My final challenge check in for January is this slim novel by a Dutch author for #FoodandLit.

I‘m not sure enjoyed is the right word here - and after reading some of the “rules” for what content gets left up, flagged, or taken off the fictional social media platform in the book, you‘ll see that words matter - but this book made me think about how we strive to put things (and people) into boxes vs seeing the bigger picture.

I bought this book a long time ago on the recommendation of a friend of mine who also owns our local bookstore. It was a solid cozy mystery - good setting, twisty plotline, interesting characters - but sometimes it felt like the species of animal dictated the character‘s traits rather than the characters being fully fleshed out. 🤔 I‘m not sure if I‘ll continue with the series, although I‘d love to see them all on my shelf!
#ThematicCozies

As I was readying my February #BookSpin list, I realized I hadn‘t posted/reviewed my January book!

I love the worlds that P. Djeli Clark builds - they‘re are steampunk versions of a Middle East that feels familiar, with people and lore to match. There is a little bit of mystery and a lot of fighting - the MC *is* an assassin after all - and it was all in all a joy to read.

January's #BookSpin!

Includes a few Litsy challenges (#foodandlit, #thematiccozies), BookRiot's annual Read Harder challenge, and my own challenges of (1) reading the books on my TBR to balance out the new books I keep adding and (2) reading non-fiction every morning.

Now THIS is the Tessa Bailey I love - a full length novel where the characters have enough time to build up the incredible steam. 😂

This book was incredible in so many ways. Highly recommend for a 🌶️🌶️🌶️ holiday read.

#wintergames24 #holidaybookdragons

I wanted to decorate for Christmas today, but an “end of semester, immune system goes on vacation” cold laid me out instead. 🥲 At least I had this waiting for me on my Kindle! Jenny Bayliss is an auto-read author for me - I just have to read her holiday novels one year behind so I can get them through the library! 😂

If you are uncomfortable reading 🌶️🌶️🌶️ books while in public, I recommend NOT reading this on your phone while at the airport like I just did. 🥵

I‘m usually a huge fan of Bailey‘s books, but this novella didn‘t quite do it for me - I think I needed a little more character development before the 🙈 scenes, lol.

#WinterGames24 #HolidayBookDragons

Now that the semester is over, my holiday reading can begin in earnest! 😍

I laughed out loud at least twice during this book. It was a perfect blend of found family, realistic struggles, and HEAs.

#WinterGames24 #HolidayBookDragons

I usually read sci-fi in the summer, but I wasn‘t able to make it to this book before the semester started so it‘s going on the TBR for December‘s #WinterGames2024. 😄

#earlybirdpoints #holidaybookdragons

I only signed up for #WinterGames2024 on Thursday, so I'm hoping I wasn't too late! I've been wanting to get back into Litsy as a way of re-centering reading in my life and this will be an excellent way to jump into the deep end. 😄

Here is my TBR for the month. I've already started with the holiday romances (my post-Thanksgiving custom), but I've got plenty on hold at the library and my local bookstore. 📚

I LOVED this Manga series. 😻

It‘s a sweet story told from the viewpoint of a kitten abandoned in a rainstorm to be rescued by a shady looking character and maybe - maybe - learn to not judge a book by its cover.

It made me actually laugh out loud at least once a volume.

It‘s a beautiful day to sit outside and read!

Starting my #BookSpin from my Black History Month board - hoping my recently (mildly) concussed head can handle it. 😅

This is my second #BookSpin list for February - featuring romances that I own and need to read! 😅 (This #FoodandLit pick might be an outlier...we'll see if there are any romantic elements!) 💕

I have two lists for February's #BookSpin. This one recognizes Black History Month. (My Outlander #SeriesLove is an outlier here. My #FoodandLit pick is by a Maori woman.) 💛💚🖤❤️

I‘ve gotten out of the habit of taking pictures of what I‘m reading and sharing them here. 🥲 So here‘s a January report with a repost of my #BookSpin list!
Read: Tagged & Rated Below
Note: Read my BookSpin, Double BookSpin, and #FoodandLit choice this month!

By pure coincidence - I swear! - #6 on my list is my first book of 2024 that I just finished. 🤯 #BookSpin
I love books that get me to care about the characters *and* teach me something about the world that I didn't know much about. This book does that for the Duterte Regime's “War on Drugs“ in the Philippines, which included a wave of extrajudicial killings - no arrests, no due process, no rehabilitation for substance users. It was heartbreaking.

Another graphic novel off the TBR!

