Welcome to Litsy!

I have to look at my favorites as a collective. Some months have two favs while others not even one.

The tagged book is my favorite for 2023!! 💔

There‘s a theme here.

This book joins in my personal battle of the favorites. A deeply emotive story of desire at a time and place in a society that refused to recognize its existence. Beautiful, powerful, honest. All the feels. This will haunt me. Full of Dublinese, the language was rich, while challenging for some no doubt but worth the journey. @BarbaraBB I recommend.

On chapter 4 and I know this will be a pick, a favorite and will get a reread. (I rarely reread books). I‘m in awe of the language. Mesmerizing. ❤️

Another day, another National Trust used bookshop @Cupcake12 ! ? This one was in a stable block, with all the books on the stalls!

6 books acquired this time, only 2 for me. @Oryx - I seem to recall you buying the tagged book on our Manchester #meetup? I also got Unsheltered, which I have on my Kindle TBR, but this is a hardback with printed edges for only Qa....

Lots of rain again today but hopefully tomorrow will be better...

It took a while to catch on to the voice of this one but it was worth persevering. And yet I find myself using a word like "persevere". It is a good book and I like a pensive read and don't care for a lot of wham-bam and yet, honestly, I still think it was 150 pages too long. My favourite thing wasn't Jim and Doyler's relationship so much as MacMurrough's character arc. I liked and admired it but I didn't love it.

Quakebuttock: what a fabulous word! 😆

And that's us ready for the weekend. Stay safe everyone 😘

Having a touch of jet lag. Shouldn't be awake at 5.30am on a Saturday! Oh well, a chance for some reading, rather than lying in bed fully awake. Daisy is not jet lagged and I suspect will be asleep again in about three minutes. #dogsoflitsy

#7days7covers #CoverCrush #Day4 💕

I tag @JennyM if you‘d like to play along? Just post 1 cover you love, each day for 7 days, no explanation needed and use the hashtags 😊💕

I nearly gave up initially, the writing and the dialect are hard work to start with and I think sometimes I‘m a bit lazy and put them aside quite quickly. But I persevered and got into the rhythm of the writing at about 50 pages. The story, both the personal and the historical, are amazing and important. A gay love story, set against the backdrop of political upheaval in 1916 Ireland, you learn a lot about both.
Worth the effort.

Everyone still in bed, slipping in a quiet read and starting this one. Not much more reading will be done today, son coming home for the footie. Doesn‘t want to be with non fans whatever the outcome 🤞🏻⚽️

Today‘s purchases 😁 brought the tagged book due to @Olivia306 review last week. The man in the shop said it will make me cry! Can‘t wait.

Honestly though, look at that thickness!! This might just be one of the biggest books I‘ll ever read in my life 😲👍

Did a little bit of thrift shopping online and MY GOD I WAS NOT EXPECTING THEM TO BE THIS THICK. Dunno how I‘m gonna hide these in a drawer but whatever, the journey on this one is gonna be one helluva ride 🤟😎 it‘s gonna be worth it though

This book, this love story! 😭😭 The first 20 pages were gruelling but after getting used to the utter Irish narrative voice, I was rewarded with not just a complex political and social portrait of Ireland before the Easter Rising, but also with a moving coming of age story. And what a beautiful and heartbreaking gay story it is! Though there are some parts that could‘ve been edited out, this is still one of the best books I read in some time.

The perfect weather to curl up with a book. It's been cold and miserable here so I need this book to pull me inside its beautiful world. A lot of people praised it so I have high expectations. 🤓📚

#swimming #readingresolutions @Jess7 #1001

#LGBTQ #riotgrams

The coming-of-age of both the protagonists and of Ireland, beautifully told. #1001books

So I had a lovely oversized softcover edition of this book on my shelf for years and years, unread because I was daunted by its girth. Never mind the fact that, one day, a bird flew in through the patio door, perched down upon it, and pooped a little. So then I had two reasons to avoid it. This article reminds me that I should splurge for a brand-new copy and finally try it out!

Article link below:

My sweet, gay 19 year old cousin is coming to stay for the summer. I'm preparing his room and have made him a little curated shelf of #queerbooks (although my house is FULL of them). I haven't even got the sheets washed yet but I've got the books sorted. Classic booknerd! 😍📚

#marchintoreading with some #irishauthors ☘️☘️☘️

Quite possibly one of the best love stories I've ever read. Two boys, discovering who they are during a time of war and unrest. I'm not above letting you know that I cried. Absolutely worth the read. 90/1,001 #1001Books

O'Neill is a masterful storyteller & this m/m coming of age story of two Irish boys growing up & falling in love was wonderful. Fantastic hist. fiction - O'Neill quite successfully transports the reader to Ireland around the Easter Rebellion of 1916. In addition to witnessing these boys grow up & find each other, we get to experience the tension between the Irish & the English & the growth of a rebellion that divides families and communities. 💗

"Help these boys build a nation their own. Ransack the histories for clues to their past. Plunder the literatures for words they can speak. And should you encounter an ancient tribe whose customs, however dimly, cast light on their hearts, tell them that tale; and you shall name the unspeakable names of your kind, and in that naming, in each such telling, they will falter a step to the light."

? Loving this book!

We don't get a lot of snow on the Valley floor here but today is a perfect day for snuggling in bed and starting this book! ❤ this view! It would be a little more perfect if the power hadn't been out since 8 this morning 🙄and if I didn't have a killer cold. But I'll take what I can get I guess. 😜

My book outlet Black Friday order finally came in! These are some great #queerreads and #queerauthors to add to my collection. 🌈

"I reckon if we worked at it hard, every morning, say, we worked on your stroke, before I went to work, before you went to college, out to the raft here and back while the raft is out, every day we'd do it, rain or shine, till you find your feet, or your fins I should say, I reckon come Easter next we'd swim out there together, and I'll show you the place and you'd know, I don't know, what I meant like" #booksbythesea #somethingforsept #easter1916

Glad Day Bookshop is a wonderful independent bookstore in Toronto that specializes in LGBTTIQ books. It's been open since 1970. #getindie #queerbooks

#Tbt Then the lad's gaze lifted and he saw Jim watching from above. His eyes were dark as night, not dull, but gemmily shining. The smile broadened as though in invitation, as though the rocky shore and the birds and the blue were his to share.
"What cheer, eh? he called.
Jim found himself smiling back. And long after, while he scorched down Glasthule Road, well late for school, he was smiling still. #truegem was reading this 3 years ago today

All love does ever rightly show humanity our tenderness

When we swim out there we'll bring a flag to raise. We'll raise the Green and claim the Muglins for Ireland. Then finally the ghosts of Gidley and MacKinley, bold patriots them both, will go to rest.