Welcome to Litsy!

Another great book by Everett. I love how different each of his books are and how they always surprise me. In this one he weaves together three events happening in the past and present in such a creative way. The three timelines slowly converge in the book as the events converge in the main character‘s life. I‘m a big fan.

Three time periods in a man‘s life, three secrets kept, three glimpses into the artist as a man, lover, and father. This book was so good. My second book by Everett and I cannot wait to read more.

I ask friends if they‘ve ever heard of this author and no one has. How can this brilliant writer, an author of over 30 books, not be more well known? This story covers three important parts of an artist‘s life - a rescue attempt, an affair, and his family life. Secrets color his life and colors are sprinkled throughout the story, highlighting the feelings imbued in the story. An engrossing read with an emotional end. I‘m sure I‘ll reread this one.

So Much Blue is a character study of a man that paints a picture of him for the reader by following him across 3 points in his life: in 1979 when he is helping a friend, 20 years later when he has an affair, and 10 years after that during a family crisis. It is a quiet book that is beautifully rendered, weaving the three times together.

Thank you so much, Barbara! This one has been on my radar for a while now. I can't wait to get started on it. Hope you are still doing ok in quarantine 😘
@BarbaraBB

#12booksof2021 #October @Andrew65
I only heard about this author on a tls podcast and tried this great book but have now noticed a lot of references to his book 'trees' on litsy. Hopefully I'll read more by him in 2022

What a brilliant read and after having heard only recently about this author on the TLS podcast I can't wait to dive into his many other works. A painter Kevin Pace tells a story of his life in 3 parts, 1979 el Salvador, the present, and a week in Paris. The intertwining tales explore the nature of love, trauma, parenting and most of all the character of a flawed man, a friend, husband, and father. Wonderfully written I could not put it down.

This was a wonderful little book that uses thoughtful language and references to art history to show us the life of the painter Kevin Pace. It discusses the secrets we keep with us and how they change us and influence our decisions.

Thanks again @BarbaraBB This was a great choice! 🤗

I completely forgot to post a picture of my wonderful #jolabokaflodswap presents yesterday, I'm sorry! I loved everything! It's so very cute that you extra went to an american supermarket to get the chocolate @BarbaraBB 😍 And I'm really curious for the book. And everything was packed so nicely. Thank you so much ❤

@MaleficentBookDragon

I hope you all have amazing holidays! 🤗

So Much Blue is, at its core, a book about the secrets we keep from the people we love, and how the choices we make shape us into who we are. It‘s about a man on the edge of crisis in different phases of his life, and the ways in which he tries to justify and elude his past.

It‘s richly intellectual and surprisingly very funny in spite of the heavy subject matter. An engaging exploration of one man‘s life. I really loved that last chapter.

This could have been triple the length and I wouldn‘t have been bored. One of those books that have an impact 💙

My second best thing to books 😂😂 #beer #belgium

On my way to Brussels 🖤💛❤️

About half way through this and I‘m really liking it. It‘s written in first person and there‘s three separate parts to his story. Intrigued how it will end.

Just starting this one. A definite #blameitonlitsy 💙 heard lots of good things!

I had a lot of busy work to get through today and managed to listen to this whole audiobook while getting it done. Yay for 2.5x speed. I really liked the story. It was engaging and layered.

#BestOfMarch #WrapUpMarch

With 15 books I had an unusual good month! Many books I read were for this month‘s #TournamentOfBooks and they were mostly very good. Above are my favorites, with the tagged being my number one!

Today these two are up in the #ToB. I am sorry to see one of them go because I loved them both.

Choices choices... I vote for the tagged one because it was such a surprising read where Pachinko was more of a regular family saga - although very good. I can live with either choice though.

What are your thoughts?

Kevin is an artist who is hiding the painting he works on from the people he loves. But he has been hiding things from them before. We learn about some of his secrets in 3 storylines: one set in El Salvador, one in Paris and one in the present.
I loved Kevin, the dialogues and the relationships, all of them so real. My favourite was the Salvadorian storyline, but they were all so good. The end made me fighting back tears. #Booked2018 #POC #ToB

How have I never read Percival Everett before?! I'd never even heard of him until he popped up on the #TOB2018 short list. In this book, Kevin Pace, a successful, aging artist, looks back on two pivotal moments from his past in an effort to illuminate his restless, and unfulfilled, present. I know that sounds like something you have read a hundred times, but it doesn't read that way. It feels fresh and insightful in Everett's capable hands.

Trying to read the Tournament of Books #tob shortlist before March, but my plans hit a snag - I reserved some as library books, but the libraries in my state changed interlibrary loan delivery service contracts and the new contractor's subcontractor quit, leaving basically no drivers. There's a backlog of ~90,000 books waiting to be sent to libraries 😵 (mine were en route for 2 months). My library just got 10 boxes, but there's still a backlog.

This is why I love the Tournament of Books. I would not have found this book/author without it. I‘m not sure how I missed him- he has a back list of like 30 books!!

And it‘s my first 5⭐️ read of the year. I loved the writing. Deep, yet funny, and not a chore to read. #ToB2017 #24in48

Book 1 complete. Second book and second cup of coffee. Sneaking in some shorter #ToB2017 books to knock them off my list. This is a new to me author and a book I‘d not heard of prior to the shortlist. Wish me luck! #24in48

⭐️⭐️

Something about this cover said jazz, cocktails, and mysterious woman in dimly lit club. I knew there was an extra-marital affair between a water-colourist and an older married man so I was getting ready for some good doomed love affair reading. However, most characters seemed terribly thin and their motivations hard to parse.

