Welcome to Litsy!

I am posting one book per day from my extensive to-be-read collection. No description and providing no reason for wanting to read it, I just do. Some will be old, some will be new. Don‘t judge me - I have a lot of books. Join in if you want!

#ABookADay2023

Been looking forward to this all day 😆

York do a big city read where the library give away copies of a certain book for people to read and they have events going on related to it and reading group discussions in all the different libraries. This is the perfect choice seeing as it‘s set in York! I‘m loving it. The main characters live in my area so I know the streets mentioned, makes it a vivid read.

Couldn‘t decide if I‘d read this before. However what a laugh I had . I believe this was her first book. I just loved it. I‘m on a quest to read her books when I find them in op shops or the library. When she described a holiday in Scotland I was right there with her, having spent many holidays their myself. Seems a lot of this book drawn from her own life. What a hoot.

Some potential January reads

So, having been a Kate Atkinson fan for years, I finally read her first novel! Ruby Lennox tells the story of her childhood, and, in the process, tells the stories of her sisters, mother, grandmother, great grandmother and various aunties, uncles and cousins too. Illustrating the way so many lives influence in some way the single life each of us lives. I loved it.
#BookspinBingo

It‘s a #bookandbeer on the porch kind of afternoon 🍺📚

Fantastic! Definitely gonna read this again!

Kate Atkinson will always be a pick for me. This was a re-read to try and kickstart my reading and what I've learnt is that I really need to pay more attention when I read, I couldn't remember any of it!

Lockdown feels, spring cleaning in my PJs means I've deserved a wee lie down with my book. Hoping to finish this today as the new book from my other favourite arrived yesterday and I want to dig in 📚

I'm an introvert. Many holidays have been spent reading copious amounts of books. Now that I'm in lockdown I can't seem to find the urge to read. Hoping a return to an old favourite- author and book - will give me something other to do than work and watch the telly.

Kate Atkinson‘s first novel is one that requires to be reread, in part because it‘s stuffed with easily overlooked detail. Ruby Lennox is three different kinds of story-teller all in one: a first-person narrator who appears also to be omniscient (where others are concerned) but with a huge gap in what she knows about herself. If following this link, beware spoilers: https://medium.com/p/7e4635c9cc30

Am doing the #12booksofsummer challenge between 3rd June and 3rd September (I know it‘s supposed to be #20booksofsummer but I have a full time job, housework and gardening to do). Anyway, I‘m using it to read books already on my bookcase or Kindle. Here‘s my list! #bookstagram

I picked it up in a charity shop a few years ago after reading Life After Life but have never got round to it. I should have read it sooner because it‘s a joy: funny, playful and poignant. The character of Ruby Lennox is so engaging and you can see the origins of many of Atkinson‘s themes and techniques: playing with time, memory, complex family dynamics, war, early death. But if ever a book was crying out for a family tree, it‘s this one.

I went to the library to pick up my hold noticed that the librarians are having some fun with a red display.
As a former bookseller, I know the feeling.😁

It was between a pick and so-so. I wanted to like this more. I did enjoy the sometimes comical writing. I usually enjoy intergenerational stories but I got lost at times in this one and overwhelmed by the amount of characters. Perhaps if I‘d taken less time to read it this wouldn‘t have been the case? I will definitely try reading another of her books in the future.

This is my third Kate Atkinson (& her debut novel). It‘s similar to her other two novels Life After Life and God in Ruins both in content and style, and at first this annoyed me. But the intergenerational story, character development and at times LOL passages hooked me in.
I really liked it in the end. And I agree with others that she has honed her craft in the latter novels.
Will try Case Histories next...

I am really enjoying this novel. Am finding myself chuckling out loud, even whilst waiting for 2 hours at the doctor‘s surgery with my mum yesterday.

