I don't know if this poem is in this book, but I heard it read by the author on vibe check and it felt so right for the oncoming winter. Maybe because I heard the conversation just after seeing #midwintersolace posts, it made me think of you @TheBookHippie, @AllDebooks, @Chrissyreadit

https://adriennemareebrown.net/2016/12/22/solstice-love-letter-to-darkness/

https://vibe-check.simplecast.com/episodes/come-out-loud-featuring-adrienne-mare...

When I want to read my book but am told to answer the door.

Why have I not read Dawn Powell before?

#FOODANDLIT 2026 Nominations

@Texreader @Butterfinger @Kelly_the_Bookish_Sidekick

Trinidad and Tobago
Honduras
Ecuador
Micronesia
Slovenia
Belgium
Latvia
Tunisia
Cape Verde
Mozambique
Singapore
Bangladesh

#BeautyBreak

Wilfredo Lam -- stunning colors and surreal, sometimes amusing, figures.

@ChaoticMissAdventures I am very close to finishing #192025 and #10BeforeTheEnd will provide some extra motivation! @Librarybelle

And these are the items I purchased at the Brooklyn Book Festival, arranged by publisher. I was disappointed that one of the best publishers of interesting translated books (Restless Books) wasn't there this year.

I won some books! And a tote!

Words Without Borders had a challenge to collect stamps from a bunch of indie publishers, with each stamp worthy one raffle ticket and I was one of six winners!

https://wordswithoutborders.org/read/country/

#WDNCW @dabbe

We don't care that we spent the equivalent of a week's worth of groceries buying ourself almost daily treats last month. We're living in a hellscape and life is made bearable by boba, oreos, cheetos, cupcakes, brownies, croissants, parmesan garlic potato chips, ice cream.....

#TLT @dabbe

I already penciled in EW's Ghost Stories & some RB stories for October! (how did you know?)

Link to list: https://tinyurl.com/mr2m6ydj

I do believe only two books have not been on my #BookSpinBingo board before. Let's see if this month is more successful in getting some of the returnees read.

I read a few books, Two #1001Books. Fresh Dirt from the Grave was mostly set in #Bolivia for #FoodandLit. It and Voyager are #WomeninTranslation. Patsy worked for #LGBTQIA2025 bingo and Three books were for #192025. Martyr! was just because I had been recommend it so many times.

I managed to read 13 of my #14Books14weeks stack. Considering I peppered in some #1001books I had been putting off, I am pleased with the result. I still want to read Fado Alexandrino; it will be on September's list (again).

Five books were exceptionally trippy which made for an odd summer - A Void, The Unconsoled, Lananrk, The Castle, I Who Have Never Known Men.

I was lovely to read some of the contemporary books from my shelves,.

Sometimes cats can kind of be jerks.

EEEEEEEEeeeeeeE! I am excited for the so-far line up for this year's Brooklyn Book Festival! MARLON JAMES! ~swoon~

https://brooklynbookfestival.org/authors/?_author_event_type=festival-day

“Let us be reminded that before there is a final solution, there must be a first solution, a second one, even a third. The move toward a final solution is not a jump. It takes one step, then another, then another...“

https://www.c-span.org/clip/public-affairs-event/user-clip-toni-morrison-racism-...

Thank you vibe check for bringing this to my attention!

How is your summer going (or winter, for our friends in the Southern Hemisphere)? Here in the US, we are halfway through summer 😨. Have you read 7 of your #14Books14Weeks yet? Or have you abandoned the dry-haystack of pre-chosen books for greener pastures?

I magically finished my 7th book yesterday, which would be on track if my reading-vacation hadn't happened in June so I won't have nearly as much time to read the rest of the summer.

Well, temps indicate that July is here. Hopefully the need to seek out AC will lead to more reading?

