Welcome to Litsy!

@Books4Ever keeps posting pictures of her black dog and I thought, I should too! This is an old dog who doesn‘t like to be woken up from a nap!

Day 13 - #AnimalOnTheCover #MagicalMay
#BlackDogs #IanMcEwan

I hope to read this book during #AuthorAMonth

This is my favorite McEwan, so far. McEwan has a talent for lying bare all the complexities of human existence. This book isn‘t a long one, but I savored every page. I just think I needed this book during my self-quarantined spring break. 171/1,001 #1001Books

#7Days7Covers #CoverCrush Day 3.

I haven‘t done much today other than reading this book, but I‘m ok with that.

Although it deals with complex stuff (ideologies and how they affect our lives and relationships as humans, war and politics, marriage and family), it‘s written in such a careful, beautiful way that it‘s very accessible. I can imagine that different people would have varying personal reactions to the characters and philosophies. I loved it.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

#1001books

That paragraph, then followed by this:

“This is what I know. Human nature, the human heart, the spirit, the soul, consciousness itself—call it what you like—in the end, it‘s all we‘ve got to work with. It has to develop and expand, or the sum of our misery will never diminish.”

This book, this character (June), and this author. ❤️

On the surface this is a story about a marital rift, that permeates through decades, as a son-in-law, who was orphaned himself as a child, becomes drawl to his wife‘s parents & their story as almost pseudo-parents for himself, despite the fact that their own children have essentially divorced themselves from both of them. Their rift, and the story behind it, becomes an analogy of sorts for the World War and an entire generation left in its wake.

Black Dogs just did not impress me. I was really hoping for some personal connection to the historical events mentioned in the blurb, but I never felt really drawn into those events. I didn‘t even develop much of a connection to any of the characters.

I have completed reading both of these books for #1001Discoveries and hope to get them in the mail early next week.

#1001books

At the risk of irritating @DGRachel this brave boy had his belly shaved and an ultrasound done on his liver. Afraid it‘s a month of antibiotics and gallbladder goop remover meds before another ultrasound. Fun and games, he says not. He does love to bark in PetSmart. He says he is totally a #dogsoflitsy and he hopes it doesn‘t itch.

Far from the best novel by Ian McEwan, but a 4 star. As allways the writing is clear, elegant and compelling. An overflow of themes and subjects like a story meandering on, touching difficult ideas, but not diigging. Essentially it is about how people love eachother and yet do not (want to?) understand the other, unable to build a life together. About how people remember things in a very different way and the illusions of the past we all have.

It's often the same with McEwan: I am drawn into a story at once and a bit disappointed after finishing it. Black Dogs starts strong, with a man writing the biography of his mother-in-law because he wants to know the truth about why she left her husband in 1946, when they were travelling through post-war Europe. Nice start, huh? However, at the end of the novel I didn't care any longer. #1001books #booker #manbooker

An Ian McEwan book that straddles the earlier "macabre" and the later meta-narrative

He's not much of a #readingcompanion but he's excellent at guarding the backyard against anything that moves. #photoadaynov16