I‘m no longer just Rissreads, I‘m now Rissreadswithcats! I‘ve had to change my username because I want to have the same name across all my reading accounts - StoryGraph and Goodreads. 🐈‍⬛ 🐈 🐈 ♥️

This book had me ugly crying but with happiness at the end. I borrowed it from the school library where I work. Such an important book for children to show them empathy and respect for the animal world. It‘s heartbreaking because a lot of it is true.
🦍 🦍🦍🦍🦍

#BookChain2025 “A” or “The” in the title @TheAromaofBooks

#LitzyAtoZ Letter A @Texreader

Williams quiet strength, resolve and integrity throughout life‘s injustices was both heartbreaking and inspirational. In some ways he reminded me of my ex husband. Never being pulled into the drama and behaving badly.

#LitsyAtoZ @Texreader Letter S
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Favourite quote ⬇️

Stunning! This is a little book but it had a big impact on me. So atmospheric, I wish I could spend time reading on this island.
Aghh Mary, you are definitely a keeper! The ending was perfect. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I‘m so glad this was my first read for 2025.
Thanks for the gift @LeeRHarry 🤍🩵💙🩶
#LitsyAtoZ @Texreader Letter C

It‘s exciting to be back!
#BookSpin @TheAromaofBooks

Best of 2024 for me. If I had to pick just 1 it‘s the tagged book (I think! 🤣)

I read somewhere in a review about this book that it is a flawed masterpiece. The same article said that it is about death, especially regarding Mark who has a death of character. These two statements rang true with me. I can‘t say anymore about this book without spoiling it for future readers but it is definitely worth the time. The art descriptions/analysis alone are breathtaking. All those miniature boxes. Last book of 2024. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Romance is SO not my thing! This is obvious when I‘m more invested in finding out at the end of the book what he wrote in his article than if they ended up together! 🤣 I often felt like I was reading a relationship instruction manual rather than a romance story. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thank you @Reggie for gifting me this book, and thanks @Centique for the easygoing buddy read ♥️

Another wonderful catch up with Serena. Book shopping and cocktails! 📚 🍸 We know how to spoil ourselves!
I purchased Orbital by Samantha Harvey & Sandwich by Catherine Newman.
Perfect evening out! ♥️
@MrsMalaprop

Yeah, I don‘t. Not anymore!
Clem is a brilliant Australian journalist, feminist and activist. I learn so much from her books and they are very amusing as well.
But the sad reality is that the people who should read these books and gain a new perspective of things never are the ones who do.
#Oznonfiction

@LeeRHarry Thank you for my gorgeous gifts! I‘m SOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited about both of these books! How awesome is this #aussiesecretsanta swap?!?!?!
Thanks for organising @CarolynM and for starting it all @thegirlwiththelibrarybag
Sorry I‘m late, I totally forgot! ♥️💚
Merry Christmas Aussie Littens x

This the book @Centique ?
It sounds fantastic! Thanks so much! You have brightened my world again. 🤍🩵💙🩶

Some very generous person has sent me these 2 books in the mail! How lucky am I? But I have no idea who they are from? It just says ‘Merry Christmas‘. I would love to thank whoever you are properly! ♥️
Is it @Centique or @Reggie ?

Meet my son‘s new kitten Earl.
Well this book was extrordinary, profound and devastating.
Basically it‘s about the last woman alive who could just lie down and give up but refuses too as she has a cow, dog, bull and some cats to look after. She struggles through everyday for them. Her family now.
Even though her future is bleak and uncertain the book is contemplative and beautiful too. It‘s a book that I will think about often.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I read this on my kindle. I love so many of the covers for this book.
This was a warm and fuzzy read. Penelope is a wonderful protagonist but can‘t kids be such shit heads sometimes! Loved it!
🐚🐚🐚🐚

This is a story of grief, horror, trauma and madness. I could not stop thinking through this book that we could slide down the slippery slope of denial that nothing will ever get that bad. That we have people and laws and blah, blah, blah that would never let this happen to us in the real world. But so much has happened in 2024 that I never thought I would be watching. That I‘m constantly shaking my head at in disbelief.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

