Welcome to Litsy!

I did not like this book we read for bookclub. There was about 10 of us and I was the lone person who did not care for it. I really dislike books written for the gotcha! moments that sacrifice character and plot development. It was a no for me. I did enjoy the discussion. We laughed a lot and I walked out of there feeling lighter. So that was the win of this book for me.

When Sylvie Lee goes missing after her grandmother‘s funeral in the Netherlands, it falls to her timid sister Amy to uncover the truth about her disappearance. What unfolds is a mystery made of long-held family secrets. Amy‘s growth and the book‘s exposure of the hardships of immigrant life where racism is ingrained were highlights but the book‘s occasionally stilted dialogue and uneven pace kept it from being great. A soft pick. #bookspin

Finished 2021 by reading this lovely novel (67th book of the year). Highly recommend if you like family sagas and books about relationships. Looking forward to reading even more in 2022 📚

THANK YOU, @williammorrowbooks

#wmtastemakers
#tbr2020

A low so-so for me and I would round up to three stars. It‘s a shame because this would have been a pick if it wasn‘t for every cringe-worthy scene between Sylvie and Lucas

Can someone clarify something for me, Lucas and Sylvie are cousins, or second cousins or something, right??

The pros: Interesting sister relationship, fascinating direct translation of Chinese idioms, cool peek into Dutch / European culture. The cons: People don‘t communicate to a ludicrous degree, a major plot point is... unlikely at best, and characters‘ emotions and actions aren‘t believable. ⭐️⭐️ 1/2

My SundayFunday read:

It begins with a mystery. Sylvie, the beautiful, brilliant, successful older daughter of the Lee family, flies to the Netherlands for one final visit with her dying grandmother—and then vanishes.

It really pains me to say "so-so" for this one. ? I had such high hopes because of the buzz and the fact that I love Girl in Translation by the author. In theory, I should have loved it because the plot is also something I'm usually a fan of...literary mystery is what I would call the genre. But the execution was off for me. While I didn't guess the ending exactly, I did think that the longggg drawn out storyline was unnecessary. #sigh

In love and life, we never know when we are telling ourselves stories. We are the ultimate unreliable narrators 📝

Not sure how I missed the memo about Taco Bell's new vegetarian menu ??‍♀️ ?
My boys and I had a lazy dinner tonight and I tried the new black bean crunch wrap... it was pretty decent. Started Sylvie Lee which I've been eyeing for quite some time. Loved Kwok's "Girl in Translation" and hoping this one is on par with it.

Unpopular opinion from me - I liked the concept, but found this book super slow. I liked that it was full of culture and the varying perspectives, but I really had a hard time getting into it and staying interested.

This book had such wonderful potential but unfortunately the author made some dubious weak plot choices that ruined this book for me.
To the world Sylvie Lee portrays perfection but underneath the designer clothes and beautiful face, Sylvie is hiding MANY secrets. When she disappears after traveling to visit her dying grandmother in The Netherlands, her sister Amy travels to Holland to search for her. Amy discovers more than she imagines
👇🏽

I‘m way more invested in this mystery than I expected to be. Not great but better than good. My only complaint: the voice of Sylvie is pretty grating but Ma‘s voice and Amy‘s narration is very good. I like the inclusion of the Chinese proverbs and phrases. 5 hours to go!

Just started this audio 🎧Really liking it #OwnVoices

What a gorgeous and incredibly thoughtful gift! Thank you @KarynGood Tulips are my favourite and my best too xoxo

A little bit mystery, a little bit romance, a nuanced story of identity. This is a great one-day read that pulls you into the story of Sylvie's complicated journey towards belonging.

I listened to this book about a missing woman. The chapters vascilliate between the perspectives and chronologies of the woman who ends up missing before and her sister after. The story feels a little convoluted and unhelpfully complicated. It's about being Chinese and Dutch. It's about sibling relationships and family dynamics. The ending was a surprise because there was nothing in the story and character development building to it.

Thank goodness for an #audiobook as I play nursemaid to my sick husband. #tbr #wintergames #teamfozziwig @StayCurious @Clwojick @BarkingMadRun

November was a good month otherwise, but I fell behind in my reading life. I started many books but only finished a few. Tagged book was my #favorite of the lot.
-The Mistletoe Matchmaker (Hayes-McCoy) 🌲🇮🇪
-Searching for Sylvia Lee (Kwok) 🇳🇱
-Murder on the Half Shelf (Barrett) 🐈
-Women Talking (Toews) 👩‍👧‍👧
Photo is Rockette, a nice fluffy dog I met at Turkey Trot. 🐩
#gratefulreads

I enjoyed this book, a complex story about families and secrets.

Next!!

1. Slowly reading the tagged book and some other things.
2. Evening.
3. I recently followed Zoraida Córdova on Twitter. She‘s funny and endearing.
#weekendreads

Starting this chilly morning with a mystery.

This book is a portrait of an immigrant family and an exploration of cultural constraints. There is an overarching theme of loss as well as the high cost of keeping secrets. My only issue was with the pacing—I did find it slow and the narrative kept stalling because of too many flashbacks. That being said, this is an incredibly thoughtful and beautifully written book. If you do enjoy more of a literary type thriller, than this is for you.

