pickWhat a great read! I was a little underwhelmed but The Moth Keeper, but this was everything I expected it to be. A wonderfully wholesome story, beautiful art, and warm feelings. K has a great gift for writing about queerness and inclusion without it being preachy. Their characters just are, and they only implies prejudice, choosing to focus on acceptance, as exemplified by the panel above.
bailedThis is an exhaustively researched history of the DTH, with a vast collection of photographs. Unfortunately, for me, it was not a great entry point into the world of ballet. Names, places, and productions were thrown around like I would have any idea of their significance. Chapters were broken down into very short sections, which should have been easier to read, but it just felt like short section led to a lot of jumping around.
so-soThis didn't really click for me. The author and illustrator act as guides through the history of video games with a random robot thing, but there is little introduction to these people. There is a loose thread they follow, but it jumps around a lot in the timeline and between topics. A lot of the jokes and banter between the guides fall flat. I can see what they were going for, and there is some interesting information, but overall it didn't work.
Happy Veterans Day. Here's hoping that someday our veterans get the support they deserve and the care they need after they return home, beyond a free coffee one day a year.
https://youtu.be/OLVWEYUqGew
#tuesdaytunes
Just do what makes you happy!
pickMiller has been in the genre game for a while, writing original novel for Star Wars, Star Trek, Mass Effect, etc, and he absolutely nails this Batman book. A variant of the Joker's Smylex turns a struggling actor into Clayface, but that is just the beginning. Miller does so much so well: fitting new characters to the Burton-verse, Easter eggs from both movies, early 90s tech, early Batman testing phase, but all grounded in a really solid story.
Our first snow fall on the peninsula this season. A few inches, nothing crazy. Definitely the latest first snow since we've been here (we usually see snow before Halloween 😋). I'm hoping for a quite, cozy weekend huddled indoors reading.
Sign-ups are open for the 2nd annual Naughty List Holiday Swap! Choose your level of creepiness (low, mid, high), your level of gifting, and what traditions interest you. Tis the season for long nights, cold weather, ghost stories, and atonement for the trespasses of the past year. Won't you join us? 😈
US only this year
Sign up here by November 17th: https://forms.gle/8vX3Bzo6ki8XSD358
#NaughtyListHolidaySwap #NLHS #LitsySwaps
Guillermo del Toro is a true artist, and, since missing Nightmare Alley, it had been too long since I've seen one of his films in theaters. I was so happy to see his latest last night during its limited run. I've yet to read the source material, but his take on Frankenstein is hauntingly emotional and the film just looks amazing. Isaac and Elordi are brilliant. Streaming on Netflix tomorrow!
I live here, so why you following me?
Mr. Master Race, but still no GED
...
Fear in your flesh, you so scared to be replaced
Think you a future billionaire, but your future's being erased
✊🏿
Death Cult Zombie by Genesis Owusu
https://youtu.be/vFT7fZA3ybw
#tuesdaytunes
Philadelphia lost a legend last week. 93.3 WMMR mid-day show host Pierre Robert graced the airwaves for 40 years with humor, love, and soul. It says something when another radio station interrupts their broadcast to announce the news. From his catchphrase “Great day in the morning,“ to his coffee break marathon, usually preceded by a quote from My Fellow Americans, and his Thanksgiving tradition of playing “Alice's Restaurant,“ he will be missed.
November #bookspin #bookspinbingo @thearomaofbooks
My book spin selections are Dance Theatre of Harlem and Show Me a Sign. I'm starting Replaceable You today, and I'm hoping to read The Secret Live of Bats, so I'm not expecting a bingo this month 😋
I hope everyone has a safe Halloween! Not ready for the creepy vibes to end? @wildalaskabibliophile and I are hosting the 2nd annual Naughty List Holiday Swap! Celebrate the darker side of the season of lights. Choose your level of creepy, your level of gifting, and what traditions interest you.
US only (sorry, complications last year 🫤)
Sign up here by November 17th: https://forms.gle/8vX3Bzo6ki8XSD358
#NaughtyListHolidaySwap #NLHS
A successful October with four spooky reads, one real-life horror, a couple classics, and a couple comics.
pickA recovering, low-level low life is at the wrong place at the wrong time, and is pulled into a web of trouble. An extra layer of story and art on display as the main character is also writes a comic strip, and his creation enters the world through his mind.
pickI'm still not sure what I think about my beloved Archie characters in horror settings, but there were only a couple things with the main gang. Madam Satan was the main character of the anthology, and I would absolutely read more with her. A good balance of scary, goofy, gory, and spooky.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z19lHTlKfOk
I doubt I'll read the book, but her conversation with Jon Stewart is wonderful. He is perhaps the most generous interviewer, as you can see throughout their conversation that he leads her from seemingly rehearsed to relaxed and honest, even more so than she has proven to be, and he give serious consideration to her questions back. He even gets her cursing over the Drumpf “ballroom“ 😅 ⬇
pickA creepy collection of short stories. They were all around 20 pages, perfect for my lunch break. There was a fair amount of Spanish, but enough context clues that I could get the gist. Themes of family and community and retribution. It is considered YA, so teen, especially female, MCs. Lots of abuelas 😋
Enjoyed with Brutalitea Peachy Scream. The company names all their read after horror movies and metal bands 😆
TW: Rape
Maybe I missed this story because it is out of France, or maybe I heard about it and shut it out because how much awful stuff can you handle?
