A corrupt administration or a corrupt judge will always find a reason to attack workers. That's why worker power always starts with *workers*, not with the law. Solidarity will get you though periods of legal attacks on unions more than the law will get you through periods of no solidarity.
Willowweep Manor rescues the imperiled denizens of another universe: A gruff colonel, a capable young woman, a butler, a sweet old lady... you get the idea. When things start to go very wrong, Haley as at a loss about how to help her friends--mysteries aren't her thing--but works it out in the end.
Unlike Haley, I love classic mysteries, so I thought this was a hoot, especially the sweet old lady's village stories. Best to read book 1 first.
I started this with a “four chapters a day“ plan and then read it straight through so I was definitely engaged. Set in the 30s, it started out with two interesting characters: Ivy, a thrice-widowed charwoman with an incredibly strong sense of self, and poet Helen, who's kind of lost herself in an affair with a man who won't marry her.
cont.
rubyslippersreads, quietjenn, Jess_Read_This, Kimzey, erzascarletbookgasm, catebutler, CarolynM, LeahBergen, Lizpixie, elkeOriginal, Aimeesue, batsy, Tamra, bookandbedandtea, Teresereading, kwmg40, Cathythoughts, Ruthiella, julieclair, MrsK
I was really enjoying this, but halfway though it suddenly started focusing on all these extraneous characters. I'm baffled.
#FurrowedMiddlebrowClub
A Murderbot short story with no Murderbot! But plenty of ART/Peri, so it's still good.
Another easy pick for the week. What a powerful book - it's in my top two of favorite Pratchetts. The complicated plot is gorgeously arranged and paced, and it had me in tears by the end for several reasons.
*Not* a good entry point to the Watch or Discworld series, because there's so much character growth and unexpected background.
#OokBookClub @JulesG
A review suggests this for those who like “Victorian women protagonists; series long mysteries; family dramas; pastries.“ 😂
I'm really only crazy about the fourth--and still wish Thomas would go back to historical romance!--but enjoyed this anyway. It's super convoluted and I barely understand what happened (might be a me issue) but I'm into the characters, even pathetic, conservative Inspector Treadles, whose wife might (gasp!) run a business!
In a post-apocalyptic world in which men have died out, a group of women and girls navigate their romantic relationships while puzzling out the remnants of previous society. It's pretty funny and often sweet, though not as inclusive as I'd like. (The author does make an effort, but it's pretty cis-centric.)
We're sorry. It's not us. It's the monster. The bank isn't like a man.
Yes, but the bank is only made of men.
No, you're wrong there--quite wrong there. The bank is something else than men. It happens that every man in a bank hates what the bank does, and yet the bank does it.
“You're arresting *Unmentionables*?“
“No uniform. No badge. Carrying weapons. Let's have a bit of law around here, shall we?“ said Vimes. “Snouty, where's that cocoa?“
“We'll get into trouble!“ Knock shouted.
Vimes let Knock wait until he'd lit a cigar. “We're in trouble anyway, Winsborough,' he said, shaking out the match. “It's just a case of deciding what kind we want.“
#TodayILearned about how Amazon can keep offering us free prime trials constantly -- the demands they extort from their sellers make shipping basically free for them.
Amazon, Google, Uber -- all are designed now to screw people over coming and going.
#NonFictionNovember @BookwormJillK
#ScreamTeam, my final points are 13,100.
I finished ~46 books and got 98 bingo lines and 7 completed boards. Got all the word search words, but not a single Cluedo. 😂
sebrittainclark, Laughterhp, MsRadioSilence, kwmg40, vonnie862, TheAromaofBooks, ImperfectCJ, Roary47, Yuki_Onna, IriDas, Seabreeze_Reader
A good, but frustrating month. So many books with the *author* in Orange... so many creatures, without paw prints. I cheated a little for “red hair“ because I thought it was funny. 😂
Blackout? I used Touch Not the Cat for the “classic book“ square, because it's an old genre classic, but I'll let @OutsmartYourShelf decide if that counts or not.
#SPNBookBingo2025
#BookSpinBingo for October - almost a blackout! (I personally count DNFs as a win, and am still listening to Conspiracy in Belgravia.)
My November #Bookspin list. Includes a lot of my #10BeforeTheEnd titles. Also some for #NonfictionNovember.
Following “Dionysus in Wisconsin,“ Ulysses & Sam are disturbed to learn Sam might not have been the only victim of his grandfather's magical schemes, when Ulysses' ex Livia turns up in peril.
I love this relationship and the author's voice--imagine a cozier, Midwest K.J Charles--so this has to be a pick, but oh was I irritated! Ulysses is so willfully oblivious to what's right under his nose. And the ending is... insufficient. But I'll read on!
“You seem very unconcerned about this.“
“Man, I was not raised in the woods by Bolsheviks.“
“Are you a capitalist?“
“You should have asked me if I'm a fellow traveler before you kissed me, don't you think?“ Sam said, smirking.
“But?“
“I'm a librarian.“
“Is that a political affiliation?“
Sam considered this. “Near enough.“
When former star Devin finds himself acting just like his famous werewolf character--complete with glowing eyes and fangs--he turns to the creator of his fan site for help, not realizing he once brutally stomped on her feelings.
Devin's a sweet Himbo, Alex is a cynical loner--but they're both wounded and lonely. I'm not sure the paranormal plotline mixed well with the realism overall, but it's an appealing story. I even liked the sex scenes! 🤯
“I know I asked you this before, but how much do you trust Livia?“
Ulysses glanced up from the show he was calculating. “I don't think she's going to murder me,“ he said. He looked down and sunk the two into a corner pocket.
