Welcome to Litsy!

Starting this one. #morningreads

The audio narrator was good but the story was just too slow and off kilter. I had a hard time deciding if she was having exhaustive conversations with herself, with God, with herself talking for God.

#Pantone #poinciana #audio #2022Book4 #christyread

Well, there‘s a definite something with this book. A hum, a buzz, an undercurrent. It‘s an interesting look at infidelity, long term marriages, getting old, and maybe wishing for what you think you don‘t have. Some parts were too abstract for my taste, but I think Quatro touches on feelings that many women have and keep hidden. Regardless, the book was okay but feeling like parts of it were over my head made for a forgettable read.

The story of a neurotic middle aged woman who marries the first man she has sex with in college to make up to God for the fact she's fornicated, then 25 years later tiesherself in psychological knots questioning why God is compelling her to have an affair if He is also prohibiting her from doing so. I found everything about this book questionable, and would've bailed on it if it weren't for my book club (continued in the comments)

Why did I think I‘d like this? I think I was over influenced by social media and under prepared.

I‘ve never had an affair. I‘m not overly religious. Im not married so I don‘t understand the unhappy marriage trope.

AND I am deep into sci fi/fantasy currently. It‘s really the only thing I want to read.

This wasn‘t meant to be.

I expected to love this book but it did not really work for me. Jamie Quattro can write, there is no denying that. However all the lovely language in the world could not make me see more than a typical and uninteresting plot about someone unhappy in their marriage and feeling guilty about having an affair.

The lash book I squeezed into 2018 was FIRE SERMON. I didn‘t love it as much as I thought I might, though it does contain this gem.
What was your last read of the year?

Saturday morning book haul. 🖤

#winterwonderland #fireandice
Two from my 2019 #tbr 😊🔥❄️

This book delves into one woman‘s relationship with her husband, her lover, and her religious background and beliefs. It tells the story from various angles, and the narrator is not always reliable. It‘s short but certainly not without depth. I liked this formally quirky exploration of morality.

I finished this far too long ago to give a detailed review but this debut shows this girl can write.

I just had an interesting, unexpected experience reading Fire Sermon. This would be fascinating to discuss in a group. No matter your beliefs, how do you feel? I‘d love to know. 🤓

I blocked out the character‘s one word answer but will include it if you really must know. She gives a one word answer, however, and there are 2 real questions here.

Maybe the event should be renamed to The Book Buyers Retreat, instead of The Readers Retreat! We had an epic bookstore crawl of The Mission, Haight and Sunset (Dog Eared Books, Booksmith, The Bindery and Green Apple Books) after a personal tour and view of the Special Collections from the SF Public Library, lunch picked up at Tartine for a picnic in Delores Park. This is a few of our crew at Booksmith. Great day with The Readers!

Foolish, the way lovers scaffold passion with symbology, constructing a joint past which seems, even after a few hours, immemorial.

A book that asks complex questions without surmising a moral standpoint. Jamie Quatro is a phenomenal writer. 5/5 stars.

Full review: https://reneereadsbooks.wordpress.com/2018/07/31/book-review-fire-sermon-by-jami...

There‘s something special about this book. I loved the non-linear timeline, even when it was frustrating. The prose is so lyrical. There were parts of Maggie‘s story that reminded me of friends who have married young. It‘s also short and would be good for a readathon. 4⭐️

Topically and from a characterization perspective, a challenging read for most of the book. But, the way Quatro wraps up the story and brings her themes into focus is quite powerful.

Up next.

This book was a bit to wishy washy for me. I usually try not to bail on books but I let this one go about 1/3 of the way through. I really tried with this one but Kate more or less is boring to me and her iffy-ness about her perfect life is a bit much to read about page after page. You really only hear about her, you know basics about James (the lover) and her husband who I know so little about I forgot his name.

Book haul from a writing conference I went to a couple weeks ago!

This book was phenomenal. The lyrical writing was brilliant and the journey the reader takes with the main character remains compelling through the entire text. I was not expecting to enjoy this one so much as religion turns me off but this story of a wife trying to cope with her affair and how it fits into her religion is amazing.

Now that my semester is winding down, I can pick up something for fun!