5 years ago, Gisele Pelicot's world was shattered when she learned about the horrors that her husband subjected her to.
Today, France adopts a bill changing the definition of rape from “penetration or oral sex using 'violence, coercion, threat or surprise'“ to “any non-consensual sexual act.“
#bookspin #bookspinbingo @thearomaofbooks
I've padded my list with several books for #nonfictionnovember , thought I still have to finish Batman Resurrection and to read Lucky Day to get caught up on my October selections.
#yuleseasonswap tip thread: This or That
@thebacklistbook
Today is the last day to vote in our contest! Vote at this link: https://pollunit.com/polls/ldmi5grh2pesptbtsvuhmw
This is our first experience with PollUnit, and the voting system is a bit odd: select the number of stars you want to give your favorite pumpkin in each category. You can only vote for one pumpkin in each category. We have five entries in two categories; not bad for the first year! #TheGreatPumpkinFaceOff @WildAlaskaBibliophile
#tuesdaytunes
Put a damn woman in charge! (I mean, obviously not someone like Boebert or MTG, but you know what I mean 😉)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FciQeRGYFlw
pickA fun follow-up to the first book. In the afterword, the author explains that he didn't want to repeat the story of brains over brawn, so he decide to explore when someone intelligent gets a little too cocky. Great illustrations and a meaningful story.
pickI don't know that I would have read this in physical form, but after listening to the audio, there are definitely passages I would have liked to have been able to capture. This is a brilliant meditation on the Israel/Palatine conflict, the way language is manipulated to justify atrocities, and the other-ing of whomever those in power need to diminish to maintain power. Goddamn, humans suck!
#bookmail from Archiecomics.com
I've been wanting Archie Meets Batman '66 for a while, and they had some fun Halloween items as well. I also got the Jughead comic where he is explicitly labeled asexual, though future writers tried to retcon it because they didn't want it to affect the Riverdale show 🙄
#tuesdaytunes
Spotify keeps trying to push the new Geese album on me, but I've been grooving to Olivia Dean recently. At 26, she is definitely a talent to keep an eye on. I love her breezy R&B sound, and she was just announced as an upcoming musical guest on SNL.
https://youtu.be/oIv_Y2RPQ_A
That‘s a wrap on pumpkin submissions for the first annual Great Pumpkin Face-Off! A huge thanks to everyone who joined the fun—your creativity is gourd-geous! 🍂 Voting begins tomorrow and runs through October 28th, so hop over here and pick your favorite pumpkins! https://pollunit.com/en/polls/ldmi5grh2pesptbtsvuhmw?option_category=5995692
#TheGreatPumpkinFaceOff @WildAlaskaBibliophile
so-soI will be going through my comic book collection over the next year or so to do some rereads and see what I can part with. I do a majority of my comic reading on Hoopla these days, because we don't have access to a comic book shop. The owner of the store I want to in Colorado told me, when I lamented picking up the newest issue of a series I hadn't even started reading yet, “That's why we are called comic COLLECTORS.“
pickClassic. Gets a little bogged down at times by the exploration of the minutia of daily life (I remember, in previous readings, trying to pay attention to the poems that the students recite, but I'm never quite able to muster the interest 😋).
Is Stephen King actually going to step back from writing?! He states that he has two novels lined up: the third Talisman book, which will potentially wrap up the worlds of both the Dark Tower and the Talisman, and a final Holly Gibney tale. Regardless of his future output, the legend has earned whatever rest he takes.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/books/2025/10/15/stephen-king-books...
#constantreader #losersclub
so-soIt was an interesting experiment at the time: a new issue each week for a year. With multiple writers and artists working to to achieve the goal, it succeeded in telling a cohesive story, drawn out the same way the story stretched over months; however, it lacked a cohesive look and voice. And while the penultimate reveal was actually clever and strong, the final reveal immediately undermined it. Interesting, but not an essential bat-story.
Thanks for the tag @matchlessmarie
I forgot to post about my donation yesterday! I got this excellent new shirt 😁
#litsybloodrive 🩸🅰
Get out those butcher knives! 🔪 🎃 The deadline is approaching for Litsy‘s first annual pumpkin carving contest, #TheGreatPumpkinFaceOff
Carvings can be entered into one of three categories: Funniest, Scariest, or Most Creative. Post your photos at this link by October 19th: https://pollunit.com/polls/ldmi5grh2pesptbtsvuhmw
We'll open the poll to all Littens for voting from October 21–28. Prizes for the top voted!
