Welcome to Litsy!

Here is my February #bookspin list! I had a great start to my reading year (I read 8 books), so I hope to continue the momentum this month!

For many in Manhattan Beach, there‘s a comfort in fog—a kind of peace that takes Anna and her father away from a heavy life. Both characters equally have a gift of diving into a murky cloud and finding what‘s lost. The best characters find treasures by dropping into the unknown and having faith that they have the capacity to endure.

This book suprised me! I was a bit scared to pick it up because I was afraid that it would be difficult and slow read but it totally wasn't! This story is located in a place and time that just makes you want to know more. This story has everything: mafia, coming of age, disability, family dynamics, world war, party scene, well written characters, mechanics and crime. I'm going to find out what else has she written. 😍

Some train reading. I'm really surprised how much I love this book! 🤓📚 🚂🚃🚃🚃

Wanted to read something a bit longer. I found this a year ago from book fair and have been waiting to get to it. Now it feels like a perfect time. 😊📚

What a difference 5 years and a deeper dive into her backlist makes! I didn‘t care for this in 2017. I found it slow and maybe a bit dull. However, coming back after reading her other books, I can tell it was a passion project for her, which I appreciate. The small details of WWII Brooklyn and the tenderness in her portrayal of Anna just touches me.

This is not the best place to start with Egan, but it is a fine place my dive to end.

Very elegant prose but so boring. Technically speaking, this is an awesome book. However, because the plot was so slow I struggled to finish.
On top if that, I could have cared less what happened to the characters. Such a disappointment!
2.5 ⭐️

Overall a very good tale, very historically interesting and I liked the female narrator.
I felt the final quarter wasn't as interesting but it was twisty! I wouldn't have been able to predict the final few occurrence at all.

After starting two other books, I've settled, happily, on this tale.

Awesome

Hadn‘t fired up the Kindle in a long time! Picked a number and this is what it landed on.

This was critically acclaimed but disappointed me. Lots of interesting info about wartime NYC, women‘s work, and diving (scary!), but I felt that some relationships and plot developments were kind of underdone. Also some troubling scenes with a disabled character. https://cannonballread.com/2021/09/manhattan-beach-elcicco/

Lovely and sweeping- a story that held me even with papers and notes of my students to read…certainly one of the reasons that what made this so beautifully diverting!

My review of this book can be found on my YouTube Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/2UYZu_-tkn0

Enjoy!

Beach bag

My June #bookspin: hardbacks-I-don't-want-to-move edition. (AKA books I probably won't have time to read in June.)
@TheAromaofBooks

2020 #68 Not what I thought it would be.

This is a great book that keep you going. If you like old world organize crime fiction this is set in that back drop. Also loved the ending. A good read.

I'm not sure about this one. Some of it was very interesting but other sections lost me entirely. Part gangster, part US navy in WWII, part deep sea diving novel. I just don't know. ⭐⭐.5?

A slow burn of a WWII book focusing on the work at home in the US and revolving around Anna, her father Eddie, and gangster Dexter. This book is uneven in places but I found the characters and story compelling. Not much love for it on Litsy, and I can see why it wouldn‘t be for everyone, but I liked it.

#bookspinbonanza book 9
#botm backlist

Let me preface this by saying that this pandemic is affecting my reading habits as well as the types of books that will keep me engaged. That said, I struggled with this one. I couldn‘t put it down, but I felt like I was waiting on something to happen. I really think that this could have been 3 different books-one for just Anna, one for Eddie and one for Dexter. There was so much more to their stories I was hoping to read before the last page.

They‘d driven all the way to Mr. Styles‘s house before Anna realized her father was nervous.
#firstlinefridays. @ShyBookOwl

Not sure what to give this book. 2.5 stars, I guess. Some of the story held my interest, the gangster parts, anyway, but the diving didn't as much. I also got a bit confused about Anna's father's story and how it ended up the way it did. It was just an ok read for me.
This was no Visit From the Goon Squad, for sure

Audio. I lost interest more in the male narrated portions. I did (eventually) enjoy Anna‘s, particularly her quest to learn to dive. I did not like Dexter at all, though. (Not surprising, really, as he was a mobster), so I didn‘t like when Anna‘s and Dexter‘s paths crossed. I also just didn‘t like him. Even if i hadnt listened to the audio, I‘m still not sure the gangster/mobster aspect of Dexter would have interested me, anyway

This story takes place in New York during WWII. I loved reading about the Naval Yard and the important work females did there. I wasn't quite satisfied with the ending though. It feels like it's not a big enough climax for this book.

Almost halfway through this #audiobook and maybe things are starting to get interesting? I loved the author's other book 'A Visit from the Goon Squad' 💙

I stuck it out and finished it.. but I must say.. I really didn‘t get it. All the different storylines were all over the place. I liked Anna and Eddie but the rest of the characters were just ugh..... Why all the details about Dexters family? And all the details about diving?