I honestly don‘t know how to review this book. I loved the theme of a long lasting marriage, devotion to one‘s family and yet the need for more. Maggie seeks refuge in her religion (I think) but can‘t resist James, the poet who feels like her missing half. Parts of this book were so, so good I could relate completely, almost painfully to Maggie‘s doubts and longin. In other parts I felt nothing at all and almost disappointed. #SelfishLove #Aprella

It takes everything in Maggie‘s being to control her infidelity and #crawlouttalove with James, a poet who has shown her a passionate side of love that she has never experienced with her husband. Quatro‘s writing is so beautiful that while the story was obnoxious at times, it was worth the read. #aprella

Fire Sermon was equal parts beautiful and rage inducing. I have no idea how I feel about it. I found the meditations on faith at turns compelling and/or self-indulgent (this was purposeful I think). The descriptions of longing in this book were rendered so well, but other parts were disturbing and upsetting and I wasn‘t always confident there was a reason for it. The use of the r word definitely took the novel down a level. Unnecessary.

This is not a typical read for me, but I picked it up because I was going to be seeing her live at a conference (last weekend). Amazing. Five stars for me, and I don‘t give those out often.

I told a friend of mine almost a decade ago that I needed to write about what was going on in my life. I was inside and outside of myself. I was over the moon and under a spell. God and a man were involved. Quatro wrote the book for me. Thankfully. A few details are different, most especially the ending, but the fire sermon she offers near the end is spot on.

I‘ve never been more torn about a book. On one hand, this author created a story that included an affair and theology. That feels special. On the other hand, I found some stuff way too problematic for me. The use of the R-word, for one. Yet, this book moved me...both intellectually and emotionally. So much of the dynamic between a man and woman is a man wearing down the woman into submission and this book captures that perfectly.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ I had a lot of feelings about this book...

Read my 3-star review of Fire Sermon by Jamie Quatro
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2340133682

Wow. This book is so intense and just so lovely. I'm only on page 37, and can't wait to read it again.

I‘m honestly not sure how I feel about this book - so I‘m going to sit with it and let it marinate for a couple of days before reviewing it.

When the married MC writes a gushing email to a poet - and she leverages a C.S. Lewis quote as a flirty salvo. For shame! She KNOWS this is going to lead to sex! 😂

I‘m sure I‘ll come away from this with a lot of feelings about it. #currentlyreading

After reading White Houses by Amy Bloom, I was eager to learn more about Eleanor Roosevelt. I ordered the first of a 3-part Roosevelt biography that I‘ve heard good things about. I‘ve also wanted to read Fire Sermon since it was released, so I added that onto my order for free shipping 😉

I will hear that author read tomorrow, had my book signed today

I won a thing! I loved her first book and Grove Atlantic was kind enough to send me this.

My winning entry: When I was a bookseller, I told a customer we didn't have a book they wanted...because I had it on hold for myself. (I did ship it free to them.)

While reading, I found this book infuriating, annoying, brilliant, relatable, discomforting, self-indulgent, wise...and, most of all, very thought-provoking re: religious faith, desire, guilt, and more. All of those things, plus excellent writing, add up to a very worthwhile read, in my opinion!

When possible, one should always choose a car mechanic based on proximity to the beach. 🚗🔧🏖📚😌

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Five star read for me! The author uses beautiful almost poetic prose to explore faith and marriage and infidelity. Loved it so much.

Yay for rainy Sundays!! My only plans for today are 📚and possibly a 😴. My husband is even doing the grocery shopping so I don‘t have to leave the house.
This book is also so so good. On track to be a rare 5-star for me 🤗

Wow.

Quatro‘s portrayal of marital and family life was so rich, unclichéd, and deeply deeply powerful that this was a 4-star read for me despite having hate-read much of the central story, about an affair: that core narrative was comparatively weak, boring, marred by some of the worst sex scenes ever, and laden with literary and religious pretension. But the family story was so incredible that I can‘t help exclaiming that Quatro is a writer to watch.

My feelings for this book are so strong I don't even know where to begin. Let me start by saying that I am a slow reader and a mom of two little boys and I still read the entire thing in one day. And I don't normally love the "stream of consciousness" style but it actually worked and probably is further proof of what an amazing writer Jaime Quatro is. I wanted to hate the main character a little but I just couldn't....continued ??

This is the story of a woman named Anna who recently found out she had a book due back at the library in two days and really wanted to read it first and then started reading it and found it was so amazing that she couldn't put it down and ate the most random leftovers ever for dinner and managed to burn her husband's dinner in the process. #sorrynotsorry

#QuoteOfTheDay