This is the start of Small Rain. It‘s something, I think, anyone who has been to a US ER with chronic illness/pain would recognize. I was just there going through this the week before Christmas.

What Chuck Klosterman did for The Nineties, Shade does for the 2000s, which she counts from 1997-2008. She looks mainly at pop culture trends, but she looks deeply at them and how they were shaped by national and global forces like the fall of the Soviet Union, the rise of big tech, and the lead up the global recession. Highly recommend!!

It‘s rare that an author can pull off a funny thriller. Give me a Weekend At Bernie‘s element, and I‘m sold!

David goes on a wonderful date only to wake up next to a dead man. He enlists the help of his literary agent to deal with the body, but all she sees is good material for his next book. Once they find out more about his date, they realize they‘re in deep sh!t!!

5+⭐️ I always worry about overselling a book here, but this #toblonglist choice is one of the best books I‘ve ever read. Ten years of PhD research about Allende‘s and Pinochet‘s regimes in Chile culminated in a novel that perfectly captures the fates of an American boy and his Chilean girlfriend when the coup happens. The story is told in sections with three MCs that each illuminate different faces of survivors and their families. Just read it!

5⭐️ count me among the Littens heaping praise on this #tob25 choice! A perfect linked short story collection bringing together New England‘s past and present.

There is still snow here, and it is snowing again! Very unusual for west Kentucky. My friends with kids are going stir crazy as Christmas break just keeps going. Snortles the Snow Pig is starting to get a bit tired of it, too!

This one hit close to home. Like Maddy, I was diagnosed with bipolar in my 20s. While my manic episodes weren‘t quite so crazy, I related to the isolation she felt and (now that I‘m older) the fears her mother had. Once again, Genova hits the perfect note as a neuroscientist and novelist.

Maddy is a student when she starts having bipolar symptoms. She develops an interest in comedy, but her manic episodes make her family fear it‘s not realistic.

I did not know much about Gypsy Rose until I watched The Act on Hulu several years ago. What terror she must‘ve lived through as her mother slowly took her body and stunted her mind through Munchausen by proxy. She wrote about how that isolation made her think there was no way out besides leaning on her violent internet boyfriend. It‘s sad that she felt more free in prison than out. I‘m glad she has supportive family around her now.

Probably because I don‘t care as much about beauty as pop culture, this essay collection didn‘t have as much impact on me as Tacky, but if you want to reflect on how beauty trends affect women, this essay collection is for you. Written by an Allure beauty editor, she separates the hype from the more timeless, the dangerous from the worthwhile, and looks at things (as an Asian-American) with an eye towards positivity and inclusivity.

Fantastic love letter to all things tacky. King looked at some of the tackiest pieces of pop culture in the 2000s (like the Canadian teen soap Degrassi: Next Generation I have on streaming now and my strangely beloved Jersey Shore and ANTM) and expounds on their cultural impact and impact on her own life. If you secretly love trashy shows and still dress as a guidette for Halloween, this is the book for you!

This book about a controlling cult for yuppie Manhattanites was my first read of the year (and I‘m reviewing it on the 10th 😬). It started good but quickly became dull. I think it came down to a lack of concrete examples of the bad behavior of the leader. It somehow got caught up in the tedium of daily life and lacked any kind of punch. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Find me on the storygraph! Same handle. 👍🏻😁

Molly, who we‘ve renamed Snortles the Snow Pig, is enjoying the weather, but it‘s really been difficult for the rest of us. My Wednesday surgery will have to be moved, and we were without help for dad all weekend. I‘ve been reading and even finished one of the best books I‘ve ever read (Short War by Lily Meyer) and another 5⭐️ (History of Sound). Bodes well for the year! Reviews soon!!

Loved this literary thriller! While I knew who the culprit was for most of the book, the excitement was in seeing what they would do next.

