Welcome to Litsy!

A difficult topic that was incredibly relatable and easy to read. I loved the depth of characters in this book and how detailed a writer Elif is #pick #elifshafak

Wow ! What a wonderful wonderful read , Elif shafak is a genius in my eyes , such beautiful writing heartbreaking 💔 story the beautiful gift of friendship & how terribly cruel mankind can be especially to women all women. So so glad I threw this into my hand luggage last minute before heading off to Greece it‘ll be one of my favourite books of the year

Holiday read no 3 .Shafak is a beautiful writer and from her speech‘s and thoughts a very lovely lady

All the points for this book! At first I thought, this might not be for me. But Shafak was sneaky and got me hooked. Seriously, sometimes I got really, really angry. Sometimes I wanted to vomit. And sometimes I almost cried. The characters are amazing and diverse, of course I had a soft spot for Nostalgia Nalan. But also the setting of Istanbul is fascinating, the historical facts, the culture and so much more.

#DoubleSpin @TheAromaOfBooks

One of the main strengths of the audiobook is its descriptive narration, embodying Leila‘s world with vivid detail and emotion. The narrator‘s verbal rendering of the poetry of Shafak encapsulates the odors, tastes, sounds and feel of Istanbul and the story of Leila‘s fragmented life......
Full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6616137778

I‘ve never read anything like this. This story was set on a very unique premise. It focused on the last few minutes of a persons life after death. I‘ve never before read a book set in Istanbul. While reading it, I learned a lot about the country and its people. I really liked the characters, Tequila Leila and her 5 friends. I recommend this book. It had a little bit of everything. I will read more by this author.

This book was so sad, but the writing is absolutely gorgeous. I don‘t think I had read a book set in Istanbul before, and I really enjoyed learning more about the city which almost becomes a character in the story itself. Tequila Leila and her friends were very well-written characters and this book will stay with me for a long time.

#Litsolace

I'm all set and so ready for our Sunday #Hyggehour
Finishing #NaturaLitsy February #buddyread and starting the tagged.

And relax 😌

@Chrissyreadit @TheBookHippie

They always say that when you die your life flashes before your eyes, and I always thought that meant in the moments right before death. But what if that actually happened AFTER you die, in the moments just afterwards as everything is shutting down?

⭐⭐⭐⭐

What a unique way to consider things. I may have to give this a try. 😏👃👅

#currentread #librarystacks Never heard of this author before; however, noticed the book on the new release shelf at the library and was immediately hooked by the blurb. Here goes nothing! 😊

I really wanted to like this book more, but it just felt flat for me in some parts. And it felt a tad bit too long.

3.5 ⭐️

Thank you again @Daisey 🙂

I went back to find out when this book was gifted to me by @Daisey and it was 4 years ago! 😱

Started it last night and liking it…Even though I know it‘s going to break my heart!

Nearly a SO-SO as I struggled with the desperately sad circumstances that land the protagonist in the place she begins…inside a dumpster. I pushed through the book hoping some glimmer of good fortune would befall her, but how can it when she starts the book dead? By the end I saw the beauty in her friendships and the commitment those friends held to care for each other, regardless of their differences. A tough but beautiful read.

After Leila's death her brain stays alive for 10 minutes and 38 seconds, each minute reliving a memory from her past. We get to meet her and her five friends. The author touches very important subjects through the different characters: the treatment of women, prostitutes, trans and disabled in Turkey. As a descendant of Armenian genocide survivors, I appreciate that she found a way to refer to it, knowing that it was unnecessary to the story ⬇️

The first thing that came to mind for the #NovemberNarrative #Turkey prompt was Turkish author Elif Shafak.

@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
@Eggs

Unforgettable = 5-Stars

The book relates the recollections of Iranian sex worker “Tequila Leila,” in the immediate aftermath of her brutal murder. Killed and tossed in a dumpster, Leila's heart stops, but her mind continues on for 10 minutes and 38 seconds. Each of the early chapters covers about a minute of Leila's dying, each recounting either a specific incident or sketching a portrait of someone important to her life — a kind of life review.

This was such an interesting read...and I really liked the name Tequila Leila

The memories of a sex worker in Istanbul as her brain dies for 10 minutes and 38 seconds past her life. I thought the book was quite well done, but it is a necessarily heavy story in many parts. If you are triggered by sexual abuse you may want to consider that before you read this. It was upsetting, but I considered it worth it.