#tuesdaytunes
Before YouTube or even the trailers at the beginning of VHS tapes, movie posters were sometimes the only source of information a viewer had about the movie before going to see it. And perhaps no one understood this quite like Drew Struzan, who died yesterday. His name deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Lucas, Spielberg, and Williams for his part in Indiana Jones, Star Wars, E.T, and more.
https://youtu.be/HuxdSeQexVY
R.I.P. Drew Struzan. The man practically illustrated my childhood, creating some of the most iconic posters for some of the most iconic (and not so iconic) movies of the 80s and 90s. But his talent was such that even knowing something like Masters of the Universe is not a good movie, his poster still makes you want to see it.
Pictured is a poster for the Dark Tower he created as an easter egg for the movie The Fog.
pickA young girl at an orphanage finds out that she has family that has been looking for her. But the estate she comes home to is shrouded in shadows and secrets, especially the stone wall beyond the garden with the iron gate.
The main beats of the story were pretty predictable, but there were enough fresh elements to keep it interesting, and I enjoyed having a main character that was non-verbal.
@wildalaskabibliophile and I visited the Alaska Botanical Garden last weekend. We are already dropping into the 30ºs overnight, so it wasn't prime time to visit, but there was still a lot of life in the gardens, and they had their Boo-tanical celebration going on. We found Audrey II and Bunnicula. They also have a Little Free Library at the entrance full of gardening books.
#TLT #ThreeListThursday @dabbe
I was a late bloomer for horror. I didn't watch much until college.
Saw was the movie that got me into the genre. It's not as graphic as people remember/assume, and the mystery is well done.
John Carpenter's The Thing is peak, edge-of-your-seat, sci-fi chills (and a legendary Drew Struzan poster)
The Descent is creepy and claustrophobic, with a strong female cast that smashes the Bechdel test.
Via @thebacklistbook - Sign-ups are live for #yuleseasonswap:
https://forms.gle/gxyBhRtFFWMNKLDD6
Form will begin accepting responses on October 1st. Open internationally.
Sign ups run from Oct 1st to 25th, matches will be sent out by Halloween night. Mail by date is Dec 1st. Opening day Jan 1st.
“Friends don't let friends buy books on Amazon.“ 😉
Bookshop.org is running an anti-Prime sale, ending today. Purchases on Bookshop.org benefit independent bookstores, and you can even name the store you want proceeds to go towards!
If you have never shopped on Bookshop, and want to take advantage, you can use this link for 20% off: https://refer.bookshop.org/andrew64
#bookmail #bannedbookweek
My signed copy of Gender Queer arrived today, just in time for Banned Book Week! I've read it several times, but put off buying a copy for myself. A few months ago, pre-orders were offered with a portion of proceeds going to Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and Florida Freedom to Read Project. I got a signed deluxe edition and a “Fight Censorship, Read Comics“ pin.
As readers, we love our stories. Fortunately for us, the story of humanity is not limited to the written word but spread across multiple mediums. That's why we often see TV and movie posts on Litsy, and why I started #tuesdaytunes about a year and a half ago. Whether the story is in the lyrics of a song, the rhythm of the beat, or the chapter in your life when you heard it, join me in sharing some music every Tuesday!
#tuesdaytunes
One of my favorite artists released her new album on Friday. I've been following Rachael Yamagata for about 20 years, and it's been 6 years since any new music. While certainly not her best album, it is comforting to hear new songs, and there are a few highlights. “Somebody Like Me“ explores the feeling of hoping you're not alone in your thoughts.
https://youtu.be/8HZwgHrFFE8
It‘s time! 🎃 Join us for Litsy‘s first annual Jack-o‘-Lantern photo contest, #TheGreatPumpkinFaceOff
Carvings can be entered into one of three categories: Funniest, Scariest, or Most Creative. Post your photos at this link by October 19th: https://pollunit.com/polls/ldmi5grh2pesptbtsvuhmw
We'll open the poll to all Littens for voting from October 21–28. Prizes for the top voted!
Tag @wildalaskabibliophile or @TieDyeDude with any questions
pickI picked it up because I've never read a horror story set in the desert, and I was pleasantly surprised. This was a pretty effective, tight thriller. 270 pages flew by! I thought I guessed the twist pretty early, but started to doubt myself as the story continued, which matches the mentality of the characters, and that's pretty impressive. TR: Discussion of rape, though the event is not described.
#TLT #ThreeListThursday @dabbe
Graphic novel: Locke & Key series 😱 😱 😱
Novella: The Ballad of Black Tom 😱 😱 😱 😱
Novel: Mexican Gothic 😱 😱 😱 😱
I can't wait to see what others share!
#bookspin #bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks
BookSpin: Gallant
DoubleBookSpin: Lucky Day
These are both appropriate selections for October 😁 and I am only one book behind in my BookSpin list for the year, so I should be able to catch up this month.
Happy Bat Appreciation Month! (Sorry @TheLudicReader @DebLovestoRead 😉)
Researcher recently identified the 1500th unique bat species! The latest addition is the Bioko pipistrelle (𝘗𝘪𝘱𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘶𝘴 𝘦𝘵𝘶𝘭𝘢) found on Bioko Island in Africa‘s Equatorial New Guinea, published by former BCI Student Scholar Dr. Laura Torrent and her colleagues. Scientific discovery is still happening! #batappreciationmonth
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