Welcome to Litsy!

I've almost finished Purge by Estonian writer Sofi Oksanen. It's a terrific and engrossing read, but my god is it grim!

#Estonia

Photo of an Estonian forest by Ireen Trummer - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18000554 , found on this page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forestry_in_Estonia

An older Estonian woman takes in a stranger—a young Russian woman—and this is their stories mixed and mingled over time and place—both confronting shame forced upon them by awful human beings. But it‘s in large part boring interspersed with excruciatingly detailed sex scenes. Followed by sheer confusion—I have no idea how it ended—but that may be a result of listening rather than reading it. This book was not for me. #readingeurope2020 ⬇️

Audio gardening again today and finished the tagged book. Review to come.

Just purchased this audiobook for #readingeurope2020 #Estonia. I‘ve now accomplished two goals for #superseptember readathon:

1) I‘ve picked out my next audiobook, and
2) I finished HHhH

Trying to play catch-up on my reviews for July. I read 57 books for the month, which is a personal best.

This satisfies my #ReadingEurope2020 prompts for #Estonia and #Finland. @Librarybelle @BarbaraBB

Dark family secrets, tragedies from the past, and a chance encounter between two women all make this an exciting, although slow building read.

I‘ve also updated options for #Estonia for #readingeurope2020

Books for #readingeurope2020 #Estonia

Sofi Oksanen is helding My bookish corona kitchen -live Instagram shows twice a week. If there is any positive sides on this Corona situation it is this! She is talking about her books and writing in general, making book recommendations and cooking at the same time! It's just pure gold! 💎😍

It‘s 1992 and on the Estonian countryside an old women one day finds a young woman hiding in her garden. She invites her inside. So we get the old women‘s story from the 20s until we meet her. Though a free Estonia, WWII and what society was like after WWII. We also get the young woman‘s backstory.

This was a perspective on the period after WWII that I‘m not often introduced to

#ReadingEurope2020 Estonia

Wow what a read! Thought this was fantastic, very dark and graphic at times but such a great book
#ReadingEurope2020 #Finland #Estonia (11th and 12th countries) 🇫🇮🇪🇪

A few images from this weekend from the book fair. It was so amazing! 😍😍😍 There were author talks among other things. This one is from Sofi Oksanen's talk about her new book that was published a month ago.

#day6 #7days7covers Post a cover you love each day for 7 days. No explanation needed

Quick lunch time run to my local independent bookstore (avenue books) to pick up this beauty. Hope to read it this month for Women in Translation Month! So sad that work cuts so much into my reading time!!

Purge is a dark historical fiction set in Estonia.
It opens your eyes and sticks with you.
Trigger warnings FYI.
#womenintranslation #readaroundtheworldbookclub

This was a hard book to put down—even though it was a difficult and sometimes confusing story. At the end I still had so many questions. Pretty typical for a book that takes place in the USSR.

I didn‘t “like” the characters. But I could empathize with *most* of them. Their physical and emotional living conditions—in the 1940s, 50s and 90s—were atrocious. 4.5 ⭐️/5
#readaroundtheworld

#mounttbrreadathon post 4: continued progress tonight. I was wanting an engrossing story and Purge delivers. Now off to bed for tomorrow we read. And get some other stuff done, too. 😁 #bingeread

Thanks @JenlovesJT47 and @Tiffy_Reads for this lovely excuse to binge!

#mounttbrreadathon post 3: Much better progress this afternoon. I was a bit out of sorts so I pulled a book off my TBR shelf. I‘m only stopping to make dinner because I‘m getting hangry. #lostinabook #readaroundtheworld

Finished this.

It took some time for me to get into it, but then I finished it in record time.

Thanks @Martta for introducing this to me.

Another book off #MountTBR

#LitsyPartyOfOne commences after 14 hours. I was wiped out yesterday.

Since I left my kindle in another room, I'm returning to the tagged book.

@Ambrosnazzy

Can't decide what to read, Purge or beach romance.

#firstworldproblems

Tried reading while playing with the cat. Didn't work. Will need to try #AudioCatPlaying next.

Five weeks of travel (for work) and I come home to tally up my goodies. Lol!! Had no idea I fixated on chocolate and tea so much! Tony's Chocolonely from Amsterdam. Fruit-flavoured black teas and Kalev chocolates from Estonia. Sour (sauer!!) Haribo and Guylian (Belgian chocolate) from Germany. Good thing the neighbour kids took all the Halloween candy! Oh, I bought a copy of #Purge, in Canada because the shop in Estonia didn't have it! 😊🍫🍵

Today the 2nd of 4 books for the #PassportLitsy challenge arrived, plus a book for my son. I decided to challenge myself to 4 books for the challenge and got the countries Bolivia, Estonia, Luxembourg and Puerto Rico. I'm going to use Gods and Pawns, or rather the novella within for Bolivia even though the author is American. I may try to find another short novel by a Bolivian author though. Purge is my Estonian book.

I opened this page earlier today and my inner #Potterhead made me read "Voldemort". ?

Also, the description of this man is great. Really. I can picture him easily.

This book surprised me in a good way. I did not see some of the plot twists coming which is always good. I keep poking boyfriend to tell him what just happened. #spanish Este libro me sorprendió de buena manera, no me esperaba algunos de los giros en la historia. Pasé molestando a mi novio para decirle lo que acababa de pasar.

I am in the middle of this book, but I have to go back home today

New beach, new book :)

We have a special guest post on the blog today by Agata. She has compiled an amazing list of books written by Eastern European women. Go check it out, add the books to your list, and then go show her some love on twitter.

https://www.readingwomenpodcast.com/blog/2017/8/1/eastern-european-women-guest-p...

Got this book at a thrift shop the other day, the cover snagged my attention. Another addition to Mt. TBR. It's translated from Finnish to English.

Help, Littens! I've done some culling, purging and reorganizing so I don't trip over #books (#readerhazard) but can't decide what to read next: vote to help me decide!
#crowdsourcing #amreading #amnottripping #ammakingthemostofthisrainyday #thankspdx #whereisspring #shelfie
#asongofbullets #forgottengarden #purge #remainsoftheday #themandarins #faerytale #alienist #silentcry #bookoflostthings

A bit late...

One of the #womenintranslation on my shelves. This book I got from my #cupidgoespostal @Martta - I've started it and it's good.

#AprilBookShowers
@RealLifeReading

#womenintranslation #aprilbookshowers These three have been on a shelf in my bedroom for a while. Still unread. 😇

@GoodallBookHaul
Interesting sentence for me.

Pick any book near you, turn to page 45, the first sentence explains your love life.

One of my #CupidGoesPostal books. Love the little note @Martta put in the book.

The Free Estonia students didn‘t worry about that sort of thing. They hadn‘t committed any crimes—what harm could come to them? It was only after the Soviet squads had spread out around the country that they started to fear that their future might be in danger.

One of my favourite books. The story is rough and well written. It's been awhile since I read this but the story has stayed with me vividly. I didn't know much about this part of Europe's history so I liked the view into Estonia's past although it is a sad one. I have not read yet all her books but I'm going to.

Finlandia award winner from the year 2008. One of my favourite books. #booktober #awardwinner

Somehow my original post disappeared! This is one of the best books I've read -- the two women are unforgettable and it provides an eye-opening look at a piece of history I never knew about (and does it without feeling like homework). If you generally avoid books about WWII, try this one. Also a great choice if you want to increase your repertoire of books in translation. Trigger warning for sexual abuse.

Really gripping book...