#BookSpinBingo

I avoided this, worried it was "difficult". I should've known Ishiguro's expert writing would carry me through this deeply surreal story. A pianist has been engaged by a small town as the headliner of an extraordinary evening. His performance is to rejuvenate the stagnant town. But nothing goes to plan-every person he meets has a favor to ask and creates a digression (and anxiety in the teacher) in this detailed narration of dream-logic events.

A novella with layers! It starts with a frame device of sorts--a piece of sensational writing by the titular narrator. Suffering from a debilitating hernia disorder, we see how her inherited wealth allows her to physically exist and allows her curiosity to flourish. Unable to experience "normality" she is drawn to the outer limits of human-ness. But not even the bargain struck with her male, lower-class caregiver can make him see her as a person.

I've got a coffee, a thriller and only 2 hours to wait for my flight to see family in MN.

I've included four books I probably would never have even heard of without this list. Some had amazing, unusual structure that I found fascinating, some where about a time/place with which I was unfamiliar, and some were just a lovely experience.

#ThreeListThursday #TLT @dabbe

I own an edition of this book and have used it as a checklist for more than a decade and i still didn't recognize all the books on the list. 😂

It's not necessarily we're not “well-read“ but rather a specific effort was made to create an international list so, for example, it includes classics from Scandinavian countries that are not well-known elsewhere.

Three books I don't remember reading:
The Roots of Heaven
The Guiltless
Death Sentence

I finally got started on summer with my first #14Books14Weeks and my first visit to the hammock grove on Governors Island!

Although i didn't read as much as I hoped, I did parcel out my books well for #BookSpinBingo. I really loved the beginning of The Other Name and will have to find quiet times to read the rest of the septology.

Considering how many squares I read, i wonder if my subconscious is avoiding bingos; I only got two!

Not a great reading month, no idea why. Favorite was North Woods.

I recommend these three books that I would not have read without this list:

The Bridge on the Drina
Chess Story
The Street of Crocodiles

#ThreeListThursday #TLT @dabbe

link to survey: https://www.listchallenges.com/1001-books-you-must-read-before-you-die-list4

#threelistthursday #tlt @dabbe

Pictured are three books that I resent having read.

I 💜 Zola and also ❤ Gide (not pictured, I couldn't choose)

I may have marked a couple of books that I never quite finished. But so many good-and-long reads on this section of The List.

#ThreeListThursday #TLT @dabbe

I haven't changed this stack for a few days, so this is it, this is my stack for #14Books14Weeks!

A few for pride month, a few for Women in Translation month, half are #1001Books and more than half are for #192025

In the US, summer is bookended by two holiday weekends: Memorial Day, the last Monday in May, and Labor Day, the first Monday in September. 14 weeks.

I challenge you to read 14 books between May 26 and Sep 1, which some of you may remember fondly as #14Books14Weeks.

Show me your stacks!

@Dabbe Finally a #ThreeListThursday that i can do well on! I've only been reading books from this list for ten years 🙄

I'm tagging Gulliver's travels. After buying a FOURTH copy of it, I realized I needed an online record of what books I own and started my book social media journey (godreads-->librarything-->Litsy)

I read Dangerous Liason on the beach, enjoyed it.
I read Tale of Genji on the subway, loved it
And I still haven't read GT 😂

I;m ready for May and another month of #BookSpinBIngo!

@Lcsmcat Are you trying to find something like this? LibraryThing has the best stats/graphs. And they are super-customizable -- you can choose a specific read year or only look at books in a particular collection. On the actual page, I can click on the bar for the 8 books with “no date“ to see which ones they are.

And some more stats!

Not a bad #BookSpinBingo month. I finished the tagged for #FoodandLit, #Rwanda. The Book Censor's Library was my #DoubleSpin and also fits #OffMyShelf - #InvolvesBooks; The Colour and Dance on the Volcano were for #192025; Indigenous Pacific Islander anthology worked for #FictionalTraveler and was my #BookSpin. There are a couple of #1001Books, and several for a global reading project.

