Welcome to Litsy!

#BookSpinBingo #DoubleSpin @TheAromaofBooks

Not my best reading month, but I at least read my #BookSpin and #DoubleSpin this month.

This memoir was a tough read, and it broke my heart reading all the author went through growing up. It is well-written, raw, and full of strength and hope. Great memoir that I will be thinking about for years to come.

Wow. This is a powerful -- and so very difficult -- story. I couldn't stop reading. Rickardsson's life is much different than anyone else's I've known. I appreciated the candor with which she wrote. We need more stories like these to teach us what we don't know or choose not to see. This book will need to be recommended with plenty of trigger warnings, but it is important and very well written, so proceed. Just do so with caution and gentleness.

A book that needed to be written. Adoption stories aren't always easy or magical. A very healthy well-written account of a women trying to live in two very different worlds....love, loss, and everything in-between.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Rickardsson writes openly about her early life cave dwelling with her mamãe, & what she endured as a street kid in São Paulo, where extreme violence was prevalent. There‘s difficult-to-read, very brutal shit here. At 8, after being adopted by a Swedish family, she struggled to adjust & understand her circumstances. Alternating timelines between Brazil & Sweden ultimately lead to her return “home.” Well-written & beautifully translated.

I read this on Kindle + Audible. I preferred the text over the audio, maybe because the narrator didn‘t match the voice in my head.
This memoir is heartbreaking and raw. It does feel like it just touches the surface. It focuses more on her life in Brazil, which focuses on the vivid memories she has from her life there. It‘s a story that needs to be heard by more people. #readwomen #diversereads
#readharderchallenge - written + translated by woman

5 stars!! If there was a way to rate this book more then 5 stars I would! I cant even begin to explain the emotions this book made me feel sad, hurt, despair, rage.. This book is very raw and I love how she wrote about her life. So many horrible things happened to her and yet she chooses to only see the bright side of things. Recommend 100%

Christiana Mara Coelho was born into poverty in Brazil. After spending the first 7 years of life with her loving mother in the São Paulo forest and then on the city streets, she was put up for adoption.

As Christina Rickardsson, she‘s raised by caring parents in Sweden. But she is filled with rage over what she‘s lost and struggling with traumas of her youth. When her world falls apart as an adult, she returns to Brazil to discover what happened.

This book will tear your heart to bits, piece by piece and slowly, by revealing her determination and resilience, Christina puts it back together with such love and insight that you will never look at immigration the same again.
Christina story shows her deep intelligence, her ability to not allow the bad experiences sour her spirit, her disposition or her demeanor. She never gave up. Coelho Growth Foundation, awareness for child poverty.

Another, from this marvelous novel:
"We never know our strengths until life tests us. But most of all, we don't know what strength and power another person has until we follow them for a while on their journey."
Truth!!

"What's so fascinating about memories is how certain ones are saved and others are not; some vanish for good, and some can come back."

Free download with Amazon Prime.....It's hard not to like Christina. I'm enjoying her stories of living in caves in Brazil as a young girl and living in Sweden later. She has just met her "first friend" Camille. I'm hooked!

Almost forgot about my monthly free ebook from First Reads (for Amazon Prime subscribers). This book looks interesting!

My Kindle First pick for this month...although as someone else said, I find myself excited for the new selections but then never read them. Too many books!

I always share my BOTM pick but not Kindle First. Well this month I got this interesting sounding memoir. #kindlefirst