Welcome to Litsy!

The Lake centers around the relationship between two ‘outsiders‘ - one grieving the death of her mother, the other a peculiar guy with a traumatic past. The heart of the story is the mysterious past of the guy, and how the narrator learnt of it and accept, love him. It‘s slow paced, and the descriptions on mundane things remind me of a Murakami novel. Only towards the last 20 pages or so, the pace picks up and ⬇️

This is what it means to be loved… when someone wants to touch you, to be tender… my body still knows that feeling, even now. My body knows not to respond to fake love.

My library haul! Good start to this hot weekend 🌞

A beautiful love story written with great simplicity and truth. Chihiro & Nakajima Tare outsiders, & cautious with relationships. They‘ve worked hard to establish a sense of self & Yoshimoto depicts their fragility together (their honesty & the matter-of-fact style make it more poignant). I loved Chihiro‘s acceptance of Nakajima, his friends by the lake & her own unusual family set-up. Clean writing, poetic re making art. A gentle, engaging read.

#QuotsyApr19 Day 11: #Touch someone you love today. Tenderly.

#QuotsyMay18 #Luxury

I'd add a book, but otherwise, pretty perfect.

#QuotsyMarch18 Day 31: Here‘s to celebrating the #ordinary. As Yoshimoto here noted, it‘s what ghosts long for. I have only read one novel of hers, “Asleep”, and this was part of my review a few years back: “In each of the stories, sleep is perceived as a form of escape, an unraveling, a literal undoing-sapping one‘s strength instead of giving back life. It brings the reader to a landscape of fragile dreams, lost loves, and unfulfilled promises.”

At the library & while the rest of the fam is looking for video games, I go do some research for #LitsyAtoZ. I couldn't resist adding a few Banana Yoshimoto books to my potential schedule simply because her name is Banana! I love it! Anyone a fan? @BookishMarginalia

I chose a short book that I could begin and finish today. I know there are some books for me under the Christmas tree, so I don‘t want to be in the middle of anything come tomorrow! I want to dive into one of them! Merry Christmas Eve to all. ❤️💚

Starting this one today. 👌

Opening line: "The first time Nakajima stayed over, I dreamed of my dead mom." #thelake #bananayoshimoto #melvillehousepublishing #bookgnome #bookish #book #bookcover #firstline

#womenintranslation #aprilbookshowers #coolcovers #likeseriouslycoolcovers

Is there a better view to read?😍 #summerread #vacation #sosaditisover
I just started the book but I am very much looking foward to it!😍

Read this book, read this book, read this book! Okay, now that that's out of my system let me just say: wow! This is my first Banana Yoshimoto book and I am so blown away and so touched. I felt like she could really see into the depths of my soul and articulate what was there.

"Recognizing how totally ignorant you are is the only honest way to deal with people who‘ve been through something traumatic."

"When someone tells you something big, it‘s like you‘re taking money from them, and there‘s no way it will ever go back to being the way it was. You have to take responsibility for listening."

"It was as if living where we did had imposed a special destiny on us, giving us feelings that no one else could share." - Banana Yoshimoto

"My fury was lofty, pure, cool. It was an emotion that none of these people, struggling so hard to impose a shape on a life when life has no shape, could begin to understand."

Reading my first Banana Yoshimoto book! Let's go!