Most importantly, I have two bingos!

I only visited one store for Independent Bookstore Day (I always forget it is a week-long crawl in Brooklyn with more than two dozen stores participating).

But I did remember to stop by my favorite bookstore. I picked up Held, which had been on my wishlist thanks to the Litsy love it got during #12Booksof2024, Red Pill from the bargain shelf, and a beautiful copy of A Room of Ones Own.

All together now 🎶🎶🎶

#Ranttime

Now that we're a third through the month, I figured it's time I posted my #BookSpinBingo board. This month I really am going to read the tagged book.

A fair amount of reading was done in March. While many books are in the 3-star range, I did really enjoy The Odyssey (read over two months). I finished ny #BookSpin and #DoubleSpin, read a couple of books for #192025, read two books set in big cities for #FictionalTraveler, a couple of #1001Books, and I even got a Bingo.

None of the books that I read wholly within March were noteworthy, so the tagged book is one of the favorites I finished in March. I need to get a copy so I have a reference of artists that I want to treasure hunt in museums.

I did also greatly enjoy Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey.

And I thought the book tagged in the comments was bleak. This has most of the same plot points – family tragedy, religion, poverty -- mixed with an older protagonist and therefore adds exploitative and unhealthy sexual behavior, all wrapped in a light stream-of-consciousness delivery. And yet, with all these elements that should keep me at a distance, should make it nearly unreadable, I never avoided picking it and cried many times while reading.

This is where I am at this month. Not much reading is happening, but I couldn't tell you what is taking up the time instead. I finished The Odyssey. I got The Story of Art Without Men back from the library. I've been slowly making my way through The House in Paris and (not pictured) Apartment in Athens. Whereas is waaaaay out of my comfort zone and I'm not getting much out of it, but I'll keep reading in hopes that a poem will click.

And, finally, my #BookSpinBingo board for March. Hopefully I can get these from the library sometime this month.

#WhereAreYouMonday

Well, this book was ridiculously hard to search for in Litsy. In any case, I am in Suriname.

Not a bad month, two bingos, even! A couple of books for #192025, #Nepal book for #FoodandLit, a couple of books #OffMyShelf, a couple of books for #LGBTQIA2025 Bingo/#TBRTarot, and a #1001Books,. Didn't manage one for #FictionalTraveler, as my book for Ireland was actually set in Copenhagen, oops.

#FoodandLit I love finding these specific cookbooks and testing out all the yummy sounding recipes!

For #Nepal: Sidra ko chutney (dried fish chutney), Tarul ko tarkari (purple Yam Curry), Aloo ra gobi ko tarkari (spiced cauliflower and potatoes) Sandheko bhogare (pomelo and yogurt salad) and Badam ko chutney (cilantro and peanut chutney).

Two bingos, thanks to strategic “Free“ space reading 😉

The library took Hood Feminism before I finished and it'll be weeks to get it again. I enjoyed the tagged enough to finish well-ahead of schedule. Discomfort was the most felt-in-the-body read and Skylark was hopeful-poignant-then sad. The two main characters in Night Boat had a rhythm to their conversation that reminds me of Godot (also because Irish and because waiting)

#BookSpinBingo

Set in a rural farm area amongst a devout religious community it is a searing portrait of grief and the many unhealthy ways it manifests in a family when left alone. Other circumstances conspire to make an unbearable situation even worse, culminating in a final action, final sentence that is a punch in the gut. OOoft.

3.5⭐, #FoodandLit, #Netherlands, #LGBTQIA2025 #SurpriseEnding

This became available Dec 27th just as I wanted something light to read.

It's wartime England and the Redpath's invited their elderly, eccentric rich uncle to spend the holiday in their village, hoping he'll enjoy himself and favor them in his will. Instead he turns up dead the morning after their party. Most of the plot is a mess of confusion as the police try to determine how he died and every Redpath's story is contradictory.

It was fine.