It‘s arrived!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks @LeeRHarry
#Aussiesecretsanta
@CarolynM

@Centique
Thank you very much for this gorgeous gift! It actually arrived a few days ago, according to my son. Who then proceeded to put it under a pile of crap!
You have made me feel fabulous!!! ❤️💚

I will read anything Hannah writes. She is such a smart and articulate young woman.
This book is so important. I wish all young people could read it. But it is usually those who don‘t need to read books like this who do. According to a 2020 research study, Australian men hold some of the most misogynistic views in the Western world.
We obviously have a long way to go. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Our latest book club pick.
Too 🤮 sweet for me! I found it so annoying all the repetition, I could tell you the time travel rules in my sleep! I don‘t like books that describe every detail of every single thing going on and every single emotion. Why tell me how much the actual coffee is and how much money you gave and how much change you get and how you put it in the till……….You get the idea.

Grace Tame was Australian of the year in 2021 for her advocacy for legal reform regarding sexual assault survivors being able to speak publicly #LetHerSpeak. She was also responsible for changes of the wording of the crime noting that “the word relationship has connotations of consent”. What a fierce and inspirational woman.

Winton is a must read author for me and I devoured this. The dystopian landscape is set in Western Australia around the location of Exmouth, where my parents lived for 29 yrs. What is particularly confronting and frightening is that it stated in a review that everything he writes about is a likely climate science scenario. It‘s based on scientifically accepted and understood evidence and models. A Sobering and chilling thought. 4.5⭐️ #Ozfiction

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This was not the usual book I would read. I picked it up because it is being made into a series staring Nicole Kidman, Michelle Pheiffer and Elle Fanning. It was actually quiet amusing and something a bit different and I enjoyed it very much. I had heard of OnlyFans but didn‘t know much about it, I do now!

I‘m so behind with my book posts that by the time I get to them I have nothing much to say! 🤣 I loved this but not quite as much as Migrations. I found it so interesting about why wolves were being reintroduced to Scotland in the hope of regeneration of the ground cover. I just watched a program on an Australian grazier doing a similar thing but with donkeys. Fascinating. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
This book was the opposite of Betty and I am grateful for that. I needed to quiet my brain. I loved all the small stories of the narrators life. All those thoughts you have that you file away, that then pop up later. Some are profound, enlightening and instrumental to your past, while others are just bits of fluff, insignificant observations. #Ozfiction

School book club pick. Just catching up. Listened to it a while ago. I‘ve always loved birds. I would love to have a pet crow!

Bookclub. Soft pick. One of the most harrowing books I‘ve read. It‘s definitely a pick but it‘s a strange one as I could have quite easily have closed it at anytime and not picked it up again. Because of the material not because of it being badly written etc. I‘m still trying to process what I think and I may come back later and add to this review but I just wanted to get it done as life is hectic at the moment and my time on Litsy has suffered.

I read this in April but forgot to post about it. I loved it and I love this cover! 💛♥️💚

I actually read this a couple of months ago but forgot to write a review. This is the second novel I have read by Claudia Pineiro. She is a fantastic storyteller. I seem to be reading a lot of books about motherhood lately. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I listened to this. I was thoroughly captivated by the characters and the insights into the gaming world. It‘s a story about the ups and downs of friendship. Looking out and after your friends in the good times and the bad. One of life‘s greatest gifts is the love of friends. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

I picked this book for our book club because a lot of it is set in Egypt and I am going there in a month‘s time for a holiday! Everyone gave it 3 stars or above.
Most people will not like Claudia, who is on her death bed, reminiscing the past. I‘m ok with unlikeable narrators. Claudia was way ahead of her time in so many ways. All the things that made her unlikeable as a woman, would be overlooked if she were a man. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I listened to this.
Northern Ireland in the 70‘s is a scary place! I was most affected by the young school children who are forced to grow up way before they should. Their childhoods stolen by the reality of life in conflict. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