Probably the weakest of the books I have read for this years Tournament of Books but at least it was short !

It didn‘t take a genius to see this was not a good proposition, but it did take an idiot to not see it.

This is why I shouldn't do lists 😂 #17in2017 is a great idea @Cinfhen but I've been mulling it over for days and decided that I couldn't bring it lower than 27. I had to squeeze this all of this in in tiny font 🙄 This has been such a fantastic reading year and lot of it is due to being on Litsy. Buddy reads, #LitsyAtoZ, readathons... I've enjoyed all of it ❤️

Here's to all sorts of bookish pleasure (that sounds naughty 🤔😂) in 2018 🍾📚

My other half definitely knows how to spoil me! 🎁😊❤️

Merry Christmas Littens hope you‘re all having a great day 🎄😘

Starting my second #TOB2018 #TOB18 #TOBLongList read. So many books! I am not going to have as good a year as last but I know I‘ll add interesting reads to my tbr. (I have only read Lincoln in the Bardo)

Smarmy and crassly masculine, Kevin's recollections still manage to swing often into the light of thoughtful self awareness. The story is woven with several threads: his misadventure with Richard in El Salvador, day-to-day family life, his affair bred in Paris, and snippets of historical art references. So many lines turned me off, but the end of every chapter brought me back to focus on the painful plot twists. 10/10 would recommend.

I looked at my life and it was clear that I should be happy, but I was not. And it was not because I'd isolated myself in my work. I'd used my work as a refuge, a sanctum, a hiding place. However this harborage turned out to have one way in & one out and I had lost sight of it. It could have been argued that ten years earlier I had succumbed to a banal midlife crisis, but now I was falling victim to something far worse, a late-life revelation.

"You know I've come to dislike museums."

"Why is that?"

"It's where art comes to die. Look at this place. It's a crypt.... Look at those people over there, nice people, smart people, viewing the dead in open caskets."

I could feel Victoire looking at me.

"I don't know what's gotten into me."

????

A painting has many surfaces. To say that a painting is like a story is a pedestrian utterance, not untrue, but uninspired, though that hardly stops people from making such unwarranted comparisons. The painting that was my life was static, hardly a story at all, moving but with no moving parts, changing but without alteration. The shapes in the painting were unique elements in unique situations, but I never pressed that thinking beyond my canvas.

I was so-so on this book until it really started to come together in the last quarter. Three separate storylines alternate to reveal various secrets that the narrator holds from his wife. The narrator is a painter who doesn‘t like to use blue, but notes that it‘s often in the under painting and influences the appearance of the final painting. This is a metaphor for how the secrets he‘s been keeping buried influence his everyday life.

This book, I almost thought of not reading the rest of it until tomorrow, just so I would have more time with it. Kevin Pace is a painter in his 50‘s looking back at 3 different time periods in his life. The present, ten years previous in Paris, and 1979. How the last two affect his present. I enjoyed Kevin‘s perceptions and witty banter that could either suddenly make me laugh out loud or make me breath deeper, slower, and quieter. Great book.

These are two different passages but I‘m loving how the author hits so many levels. Crescendos to a joke to decrescendo into something poignant a few pages later. Very much loving it so far.

My first time reading Everett & can't wait to read more. The premise of this book seems to be different from his others: a novel about a bourgeois artist in his mid-50s. But Everett's careful, analytical prose seems to invert all the clichés. Three timelines are braided together in one story involving a trip to El Salvador, a past affair in Paris, and current family situation. A thoughtful, muted meditation on secrets, art, & living with others.

Conversation between the narrator of the book, Kevin, & his best friend Richard. They're talking about Kevin's affair in Paris some years ago. Kevin's voice is the whole book & it's a reserved, intensely philosophical one. It took me awhile to warm up to him & now I'm in love with Everett & how he writes. (And isn't this the case? You might do things differently now that you know what you know, even if you don't know exactly what it is you know.)

I was away from my home library but getting around to my tags now!

First tagged by @MrBook for #bookcolortag with the color Royal Blue. They're not all quite the desired shade but all at least near navy 🙃

If you haven't already been tagged or would like to do another I'll tag @ReadOrDieRachel @Yeah_I_Read @monalyisha @RestlessFickleBookSlut for patterned spines. Go crazy 🤗

Got my Nutella latte (regular latte with the glass coated in a luscious layer of Nutella, the spoon comes in handy) and Percival Everett for Saturday night 😍

Reading this when I looked over and saw all the different blues beside me on the couch!

This is what happens when I read The NY Times Book Review then head to the bookstore. The tagged book, So Much Blue, had a great review. #nosuchthingastoomanybooks #bookhaul

So Much Blue arrived this afternoon. It's his new release. Can't wait to pick it up. It will be my first Perceval Everett but am confident I'm going to like it. #readsoullit #new release #blackmenread

#readsoullit Day #8: Anticipated New Releases I've read Ward before and really want to check out more of her work. Haven't read Percival Everett yet but I like the sound of this book that examines the price of being an artist. #catchup #blackhistorymonth #newreleases