Well I went to B&N to pick up my preordered copy of the tagged book, but my coworker suggested I worked hard enough this week that I deserved another book… I went to the half off shelf and this happened. All @sabrinaslusher ‘s fault. 😆

(My week ends Tuesdays, and my week has been extra heavy on doodles, which probably only makes sense to animal care workers, especially groomers.)

#WinterCampLitsy

I‘ve had this on my TBR for some time. It‘s historical fiction set in Seattle in the 1920s and 30s. Liu Song sings in front of a store that sells pianos and sheet music, making commissions from sales she attracts. She hopes to become an opera singer like her parents, but then her mother passes and her step father abuses her, and things get very difficult. Lots of content warnings!

Photo of Sietje with one of the Danbo Trolls, NC Arboretum.

Circusy historical fantasy with a found family and a merman romance? Yes please. This was sweet. It‘s from @rachelsbrittain ‘s #AuldLangSpine list. Plus this cover 😍.
#doublespin

My friend, coworker, and bookclub member @sabrinaslusher has joined Litsy! She‘s into fantasy, romantasy, and thrillers. Say hi, follow her, and offer any Litsy advice. Tag your romantasy pals for her to follow.

Welcome Sabrina!

To keep this book related I tagged my current read, which is for both #AuthorAMonth and #AuldLangSpine.

But really just look at these amazing portraits of my furkids! Aren‘t they perfect? Link to the artist, she‘s local to me and just such a wonderful artist and person!

https://www.owendaleart.com/

My final book for #12BooksOf2026 was We All Want Impossible Things in December.

The main character is watching her best friend since childhood die of cancer in hospice. It‘s not an easy read but it‘s achingly beautiful with a mix of strong emotions. Highly recommend. Newman is great at getting details of middle aged women right, without flinching.

Wow, another great book from @rachelsbrittain ‘s #AuldLangSpine list! It‘s another 5⭐️ for me. It was perfect timing for a book I wanted to get lost in as I had a sick day so extra reading time. (Just a cold)

Think magical boarding school, mostly from the point of view of a professor who teaches high level demon summoning and dispatching. I felt like there was some influence from Terry Pratchett and a bit of Scholomance. Bi main character. Win!

My November pick for #12BooksOf2026, which also ended up being my favorite of the year!

I‘m glad this was on @rachelsbrittain ‘s #auldlangspine list, as I‘ve wanted to read something by Alyssa Cole for a while.

It‘s a pretty spicy romance with an interracial couple during the civil war. Both characters are spies for the north stationed in the south, and their attraction is complicated.

A low pick for me, but I‘m glad I read it.
(Also glad I was working alone today while listening- steamy!)

This was my January #bookspin 😁📚.

How about a nonfiction selection by Mary Roach for my October #12Booksof2026. It‘s about transplanting body parts, medical history and recent advances with her signature humorous commentary.

My first finished book of the year is a 5⭐️! And it‘s from my #auldlangspine list from @rachelsbrittain !

I enjoy TJR and have read several, my favorite being Evelyn Hugo. I never expected her to top that one, and I‘m not sure this does but boy it‘s close! It‘s the first audiobook I have had to turn off at work so I wouldn‘t cry in some time. Absolutely loved this!

Posting about StoryGraph has become a thing today, huh? I‘m on there too, feel free to look for me. As others have said, I use it for tracking and because I love the graphing, I don‘t really use it socially.

Valerie Perrin has wowed me with both books I‘ve read. Here‘s my book 9 of #12booksof2025

I read both this and Cutting for Stone this year and absolutely loved them both. Book 8 of my #12booksof2025.

Our January #AuthorAMonth is T Kingfisher. I‘m pretty excited for any of you who will be reading her for the first time. There is the opportunity to stack several this first month of 2026, as she has a lot of novellas. For the second month in a row we have an author with a pen name- she also has some children‘s books under Ursula Vernon, feel free to read and count those as well.

Do you know what you‘ll be reading?

Need to be added or removed?⬇️

#AuthorAMonth announcement time!
📣 😁📚

We had a total of 27 participants in #AuthorAMonth (who completed the form anyway) in 2025. We read 251 books! Wow! The most read author was Percival Everett; there were 29 readings of his books. He was also most voted for as the favorite of the year 😁.

