Welcome to Litsy!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4/5)
The second installment of the Seasonal Quartet did not disappoint. While I felt Autumn was more poetic, I preferred the characters in this book. It's another thoughtful exploration of art, politics, and memory. It's interesting how Smith captures the mood of each season in each book. Looking forward to Spring (in more ways than one!)
(Picture is of a past winter hike, since this winter is not winter. We had thunderstorms last night)

#Naturalitsy #Midwintersolace

I have chosen Ali Smith's second novel from her Seasonal Quartet series, Winter. It's set in Cornwall over Christmas days. Perfect 😊

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/285178/winter-by-smith-ali/9780241973332

@TheBookHippie @Chrissyreadit @jenniferw88

#bookspin

My #jolabokaflod package has been opened! And it‘s loverly, @TheDaysGoBy ! The chocolate is perfect (I love that one is local), and the book is a wonderful choice. I put my package away last week and then had trouble locating it, but i cleaned my messy salon/office today, and lo and behold, that‘s what it took. Great timing too; I‘ve got a couple of days to read before my brother & family arrive for New Years. Thanks again for a terrific swap!

💋🧇🐻

A reread and I can‘t believe how much I had forgotten. Like the weird beginning with Sophia. I‘m also noticing tiny connections to the first book in the quartet and it makes me wonder what I will notice in the other two.

At its heart this is a story about a son who has said that he will bring his girlfriend home for Christmas, but they fight and he pays another girl to play her.

I‘m all here for family drama and talk of art/ litterateur

Upon rereading this I noticed part of a conversation that seems to sum up this quartet perfectly:
“because it‘s like the people in the play are living in the same world but separately from each other, like their worlds have somehow become disjointed or broken off each other‘s worlds. But if they could just step out of themselves, or just hear and see what‘s happening right next to their ears and eyes, they‘d see it‘s the same play they‘re all in,

#FirstLineFridays, even if this was a little bit more than the first line.

I just hope that this isn‘t true, that theatre and cinema will get back to normal. And that litterateur will keep going strong.

But what will the world do, though, Mrs Cleves, Lux says, if we can‘t solve the problem of the millions and millions of people with no home to go to or whose homes aren‘t good enough, except by saying go away and building fences and walls? It isn‘t a good enough answer, that one group of people can be in charge of the destinies of another group of people and choose whether to exclude them or include them.

I gave this about 50 pages but just couldn‘t get into it. Apparently this Ali Smith quarter isn‘t for me (as lovely as the covers may be) so I‘m crossing them off my TBR.

The view behind my chair in the chemotherapy room this afternoon #winterviews #winterwonderland

Again, liked the writing very much.
I liked Lux and how she bridged the gaps in the family.
Always good to have a political slant within the writing...

Next in the series...
I planned to take these on holiday but think I'll have read them!

I really liked Autumn and this one is great as well. I like how Smith is weaving a small story of a family navigating with and around each other with the much larger story of true current events. It adds a richness and subtlety to the story. Plus, I love this cover. 😍

This is another brilliant entry by Smith. It‘s just beautiful. Art & his girlfriend, Charlotte, are on the outs. He hires a girl he meets at a bus stop to pretend to be Charlotte when he goes to his mother‘s for Christmas. His mom, Sophia, is hallucinating. She will see her sister, Iris, for the first time in decades. They swirl together and settle in, then swirl and settle again. It‘s relatable, tragic, real, sad, and lovely. 198/1,001 #1001Books

Is everyone still sick of the cold, snow, ice, etc???? Have you read anymore winter related books?

#BookedBySeasons
#TBRCrew

@jessinikkip , @jb72 , @AsYouWish , @AnansiGirl , @Catherine_Willoughby , @MissAimz_55 , @ElizaMarie , @cortg , @Bookworm54, @Katy4Peas , @Read4Life @Weisubei @Chili @kaylamburson @AlobelThee

How much do you know about Winter? Take a quick quiz to find out!

https://quizizz.com/admin/quiz/586e0acfcbdff3b917e964c6/interesting-and-fun-fact...

#BookedBySeasons
#TBRCrew

@jessinikkip , @jb72 , @AsYouWish , @AnansiGirl , @Catherine_Willoughby , @MissAimz_55 , @ElizaMarie , @cortg , @Squidget , @Bookworm54, @Katy4Peas , @Read4Life @Weisubei @Chili @kaylamburson @AlobelThee

Feel free to use this to help with your winter season for #BookedBySeasons. Just place your book inside and let it snow. Have fun!

#TBRCrew

@jessinikkip , @jb72 , @AsYouWish , @AnansiGirl , @Catherine_Willoughby , @MissAimz_55 , @ElizaMarie , @cortg , @Squidget , @Bookworm54, @Katy4Peas , @Read4Life @Weisubei @Chili @kaylamburson @AlobelThee

How is the winter season treating you? Have u been reading any wintery books the past few weeks? Plan on reading any in the next month or so? Is this a harder challenge to do?

#BookedBySeasons
#TBRCrew

@jessinikkip , @jb72 , @AsYouWish , @AnansiGirl , @Catherine_Willoughby , @MissAimz_55 , @ElizaMarie , @cortg , @Squidget , @Bookworm54, @Katy4Peas , @Read4Life @Weisubei @Chili @kaylamburson @AlobelThee

As with most Smith books, there is probably just too much going on here for my feeble brain to sort out. It‘s always a fun ride, though. Our biggest cultural mishaps are handled with wry humor, never heavy-handed.

