Welcome to Litsy!

Tells the story of brothers Francis and Michael, growing up impoverished in a Toronto suburb. It is a story of immigrants, family, dreams and grief. It is a thoughtful, quiet book with some beautiful writing. Made a lot of Best of lists and was nominated for the Giller. I liked it, but didn't love it.

Tells the story of brothers Francis and Michael, growing up impoverished in a Toronto suburb. It is a story of immigrants, family, dreams and grief. It is a thoughtful, quiet book with some beautiful writing. Made a lot of Best of lists and was nominated for the Giller. I liked it, but didn't love it.

This was a lovely story about sadness and triumph. I enjoyed it but was sad most of the time reading it.

Very emotional and powerfull story about growing up in Scarbourough's immigrant community. By going back and forth in time, this novels tells a story about migrants frim Trinidad to Canada and their sens of belonging. Loved it!

A man‘s friend returns home and it brings up his history and his brother.

5/5🌟Read this book! I had it on my tbr pile for so long, and I'm so glad I finally read it! It's a brilliantly written novel exploring themes of identity, race, mother-son relationships, and masculinity. Chariandy prose are mesmerizing as he writes about Michael and Francis. Two brothers with different dreams. Then one day a tragic shooting changes everything! I couldn't put this down, an emotionally powerful novel! Highly Recommended!

I really liked this one. Four stars/5. I finished it in two days. (Very quick for me)
It was a family‘s story but also a community‘s story. Heart wrenching on both accounts. Tender on both accounts. Tight, clever and yet lush. It feels like an important book that explores masculinity, racism, poverty, police violence and family.
I know the neighbourhood and have read the newspaper stories.. this book is a much needed contextualization. 🖤

New book club book is Canadian!
I got it yesterday which was Read Canada Day 🇨🇦.... not to be confused with Canada reads.

One paragraph in. Whoa.

Without spoilers: CANADA READS WAS SO EMOTIONAL TODAY OMG.

I‘ve kept track of this thing for three years now, and 2019 was definitely my favourite set of debates. I feel like the panelists respected all the books and were willing to engage with new perspectives even as they mounted passionate defences of their own titles. The lack of vitriol was also a nice change, especially compared to 2017‘s angry-making commentary. #canadareads

#Bestbooksofarof2019 @megnews

1. Meet up with friend to visit and bible study.
2. Free tuition for a Univ of Cal after having some past years of losing jobs.
3. Tagged
4. Chief Joseph
5. 🍀☘🧚‍♂️ @NataliePatalie

#Friyayintro @howjessreads

Powerful tale of immigrants raising their children in a new culture, of family and community and of intolerance. Poetic and riveting.

As a younger sister to a sister, I did not expect a portrait of masculinity thru a brother's eyes to be so tender, even as it gave lessons on male posturing, and how one's tastes define a man. The book hits tender spots in the heart, spots discovered more than known. It also had my heart in my throat at every turn; reading the black experience, past every corner is the threat of police posturing and its devastating costs. #canadareads #1bk2moveu

Important and moving, but by no means my favourite #CanadaReads shortlister

I‘m halfway through this short novel and want to love it but can‘t quite yet. While moments are well-drawn, evocative and beautiful (the MC delighting in drinking a drop of Sprite that had touched Aisha‘s lip), parts seem over the top (the mother‘s late night attempt to phone Francis). Did anyone else have this reaction? #Canadareads

Ever the optimist #MarchTBR

Outstanding. Poetic. Images of a suburb of Toronto, life of the first generation. Hard truths. Respect. Frustration. Love.

#bookanddinner tonight. Working on a #canadareads book 😁

I had to sit with this book for awhile after I finished it. For a little book, it has many layers. The author gives you the top layer, but there is so much more that runs deep. It‘s mostly a story about grief and loss. But it also touches on so many other big and heavy things. It really is beautifully written. And is well worth reading. The more I think about it, the more I like it.
#CanadaReads2019

My public library and Overdrive have only one of the #CanadaReads books available to me this year. 😫
Sigh...I'll try interlibrary loans next.

#CanadaReads2019

The video for the Barenaked Ladies' cover of #LoversinaDangerousTime is a love letter to Scarborough. Watch it here: https://youtu.be/yGsDlb2ziAk

Chariandy's Brother (current #CanadaReads selection) is very much a Scarborough story with a strong sense of place. Now, to find time to read it...