🥁 And the WINNERS are: 🥁
⬇️

I read some incredible books this year! My favorite of December was We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman.

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil definitely took my top of the year spot. I loved a lot of these though and it wasn‘t an easy choice.

Book 7 for#12books of 2025, I chose this as my best book of July.

A woman finds herself trapped behind an invisible wall in the countryside, with a dog, a cat, and a cow for her only company. Really good strange dystopian book.

This is it #AuthorAMonth readers: the final call to fill in your form for prize chances. See the previous posts under this book title (or the form itself) for details and rules. Here is the link:

https://forms.gle/TwEynK2GyNYwh7556

I will draw and announce the winners sometime after noon on January 1st 🤗📚🎉.

The coolest thing about this fantasy was the animal totems that the scholars aligned with. I really enjoyed Sol the raven.

Somewhere I saw that this was a stand alone, and I guess technically it can stand alone, but it‘s obvious it will be getting a sequel, it‘s very much set up for one at the end.

Day 6 of #12BooksOf2026, my favorite book of June was The Color Purple. It‘s a classic for a good reason!

@Hooked_on_books We finished this 500 piece puzzle in 2 evenings. My mom is a really good puzzler! 😁 Thanks Holly, we had fun. Afterwards we read off all the titles to see which ones we have read. We guessed maybe around half.

Day 5 of #12BooksOf2025. I love this author. Anyone know if she has a new book releasing this coming year?

Book 4 of #12Booksof2025
Vera Wong delights in trying to solve the murder mystery of a body she discovered in her tea house. And attempts some matchmaking along the way.

Book 3 for #12Booksof2025, my best book of March. Possibly the best nonfiction I read all year.

First #bookspin list for 2026, and I‘m going to be focusing on my #AuldLangSpine list from @rachelsbrittain . I have physical copies of 4 of her books and two audiobooks on hold from the library, can‘t wait to see how many I can get to. The only actual title here is for bookclub, and then I also gave a couple spots to holiday gifts. I‘ll get back to a more normal title list in February. 😁📚❤️

There is a very good chance this will be my final finished book of the year. It‘s a good one to go out on!

We follow the lives of two women through a dystopian future in which eating is taboo and done in privacy and sex is demystified and mundanely performed anytime, even publicly. It‘s a story about morals and classism, and it definitely seemed to be pointing fingers at real world corporate corruption and political deviousness.

I really liked this, but I‘ve enjoyed pretty much all of this author‘s work. The end was pretty epic, a very easy to envision boss fight!

My best book of February for #12Booksof2025. I love this author.

I finished up my #10BeforeTheEnd, with a little time to spare 📚🙂 Most of these were really great too.

Best book of January for Day1 of #12BooksOf2025.

Sietje and her little look alike from @Hooked_on_books ! I‘ll have to get another photo of them together once the stripes fade the rest of the way. Holly I am really impressed, this is a sweet gift I‘ll treasure. ❤️ thank you.

Oh my gosh @Hooked_on_books the little Sietje is so cool! You did really get her markings right! I love her. I always love opening your gifts, every book is exciting. The tagged fits perfectly with one of my bookclub topics for 2026- Someone You Admire. 🙂 I can‘t wait to visit old Venice with The Glassmaker. I absolutely love the cover of Playground and Overstory is an all time favorite so I‘m sure this‘ll be great. And you know I love an older⬇️

@AmyG what a wonderful holiday gift bundle, thank you so much! The tagged is going right on my #AuthorAMonth shelf, great choice! I saw Alice Winn at TX Book Fest a few years ago and have wanted to read In Memoriam ever since. And Sleeping Giants has been on my TBR a while too. I laughed so much reading the Judgy Fish stickers, and I love the lobster cards! You‘re so thoughtful. Big holiday hugs (and I hope you‘ve gotten some snow by now.) ❤️💚❤️

Thank you @Mitch for the Christmas book! I‘ve never heard of this but it sounds great. I look forward to curling up with it! Merry Christmas to you, Mel, and Woodford! 💚❤️💚

Thank you @staci.reads for the #jolabokaflod book and chocolate! These almonds were a great choice for me, I love them. Venkman approves your book choice. Happy Book Flood Day! 📚🎄Thank you @MaleficentBookDragon for organizing, I love this swap.

