I find that when I try to stand on one leg, the pressure of my thoughts pushes me over.”

Perhaps this explains why I‘ve never had any luck with sports? 😅

You‘ll have to forgive me. I know folks have complained about Litsy not being as book-focused anymore (a complaint I don‘t share…but maybe I‘ve just been vigilant in muting hashtags I‘m not interested in). Anyway, I deleted all of my social media when Meta made its most recent changes (re: fact-checking & hate speech). So, this is all I have left. And I need the world to know that yesterday was my puppy‘s birthday! Jett tasted his first ice cream.

In college, I took a course called Celtic Christianity. I learned that in the Celtic version of the Adam & Eve story, all of nature prays in the river alongside the Edenic couple while they beg for divine forgiveness: the fish, the frogs, even a big, blue whale. It shouldn‘t have surprised me, then, to read about all of the animals in this story, set in Wales, who help Gwynn process the grief of losing his sister: …👇🏻

I discovered that I‘m way less of a word nerd than I think I am! 🙈 Listening to Curzan‘s musings on the English language, I found myself feeling amused and surprised by the text as often as I caught myself zoning out. The main takeaway is that language evolves; unless clarity is being lost, we should watch how it does so with interest and curiosity instead of gatekeeping and policing usage. 👇🏻

Billed as a “queer, feminist Western,” this novel is full of supposedly captivating characters but I wasn‘t totally sold. Never once did I feel like the narrative straddled me, stared me in the eye, and let down its hair. It all felt a little fast and loose. I wanted something deep and tight. I galloped along the surface of the text and was happy when I found myself at the end. Like Bridget, I‘m eager to move on to something else.

It took me a while to get into this but once I was in, I was in. Sensitive misfits abound and hints of natural magic are tucked into each corner, as is Alice Hoffman‘s way. It‘s not my favorite of hers…but I can‘t imagine anything other than Practical Magic ever will be.

I was not expecting the Very Upsetting Thing that happens towards the very end. Check your trigger warnings (the big one is concealed in a spoiler below).

My parents have a condo in Florida. I came down with them just for the long weekend. I fly back to New England tonight and I can‘t say I‘m looking forward to leaving the pool behind!

I‘ve had this book on my shelf for probably a decade now. I think about bringing it every time I come down here. It finally made it into my carry-on. 🐢🌖

❄️ Welcome to my new obsession. ❄️

First, some backstory. Depending on how long we‘ve been Litsy friends, you may or may not know that I had a little house rabbit for 12 years. Her name was Moxie. A common nickname for her was “Moomin.” Understandably then, I‘ve been meaning to read a Moomin book for a long time! 👇🏻

I haven‘t been playing #TLT, so I went back & checked-off all 3 lists. I have to admit…my results are less impressive than expected! I‘m averaging about 20 books per list.

Some favorites from this week:

🌖 On Earth We‘re Briefly Gorgeous (which I read long after graduating from AP English class)
💐 Mrs. Dalloway (who bought the flowers herself)
🐋 Moby Dick (which I‘ve read at least thrice. Does that get me extra points? 😅)

Link below.👇🏻

Using these monthly graphics as another way to track my reading.

I read 9 books in January, which is high for me but January always skews high. I credit the motivation of a New Year and my commitment to #AuldLangSpine! Three of the books were fairly short, as well.

The Witching Year was my favorite. Hard to beat that premise in terms of my interests, and her writing is clear, fun, colloquial, and sometimes poetic. Fire Exit was also a stand-out!

I almost bailed after the first chapter but, as I told a friend (who did bail!), “I think the sexy parts are going to be well-written so I might stick it out. 😅”

LISTEN.

I wasn‘t wrong.

The astute Litten may notice that all of Jen Comfort‘s books are now on my TBR. What can I say? I‘ll shamelessly allow a couple of initially off-putting characters to win me over if you throw some supreme spice and a Jeopardy!-style game show into the mix. 🥵😜

I have more thoughts about this book than a Litsy review warrants. I think the crux of it is that I found many beautiful passages that spoke to me…but I don‘t think it‘s a perfect book.

Barbara Brown Taylor writes, “Every job has revealed some ability I did not know I had, just as it has exposed some clumsiness I was pretty sure I had.”

I think, in this (rightfully) sensitive and inclusive time, Taylor‘s writing is sometimes clumsy. 👇🏻

January has been a heavy month…in ways expected & in ways that have blindsided me. Friends & family are engaged in some pretty dramatic fights for their health. As a consequence, I‘ve found myself reaching for lighter books.

All that to say, I made it through 4 books from @Christine ‘s #AuldLangSpine list (and no more). My clear favorite was Fire Exit. I‘m listening to “Says Who?” at the moment, which is providing both levity & substance.👇🏻

I‘m not sure about this one yet.

I added it to my list when going through #AuldLangSpine recs with a fine-toothed comb. I asked my husband to buy it for my birthday. I decided to dive in now to scout it as a potential gift for my stepmom. I think I support the author‘s overall message. I‘m not sure (yet) whether I‘m here for her *tone.* TBD.

It might not have been a natural follow-up to “A Well-Trained Wife.” Religious content is tricky atm…

I read this for Bookwyrms Book Club, my newly-minted fantasy book club for kids at the library. It‘s based on “The Reluctant Dragon”, a short story by Kenneth Grahame (which, admittedly, I‘ve never read). It was super sweet — basically “Ferdinand” made mythical, about a cultured & sensitive dragon who would rather read, paint watercolors, play the piano, eat creme brûlée, and put on plays than fight. The kids all loved it! ??

I just went down such a rabbit hole after learning that Seanan McGuire 1) found her agent through writing Buffy fanfic, & 2) genuinely despises the ending of the series.

NOW. I have plenty of complaints about Buffy. But the ending was never one of them. Any other superfans want to weigh in?

I may have bought a book just to read her essay about it.

Note: Don‘t worry! I bought it used. Because, ew, Joss Whedon.

I‘ve never been happier to be in a world with talking foxes, & turtles the size of ships, of houses, of islands.

This is far from my favorite volume of The Wayward Children series, however. It‘s not due to the story but the execution. When a book is so small, it needs to be flawlessly crafted. This has inconsistencies (like when the fox calls Nadya by her nickname, though she‘s never spoken it to him) & careless repetition (see comments👇🏻).