😬 This book is bloody terrifying! So brutal in so many ways! I haven‘t been able to stop thinking about it. Who is the monster exactly? The fifth child Ben or the mother, the family or society? It also made me think about motherhood and how you are damned if you do and damned if you don‘t. Someone always suffers. The depictions of the pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding of Ben made me feel really squeamish 🤮
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Another comfort read from Anne Patchett. This was lovely. 🥰

This book rips your heart out! Again and again, and again. I realised as I was reading it that I had read it before, but it must have been when I was a teenager I think. I couldn‘t remember most of it but it seemed familiar. Anyway brilliant book showcasing the best and worst of humanity. It was never going to end well. 😭

Thank you sooooooooo much @Meshell1313 for this thoughtful and gorgeous gift. It made my day brighter! Litsy people are the best people! I‘m excited to use it all ♥️♥️♥️

This was a soft pick and I do think it was a case of me and not the book. I would usually love this kind of book but my life is so crazy busy at the moment that I feel like I just couldn‘t concentrate and give this book the attention it needed. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

We are so blessed to have Litsy in our world! I‘m in Melbourne for my daughter‘s 25th so we decided to meet up, in person! We met at a bar and played ‘Drag Queen bingo!‘ It was a lovely night. ♥️
@CarolynM @thegirlwiththelibrarybag @LeeRHarry

This was excellent! I read and listened to Meryl Streep read it (she is so good!). A family stuck together during the pandemic, looking back at the past. I loved the couple of weeks we were locked down together, my boys with me 24/7. I chose my cloud oodie as the backdrop of this photo as somewhere in the book they are lying on the grass in the cherry orchard looking up at the clouds and deciding if they are ducks or rabbits. ⬇️

Made me snort laugh! 🤣
This book uses humour to beat you over the head about serious subjects. Very well done! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I want to shout out to everyone to read this book! I hope it gets a wider audience. I really loved it! It‘s a serious book that really makes you feel but oh did it make me laugh! I thought it was perfect. What an achievement for a debut novel! Well done Nadine 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Thanks for putting it on my radar @MrsMalaprop
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
#Ozfiction at its best!

This book is like life. So many things at once. Devastatingly sad and messy but so joyous too. I‘m blessed to have friends who are my family. LOVED this book! 💙🩵💛

I listened to this. My latest bookclub book. I haven‘t read a modern crime novel in a while and this was a pleasant surprise! I was reminded of my time as a police officer. The good and the bad. It also made me laugh.
#Ozfiction

Go Jane! Go Jane! Jane was bloody fierce for her time! She was a strong, smart, independent woman. Just how we like them! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book was a surprise. The writing style was very poetic and emotive. It is a beautiful story of love between two young black artists in London. But it is also a story about trauma. I loved all the references to music and found that listening to them on Spotify enhanced my reading experience. Likewise I googled some artists and investigated their work. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was lovely, funny, warm, fuzzy and wholesome and I loved it! Kindness is so underrated! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I did a bad, bad thing! 🤣 Wants, not needs. But I don‘t care! Retail therapy at its best! ♥️

Dalton really knows how to pull on your heart strings, even if most of the plot is far fetched.
I do feel like he romanticises homelessness and the writing is let down by him trying to include too many facts about these issues so therefore it comes across as not genuine conversation. #Ozfiction ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
It will make another great tv series, and I couldn‘t help but think that‘s exactly what he was thinking when he mentions Nicole Kidman etc

I listened to this but I will be buying a physical copy. This book made me move between two emotions. Rage and despair. How is it that it‘s 2024 and we still have such inequality for women. Half the population! This fight is so exhausting! More men reading books like this would be a start! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I really enjoyed this. It was refreshing to read something so original. Wren and Lewis have just gotten married when Lewis receives the diagnosis that within a year he will mutate into a great white shark. You would be forgiven for thinking that this is a horror story but It‘s actually a tender story of love and sacrifice. You could also presume to think that this is a silly story but it‘s actually very astute. ♥️ 🦈
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2