Welcome to Litsy!

I'm at odds about this book. On one hand it is gently interweaving multiple story threads with patience and care.
On the other hand it includes lines like this:
"His penis was more narrow than wide, more O Henry bar than chocolate slab, more spring rhubarb than autumn gourd, more canoe than motorboat." ?????
Which might be one of THE worst sentences I've ever read in a novel.
So...a real toss-up right now. ?

Happy Caturday from my favourite napping pals!
Started this 2007 Giller Prize winner today (for #192025 natch). One of those works of Canlit that everyone seems to have read except for me. Decidedly mixed reviews on Litsy including a definitive pan of Hay's writing style by @Lindy 🤨🙂 whose opinion I respect. So we shall see...

This was boring. There were a couple of mildly interesting things that happened. But, overall, pretty slow and boring. And I didn‘t see one likable thing about Dido, who seemed to just go back and forth between the men. In fact, I don‘t think I really liked very many of the characters… maybe Gwen, but then I skimmed so much of the book in the end, so hard to say if she really was likable

There is some really beautiful writing in this book and I grew quite fond of a couple of the characters, but the story moved at such a glacial pace that I struggled to pick it up or stay engaged. 3⭐️

This was my #BookSpin pick for January and my #NorthwestTerritories read for #ReadCanada!

My #BookSpinBingo board is ready to go! The tagged book is my #BookSpin pick, while Me Talk Pretty One Day is my #DoubleSpin pick (and a #NewYearWhoDis read)!

A few shades of #greencovers for today. #SleightheShelves

@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @OriginalCyn620

#greencovers #MarchMadness @Eggs

"The studio was connected by a picture window to master control, which was connected in the same way to the announce booth and the editing booth beyond that. She could see the length of the little station and into the hallway, too. And thus she was inducted into the visibility and invisibility of radio, the intimacy and the isolation."

#SpiritoftheRadio #TheSpiritofRadio #TimbitTunes
@Cinfhen

This 2007 winner of the Giller Prize is set in the mid 1970s in Yellowknife (in the Northwest Territories of Canada.) It details the lives of the people working in the local radio station and then follows four of them as they go on a canoe trip to trace the route of John Hornby in The Barrens. I'm glad I came across this book, enjoyed reading it, but will have to knock one star off my eventual rating for atrocious overuse of foreshadowing.

This has been in my #tbr list for a few years now. Yukon. Northern Canada. Infinite sky. A voice on the air.
#winterwonderland #walkingintheair
@TrishB @Cinfhen

Hay has an incredible way of writing wholly realistic characters and situations. The work and personal dynamics between the characters in this book were awe-inspiring to read about. So realistic.

As always, the Canadian place/locale is just as much of a character as the people. Great ending!

Now presents the dilemma, "What Do I Read Next?" ??

These are three #CanLit titles I've narrowed it down to - could use them for my #20BooksofSummer but also the #ReadingWomen challenge (translation, set in Russia for two of them)

Which would you choose?

When you should really go to sleep but you only have an hour left of your audiobook...

#riotgrams Day 24 #rainbowbookstack
With thanks to my preschooler for reminding me of the correct colour progression (who says tv can't teach you anything?!)

Well written character driven story. Very slow paced (glacial even), but with enough foreshadowing, hints and innuendos to keep you on your toes. Beautiful and harsh like the North. Savour with a hot beverage on a cold, clear winter day, or in May.

(Excuse my poor photo editing skills.)

"Ralph, a man of books and pockets, and pockets stretched out of shape with books".
.
I like Ralph. Even with his yellowed fingers from many years of smoking.

"They came down Franklin Avenue, named for the man who ate his boots, the explorer who managed to lose the lives of all one hundred and twenty-nine of his men in one of those foolhardy attempts to find the Northwest Passage. Proof to Harry that if your disaster was on a large enough scale, your incompetence would be forgiven."

"The enmity of newsmen is no small thing."

"We look so very different from the way we sound. It's a shock, similar to hearing your own voice for the first time, when you're forced to wonder how the rest of you comes across if you sound nothing like the way you think you sound. You feel dislodged from the old shoe of yourself."

#PhotoADayNov16 is challenging! I have books set in hamlets and villages, big cities, wilderness, multiple locations, at sea, domes on Mars. But small towns? I'm about to start this book, which as far as I can tell fits the description. #SetInaSmallTown

#FunFridayPhoto - A book set in a cold climate This is one of my favorite books ever, full stop. It centers around the people working at a small radio station in the Northwest Territories, Canada. There is nothing I can say that will do justice to the feelings I have for this story and these characters ❤️

Happy Canada Day to my fellow Canadian Litsyers! 🇨🇦🍁🇨🇦 I thought I would showcase my personal favorite Canadian author: Elizabeth Hay. She is, and forever will be, an auto-buy for me 👍🏻