This one was very sad and also incredibly important. I do not understand people who have no compassion for the immigrants taking these life/death risks because they feel they have NO choice.

Another graphic novel off my TBR!

This was super cute and had a good lesson to be proud of being who you are, not simply accepting what you‘re told you should be.

I got my Litsy TBR down to 99! 😂

While cleaning out my “to read” list here, I decided to download any graphic novels that were available from my library. This was the first one I read because it was the one I was most excited about - but it fell a little flat. The storyline moved a little too quickly - long standing resentments resolved in a frame or two - but the characters were great. I wanted more!

My view while reading this book: A+

The book itself: Solid B?

I liked the setting and I liked the clues in the game, but I knew whodunnit WAY early on. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Good atmosphere, no suspense.

#GhostsofXmas

I love Jenny Bayliss's holiday romance novels. 🥰
They're atmospheric and she really builds out all of the relationships in the MC's life - not just the romance, but the friendships and family dynamics too.
There is almost no 🌶, but sometimes the 🍭 wins!
The main character in this one is Elinor Noel - but she goes by Nory.

I love a good fake dating romance trope - but I did not love the way these “country music star“ protagonists were written. The amount of “sweetheart“s and drawl felt forced rather than natural - and I grew up in the South, listening to country music! I loved this writing duo's first book and I'll pick up whatever they write next, but this was a bit of a miss for me.

#HolidayRomanceBingo
#GhostsofXmas

Today‘s plans. 😍

I‘ve been sick all week, so I‘ve been throwing back the easy reads - mostly mysteries and romance novels. This library hold cam in at the perfect time!

Once I‘m done with Sister Holiday, though, I‘m looking for a mystery series that has a few books out already - anyone recommendations?

Other books read this week tagged in the comments.

I'm late with my March #BookSpin list, but since I haven't had time to read yet this month, I think it's okay. 😂

My most anticipated book is tagged; I LOVE the Veronica Speedwell series and the last one ended on a cliffhanger! I've already got the audiobook pre-ordered. 🥰

In February, I read 4 books, three of which ticked (4) boxes on my February Book Spin list. I'm looking forward to seeing what March brings to my TBR!

Another solid installment in the Wayward Children series!

It didn‘t have the same world building that my favorite books in the series have, but I LOVED Antsy. I also love the idea of a shop where lost things are found - kittens, socks, and maybe even children who have lost their faith in adults…

(Finished on my flight home.)

#serieslove2023
#bookspin

An early morning flight allowed me the last 40 minutes I needed to finish this audio book — but it had me crying in the last 10! Good thing I had some tissues in my carry on. 🥹

I loved this book and it was FANTASTIC on audio. The producers added small touches that made it feel like you were in the room with the narrator as she was telling her life story through short vignettes. I‘m going to miss Cara Romero!

#FoodandLit
#Bookspin

Starting this one tonight on audio! I love the way the book is written as a conversation and the narrator really brings it to life.

This book will cover two 2023 challenges:
#FoodandLit Dominican Republic
#ReadHarder2023 (BookRiot) Listen to an audiobook performed by a person of color of a book written by an author of color.

My final read of January is in the books! (Pun intended.)

This is a gorgeous graphic novel, made from a webcomic of the same name. The art is both bright and dark, playing off itself in interesting ways, and the story is compelling. I love Greek mythology and found myself asking “wait, is that REALLY what happened?!?” — as if any of it REALLY happened. 😂

I have stuck with my resolution to spend the day in pajamas reading! 😄

This was the perfect book to finish during a day like this - a book about joy and fun and how we (especially women) are taught to “mature” beyond the things that light us up, into the things that society expects of us. On that note, I‘m going to crank my kpop playlist, meal prep breakfast for the week, and then settle in with my next read. 💜

I desperately need a day to stay in my pajamas, drink some comforting warm beverages, and read! My goal is to make Sunday that day...so consider this an accountability post. 😄

I picked up the tagged book at the library today. I'm looking forward to sinking into it, as well as finishing up my current non-fiction read, tagged below.

My #BookSpin list for February is full of romance books that I bought last year and didn't have the headspace to actually read. (My friends opened an indie bookstore in September and I had to make sure they survived!!) 🥰

In January, I read four books (so far), three of which were on my January Book Spin list, so I'm feeling pretty excited for this next round!

