Welcome to Litsy!

An impulse buy from a thrift bookstore long ago, I wanted a tome as a companion for my travels all July. “Freedom” was a biting friend through the summer. My intro to Franzen, this intimate novel puts an unlikable family in the spotlight of the Dubya Bush years, and refuses to shine away. Sprawling and cringy and damningly political, I never particularly cared for these assembly of assholes, but I sure loved reading about their shenanigans.

#indiebookstoreday purchases & swag 🙌🏻

I got Sea of Tranquility & The Candy House.
And Freedom was the #blinddatebook that came with my tote & goodies.
So fun!!!

I am currently culling my shelves. I‘ve already donated a ton. I‘m pretty proud of myself actually! I have had this one since it came out in 2010. It looks to me like a chunkster about people I imagine I‘ll have a hard time liking and I‘m guessing it‘s fairly bleak, none of which I‘m very interested and in right now.
Might future me like it? Or at least finish it?
You decide! Keep or donate?

🤞

This book is long and constantly winding between characters, but does a brilliant job of showcasing the messiness of life and the difficulty of navigating love, friendship, marriage, family, job, society, and internal struggles. The characters feel realistic and make both poor and true-to-themselves decisions, sometimes at the same time. I found myself feeling conflicting emotions throughout- which is most of what real life happens to be.

Book #9 of the year: “Freedom” by Jonathan Franzen.

Depression stole March from me so this is the first thing I‘ve finished all month. I‘m still too mentally blah to write an actual review but I liked it. 4 stars.

This was an excellent book. It was so real. The characters were terrible people but towards the end they got back some of their humanity, like they had learned who they were supposed to be and what their place was in the world. (More in comments).

This was my #bookspin for January.
TBR since September 29th. 2013; 562 pages
@TheAromaofBooks

Freedom covers the politics of middle class suburbia, the promise of the 90‘s and futility of trying to change the world on your own. I really enjoyed the humour and tone in the first third of the book but it started to fall flat with Richard‘s story. I was waiting for everything to implode but the knockout blows didn‘t seem to land. Some astute summaries of american social values, and wonderfully dry humour couldn‘t quite compensate. 6/10

I've been reading this one pretty slowly. Frankly, these aren't always characters I want to spend time with. But they are really compellingly drawn and for all the flack Franzen gets - much of it deserved and more than balanced out by the heaps of praise - I can think of few who can put together a literary pageturner quite the way he does.

I visited my local thrift shop for the first time since before COVID yesterday and picked up this stack of books for 70 cents! It felt so nice to browse 😊

Have you ever had a relationship with a person who has a victim complex and uses it to manipulate the people around them? Do you believe that depopulation is the best direct environmental action one can take? You're gonna love this book.

1. I love playing Elvis songs on my flute. I love Indiana Jones and once went to Petra just to have that moment I felt in the film. I taught English in Asia in my 20s. ❤️ 2. Tagged - also pretty much anything by Dave Eggers ❤️ 3. Yes at book signings and I have friends who write ❤️ 4. Too hot 🥵 #Litsylearn @Alora

This book is kind of a downer, but it speaks the truth.

Today was quite the day.
A rough day at work, but in the end it only made me feel stronger.
Then I spent some much needed time with my mom. We went shopping for birthday presents for my grandma. I got myself a new lamp for reading while I was at it. And we stopped at the dollar store and I got two new books as well.
I'm pooped, but I'm content.

#freedom #quotsynov18

That‘s right, daring and original!
Come on, America. You can do better.
#whitemen #diverse #persephonebooks #snark

I bought this for a weird reason three or four years ago: it was mentioned on Parks and Rec. After 20 pages (a new record for DNFing for me) I knew I couldn‘t waste my time with it. Also I feel like I‘ve heard too many negative things about the author to actually enjoy the book (even if it was possible to enjoy)

Picked this up for 20 cents at a thrift store today!!!!! BARGAIN!!!!😄

Patty said. Eliza said. Patty told Eliza...OMG I don‘t care what Patty told Eliza about Richard! Is this written for high school kids? These youngsters seem to be all about finding their footing in their relationships. Not for me. An Oprah book? Can someone explain why?

