Welcome to Litsy!

A short, inspiring, story about a young woman who is diagnosed with MS. As her life changes and turns up side down, she gets wrapped up in the series of murders that are happening to other people.with MS. Wild story. Very well done on audio.

These are my next reads for this weekend. Looking forward to diving in!

17/100, 2.5 ☆, This was an interesting read. Super short, but had a lot of good premises. I wish it was longer and had more depth in voice and language. It reads a bit disjointed, I believe on purpose but I just think it could have been polished up and made into a truly great thriller.

Really glad I read this, a quick one which tells of her marriage breakdown and diagnosis of MS.
Gave a sad but inspiring account of how she goes through it then rises up.

My friend's company published this edition and she gifted me a copy as it fits with one of my reading criteria this year.
It is a true story of the author's marriage breakdown and subsequent diagnosis of MS.

This book ripped my heart out and stomped on it a few times before eventually putting it back only a little shattered. It was a quick read, but intense!!

Using #24in48 to catch up on some #TournamentOfBooks reads. That‘s what I love about the #ToB - discovering some gems like this that I would not otherwise have picked up. I‘m at 5 hr 41 min so far.

The House of Broken Angels, my favourite, must win today. Obviously 🤞🤞! #ToB2019

Lots of great #KindleDailyDeals today!

This was individual, brave, bleak and odd. A woman whose wife has just moved to another country is diagnosed with MS and considers how to live with it while being tortured by her thoughts about members of her disabled community being attacked. I was impressed by the warmth of the writer‘s style even though the subject was so dark, and I‘m very pleased to see honest books about disabled people telling their own stories.

Next up for #tob2019

I think this looks bleak and quite frightening but also very original, hopefully it‘ll live up to my expectations

Sending So Lucky to @amyrabbitt because it was sent to me by the generous @thebluestocking !! #payingitforward
I liked it and tbh, it is a visceral uncomfortable reading experience but one I am appreciating more as time goes by and I continue to ask, “Did I *like* this book? Did I?”
It had so much anger, such scary stuff, mind-messing qualities!
#tob #tob2019 #rooster #OscarAssisting #DogsofLitsy (the mc didn‘t like dogs 🐶) #pieinliterature

So lucky! I am so lucky to have friends to chat up books, to exchange books, to share books, to mail books. 😍🥰 Thanks @thebluestocking Jessica! TY card on its way to you tomorrow, which is first day of #LetterMo!

Book 5 complete ✅
An #ownvoices book about the main character losing a lot (wife/job) but learning to adjust to living with a disease where your mind and body can let you down. Such an important book to read to have a different perspective.
#24in48 #24in48ausnz

Croissants, dogs and books? What more could a girl need?

I started this morning with Book 5 - So Lucky, about Mara who has her wife leave her, a diagnosis of MS and loses her job all in the same week.

#24in48 #24in48ausnz

My fat stack of slim books for #24in48. I‘m really excited this time around, as I‘ve decided to focus on short books (between 100-200 pages) to keep the variety going. And just in case that‘s not enough I have a few comic book series to catch up on, some short story collections, and two audiobooks I‘m loving. So ready to read all weekend 💕 📚

Hey, #tob2019 friends. I bought and read this book and would now love to pass it on to one of you who doesn‘t have access to it. #tob

(Or, I‘m still looking for The Parking Lot Attendant, The House of Broken Angels, and The Golden State, if anyone wants to trade.)

The MC is hit with multiple major setbacks at practically the same time - her wife leaves her, she is diagnosed with MS, and loses her job. The MC is understandably very angry, and a lot of the book is devoted to how she channels that anger. There are also some strange supernatural elements to the story. Ultimately, though, I did not appreciate some of the language used to describe the disabled or the helpless portrayal of people with MS. 3⭐️ #TOB

Book 7 packed a WALLOP. 5 🌟 for how much it affected me, though I thought that the ending was not as strong as the rest of the book (it felt like it was reaching for plot and to resolve this plot rather than remaining in the visceral). The protagonist is diagnosed with MS and the book covers her transition to an identity as someone with a disability and the changes in her body and how people around her see her. It is based on the author.

I got this in the mail yesterday and promptly sat down and read it cover to cover. The book opens with Mara in a tough week: among other things, she is diagnosed with MS, loses her job, and is headed toward divorce. I enjoyed the exploration of the loss and anger that comes with illness and from how people treat the sick. The “thriller” aspect didn‘t really work for me, but I loved the writing. I‘m excited to see how the #tob treats it. #tob2019

More Christmas books I bought myself.

This was an interesting look into the life of someone that has just found out that she has MS. The writing was brilliant despite the brevity of the story. The character's were so relatable and there was really emotion that moved the story along smoothly.

I‘m glad I read this. We all need to focus and really listen to stories of all kinds of societies to make this a better world and this story reminded me to keep looking disabled people in the eye and smile.

I've been reading my little heart out and on the final day of 2018 I'm reading one from the #tob2019 shortlist So Lucky by Nicola Griffith. Will this be my last book of the year? I hope not, I have a long day ahead yet!

