Welcome to Litsy!

Ostensibly a crime novel, this is really more of a first-person perspective of a person with Tourette‘s. Lionel is an interesting character unlike any I‘ve seen in a book before. We see how he navigates the world while battling his many, many tics and compulsions. Interesting for that insight, but the actual crime part of the plot was underwhelming for me. A soft pick.

#alphabetgame #letterM @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

My choice for ‘M‘ is not only a fantastic read but has one of the best opening paragraphs I‘ve ever read!

#BookCoverChallenge
Day 49.
Here I will note 365 books (or as many as I will have before I get tired) that have shaped my taste in literature. No explanations, no reviews. Just the cover of the book.
I do not challenge anyone. You are all welcome to take part.

This book had been sitting unread on my shelves for years. The characters were all colorful and fun to read about and the novel definitely nails the noir vibe but I cared way more about Lionel than I did the mystery at the center of the plot. I think I expected to be blown away and this was between a pick and so-so for me.

A classic detective novel with a modern twist. The plot moved along more slowly that I would have liked, but I liked Lionel as an unlikely leading man. News of the Edward Norton adaptation put this book on my radar a while back, so I‘m interested in seeing how Norton adapted the source for his screenplay. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Musing about detective novels within a detective novel. I see what you did there. 😉🕵🏻‍♂️

Context is everything.

#FirstLineFridays

Watched the movie adaptation of Motherless Brooklyn tonight. Wasn't bad. Wasn't great either, but it did inspire me to pull out my Letham collection and give them a re-read.
I highly recommend the book and mostly recommend the movie. I mean, Ed Norton....can't really go completely wrong!

#booktomovie

How can I pick just #3books set in #nyc? @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
@OriginalCyn620

Thanks for the tag @Graywacke! I decided two tags means I get to play twice 😀

Some of my other five 🌟 favorites are
📚The Age of Innocence
📚Motherless Brooklyn
📚The Things They Carried

I'd also like to see @arubabookwoman and @JenniferP list their #favs!

A young man with Tourette‘s is plucked from his school and brought into a small time mobsters detective agency. A very different kind of book, I liked the character of Lionel, and the way his tics and explanations of Tourette‘s were part of the story, but I didn‘t love the actual story and it was slow-going for me. #unpopularopinion I‘d be interested to see Ed Norton bring Lionel to the screen.

This was a great audio and book.

I was pleasantly surprised by this unique story. I'm happy to finally cross it off my TBR.

P. S. I recommend the audiobook

Bk7 of my #QuarantineLibraryHaul is a crime noir novel set in 1950s Brooklyn, it follows a PI that‘s trying to solve the murder of his mentor & boss. His one big obstacle is he has Tourette‘s Syndrome which can be a problem when you‘re trying to be inconspicuous. There‘s a recent Ed Norton movie based on this, but I‘ve heard it‘s not great, hopefully the book is better🤞

Brooklyn's very own self-appointed Human Freakshow, Lionel Essrog is an orphan whose Tourettic impulses drive him to bark, count, and rip apart our language in startling and original ways. Together with three veterans of the St. Vincent's Home for Boys, he works for small-time mobster Frank Minna's limo service cum detective agency.

Might be the time of year, (December, working at a bookstore) but this book was slow going for me. I really enjoyed it ultimately, and I think it‘ll be one of those books where my experience of it gets better with time. Loved Lionel. And I can‘t wait to see the movie.

I‘m not sure how it is on paper but this made for very good audio.

#WinterGames TBR read
#elfies

I‘ve done a ton of audiobaking over the past two days while listening to the tagged book. Here is a picture of one of my favorite quick breads. For me it isn‘t Christmas without it.

(It was hard to get the recipe in the picture, but if anyone wants it I‘m happy to email)

#elfies #WinterGames

11-29-19: My 97th finished book of 2019! #motherlessbrooklyn #jonathanlethem 👍🏼📖#️⃣9️⃣7️⃣

Looking forward to this one....#booktoscreen

Anyone else looking forward to seeing this??

https://www.insidehook.com/article/books/what-do-authors-really-think-of-film-ad...

My #bookhaul from today 😁👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻☺️!

I‘m a huge Finder and Forsyth fan. This‘ll be my first foray with Waxman and Lethem.

Any fans of any of these four authors?!

#MrBooksBooks

Excited by this - hitting the big screen on 30 November 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Sunday reading with Hank...I really wish I knew what he is thinking.

Lionel is one of my favorite characters ever. I wish I could insert him into other books just to shake things up.

Not a classic mystery novel, far from it. Lionel, the lead character, his inner dialogs, his fears, his obsessions You see, Lionel has Tourette syndrome and Motherless Brooklyn is as much a trip inside Lionel's brain as it is a quest to finally become his own man and finally grow up. It's not an easy read. It took me more than a week to go through because reading Lionel delirious words takes a toll but it's worth the time. #winterwonderland

How bizarrely compelling. I read the damn thing at a racing clip.

My power has been out since last night thanks to Hurricane Michael, but I did get to sit in this chair and read the tagged book with a flashlight for a few hours.

This story, set in Brooklyn, follows Lionel Essrog, a detective who has Tourette's, which marks his behaviour by involuntary tics and #swearing in a quite original way. The whole novel is quite original.
#heatofjuly

I avoided this book for the longest time, but once I started reading, I couldn't stop. The main character fascinated as he uncovered the truth about his boss' death. I traveled through Lionel Essrog's world happily as I surfed the lyric and compelling prose. I didn't feel like the mystery was that mysterious, but I didn't much care. The characters and words were more interesting than the plot for me.

See this lady right here? I love her so much that I put down my book with a few pages left when two people were pointing guns at each other.

That's a lot of love.

A little Motherless Brooklyn in bed before the chaos of preparation begins.

We'll be taking my mother-in-law out for a picnic this lunchtime, and I'll be catching up with my mom later.

Happy Mothers Day to all you moms out there! May you get some good reading time in!

For my current state, I loved the tagged book. A sort of detective novel worth a protagonist suffering from Tourettes. The way he describes his ticks, and people's reactions to them was exactly my type of humour.

For my home state of MN, I would choose Fitzgerald's short story "The Ice Palace".

#WhereintheUniverse, @ofbooksandme

"The waking brain races, sampling the world after the world has turned away, touching it everywhere, refusing to settle, to join the collective nod. The Insomniac brain is sort of a conspiracy theorist as well, believing too much in its own paranoiac importance - as though if it were to blink, then doze, the world might be overrun by some encroaching calamity, which it's obsessive musings are somehow finding off."

#uncannyoctober #cityinthetitle

Brooklyn, my favorite borough.

Someday I'd change my name to Shut Up and save everybody a lot of time.

...and a dude's shirt. Welcome to rush hour on the red line in Chicago. At least I'm enjoying this book!

Lionel Essrog's life changes in a #newyorkminute when his gangster-employer / father figure is murdered and our tourettic hero becomes an honest to god private eye to find out who killed him. Lionel is one of my all-time favorite literary characters and this is still my favorite Lethem #rockinmay @Cinfhen

Here is a review by Robert: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1935097461

#17rainbowbooks #bluecover

Is it just my shelves or are there tons of blue covers out there? So many! This is just a few.

Having a fantastic Sunday at the BK Book Festival! #bkloveslitsy

The distance between great music and great literature is never too far...

Just started this one...murder, the mob and a protagonist with Tourette's...sounds fascinating 📖

Should be required reading for all New Yorkers.

One of the more innovative crime, who-dun-it novels I've read. If all books were this entertaining I'd wear my eyes out. Thanks to lovely wife for the recommendation.