Welcome to Litsy!

Our most recent book club pick was an emotional read. Two sisters, Chinese American, live in opposite corners of the globe following the men in their lives. Stable, worried Miranda is in Switzerland but makes trips to visit Lucia whenever trouble arises. And it sure does: Lucia‘s life is erratic. She‘s suffering from a mental illness and therefore quite impulsive, living in Ecuador with her man‘s family. I‘m lukewarm: the middle section was a slog

Everything about this book is beautiful 🦋 #pick

Everything Here is Beautiful is the “beautiful” story of two sisters and their unbreakable bond. Lucia begins hearing voices after her mother passes away, and Miranda stops at nothing to save her.

But what if Lucia does not want to be saved?

I particularly enjoyed the second half of this book, and I appreciated how the author told the story from multiple points of view including Manny and Yonah, who are the two men in Lucia‘s life.

So real.

#JulianneMoore only has a supporting role in Benny & Joon, but its the first movie I saw her in and it remains one of my favorites to this day. Benny has been his sister's caretaker since their parents' death, helping Joon, who lives with an unidentified persistent mental illness, to maintain her health. Fans of this movie might want to read the tagged book, another story of a sibling relationship impacted by mental health. #Movie2BookRecs @Klou

6-17-21: My 64th finished book of 2021! A beautiful novel about two sisters trying to maneuver through their lives together and apart after the death of their mother. Miranda is the responsible one and Lucia is the unpredictable one. When it is discovered that Lucia is mentally ill Miranda tries to rescue her sister time and again. Told from many points of view, this story brought tears to my eyes. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 👍🏼📖#️⃣6️⃣4️⃣

Last Bookstore is an indie bookshop in LA (the ones with the book tunnel everyone takes pictures of) and they are doing "name your price" custom curated book boxes! Mine came in today and I'm overjoyed, they managed to find me books I don't own and haven't read including 5 that I had never even heard of before. They looked through my Goodreads account and looked for #chunkster books especially for me! Highly recommend! #bookmail makes me happy!

About halfway, very good, it addresses mental illness in a way that does not make you feel sorry for person, really love that.

While this is a very rich and moving story about sisters, marriage, immigration, cross-cultural differences, and mental illness, I thought it was just TOO much. The threads didn‘t weave together quite as seamlessly as they could have and oftentimes the POV shifts felt jarring. It‘s not a bad book by any means but it wasn‘t a favorite. 3⭐️

The characters were well developed and the book was realistic in illustrating how a whole family suffers when there is mental illness and the types of mistakes family members make under stress. I also liked the smooth intersection of many cultures in one book. My only complaint was the author switching to 3rd person in the middle of the book.

PLUS @BarkingMadRun sent me this awesome throw pillow cover! Thanks again!!! (The Alice in Wonderland pillow cover was a previous gift from my mom.) 2/2

#HighFivetoSummerSwap #HFTSS @JoScho

Thanks so much @BarkingMadRun for my awesome #HighFivetoSummerSwap package!! I‘ve been wanting to read this book so badly. 1/2

#HFTSS @JoScho

I‘ve read quite a few books dealing with mental illness but few focus on young women with truly psychotic episodes of the type suffered by schizophrenics. Lucia experiences this throughout her life and the impacts ripple through to everyone around her in sometimes devastating ways. Read by a full cast, this had real impact on audio.

I knew nothing about this book when I downloaded the audiobook. It‘s wonderful! I love stumbling upon unexpectedly great reads.

Estonishly rich with culture...a healthy mix of romance, loss, dreams, and possibilities while facing a life-altering illness. Friends, family, and the love of neighbors all mixed into a journey of discovery of faults, failures, and forgiveness.

IMHO this sprawled in too many directions and for too long. Had it been more focused perhaps it would have delivered a more powerful emotional punch re: the impact of mental illness.

#kindledeal #kindledeals #ebooksale

I read this last year and it was easily one of my favorites of 2018. It explores the relationship between two sisters, one of whom struggles with severe mental illness. How far will you go for your beloved sister? How do you know when to back off and let go? It‘s a beautiful story, albeit a heartbreaking one. Absolutely a five star read for me.

Started this one this morning. Book club book. I probably wouldn‘t read this one, otherwise. Too close. Too painful.

Feeling re-energized after a trip to my indie bookstore! Did a brief bit of meal prep and gathered some snacks. Gonna dig into a bit more FIRESTARTER before starting one of these. 😊#24in48

This is one of the books my husband got me for Christmas. The paperback came out last week. #bookmail

What do testes and prostates have in common? Nothing, there is a vas diferens between them.

I gave my husband a list of books I wanted, so we could start the #jolabokaflod tradition (see previous post). To my surprise he got me two other books off the list for Christmas. The tagged is the paperback version that comes out on the 15th.