#TimbitTunes @Cinfhen

My first #CanadaReads selection is in the bag, and I'm afraid I won't be rooting for it. BROTHER is carefully crafted, slow to reveal its secrets, and absolutely of importance to the Canadian literary landscape. Its prose style also kept me at a distance. I felt like I was skimming along the surface until well into Chapter 4. Even then, I wanted more than Chariandy gave me.

Part of the distance is understandable, given the subject matter, and ⬇️

How have I only read one of the Canada Reads finalists? Must getting reading! What do people recommend besides Brother (which I loved!) 🇨🇦📚

Even as kids, we had learned to be gentle with each other‘s hopes and dreams 🎶

Michael & Francis grow up taking care of themselves while their mother works hard on their behalf. Children of immigrants, there are high expectations of them to succeed but Francis, the elder, is dissuaded from following the acceptable path, rebelling and getting into trouble, eventually leaving school & receiving a reputation on the streets. A bright spot is the music he mixes with a friend, but that soon comes to a screeching halt as well. 👇🏻

Even though Chariandy's latest novel deals with subject matter that is very popular in literature right now, Brother is unlike anything I've read recently. Reminds me if Carver almost just in the emotional detachment of the narrator. Haunting.

@Samplergal #twointhree It's supposed to rain in Philly area, so I'm game.

I need to stop getting library books. I have so many of my own books I want to read. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Brother was the book picked by my city‘s library to be read by everyone in their annual citywide book club ( I live in London, ON) I didn‘t read it in time to go 😢 it‘s a quiet, sad and heart breaking. Poverty makes everything grey.

This book is simply wonderful. Finished it in a single afternoon. Tough, but excellent. #underemployedadventures

#LibraryHaul

Started The Third Hotel the second I got my hot little hands on it!!

Ghostsheen showing off what we got from the library. #library #pusheen #ghost #falliscoming #underemployedadventures

More backyard reading with this remarkable little book. David Chariandy pulled me right into this story and I read more than half of it in one sitting, yesterday. I didn‘t realize how heavy it was until I stopped and needed a break before finishing. Superb writing and a beautiful & powerful story.

Went to the pool for 2 hours and now I‘m burnt and tired. Vegas sun and heat ain‘t no joke. Finished a book at the pool so I plan to start this now.

#librarybooks #TBR

“Memory‘s the muscle sting of now.” A song of grief for a senseless death. A fierce and tender novel about second generation Trinidadian Canadians: two brothers, one of them gay, growing up in poverty in the 80s, surrounded by both overt and systemic racism. Full of emotion. #LGBT #CanadianAuthor

There were restaurants with an average expiry date of a year, their hand-painted signs promising ice cream with the “back home tastes” of mango and khoya and badam kulfi, a second sign written urgently in red marker promising that they‘d also serve, whenever asked, the mystery of “Canadian food.”

Last summer, Dru knocked on the door. He was visiting his sister, still in the neighbourhood, and beside him was a boy of maybe five, his son, the fattest eyes you‘ve ever seen, although already he could posture, chinning me a quick hello in a way that made me laugh.

The world around us was named Scarborough. It had once been called Scarberia, a wasteland on the outskirts of a sprawling city. But now, as we were growing up in the early 80s, in the heated language of a changing nation, we heard it called other names: Scarlem, Scarbistan. We lived in Scar-bro, a suburb that had mushroomed up and yellowed, browned, and blackened into life.

#ToBeYoungGiftedAndBlack

A few from my TBR mountain.

#FierceFeb

This book was excellent. This short, powerful book illustrates grief, loss, structural inequities faced by immigrant communities, violence and some deeply nuanced glances at masculinity. Marlon James, on a cover quote, says it's a 'brilliant, powerful elegy from a living brother to a lost one.' Its gorgeously written. It's sad but not only sad. Highly recommend!

This book is so good. 💜

Next up!

There‘s so much packed into this slim book - Chariandy tackles major topics with precision and depth. 5/5 for me.

https://reneereadsbooks.wordpress.com/2018/01/16/book-review-brothr-by-david-cha...

Captures heart-wrenching moments in beautifully bleak prose.

Read Dec 31-Jan 3, 2018

Jenny‘s 2018 goals inspired me to do the same: read more #CanadianAuthors in the coming year. Visit my blog post (with links to Jenny‘s) here: https://lindypratch.blogspot.co.nz/2018/01/new-years-reading-goal-more-canadian....
@ReadingEnvy @shawnmooney @CaseyTheCanadianLesbrarian

The narrative shifts between past and present and it is the sheer force of it that drives the story. Short in length, but lasting, this story will linger with the reader long after the last page is turned.