This was just ok. It was pretty easy to guess what the big secret revealed at the end was going to be. 2.5⭐️

Jean Kwok's Searching for Sylvie Lee was a fabulous surprise. I had put it on hold a loooong time ago and had, to be honest, forgotten what it was about. The novel alternates between the present perspectives of Amy and her mother and the past perspective of Amy's sister, Sylvie, who has gone missing. Amy and Sylvie's parents are Chinese immigrants in America who struggled when they first arrived. (continued in comments)

This one was just ok for me. The ending seemed to drag on. I wasn‘t comfortable with the Lukas-Sylvie relationship and didn‘t understand the characters‘ reactions to it. I did like Amy. Her sensibility seemed to be the most realistic.

✨September Wrap-Up✨
I am super late and still haven‘t even posted reviews for all of these! 9 books, 1 nonfiction, 6 novels, 2 short story collections. Three in translation (from Danish, Spanish, Korean), plus authors from Nigeria and Australia, and one modern classic. All were by women! Favorite fiction title is tagged; the Speckled Monster was also an amazing read! #wrapup #septemberwrapup #septemberreads

Tears, so many tears. What a sad book :( I can‘t say much because of all the twists and turns, I dont want to spoil anything.

Started a new audiobook. A needed change of pace from my usual thriller/suspense. The story sounds compelling.

Amy‘s perfect older sister Sylvie vanishes, prompting Amy to travel to the Netherlands in search of her. The family dynamics are slowly revealed over the course of the search. Kwok emphasizes how none of us is truly knowable you one another and how far apart perception and reality can be. I thought this was really well done.

Wow - loved this heart-wrenching story of love and family and sisterhood. Listened to it via audible.

Perfect Friday night.

The few reviews I've seen here have been lukewarm, but I'm really enjoying this audiobook.

Sometimes a book just isn't for you. Reading this was incredibly painful - it felt slow, predictable, and unbelievable. I felt the relationship between Sylvia and Lukas to be very odd - and was surprised no one else in the book seemed to take issue with it. Others have said that this is more family drama than mystery (which I'm okay with), but I just never connected with the characters and mostly couldn't wait to just be done with it. ⭐⭐/5

This novel is a mystery, a family saga, and an immigration story all wrapped in one great package. There are multiple viewpoints that go back and forth in time, until they converge. Very well done, with the loose ends all tied up. A page turner! #familysaga #immigration #mystery

The weather is just gorgeous today. Snuck outside for a little reading time before dinner needs to be prepared. I'm about halfway through the tagged book and finding it to be a bit of a slog. The storyline is intriguing but it seems to move at a snail's pace. Also, some of the dialogue seems a bit odd . Plugging along, simply so I can move on to something else.

#TBRtemptation post 6! With a mystery, the reader delves into the complicated ties of two daughters and their mother in a Chinese immigrant family. The eldest daughter has disappeared after visiting her dying grandmother in the Netherlands. Sheltered Amy had always looked up to her sister Sylvia, the golden girl. As she retraces her sister‘s steps and begins searching, Amy will discover painful family secrets. #blameLitsy #blameMrBook 😎

I had been eagerly anticipating this book for months, and snagged it as part of B&N‘s #bookhaul sale. It did not disappoint! “Searching for Sylvia Lee” is part mystery & part family saga, and explores the Chinese immigrant experience in both the US & the Netherlands. It‘s multi-viewpoint, which is always a selling point for me. A rare combination of thought provoking & fast paced. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was a quick read.

When Amy‘s sister goes missing, she‘s desperate to find out what happened. With questions after question, she gets closer to the truth—and a few secrets in the process. It‘s a solid family drama, exploring the connections between the women in the Lee family and life‘s varying effects on them.

My main issue w/ this book was how it was marketed. The reviews & description made it seem like a page-turning mystery, when really it was literary fiction. I was underwhelmed by the final reveal. Some revelations seemed unnecessary b/c nothing came of them. It was a beautifully written novel. I may not have been so eager to read it had it been marketed properly. Some of the characters relationships were a bit much 4 me & weren‘t fully fleshed out

#selfimprovementsept #readinggoals

September reading goals minus a couple books from Libby as they are on my iPad. My main goal is to finish summer quarter for #booked2019 and to read from #mounttbr.

Honestly, this book was pretty meh. There wasn‘t anything terrible, but there wasn‘t anything too exciting either. I kept waiting for something, but it didn‘t really come. Even what we‘re supposed to be the big reveals were rather anticlimactic.

Thought this was a powerful quote. I‘ve had time off from work recently because of health issues and I find myself relating. It‘s almost like I don‘t know what to do with myself.

Well was reading in my outdoor reading spot, but I could hear my Raina whining from the inside so I brought her outside with me. This means no reading is getting done at the moment...sigh...I got a library due date coming up soon for this one! #dogsoflitsy

Hoping I can finish this before it‘s due back to the library! I‘m enjoying the character development thus far. I‘m eager to learn what the dark family secrets are!

Belletrist June Pick

A heartbreaking read I will never forget. I loved how Jean Kwok tells the story of one family through multiple characters and how certain clues in one perspective lead to another answer in a chapter. It also leaves you guessing up until the final chapters. Several instances occurred where I thought I had it figured out but it turns out to be wrong. I can't wait to read this again in the future.

three things i loved about this book: 1. the setting (anyone else want to go to Holland with me?), 2. the family dynamics, and 3. the mystery. good selection @readwithjenna ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️