Onto the next one! #1001books

I can count the number of books I have not finished on one hand. I have a compulsion to read a book that I pick up until the bitter end for better or for worse in the hopes that it may get better or so that I can critique it in its entirety. However, I need my “freedom” from this book and I am going to walk away. I made it to page 206 and can‘t take any more! There are too many other things I want to read!

Read it

What I DID buy at Dollar Tree yesterday.

Must stop buying books. Must stop buying books.

Picked up for $1. Hoping its better than The Corrections (I hardly remember the plot of that story it was so boring).

I really like the criticism Franzen writes about Americans. He's a great writer. "But the family as microcosm or micro-history has become Franzen‘s particular subject, as it is no one else‘s today." Entertaining level: ???? #2015Sha

A walk through present America trying to figure out the meaning of friendship love marriage fatherhood freedom happiness maybe?

By the time I finished this one, I felt like I'd been 'rode hard and put up wet!' It was a long journey, and I kept hoping to get somewhere, anywhere, but, alas, it was not really to be.

The moment when Joey swallows the wedding ring has stuck with me, even 6 years after I originally read this! #THATSAWKWARD

Upcoming #bookclub picks!

Franzen takes aim at a family-focused epic. The on-again-off-again nature of the protagonists and the many locales and points of view make for interesting reading but not sure I would make the case for full-on brilliance.

Next

I tried to connect this post to a book I actually plan on reading. Join us in celebrating Binx's freedom from the Cone of Shame today! 🎉🎉🎉

He became another data point in the American experiment of self-government, an experiment statistically skewed from the outset, because it wasn't the people with sociable genes who fled the crowded Old World for the new continent; it was the people who didn't get along well with others.

Nice people don't necessarily fall in love with nice people.

Been crazy busy lately and missing this oasis called Litsy. So glad to pop in tonight and need to stay! Spent tonight driving this cutie to her release site after a 6 wk stay with us after being hit by a car. Fly free little one! #owlsofLitsy #releaseskeepmesane #nslittens

#riotgrams #onewordtitle

Lending books to friends 😍

Finally getting to "Freedom: A Novel" by Jonathan Franzen. It's been sitting on my shelf for awhile. My goal for January is to read every physical book I own that I've never read before.

Always worth checking the book section at Value Village

Happy Monday! Here's a laugh from when I worked in a bookstore. (Note: Normally, I would have walked her over to the book, but I was helping another customer, and the woman kept interrupting.) 😂😝😕

People came to this country for either money or freedom. If you don‘t have money, you cling to your freedoms all the more angrily. Even if smoking kills you, even if you can‘t afford to feed your kids, even if your kids are getting shot down by maniacs with assault rifles. You may be poor, but the one thing nobody can take away from you is the freedom to fuck up your life whatever way you want to.

Let's be honest here. I don't ever not finish a book. If I don't like a book, I'll still finish it and find something positive to say about it. But damn it. This book. This was my first Franzen book and I hated these characters. I loved the writing, hated literally every character. I don't even mind "bad" people but why are they so annoying?! This one I not only bailed on i #threwitacrosstheroom #photoadaynov16 #whysoannoying?

Soooo there might be some disappointingly normative ppl but who knew the cats are killing the birds! 🐱>>>>>>🐤 All in all must love the undercomplicated side of lit fic. 💞

Given the cat-themed last chapter, this Time-of-Read picture has to be with my kitty, Jon Snow.
Astonishing. Epic. Compelling. Challenging.
And wholly worth the month it took to read.
Highly readable, meaty fiction with a limitless scope for satirizing our nation today, rooted in deliciously layered character studies.

I've got to finish this book. I've been reading it over a month. I love it. But I'm dragging it out in the same way I dragged out the Tenth Doctor seasons because I didn't want it to end. But this book is a psychological block... one of us will win...

"When Jessica did not reply to this, Patty forced herself to look up. Her daughter was gazing with desolate self-control at the main college building, on an outside wall of which Patty had noticed a stone graven with words of wisdom from the Class of 1920: USE WELL THY FREEDOM." - p. 195 -He's talking about Swarthmore College from my hometown of Swarthmore, PA, but he's also finally hinting at the inspiration for the title.

What a great deal I found at a second hand book shop. Can't wait to dig in.