This week‘s #SouperSunday recipe came from the NYT Cooking section - Chickpea Harissa Soup. Listened to the first few chapters of the tagged while cooking and eating…the perfect combo! 🔪😂

Credit to @TheBookHippie for inspiring my weekly meal prep plans! 🥣

Things I loved about this cozy mystery (the first in a new series): the relationships, the love potentials based on high school relationships (as someone who moved back home after being away for years after college, the re-emergence of high school drama spoke to me), and the setting.

Things I didn‘t love are in the comments and hidden, but they weren‘t enough to keep me from picking up the second book when it‘s published in July. 😄

I was inspired by @TheBookHippie ‘s meal planning post yesterday and, while I‘m not ready to plan out every meal, I am ready to plan out my Soup Sundays! Between these cookbooks, my NYT Cooking subscription, and Pinterest, I‘m more than set for a year of soup! 😄

Today‘s recipe is going to be Kimchi Soup from the tagged cookbook. 💜

I love a good cozy mystery with a foodie setting and this new series seems like it will deliver everything I like - interesting characters with engaging back stories, food to drool over, and a familiar-to-me setting of West LA. Some of the back stories seemed a little forced in the telling, but there‘s enough there to have me putting the next one in the series (to be published in June) on my ginormous TBR. 🧋

#BookSpin #DoubleSpin

Finished this audiobook while making the pictured dinner - this series never disappoints! Anytime Deanna Raybourn publishes a new volume, it draws me back to Audible so I can have all of them on one platform. 😂

Veronica is a marvelous hero and her relationship with Stoker is complicated and real, even if she does describe him as looking like a “disreputable pirate” more than once. I can‘t wait for book #8, coming in March!

I had a rough reading year in 2022, so we're starting out 2023 gentle. 😊

I'm looking forward to jumping back into #FoodandLit, Book Riot's #ReadHarder challenge, my #Outlander series read (maybe as part of #SeriesLove2023?), and #BookSpin...while also realizing that with a full time job, a part time job, and a new project, I probably won't be reading 20 books a month any time soon. 😂

Here's to being an active Litten once again! 🥂

Funny how I haven‘t posted in 9 months, yet my picture today looks eerily similar to my last. 😄 I haven‘t read a lot this year and I‘m not sure I‘m back in a groove yet, but Bo says hi. 🐾

My only plans for today. 🥰

For my #FoodandLit tour of Egypt, I read two books: the Lonely Planet guide and this amazing ride through an alternative Cairo where steam technology and magic coexist to make Egypt one of the world‘s great powers.
I love the characters in Clark‘s world (begun in two novellas before this full length novel), the world he has created, and the exploration of all kinds of power dynamics. I hope there will be more books in this universe!

This graphic novel was my first read of 2022 AND my first #BookSpin of the year. I loved the idea of a secret society of badass women scientists, recruited in college to do amazing things, and I really hope there is a sequel. This is going straight to the local LFL in hopes a young woman picks it up. 🥰

My February #BookSpin list!

I read 7 off my list in January, including my Book Spin, and I‘m working on my 8th today. 😄

Numbers 16-20 are all “Library Book.” 🥰

I love the Raje family and I thought that this would be my favorite of the trilogy (a fourth book comes out this year) because of the yoga and political campaign plots (two things very much in my wheelhouse) but it fell a little short of expectations. That being said, it was still excellent and I love the characters even more — a perfect snowy day read cuddled with Bo under the electric blanket. 🥰

We‘re expecting another good snow dump starting tomorrow, so my husband and I ran all our preparation errands this morning and I‘m now settling down with this stack of #WeekendReading possibilities. 😄 We have a long weekend here, so I‘ve got two full days and this evening to make a dent.

The tagged book is up first!

My #WeekendReading plans, while waiting for the snow to melt so I can run some errands tomorrow. I didn‘t go to bed until 1 am this morning, wanting to get to the halfway point!

We got a good ol‘ snowstorm today, so I‘ve settled in with a warm (decaf) coffee, a fuzzy blanket, and the first book in my #Outlander2022 read. ☕️

A friend of mine gave me books 2-5 last year, so my goal is to read one a month in 2022 to catch up on the series. I‘m only to chapter 3 and I‘m already obsessed with Gabaldon‘s writing. 🥰

I‘m going to give #BookSpin another go this year! Here‘s my list. Numbers 16-20 are all “Library Book.” 🥰

Here is my Holiday Haul! 😍

I think my last book of 2021 will be the tagged, and my first book of 2022 will be The Curie Society. (I like my rituals on New Year‘s Day, so a graphic novel will be the perfect pop of reading.)