A teacher plays favorites among the students in her class, and she‘s so cool that everyone wants to be teacher‘s pet, but when items start to go missing from the classroom, everyone begins pointing fingers with some students more on the outside than ever.

This was a huge surprise hit of the #tob25 shortlist, but it is loooong! Finding out January LaVoy was the narrator pushed me to listen to 23.5 hours of audio, and I don‘t regret it.

It‘s a complicated plot involving three teens who are brought back from death through a key they‘ve found. They find themselves tugged between forces who need the key for themselves. Loved the characters and not YA at all.

Wow did this book suck! Even Molly was frightened of it when I tried to snap her picture with it! The blurb sounded so good, but I could barely care about the characters and the plot was ridiculous in an un-fun way. Beats out Rejection for my new worst of the #tob25 shortlist!

This harness was one of Molly‘s Christmas presents. She hates having her picture taken! We call this chair her throne because it‘s her spot for looking out the window. 😍

I‘m going to try to read my own books again in January! I‘ve almost finished The History of Sound, which is really good. I‘m not sure what‘s up next, though. 🤔 There are like five I sort of feel like reading… #moodreaderproblems #bookspinbingo

Good month for #bookspin. I‘ve got a #toblonglist book and my choice from #botm. If my box were here now I‘ve grab the new Lisa Genova, but it‘s still in Illinois! 👎🏻

Last wrap up post! I started and ended the year with some #tob reads. I‘ve already finished my first book of 2025, but I hope to get to some of my missed reviews tomorrow. The tagged is my best nonfiction of the year. The Wedding People is my best fiction; although I developed a new appreciation for Fates and Furies. Here‘s to a great bookish year! 🎉🥂 May your 2025 be filled with more amazing books! 🫶🏻💜

December wrap-up! Slow Dance was great as was my reread of The Change. I've got to give big thanks to @barbarabb for gifting me Pet for my birthday earlier this year! What a great literary thriller! (Hopefully, I'll review it soon.) December is a difficult month for me health-wise due to my poinsettia allergy, so I was happy to escape into fiction and rereads for most of the month.

List locked in I hope! #bookspin #bookspinbingo

New month for #aardvark and once again I filled my box! (My excuse that I‘m having surgery next week and may not be able to get to the library.) I couldn‘t miss out on The Reformatory again even though I‘m a bit worried about the length. The other two are mystery/thriller tropes that work well for me. What did everyone else pick?

I enjoy picking up this challenge again every December, and I think I‘m going to do it in January, too. Three bingos all with one DNF (over 50 pages in). I‘ll take it!

Best = Slow Dance
Worst = The Extinction of Irena Rey

#bookspinbingo

Thought I‘d try my hand at #roll100 again! (Can you add me to the tag list @PuddleJumper ?)

I‘ve added some books I‘d like to reread this year, so that‘s going to be fun. 96 and 57 are rereads but 62 is new. Wonder what this mood reader will pick! 🤷🏻‍♀️

Happy New Year y‘all!!

I just wrote to @Hooked_on_books that #botm is that good-kisser ex I keep slithering back to and always feel a bit ick about. My main issue with them is the whole main pick versus add-on thing. I thought Rats or Maddy would be a main pick, but I had to rejoin to find out they weren‘t. 😡🙄 But I loved Daniel Black‘s last book, so I rolled with this box. Plus I hate that you have to be a “friend” to get a decent add-on price. Sigh. #botm

Great contemporary fiction following the lives of teachers in a large busy high school in Houston. Each chapter focuses on a different person weaving together the year. Lots of tough topics like death, abortion, immigration, and book banning but somehow the book is really uplifting. An excellent choice if you needs a hopeful book with substance!

I knew I was saving this for a reason. It was the perfect Christmas Day book. Her characters are so real. She is one of the best dialogue writers I‘ve ever read. Nothing felt forced or artificial about this friends-to-lovers contemporary fiction.