This passage, where innocent young teen Ruby describes walking in on her mother Bunty in a tryst with new ‘neighbour‘ Mr Roper is but one amusing example. 😂🤣

Ok, so I‘m enjoying Kate Atkinson‘s first novel (tonight with an Aperol Spritz 🍹 Cheers). But I‘m struck by the similarities with her later novels God In Ruins & Life After Life - Britain, WWI & II, intergenerational stories, the lucky rabbit foot - feature in all three novels. 🤔

Sitting down to this while the Australian government goes to hell in a hand basket 😫🤷‍♀️👎. #leadershipspill #foodandbook #bananablueberrydarkchocchipbread 😋

#Nextup Making a start on this with a picnic lunch.

I loved A God In Ruins & it‘s companion novel Life After Life, and have made it my mission to acquire second hand copies of her other books.

I picked up a copy of this, her first novel, at a local op shop. I also have a copy of Case Histories waiting patiently on my #tbr pile, sourced the same way.
📚👏

#AugustIsATrip #Museum

This was the first Kate Atkinson book I read. She is now one of my favourite authors.

This was a strange book that I wasn‘t really enjoying for the first part but then the main part of the story and the characters grew on me and enjoyed it from that point. I feel it wasn‘t helped by the chapter length footnotes at the end of each chapter, which whilst it gave us extra information about the people in the story, it did spoil the flow of the story. Most probably somewhere between so-so & a pick overall. It was the author‘s first book.

#HumpDayPost

1. It's a mug
2. Don't know why I haven't got around to it
3. Steak with blue cheese sauce, oven chips and steamed veg, Nutella cake, berries and ice cream for desert
4. At the moment #MarchIntoOz
5. Herzog by Saul Bellow according to the New York Times I can't find anything that tells me what it was in Australia

I am so wicked.

Unlike my friend @Jeg I don‘t usually do a lot of op shop book buying, but today I popped in for a quick look...👀. And just look what I found 📚🙀😍.

Each one of these beauties was $1 🇦🇺. I ask you, how could I not?

#tbr completely out of control.

This was my book club's pick for a Yorkshire-based book. And I really loved that aspect of the book - all the local geography and history. It was fun to recognize place names and to gain a better understanding of the area I now call home.
However, I didn't like the style of the book. Each chapter read like a short story and I don't really care for short stories. I want a plot that has me anxious to find out what happens next.

I feel like this is one of Kate Atkinson's lesser known and least loved books, but I really, really loved it. There's all this lovely dry humor and mysterious family history, conveyed in Atkinson's gorgeous, insightful, sometimes comically dark prose. If you only discovered this author with Life After Life, check out this earlier work.
#riotgrams #underratedread #day11 @bookriot

Another tricksy (some might say gimmicky) novel from Kate Atkinson, with the narrator's story interspersed with chapter-length footnotes that tell the stories of her mother, grandmother and other relatives. I found it frequently hilarious -the wedding towards the end was a particular highlight. And quite profound about the unseen influences family has on our lives.

‘Bloody World Cup,‘ Sandra says, her eyes like arrow slits as she turns to Ted in disgust. ‘Aren‘t you ashamed, isn‘t your wedding day more important than the World Cup?‘ Ted can‘t help himself somehow. Until this moment of his life lies have fallen from his lips like rain, but on this occasion, this very public, important occasion..... ‘Of course not,‘ he says. ‘It‘s the bloody Final!‘"
I admire his honesty but not his diplomacy ;)

"Perhaps George is vaguely aware that he is losing his wife to another man and that is why he decides to tempt her back with an exotic outing to a faraway place –the Chinese restaurant in Goodramgate. This is his first mistake, for Bunty does not like foreign food. She has not actually tasted any foreign food but nonetheless she knows she doesn‘t like it."
Odd book but frequently very funny.

Kate Atkinson is one of my favourite living authors. I read her first book Behind The Scenes At The Museum the month it was published years ago. Emotionally Weird is probably her least successful work and she nearly stopped publishing writing.... Thank goodness she didn't as......

I liked this book pretty well, but this cover looks like they just let someone who had taken maybe one design class loose in MS Paint. #badcovergoodbook #aprilbookshowers

Bailed a third of the way in. Life After Life is one of my all-time favorite novels; while this earlier novel had some lovely sentences and moments, it was basically a dog's breakfast. No thanks.