From anyone else, I would praise this book.
But I expect different from Egan.
This is the most straightforward story I‘ve read by her thus far, and I‘m disappointed by that 🤷🏻‍♀️. I want chapters in PowerPoint, or nested stories, or the sense that I‘m reading a palimpsest of a novel when I read Egan. Not historical fiction.
It‘s beautifully written, and I can‘t really say anything bad about it. Except that it‘s not really an Egan novel.

I‘m now 56% into this book.. does it get better? I almost never bail books and have put enough time into this one where I feel it would be a waste, but man; this is going nowhere!

I loved the setting. I loved the characters. I loved Anna‘s story. In fact, I think that enjoyed this book more than “A Visit From Goon Squad” 😊

Finally finished this today while doing some #audiopainting of baseboards and casing. The female narrator pushed this from a pick to a so-so for me. She had a breathy, lispy quality to her voice that seemed put-on and did not work for me. But the storyline and writing were good!

Usually I‘m a huge fan of Jennifer Eagan‘s, but this book just didn‘t live up to expectations. I loved the characters she created, the details of the world she painted (Brooklyn 1930‘s & 1940‘s), and the personification of a “spirited girl.”I didn‘t like the amount of time in the book devoted to a sea voyage that was painfully slow and I was perplexed by one of the plot lines. However, in general it was a good read.

I finished “Manhattan Beach” today. I read the last half of the book in 2 days partly because I wanted to finish it before Sunday when I start the #buddyread of “The Summer Country” and partly because I wanted to see how things worked out. This book haunted me until I bought it and then from my bookshelf until I started reading it. It didn‘t drag for me as others have said. It was a good story - a little mystery, a twist and a satisfying ending.

I thought of Anna Kerrigan from the tagged novel when I was at the Vancouver Maritime Museum yesterday.

I had a bad week this week - only 31,400 steps. I went to the doctor and did great, but I felt kind of let down after working so hard since March. I did make progress on my 3 books! I should have at least one done by next week, then I will be back on track. #BFCr2

My favorite book last year. I‘m waiting until I forget enough so I can read it again. The writing is so rich with detail of the period, and the protagonist is so, so endearing. Illicit trade, scuba diving, feminism, love... What‘s not to love?! (OK maybe just a tad long...but still worth every word)

This is a slow-moving story that immerses you in the 1930s & WWII era NYC. If you enjoy a book that takes its time setting the scene then you may like this more than I did. The final 1/4 of the book picks up but if I had read this, I might have DNFed it. I like scene setting but a chunk of it felt tedious or redundant. I liked the MCs well enough, but the book would benefit from a firm direction, editing the useless & expanding other areas.

The last 100 pages were the best part, but it was a slog to get there. I thought the diving aspect would be fascinating, but it was a pretty minor part of the book. Some interesting inner conflict with the main character, Anna, and her inability to fit into the expectations of women at the time.

I've been listening to this on my commute to work. I'm 1/4 through and wondering if I should continue. It is unabridged and my mind starts wandering, wondering when we get to the good stuff. So much of this feels pointless to the plot. Also, there are 3 people performing this and none have distinct enough voices for the dialogue they're reading. The female has a weird cadence during the dialogue. Is it worth continuing?

This was the most disappointing book I have read in a long time. Easily Egan could have stopped after 100 pages and wrapped it up. Easily forgettable don‘t recommend wasting your time.

On the surface much more traditional than Goon Squad- an historical novel set in the late 1930s and war years - though she again plays all sorts of games with narrative structure, weaving 3 distinct stories together. It's part "woman's struggle in a man's world" and part "organised crime on the waterfront" and I guess it succeeds or fails depending on whether you buy into the fortunes of Anna and her father Eddie or not. I enjoyed it a lot.

⭐⭐ I don't know. I didn't love it. I didn't hate it. 2.5 stars

1. Brunch at a jazz club and now cuddled up on my couch with the tagged book. 🎷🥂
2. Not yet!
3. Yellow 💛
4. Japan
5. My old place flooded and ruined some of my books.
#premondayvibes @pepsicola

Starting this one with my cute reading buddy

About 2x too long. And not that interesting of a story.

This was a first read from this writer for me. Loved it, great plot and intriguing characters. My first visit to New York was late last year which deepened my appreciation of the places and references to events from the era such as Tammany Hall, actress Marion Davies, and The Follies. Another interesting snippet for me was the allusion to a real life story fictionalised in The Paris Seamstress. Love how my reading life builds these crossovers.

My Barnes and Noble finds from yesterday! It was my birthday yesterday so I took myself on a book & coffee date. Found these in the $5 bin! Woo!
Has anyone read these? What did you think?

Such a good #bookhaul! Brand new stack from Ollie‘s for $17 👌🏻