Shiloh and Cary were best friends in high school but grew apart after graduation. Brought together years later at a friend‘s wedding, divorced mom Shiloh and Naval officer Cary reconnect.

@Chrissyreadit thank you thank you!! This was the book I most wanted from my list, and I love this adorable box full of Reese‘s!! It is definitely staying and getting used next year for something, and I‘m truly happy to have a food that is safe for my celiac and MCAS! Merry Christmas to you!! #JSwap24

@MaleficentBookDragon thank you for bringing this wonderful tradition to litsy year after year! Merry Christmas!! 🎄🫶🏻

I never thought I‘d do this, but I‘ve fully switched to a Libro.fm membership now that they have a two-credit option. There‘s a small bookstore in a nearby town that I can‘t get to often enough, so I‘m happy to be able to support them. I guess I‘ll miss the audible-exclusive titles, but I‘ve had my membership on hold for three months and really didn‘t miss it then. 🤷🏻‍♀️

It‘s a sunny day here, and a great day to be completely spoiled by @BarbaraBB !! Wow!! Two great book AND a Persephone pouch! 😍😍 Awesome bath and beauty items! And a Gladstone‘s pencil plus page flags!! (One day I‘ll get to go myself. 🤞🏻🤞🏻) Thank you so much, B!! Merry Christmas!! 🎄❄️

I loved this comic book thriller! From the comics pages as part of the story to the good guy versus supervillain showdown in the end.

Annie grew up loving comics with her best friend Danny. As adults, they work for the same comic book company. When they both quit, their lives go in opposite directions. When Annie is given the chance to revive a favorite discontinued character, she gets more trouble than she bargained for. #aardvark

Taffy is so good at teasing apart family relationships and finding what makes characters tick. I wish the ending hadn‘t wrapped so quickly, though.

A wealthy father is kidnapped and tortured for a week. He comes back a broken man to his wife and young children. It affects each of the three kids differently into adulthood. When the family money dries up, they have a reckoning with what their lives have become.

💯 trigger warnings an abusive relationship in this one! I wish the author had gone into more depth about the Enola‘s family and wrote less tedium about her romantic relationship.

A mysterious writer joins a critiquing group. He starts a relationship with Enola, but her friends only see trouble. As she gets deeper in the fights and gaslighting start, but she‘s still so attracted. Can she break free while dealing with deep-seated family problems?

This is my #top24of24! I was a bit stingier with the 5⭐️ this year, and only 8 received that (upper left quadrant plus Dead Bastards and Cue the Sun in bottom right). The rest are 4.75⭐️ and 4.5⭐️. Nine of these are nonfiction, which is about normal and pretty close to my reading NF/F split. Can‘t wait to see even more of these as the year winds up! 👏🏻📚

Thank you Chrissy!! I don‘t know your handle, but I believe these two packages are for #JSwap2024!! Thank you!!

I‘m slowly redoing my bookshelves and finished these today! Lots of cleaning out and reorganizing!

Loved this. It‘s the first non-reread I‘ve given more than 4⭐️ to this month. I love how she brought in classics like 1984 and Alice in Wonderland. A truly important read in this time of repression and book banning.

A man gets a job as a book censor in his repressive state. But he didn‘t anticipate falling in love with books. Now he must manage his books and his family with ever increasing danger from the state and the resistance. #tob25

Finished my reading Bourdain year! I will make a larger post about it soon. This book didn‘t work for me on audio but did in print. The badass couple at the center are obviously Tony and first wife Nancy. Lots of sex, lots of guns and killing, and a fair amount of n-words. 😬

When a mob informant comes to Saint Maarten, it upends the lives of Henry and Frances. In the past, he‘s done some mob work but fights to keep his slice of paradise.

Eesh. Not my favorite from #aardvark. This felt a little thin and drawn out to me. I eventually ended up skimming. Better editing (and cutting about 75 pages of redundant stuff) could‘ve helped.