@Andrew65 @TheReadingMermaid #24B42019

So Lucky was an interesting listen for me. I really liked the focus on Mara's MS diagnosis and her journey toward advocacy. I've realized that this probably would have been clearer (again, for me) if I had read with my eyes instead of my ears--the surreal elements were tougher for me to follow (because I'm not a great audiobook listener). I'm not sure how this will do in the Tournament of Books, but it was certainly compelling!

#ToB2019 7/18

How to deal with a sudden diagnose of MS when you‘re young and strong and dealing with a broken heart? Nicola Griffith tells about the first year after she got diagnosed with MS. The anger, the fighting, the despair and the loneliness. The book reads like a journal, distant and very intimate at the same time. She‘s so tough but she can‘t fight this disease all by herself 💔. A decent read for the ToB

(Pic: Lake Geneva, Switzerland)

I thought it was going to be a lot more speculative than it actually was. It's mostly a realist, visceral tale of a woman's first year after being diagnosed with MS. I loved how full of anger she was--at having MS, at the casually ableist world she abruptly collides with, at violence against people with disabilities and/or women--and how Griffith wasn't concerned with making her likable. Her relationships with the women in her life felt very real.

Working at a library is so bad for working on reading the books you already own! But I am nevertheless excited about this one. I've been meaning to read Nicola Griffith for years. #QueerBooks

This short autobiographical novel shows how someone with many challenges coming at her all at once can shift gears and still have positive things in her life.Sharp writing and insight on how many begin to judge you by your illness or disability rather than seeing the whole person.

I‘m only a few pages in to this book.Mara is a successful woman , runs a major AIDS foundation,but in rapid succession,her wife leaves her, her closest friend must fly to New Zealand to continue her post doc work,and Mara is diagnosed with MS.Mara is very capable and I have the feeling #shewill be able to fight to make the best of what life has handed her. #NoFemmeber

The novel So Lucky describes the autobiographical experience of highly able-bodied woman receiving a MS diagnosis and through what could be compared to the seven stages of grief. There is a thriller side plot that could have been left out IMO.

Nicola Griffith did something powerful in So Lucky. She allowed a queer woman with a history of trauma spend most of her novel bitter and deeply angry. Mara‘s anger is ugly and frustrated and justified, and Griffith allows it to play out against a tense and emotionally isolated backdrop. While I can‘t say I “enjoyed” it, I was deeply compelled and, though it became a bit ham fisted towards the end, impressed by its taut elegance.

If you enjoy Lisa Genova‘s novels that explore what it‘s like to live with debilitating medical conditions, check out Nicola Griffith‘s So Lucky. 👍

I was blown away by the emotional impact of this short, sharp autobiographical novel about a lesbian dealing with newly-diagnosed MS. I could identify with the MC‘s bitterness & rage at suddenly finding herself weak & dependant upon others. The thriller subplot is a bonus. #Audiobook (5 hours) narrated by the author. #LGBTQ

Cursory research showed it was a repurposed German psoriasis drug, which itself was a repurposed furniture fumigant. [...]

The neurologist took me off Rebif and put me on Tecfidera, an oral drug that cost $66,000 a year.

[internet photo]

I was listening to Griffith narrate her own #audiobook while gardening today and look what I found hidden in a cinquefoil shrub. I‘m so lucky!

I am not sure how to rate this. It was a quick read, but the author used the word cripple or some form of it on nearly every page and it really got under my skin. I get the anger the MC feels because of her MS diagnosis, but I wouldn‘t stomach a book that used “retard” or the n-word this much, either. The mystery plot wrapped up too neatly and almost seemed out of place. Overall, just an odd, angry book that I think could have been more.

Another Saturday, another mini #libraryhaul. 😊 Now I just have to find the time to read all the library books. 🤪

I‘m not entirely sure yet how I feel about this book. It‘s well written, and reads almost more like a memoir than a novel at times. It‘s successful in conveying the anger and fear that accompany the narrator‘s MS, and I WANT to like it but I think it just doesn‘t have enough of a plot, and the mystery piece seems out of place.

I cannot do better than this from the blurb “a narrative juggernaut that rips through sentiment to expose the savagery of the experience of being disabled and chronically ill in America” . Under 200 pages and own voices with LGBTQ character diagnosed with MS and learning how to find herself and fight being “less”. Highly recommended and fulfills reads for chronic illness and pride month. 4⭐️

Next up reading for Gay Pride Month

I‘m still not too sure how I‘m feeling about this book. For me it really fell flat. Also for me it was the first time I‘ve read a book that seemed to be so angry. I don‘t cope well with anger in others and situations in real life but this is the first time I‘ve encountered it in a book and it was uncomfortable , the same as in real life.
A good insight into MS and trying to navigate the system. @MrsMalaprop
Liked her other writing more.

Griffith, herself a sufferer of MS, has put together a short novel that reads like a memoir. The narrative takes the reader deep into the experience of being an MS patient. But, I felt that the potential for an intriguing mystery or a romance were both abandoned and, it fell flat without some narrative purpose. #netgalley #netgalleyTBRattack

#TBRTuesday #netgalleyTBRattack

All #netgalley all week!!!

A feisty, personal novel about MS and the importance of building community. Out May 15.

SO LUCKY INDEED! 🔥🖤🔥