That moment where the plot summary of Cymbeline goes on for several pages and it sounds amazing! @Graywacke

This reminded me of Iris Murdoch in the matter-of-factness of the fantastical. A mostly realistic story it centers on Art, his mother (both falling apart), her estranged sister and, since he insisted on bringing his girlfriend but she has disappeared into a fit of deserved rage, the young woman Art hired to take her place. The stranger and the estranged offer perspective, clever word play, allusions to art and literature, and maybe a hint of hope.

#ChristmasQuotes Day 1: #Winter

#QuotsyMay20 Day 17: #Hype

Productive #BFC28 day! Ran 6 out of my 10 miles for the week and finished Winter, a #NewYearWhoDis pick from @Emilymdxn , during that #audiorun. (Loved Autumn, loved this one despite Art driving me crazy, and can't wait to listen to Spring! ❤️) Also finished No Greater Jewel, written and assigned by my seminary professor. And did my Curable meditation followed by prayer beads! ✅ #BFC @wanderinglynn @monalyisha

I think I need to read this again, and I mean truly read it and not listen to it. The audiobook was well-narrated, but I feel like I missed many layers. The ones I did pick up were brilliant. I also think I need to re-read Autumn.

❄🌨
Life and Time.

"There was always a furious intolerance at work in the world no matter when or where in history, she thought, and it always went for the head or the face"

The truth beautifully placed on the page by the artistic hand of Ali Smith ?

I moved right on to Winter after finishing and loving Autumn. It started off a little rough because Art, one of the MCs, started out a little awful. But by the end I was quite pleased, with both Art and the book as a whole. Glad I got a tip-off about the connection between the books as I might not have picked up on it on my own.

Ali Smith is definitely one of my favourite authors. I love the way her brain works, the word play and the way I lose myself in the vast tundras she creates

Ooooof you guys on here are super readers!! Looking at some of your goals for the good reads challenge makes my little bookworm reputation look rather inept! My goal last year was 30 but I read 34. So gone for a target of 31 this year. Anyone else down in the two figure challenges with me? 🤪

I only just started this yesterday but going to try and finish it by tomorrow as my last book of the year ✨

I‘ve had to give up trying to listen to this audiobook - I just can‘t stay focused enough to listen. Real books in my hand is the only way for me. Also the narrator was slightly grating - every line, no matter how mundane, was spoken as if it was a profound statement from The Matrix. Also, audio quality wasn‘t as good as it could have been for the ‘High‘ setting.

Well, I was saving this book for the #future to read when it would be cold and snowy to fit the theme... But apparently the future is now 🥶❄️
#movember

My first try at an audio book. Not sure I can keep attention in the same way as a physical book, but we‘ll see.

when it‘s going to be under 30 degrees this week.....

I've just moved into my new flat in London and I've already found the library haha - dipping into this book for a while!📚😊

‪I had trouble with this book a bit insofar as I found two of the main viewpoint characters to be not just unpleasant, but tragic in having become so banally insensitive. Yet each is also allowed moments of grace and growth. I do love Ali Smith‘s writing‬, and I think there is a fundamental hopefulness to this book. One that I hope can exist in real life as well.

Next

What at first appears to be a simple tale of a mother, her sister, her son and a temporary substitute girlfriend gathering for Christmas, managed to evolve to encompass a whole world of transformation. Puns, Dickens, heads, Shakespeare, the dead, become a seasonal word feast. Such a delight in these first days of summer.

#Weird
#OverMyHead
#Disjointed
#ThreeWordReview

#literaryladies

I‘m having difficulty getting into this book and I think it is simply because the title is Winter and it‘s so darn nice outside

Better than Autumn (more "of a piece") but I still prefer How To Be Both. It's a slice of life in contemporary Britain, much of which relates to behaving shittily (to varying degrees) towards people at a remove, and finding ways past that when thrown together by circumstances. Potentially interesting story lines aren't developed and I'm none the wiser as to the meaning of the floating head! I was happy to be carried along by the writing though.

Ali Smith has left me here thinking. If I could put what it is I‘m thinking into words, I would. Art, nature, politics, plastics, messaging, googling, Dickens maybe, and Psyche, which happens to vaguely tie in to the Shakespeare I‘m reading through Eros/Cupid, but also Shakespeare too. And, of course, relationships. She always seems to leave me just maybe following by grasping a thin fragile thread.

{over the phone}
Her father is saying he has never forgotten how much it mattered to her and that he‘s phoned her because he thought she‘d like to know what he‘s just read, today, in today‘s paper —
she can hear him shaking the paper about down the phone to get to the right page —

————-

This random inconveniently-timed parental phone call just made me smile.

Beautifully written but with largely unsympathetic characters. Felt like looking into a brief window of people's lives. Not an easy read.

Not that they should be compared, but this is so far a heck of a lot more fun than Plutarch. I just started today.

If this was just a story about family + relationships it would be beautifully drawn novel abt 2 diff srs who share so much but clash at the drop of a hat, iris taking sophia to the cinema bookended with sophia slipping into her sisters bed are wonderful scenes but within the tale is a stunning piece of satire and picking apart of the stupidity of brexit and creation of immigrants as pariahs, and of course wordplay - see below quote of the book ⏬