It‘s been quite a year of reading #AuthorAMonth friends! This is your one-week-left reminder that we‘re drawing close to the end of our month of Nora Roberts.

January‘s author will be T Kingfisher. It‘s about time to put in your orders or library holds or find her on your shelf. I‘m excited to kick off a new reading year with you!

As always let me know if you‘d like to join or be removed from the tag list. See my last post for the 2025 form!

Hello #AuthorAMonth readers! We are so close to the end of the year! Are you ready to fill out your 2025 reading form? It‘s not mandatory, but I think it‘s fun, and it‘s how I choose our yearly prize winners. Need a reminder of what the prizes are?

1- The “Most Read”
2- The “Every Month Club”
3- The “Everyone is Eligible”

https://forms.gle/TwEynK2GyNYwh7556

⬇️more

I received a little box today that I assume is probably my #jolabokaflod. It has no return address and no hashtag on the outside, so I‘ll let you know for sure tomorrow. 😆🎄📚?

There was a big enough gap between the second book and this one that I wondered if it was ever coming.

I love this series. This one is long, and some of the political parts felt too long, but I was glad to see more of Lyra and Pantalaimon. I thought it wrapped up pretty well.

This was my December #doublespin.

Jackson‘s debut novel is about a young woman who has just moved from “baby jail” into a group home. She allegedly killed an infant her mother was babysitting 6 years ago, when she was 9.

I thought this was good, but could have been a bit shorter. Some of the middle part dragged.

“Some children are just born bad, plain and simple.”

#FirstLineFridays
(A day late)

My #JolabokaflodSwap is on its way @MaleficentBookDragon 😁📚. It should arrive Monday, it‘s staying in my state.

Thank you for continuing to hold my favorite swap of the year!

#SunriseAndBook

I had been meaning to read this. I‘m glad it was chosen for my December #bookspin.

I feel like everyone else has already read it, but if not it‘s about a 9th grade girl who was raped at a party and her struggles afterwards. I believe it‘s often read in school, and also has been banned in places. Jason Reynolds‘s afterword is another excellent perspective.

Almost Famous is one of my favorite movies, so when I saw this had been released I immediately looked for it. It‘s really good, as you would expect from the guy who wrote for multiple papers and big music magazines and did screenplays!

Highly recommend, get it on audio if you‘d like to hear it in his own voice. I‘m off to rewatch Almost Famous!

Manga about a high school student learning about the Asexual spectrum when she starts at a new school. Full of descriptions of different ways people might identify as Ace, as well as stressing that every person has their own way of being, and the most important thing is getting to know yourself.

I added this to my TBR after reading Sandwich by Newman. I‘m so glad I did, I really loved this.

It‘s a short read but powerful. Ash‘s life is in turmoil, as she deals with the terminal cancer diagnosis and hospice placement of her best friend since childhood, Edi. It‘s quirky and very family focused, and I especially loved Ash‘s daughter Belle.

If the #AuldLangSpine lists hadn‘t already gone out this would have made mine. Next year!

I reread this for bookclub, and it was a nice visit to memory lane. I must have been quite young when I read it last. It‘s still delightful.

I am a huge StoryGraph fan, as I know a lot of Litsy is. Are you? If so here is the link for the #AuthorAMonth StoryGraph challenge, which is a fun way to track your reading as well as seeing books other readers have chosen for each prompt. Enjoy!

https://app.thestorygraph.com/reading_challenges/b855bc01-00bb-4993-b8c0-3387d8b...

(Let me know if you see any typos or have other problems with it please 🙂)

Who knew Nora Roberts wrote fantasy?

I admit to feeling reserved about the very mainstream authors who have entire shelves of their books at the library and I can expect to have to reshelve at least one or two of them every week during my volunteer shift. So I wasn‘t anticipating liking a NR book, and I was trepidatious when she was chosen for #AuthorAMonth.

I didn‘t mind this. It has some cliche fantasy moments, but a low pick for me. ⬇️