“That is close to the bare minimum that one expects from others, yes,“ Sam managed.
I hadn't read Wilson before and this was quieter than I was expecting. Quietly amusing, quietly revealing, quietly affecting. Perhaps a bit thinner than it could be, but I quietly enjoyed it.
#HauntedShelf #ScreamTeam
#Chocolatiers #OneSnackToRuleThemAll @Bookwormjillk
#SPNBookBingo2025 @OutsmartYourShelf square: baby
Friends, please welcome @AuntieJulie to Litsy! She's a friend of mine from another website and I persuaded her to give this a try.
I've seen so many adaptation of Christie that completely fail to capture the *tone*, so it was nice how generally authentic feeling these homages are. (Ruth Ware & Kate Mosse's stories are standouts.) Attempts to make Miss Marple far more racially sensitive than her creator ever was are less successful, albeit understandable. (Alyssa Cole had some fun with it and her story made me laugh.) Scratches the Christie itch a bit, though doubt I'd reread.
So obviously perfect for each other!
A short, imaginative graphica memoir about getting and staying married. Rob and John married fairly quietly when it became legal, amidst some ambivalence about accepting heteronormative privilege. But after 10 years married and 20 together, they know, “marriage doesn't define a relationship... unless you want it to.“ My heart, it is mush.
Covers 2013-2022, so be prepared for painful topics.
Just me or is this the BEST COVER EVER?! 😂
I had a bit of trouble getting into this. I think the set-up wasn't strong enough for the odd story it's telling; I just wasn't buying it. But after a bit the mystery and romance got engaging and the danger mounted satisfactorily. A fun read, even if not Stewart's best.
#HauntedShelf #ScreamTeam
#Chocolatiers #OneSnackToRuleThemAll @Bookwormjillk
Carefully researched historical fiction about a little known aspect of WWII. There's a unique supernatural folklore element that I wish I'd appreciated more. Overall, it's slow and it's weird, but paid off in the end. I liked that it didn't focus on Nazi atrocities -- we all know, unless we're deliberately choosing not to know -- but on how we choose to respond to fellow human beings in need.
Relatable.
I laughed to find this at the end of the book, because I thought about When No One Is Watching several times while reading this, although it's far less terrifying.
A single mom with way too much on her plate--including the stress of being one of very few Black parents in her daughter's school--finds herself getting caught up in some very suspicious PTA drama. I liked the slice-of-life parts of the story, but Mavis go on my nerves a bit. (cont.)
Excellent narrator, excellent queer, creepy fun. I agree with @shanaqui that the way his family treats neurodivergent Zeb is very distressing but the romance and bizarre twists of the story are terrific. (I guessed a bit, recognizing one authorial influence -- but there was so much more!) I feel like reading the whole thing over in print now.
#threelistthursday #tlt @dabbe
Not really my area, obviously, though pretty much all of my reads I liked.
Favorites not on the list: We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson, My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier, Defekt by Nino Cipri, The Hollow by Agatha Christie, Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey.
Super cute, modern, gender-bending retelling of “Emma.“ Our Emma, of course, is a gay high school instagram influencer named Evan, who thinks rather too much of himself and not enough about his friends.
It's unfortunately much too faithful to the original plot, which is a lot to pack into a short graphic novel and I suspect would be confusing for readers who don't already know it. But the drawings and overall vibe are appealing.
After the events of We Were Liars, one of the adults shares a secret story from her past.
I kept going back & forth while reading this, trying to decide whether it added meaningfully to WWL or perhaps took away from it. (In making explicit something that could be read as ambiguous.) In the end, though I think it was too much of a retread of the first book, it had enough to say to make it a pick. It didn't touch my heart in the same way.
Set in the office of a “Weekly World News“ sort of paper, this series is so fun, especially in audio. The narrator uses dozens of distinct British accents for the huge cast, and also does full justice to the humor. It's a bit like a paranormal, British Donald Westlake. Also, although creepy/sometimes horrific things are happening, it's overall a cozy sort of story -- the oddball main cast always manage to protect each other, if not everyone else
Kind of an odd book. Boylen isn't that much older than me, but grew up in such a different world, it's hard to make sense of all the pieces of her memoir put together. I found myself questioning, “is this real?“ a lot. But she has a dry, Vonnegut-esque sense of humor, and there's an underlying poignancy that touched me very much. It's interesting as sort of a period piece and heartbreaking as a story about family.
In those days, my friends and I listened to everything--classical, traditional Irish, Javanese gamelan, cool jazz, Indian raga, Frank Zappa, Gregorian chants, Rahsaan Roland Kirk. The only thing completely off our radar was disco, which we assumed appealed exclusively to the stupid. Inevitably, it's disco that people now associate with the era of my adolescence.
It seems almost cruel to tag this very hard-to-find book, but it has such a poignant little ghost in it.
Scavenger hunt: “monster.“
Book reccomendation: “Unhinged.“ But also a rather lovely story!
#HauntedShelf #ScreamTeam
I wonder what it means that all of my favorites this month have been by YA authors. And all of the latest books by my favorite adult authors are not hitting the mark.
@Read4Life
Wow, what a cover. I wish I could turn it into a Dixit card.
An intriguing but somewhat disappointing Cinderella retelling. (I'll put why in a spoiler comment.) Our Ella is sadly a ghost, and how this affects her life is told in a very visceral manner, consumed with how much Ella wants to feel and experience things and the strange, limited ways in which she can. Some of it really gave me the ick, to be honest, but the prose is beautiful.
