Welcome to Litsy!

#3books #IDNFed
It‘s REALLY rare for me DNF a book, as my super power seems to be knowing what I‘ll like! 😂
If I DNF it‘s usually for a challenge or a bookclub (but I try and finish those too!)

-Sense and sensibility just didn‘t work as a modern re-telling as it didn‘t ring true for the modern world.
-High Dive I wanted to love, as it‘s set in the 80s in my home town, but I just couldn‘t get into it.
- The Turner House just didn‘t grab me 🤷‍♀️

DNF ... this happens so rarely for me... I was reading it for a challenge.... a book set in a place where you are from. Nothing particularly terrible about it, just wasn‘t grabbing me in any way.
Now to find another book set in Brighton/ Sussex...🤔

The IRA sets up a bomb in the Grand Hotel. It literally creates a ticking time bomb hanging over the entire plot.

Chapter desigm

Up next

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The synopsis of this appealed to me with its promise of "taking us inside one of the twentieth century‘s most ambitious assassination attempts".
I feel, not for the first time this year, to be a victim of a bait and switch. The opening chapter promised a taut novel about early 80s Britain, and some morally compromised characters.
However, it really isn't that book at all.

It's much more a meditation on normal life before a disaster.

Knowing nothing about this book before I picked it up for #ToB17, I was surprised by how quickly the story drew me in. The characters were utterly human, flawed and simultaneously sympathetic. I was drawn in to both sides of the story. The narration of this #audiobook was engaging, transporting me from one grey, wet landscape easily into that of Northern Ireland and the English coast.

Goes in the #GreatLifeAdvice category. Reading for #ToB2017

First book finished in March.

I was really looking forward to this one, but it was excruciatingly detailed and dreary. It felt like the author was more interested in setting a scene than telling a story. If I can fall asleep when a bomb's going off (in the book!), that's a pretty good sign I'm bored. #TOB2017

I have to say that this was an excellent read. I was very distracted while reading by things in the book (had to google words, history, places, names) and by life -- life was incredibly distracting, too, lately. Finally?! I thought this an excellent read. #tob17
Esther assisting. #dogsoflitsy

#tob17 progress. 13/18 and I'm really hoping to have these 16 read by the tournament's start.

Still trying to get through this - it's me not the book. Or the book mentions something I have to go look up, or it reminds me sadly of the violence in the world and I have to distract myself. Then I find myself on Twitter and lose track of time but then also realize how much violence is in the world. "I should be reading; get off Soc Med" ... this paragraph amused me. But the book saddens me mostly. #tob17

Hoopla has quite a few of the #TOB titles but only in audio...trying this one today

From the back of the book: "In fluent, agile prose...", "...so smart and compassionate and beautifully written", "with wry wit and profound tenderness..."
(None of these words would be used to describe my last read.) #tob17
I know nothing about this one - diving into it today!

This narrator, Doyle Gerard, is outstanding.

#LoveToListen #17booklove #tob17

#ToB2017

I was worried after seeing some of the reviews, but I thoroughly enjoyed this fictionalized account of what may have happened in the lead up to a 1984 bombing of a hotel in the UK. Definitely a slow burn of a book. I thought the character development was fabulous. Looking forward to seeing what the Tournament of Books match ups will be for this one.

An pretty interesting set up: we know a bomb is set to go off as we follow the characters lives of the hotel employees before it happens. This is the second 'bomb' book I read this month and while this was quite good, I have to give the edge to Association of small bombs.

Tonight...who am I kidding, most nights. 😜 #wildfridaynight

#readjanuary #book&favesnack #readresponsibly Being from Texas, I love me some chips and salsa or guacamole.

OMG this book is killing me. I usually can hang in there with a slow build-up, but man there has to be SOME building. Serious yawnfest. 😪😪😴😴😴😴 #TOB17

Time for a new audiobook. A #TOB17 contender. Don't know a thing about it.

Tying to read this in a spare moment here and there but not sure long it will take! Getting ready for Ireland!!!!!!🍀🍀🍀🍀

This is another book I bailed on this week. It sounded fascinating with the IRA and the real historical event. I literally fell asleep while listening to it and then couldn't bring myself to listen it again.

This image has absolutely zero to do with the new book I am starting today. HOWEVER it makes me insanely happy and there are no rules on the internet.

Reading this fantastic book on the train - it's a page turner weaving together the lives of three people who were at the Grand Hotel in Brighton the day it was bombed in 1984 during a visit by Margaret Thatcher. Recommended by Book Riot in a podcast- finally got it from the San Diego PL.

This brought me out of a reading slump, even though I wasn't sure I'd like it. To paraphrase the novel, sometimes the before is more interesting, no? Heading toward the moment of impact. Fantastic writing, wonderfully drawn characters, and perfect narration here. Highly recommend.

I'm currently experiencing reading A.D.D. I just can't focus on one book🤓 tried getting into this one but I bailed after 22 pages

A wonderful read- following both the bomber who plans to assassinate Margaret Thatcher and the manager of the hotel (and his daughter) where the bomb will go off. Beautiful writing makes all the characters sympathetic- no mean feat. As the tension builds it's impossible to put down.

"Because sometimes the before is more interesting than the after, no? Heading towards the impact. What is beautiful about a dive? It isn't the splash, is it?" (181)

Using brief, beautiful prose and crisp wit, Lee intermingles three lives in a series of poignant moments that ultimately culminate in a violently life-altering event. —Sairsha

4🌟 If you're looking for an exciting thriller about a bombing, this isn't it. However, if you like delving deep into characters' inner lives, this is a fantastic, very well-written novel. The three fictional bit players are interesting, but I would've liked more historical context.

Quote of the day. The front desk receptionist trying to write a novel about her mother! 😂 I'm going to try and finish High Dive tonight, but it's slow going.

Quote of the night. 💜💙❤️💚

Going to try to start a little of this even though it's late. I tend to love historical novels about events I don't know much about. Looking forward to it.

My review of The Great American Whatever will go up here tomorrow with a longer review on my website Saturday!

In this week's New Yorker, an essay on Jonathan Lee's "achingly good new novel." ???

"One of the great understated tragedies of humankind was that people were always thinking about something."

"History clears away the blood, records the results, but that doesn't mean the blood wasn't there."