I LOVED this! I'm so going to read more of her books. I really liked the way she makes her characters feel alive with their relationships with eachother and in the internal life inside a character.

I loved the writing in the first half of this book. It really felt like it was going to be a 5 star book for me, the story of Leila as she lies dying and remembering her past and meeting each of her friends. However the rapid fire nature of each episodic chapter, and the introduction and quick summation of each friend‘s back story left me wanting more. Once it got to the “Body” section of the story ⬇️

Some midsummer reading. 😎☀️

Happy midsummer to everyone!!! 🥳🌅🌞

💜

Starting a new book and looking at the sunset while travelling home by a ferry. I love when the book's color theme matches the scenery! 😁☀️

I really liked the first part, The Mind. However, around 55%, it didn‘t feel so special anymore.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️,75/5

#elifshafak #novel #kindle #bookerprize

So far, this book is harrowingly beautiful.

Happy New Year, Littens! This is my choice for the #AsianBookChallenge2022 on #LibraryThing. I‘m less than enthralled with it at the moment, although I‘m not sure why. The writing is done beautifully, but yet there is some element that makes me less than eager to keep going in this story. I‘m not sure what that is because this novel by a Turkish author (this month‘s challenge) was on the 2019 Booker Prize shortlist.

Really enjoyed it

Somethings missing from this book.

Perhaps it was not that different when it came to death. People thought you changed into a corpse the moment you exhaled your last breath. But things were not clear-cut like that. Just as there were countless shades between jet black and brilliant white, so there were multiple stages of this thing called 'eternal rest'. If a border existed between the Realm of Life and the Realm of Afterlife, Leila decided, it must be as permeable as sandstone (3)

I received this as my Literati Book Club selection several months ago and I didn‘t really know if I would enjoy it but once I started reading I could not put it down!! I read the majority of the book in one day and finished it tonight! I loved it! 🌟🌟🌟🌟!

Enjoyed this just as much as Three Daughters of Eve. 💛 Such a talented writer. Sensual novel. Tragic but mighty powerful characters.

I was very intrigued after reading the blurb of the story that I immediately got my hands on it. This is one of the books which starts off great but falls flat almost immediately. There was 0 emotional connect. At no point have i got connected to Leila. I felt sorry for her a couple of times but that's it. I don't know if author went with the fact that not everything has closure in life, but the story was so disjointed and all over the place.

My book club chose this book, and there are 900 peeps waiting for the physical copy at the library. I just checked if Overdrive had some new books for me, and there it was, available. Wow! Anyone read it?

Just watched Elif Shafak talking about this novel (and literature, Istanbul, life, etc) via Canada‘s Virtual Literary Series.

She. Was. Riveting!

Talk about a new #womencrush!
I am really looking forward to reading more of her work. Just in passing she dropped so many beautiful quotes.

“Maybe literature is my suitcase” ❤️📖

Elif Shafak is publishing a new book this year, and I for one couldn't be more excited.

I simply adored 10 Minutes and 38 seconds in this strange world. Reading all works of her is one of my reading goals this year!

What is your favourite Shafak and are you hyped for this one as well?

Reading books by Elif Shafak always makes me really hungry! Love how she ties memories to smells or meals, it‘s definitely how my brain works! This was a really interesting way to frame a story of a young sex worker in Istanbul. Definitely need to work my way through the rest of Shafak‘s work.

Elif Shafak‘s vocabulary is really great. The concept that the subconscious can live on for a few minutes after the physical body is dead is also compelling. But! This book was so much longer than necessary, & didn‘t build any emotions for Leila or her five friends. I could feel no camaraderie or friendship between them. Filled with random bits of info that added no value, I found this book to be quite lukewarm, inconsistent and unmemorable.

#turkey #istanbul Not sure how I missed reading this 2019 Booker short listed book about the strength of friendship when one‘s family turns their backs. Although I did not love the ending, the first part of the book with the introductions to all the characters and to that messy, wonderful city of Istanbul, I thought was wonderful.

She had love.. no matter how unconventional it was to society and tradition.

...finding the familiarity of captivity more reassuring than the strange call of freedom.

They respected him the way cruel and powerful people have been respected since the dawn of time - with abundant fear and not a speck of love.

I loved this! The second part I didn't love as much, almost felt it would have been as good with out it, but part 1 was so good it still makes it a pick. A very clever premise, very beautifully written.

I simultaneously don't want this book to end but also want to know what happens.