Here are the 9 best books I read this year. Now, just imagine a copy of Sourdough by Robin Sloan on top and you‘ve got my top 10! #Bestof2018 #2018FavoriteBook

Story of two Chinese American sisters, one is mentally ill. I found it a little slow but still enjoyable and absolutely wanted to finish. How to help someone who doesn‘t want to be helped?

Miranda and Lucia are two Chinese immigrant sisters. Miranda being reliable, responsible, Lucia unpredictable, impulsive. Lucia suffers from mental illness and after each drastic life altering decision Miranda is always at her side to care for her, even crossing an ocean to be with her. A tale of navigating life with mental illness, familial bonds, how far you go, or should go, for those you love. #MisterAsylum #OctoberXFiles

Taking a day off to just be.

This book is about mental illness and how it affects the person suffering from it, as well as everyone around it. It was a downer

This book was devastating!! Following two sisters, one with mental illness and the other trying to care for her was very emotional for me. I definitely recommend!!

What a lovely, heart wrenching debut about family and mental illness. I really loved this one, and I learned a new word ❤️

19.5 hours into #24in48 and I‘ve finished my second book.

A beautiful, eloquently written novel. I became completely absorbed in the story of these two sisters and their families.

I am really impressed by this book. It's diverse without being overly political and deals with issues surrounding mental health in a very real and compassionate way.

I‘m on such a good reading roll, everything I read lately is just SO good! Really enjoyed this story, bittersweet, my heart aches for Lucia and Miranda.

This book was truly heartbreaking. Told in several perspectives, it deals with the effects mental illness has on an individual, her family (specifically her sister) and her loved ones. It was such a good story with well-developed characters (a must for my reading taste)!
🌟🌟🌟🌟/5

A perfect day for poolside reading. 😎📚

#60 for 2018
👍👍👍👍👍

Heart-wrenching but filled with so much rawness of life and it‘s in-between. With all the awareness of mental illness and it‘s pain that‘s being magnified in the world now, it‘s even critical for one to acknowledge the voice (or voices) from within, to accept and calm it - as one tries to resonate the meaning and its learning from it.

Day 4: #readingresolutions #relatablecharacter

An honest, raw story of how mental illness affects families. Such an important read.

This was a super engaging book that had all kinds of heartbreak in it. I loved how it took on the different characters perspective. You get really vested in whomever you are reading and then you flip to another character and go “ oh, so that‘s what‘s going on 😬” nobody is perfect and that is just fine. That‘s family in fact

In all the pneumonia-excitement (NOT), I forgot to post my wrap-up for #AsianLitBingo. Just like last year, I had a great time with this challenge, learnt plenty of new things, discovered many new-to-me authors (actually 12 out of the 14 I read were new-to-me authors) and made three bingos! Here‘s the link to all my reviews https://reallifereading.com/2018/06/01/asianlitbingo-wrap-up-2/

Everything Here is Beautiful is a must-read. I seldom say things like that so I hope you know I mean it. It was a story gently and thoughtfully told, one that explores different perspectives, one that shows us how mental illness affects family and loved ones.

I read most of this beautiful (and sad - it has to do with mental illness) book at the kids‘ tennis class yesterday. It was really hot but luckily the court is surrounded by redwoods so there is some shade. I‘m already wishing we could just skip summer and go straight to autumn! Who‘s with me?

Blurb from Celeste Ng = auto-checkout for me! About sisters. “When their their mother dies and Lucia starts hearing voices, it is Miranda who must find a way to reach her sister.” #tbr

Took a break from marking and report cards to read by my super swanky pool

Here‘s my fri-yay intro, a day late!

1. LOTS of house projects now that the snow and ice have FNALLY gone away!

2. “Everything Here is Beautiful,” because the weather is finally nice.

3. London, England

4. I‘ve heard sloths can be violent, but they look so cuddly...

5. 28 degrees, but ⛈. #friyayintro @jesshowbooks

Marking while we drive the oldest son to his summer job ( works at a summer camp on an island) here‘s hoping I can enjoy the last day of a 3 day weekend before Tuesday 👍🏻

And so is this book.
“Saudade: (a Portuguese word)- a vague longing for something that cannot exist again, or perhaps never existed.”

They‘ve got some great-looking covers!

#asianlitbingo

As often happens with an audiobook with multiple narrators, I detested one of them and was unable to separate the narrator from the character being narrated. Maybe years down the road I‘ll try this again in textual form: but for that one narrator, I was really enjoying it.

This is the story of the relationship between two sisters, Lucia suffers from a mental illness and Miranda is her caretaker. The story is told from different POVs: the sisters, their partners, and some other characters. Lee does an incredible job navigating the changes in the relationships and showing that, like with any illness, everyone in the persons life is affected. I‘ve seen a lot of reviews say this and I agree: it‘s thoughtfully written.

Bailing on another 2018 release. 😔
Maybe I just need to spend the year reading old stuff, because current fiction is leaving me cold.
Anyone read this and love it? Should I soldier on?