Welcome to Litsy!

The second collection of Link‘s stories I‘ve read, and I really enjoy her brand of strangeness. Like, casually the characters in a story are superheroes, or aliens, or there are ghosts or magic, but the fact of these things brilliantly isn‘t the focus of the stories, it just makes them even more interesting. I had my favorites in this collection, but overall a strong pick. Thanks @IuliaC for the reminder that I wanted to read this. 😊

Brilliant and very original collection of short stories. There is such a smooth and flawless transition from reality to fantasy and back to reality and a formidable imagination for building exquisite and unexpected fictional worlds in a relatively short number of pages.

“The boy is loved. The loved one suffers. All loved ones suffer. Love is not enough. Love is enough. The thing that you wished for. Was this it?”

“Her chest feels very tight, as if she‘s suddenly full of poison. You have to keep it all inside. Like throwing yourself on a bomb to save everyone else. Except you‘re the bomb.”

“Everyone who is alive has a ghost inside them, don‘t they?”

"Happiness! Misery! If you were one, bet on it the other was on the way. That was what everyone liked to see. It was what the whole thing was about. The demon lover has a pair of gold cuff links, those faces. Meggie gave them to him. You know the ones I mean."

For me the best way to describe what these short stories are about is to use Arthur Phillips‘ words from the first few pages with praise: “But she also knows things we all know: what it feels like to be in love, to want to be in love, to be alone, to want to be alone, to be disappointed in people, to try again.”

#BookSpin November @TheAromaofBooks

From the story “Origin Story”

I never noticed this, maybe it‘s time for another rewatch?

I‘ve wanted to read Kelly Link‘s stories for a long time and glad I finally got to this collection. It ended up being more of a mixed bag than I expected. I loved a few of them (The Summer People, The New Boyfriend, The Light) but really struggled with others, some of which were a bit incomprehensible. Overall a moderate pick.

Stole #alphabetgame from @batsy, originally from @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
A short story collection that a) is fantastic and b) contains Two Houses, objectively the creepiest short story to ever have been written. I love this one so much that I once accidentally had two copies.

I love Kelly Link‘s brain.

Beginning with this! Planning to finish the story I'm currently on then start something else. #readathon @DeweysReadathon

Got my TBR ready for @DeweysReadathon! I have tried to balance text-heavy with less text-heavy books to make it realistic but we'll see how it goes! Who else is taking part today? #readathon #Deweys24HourReadathon

Self-quarantine day 11 of 14. When it ends I‘ll be doing pretty much the same thing bc nothing is open and I don‘t have a job rn anyway. 😅 This is my first irl book of 2020 and I‘ve read most of it in a hammock under an oak tree. Hope you‘re all healthy and staying sane. 🤙🏽

#7days7covers #covercrush Day 2
@merelybookish
I know @Squidapus enjoys a lot of sci-fi and fantasy books with pretty covers- he's tagged if he wants to post one cover per day, no explanations needed and tag someone new each day.

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
I liked this. All nine stories felt solid, and while the collection didn‘t blow me away, it felt consistently good. I‘d be interested to read more by Kelly Link.

Favorites: “The Lesson” and “Two Houses”

#catsoflitsy #Phoenix

#currentlyreading

I really enjoyed this collection of short stories, all of them were weird in the good way and I love that. I can‘t think of a single one I didn‘t enjoy. Beautiful language throughout

A while back, maybe two or three years ago, I had this idea to write a story set in a fantasy world but using the conventions and themes of literary fiction. I never wrote it, of course. But reading these stories by Kelly Link, I feel like I don‘t have to, because she‘s done it so much more brilliantly than I ever could. I don‘t understand how these stories do what they do—it just feels like magic. Hell of a collection.

I don‘t know who recommended this book to me or when, but I didn‘t know anything about it when I started reading it just now, except that it was stories. I think that might be the best way to do it.

Next.

I want to be Kelly Link when I grow up 💕
I picked this up because Link just won one of this year‘s genius grants. Well deserved, for sure.

November reading wrap-up! My reading definitely took a hit this month due to #NaNoWriMo but I really loved almost all the books I picked up 😄 and I wrote about 30,000 words of my novel 🎉 Favorites this month were Get in Trouble and Space Opera, both of which I highly recommend! 📚
Get in Trouble by Kelly Link ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Diamond Fire by Ilona Andrews ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri ⭐️⭐️⭐️

I looooved this short story collection! This is my third Kelly Link and definitely my favorite. I love how many different things she‘s able to pack into one story and how intensely weird they all end up being.