Jemma finds employment at a house in New Orleans. She initially thinks she‘s being hired as a tutor, but the family has different ideas and is hiding a lot of secrets. Some may unlock parts of Jemma‘s past.

This was a bit hard to follow on audio. It is a bit hard to distinguish what is actually happening from the MC‘s imagination. That said, I‘m still thinking about it, which surprises me and took it from a so-so to low pick.

An Ethiopian immigrant returns to the US from Paris where he has a family. A death causes him to reflect on his childhood, relationships, and his family‘s immigration story. #tob25

It‘s finally here! 🎉🎉🎉🎉 #aardvark

Anyone know where I should start?

I low-key loved this. She took a married couple and showed the difficulties of their relationship in two bite-sized vacations. You first join them hosting each set of parents at the Jersey Shore. Wang highlighted the difficulties with in-laws in mixed-race marriages. Several years later the couple vacations alone in the Catskills, but nosy neighbors in the next bungalow bring out tensions in their now long-distance marriage.

I just finished this and I‘m so angry!! It‘s the story of 5 - make that 2 - siblings, and he focused on the 2 I was least interested in. One sister is disabled and gets no story. Two more you hear from in the beginning and never again. One you don‘t even know what happens to at the end. I‘m calling BS!! You had almost 500 pages!!

That said, the writing is beautiful. The characters who are explored are captivating. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Mixed bag for me.

“They‘d made a mistake. They‘d fought back against the way the world worked, tried to snatch a queer kid from the jaws of its cruel indifference…”

At its heart, outside of the blood and guts, 👆🏻 is what the book is about. I liked this much more than Manhunt, and I came to really love and root for this rag-tag group of queer kids forced into a conversion camp by their parents. I love how they immediately accepted each other for who they are.

I enjoyed this #aardvark pick. Contemporary fiction with a bit of a mystery at its heart.

Powerful newspaper editor Lila dies leaving her family reeling, especially her youngest daughter Grace who recently published an autofictional book about the family. Grace believes her grandmother, who left Lila and her siblings to an abusive father, may still be alive and in hiding.

I am surprised at the sheer number of contemporary fiction picks on the #toblonglist. I liked the choice to use a female audiobook narrator for this book focused on the life of an everyman as he navigates life from childhood to his 40s. That said, I didn‘t particularly enjoy spending time with George. He was self-centered and self-involved. Pathologically unable to learn from his mistakes. I didn‘t hate it, but I can‘t recommend it. 🤷🏻‍♀️ #tob25

First snow of the season, but I‘m headed to the post office!! #JS2024

Are we supposed to tag the person we‘re sending to?

I keep telling myself it‘s good that I got two of the longer #toblonglist books for my #bookspin and #doublespin because I have the time to read them this month. Yeah, we‘ll go with that…😂 My motto has been lately “If you can‘t say it in under 300 pages, is it worth saying?” 😬😂 …Some authors disagree with me. 🤷🏻‍♀️

December is the month I usually do #bookspinbingo. I just tried using canva to make the card, and it went…okay. Oh well! I‘ll enjoy paring down all the books I‘ve bought this year (errr…this month, too 🫢🤫). #toblonglist #aardvark

Ratings collage! I'm finishing up my #readingBourdain year. Only one to go. This month, I reread all the posthumous books written by other people. I think In the Weeds is best. (I'll tag it below.) I feel like Tom's take is between the hagiography of Bourdain and the little bit hitting-below-the-belt of Down and Out in Paradise. The Last Interview is worth picking up, too. I need to read more in that series.

Usual end-of-year slow down in reading for me. No 5 ⭐, but I highly recommend the three pictured here! I'm glad to be reading more horror. I always enjoy it more than I expect I will.

What did everyone get from @AardvarkBookClub this month?? I almost picked The Resurrectionists, but I‘m really excited about these!! I‘ve been wanting to try Armfield again. The other two weren‘t on my radar but sound up my alley. #aardvark