These stories made me remember the feelings of utter astonishment when I stumbled on Ray Bradbury when I was a kid; all I had read was straight reality based fiction until that point. The frisson of fear and wonderment when normal skewed seriously sideways and wanting more! All the stories here are about trouble-in every conceivable and fantastic ways. Perfect for Halloween, by the way. Ray would love these stories.

Short story author Kelly Link has been named one of 25 recipients of this year's MacArthur Genius Grant!

She's an author I'm convinced I'd love if I ever got around to reading her work. It might be time to bump her to the top of my TBR list. Are you a fan?

So I‘m someone who needs to know the rules, the boundaries, the limits. What Kelly Link did was tie me to a chair and beat the hell out of me until I vomited up my brain that she peeled open to accept all the awesomeness that was this collection of 9, what I would call weird fiction, stories. I only didn‘t care for 1, but 8 of 9 still makes that a pick!!!!! It‘s on its way to you tomorrow @wanderinglynn #LMPBCJ

@OddBookishBee I just want to say thanks in advance because I just finished this second story and besides hearing the Twilight Zone music in my head, I‘m genuinely smiling with the end of this one. This has quite the opening line to it. #LMPBCJ

(conspiratorial whisper) "#Voulezvous get in trouble?" ?
#ABBAinAugust @Meredith3 @Mdargusch @emilyhaldi @Reviewsbylola @Cinfhen

This is just not grabbing me despite the fact that it sounds like it should be everything that I love! Oh well.

While I enjoyed some of these stories, “Secret Identity,” “Two Houses,” and “The Summer People” were my favorites, I felt that Link was often being purposely obtuse. I liked the repeated themes like ghosts and super heroes and identity, but the collection as a whole ultimately left me wanting something more.

This is headed your way, @Reggie ! I can‘t believe we‘re almost halfway done with this round. #lmpbc #groupj @wanderinglynn @OddBookishBee

Two new #audiobooks came in at once! Which one should I read first?

Look what arrived, @OddBookishBee! I‘m so excited to dive in.

#LMPBC #GroupJ @wanderinglynn @Reggie

Busy day ahead of me! @wanderinglynn @thebluestocking @Reggie

I tried. My most frequent reaction as I read these stories was “ What the hell just happened?” I feel I have a good imagination, but this was not my jam. I am not even sure re-reading would bring me resolution. #atychallenge #awardwinningshortstorycollection

Ever read an author for the first time who has a bit of a following and the book you're reading has a 'it's good but not as good as her other stuff' reaction....and then you wind up absolutely loving it? I guess I need to read Kelly Link's entire body of work because I don't see how it gets any better than this. Tales featuring ghosts, superheroes, and alternate universes are all told sideways and inside out. I ate up each and every sentence.

#riotgrams Day 5!! #rainbowbookstack

I wanted to like this book so much! :( not for me.

“#KellyLink has been hailed by #MichaelChabon as “the most darkly playful voice in American fiction” and by #NeilGaiman as “a national treasure.” Now her eagerly awaited new collection—her first for adult readers in a decade—proves indelibly that this bewitchingly original writer is among the finest we have... #InGetinTrouble, this one-of-a-kind talent expands the boundaries of what short fiction can do.” #TBR |
Day 26: #Trees - #HopIntoSpring

True Love is when you‘re too sick to sit up, so they get a new audiobook to listen to together, then syncs the playback on your phones before getting up to make you soul food.

How is that I had never heard of this Kelly Link person before today? This short story collection is a Kindle special today, so I downloaded it and have already started the first story. Sucked me right in....#shortstories
#happysurprises

Hooray! I‘ve wanted to read this for a long time! 🎉🎉🎉

I listened to this a few weeks ago, and then when I saw it at the library a couple days ago I snapped it up so my fiancé could read the truly excellent story “Two Houses” - if you like sci fi horror at all I highly recommend it!

Today on @bookriot I made a list of 100 contemporary short story collections that I love and I hope that you‘ll love too: https://bookriot.com/2018/03/12/contemporary-short-story-collections/ 📚❤️☺️

Going to a destination wedding at the Grand Canyon is a great opportunity for some bookstore tourism. I could definitely *get in trouble* at a great shop like this, but I limited myself to the tagged book and two others. Also has a bar inside, which I could see myself spending many an hour in with my purchases if I lived in Phoenix.🍻📖

#riotgrams Day 6: short stories

I have more short stories collections than I realized! These two I haven't read yet but really should.

Found this book for 2$ but splitting my time between it and teaching myself to embroider. Don‘t judge to harshly, it‘s only my 2nd attempt ✂️

January TBR