Welcome to Litsy!

I've read 23 or so from this week's #threelistthursday

3 that left an impression:
🩵 Love Medicine
🩵 King Lear
🩵 In the Time of Butterflies

3 on the TBR:
🩵 The Inheritance of Loss
🩵 Kindred
🩵 Invisible Man

1 Confession:
I loathe Hemingway. 🫣😂

#tlt @dabbe

A gem I picked up at my library‘s used book sale. I find Erdrich‘s writing beautiful and heartbreaking. I feel a real connection to Native American culture and Erdrich is one of my favorite authors.

I've gifted this book to so many people. I just love her books.

#aboutabook #yougifted

Debut book by Louise Erdrich, who is a Native American Author, who I discovered through #AuthorAMonth @Soubhiville

#BookBinge #DebutByIndigenousAuthor

@AlwaysBeenALoverOfBooks @Eggs

It‘s Erdrich so I‘m pretty sure I couldn‘t give it anything other than a pick. That being said, I do so wholeheartedly. Of course it‘s well written. It‘s also a compelling story about the small moments in life, the ways in which people connect with each other and/or don‘t, how some days all you can do is live, and how some days you can‘t do anything but get yourself in trouble. This is one I‘ll read again.

Commute downtown requires something a little more portable than the chunkster I‘m currently reading so Erdrich it is!

#OutAndAbout #ReadingOnTheTrain

WOW! What a month! While I didn‘t accomplish all the reading I planned, I did great! And I even added a cookbook to my list (obsessed!!!). #SheSaid #AuthorAMonth #PemberLittens #AuldLangSpine

PS: #LittensLoveRomance don‘t waste your time with the next Covens of Eaton Falls. It has the same issues we complained about, which is a shame bc the premise is good! Very disappointing.

I @Soubhiville forgot to post my #AuthorAMonth read for January. I finished it last week. And I really liked it. I think I might have to add more Louise Erdrich to my TBR. I like finding new to me authors. Thanks @Soubhiville
#AAM

There is no way I will be able to put into words how much I enjoyed this. This is a story of belonging, of longing, of hope, and destruction. It‘s so sad, but it‘s so authentic, too. I cannot believe this is my first Erdrich. I used this for the #FlourishAndBlotts reading challenge prompt, “Angelina Johnson: BIPOC author.” (Erdrich is “a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, a federally recognized tribe of the Anishinaabe.”)

I‘m going in. This looks a little confusing. But we will see.
#AuthorAMonth #aam @Soubhiville

For my second #authoramonth read I moved from Erdrich‘s latest book to her first. It was also the first book of hers I read but, since that was back in college, it was almost like reading it again for the first time. This novel told in interconnected stories about overlapping lives sparked my love for Erdrich and revisiting it made it easy to see why.

This was Erdrich‘s 1984 debut, a novel in stories and it put her on the literary map. Full of heart and pathos and featuring the lives, loves, and trials of the extended Kashpaw, Pillager, Nanapush and Lamartine families on and around Chippewa reservation in N. Dakota.

#RememberingJenny In 2020 Jenny took part in the Erdrich Medicine Readalong on Instagram. I spent many happy hours in the Reading Envy pub and thought of her while reading this.

Very much a character-driven work, containing hints of her even better works to come. I thoroughly enjoyed this look at the Nanapush, Kashpaw, and Pillager families.

Being home sick from work has the advantage of giving me more reading time. 😊

#bookmail This was my Indigenous-owned bookstore purchase from July 4th. 💖

This was far more lyrical than I expected - even dreamy at times. Maybe not my favorite of hers, but definitely a read that I enjoyed.

This was a multi-generational tale that I mostly enjoyed. The story ebbed and flowed a lot. There were so many characters that even with the help of a family tree I would get a little confused at times. I would‘ve liked some of the characters to have a little more depth. The two featured matriarchs were a little too close to the Madonna/Magdalene cliché, but I really like Indigenous literature so there were aspects that still resonated.

New (to me) print book to dig in to! LOVED her newest, the Night Watchman. This is a bit older.

In the midst of a busy weekend of meetings, I got to visit Birch Bark, the bookstore owned by Louise Erdrich, where I purchased a signed copy of Love Medicine. It was a wonderful little bookstore!

What a fantastic debut novel! It has linking stories from different Ojibwe people in different generations, but not only do they tell a shared story, they interlink with the books I already read - Tracks and Four Souls - even though those books were written later. I did read the 1993 revised edition.

“I thought love got easier over the years so it didn‘t hurt so bad when it hurt, or feel so good when it felt good. I thought it smoothed out and old people hardly noticed it. I thought it curled up and died...Now I saw it rear up like a whip and a lash. She loved him. She was jealous. She mourned him like the dead."

This felt more like a series of linked short stories than a novel. Although there are many common circumstances between the two families joined by marriages and adoptions, there is no overarching plot binding the different accounts. It doesn't need one: each chapter stands on its own- the writing can be dreamy, comic, or tragic, and it builds to intense places. Erdrich is 3/3 for me, and I can't wait to follow these characters into other novels.

⭐️4/5
Complex story line that follows one Native American family‘s lives. With the intricate web of relationships between characters that can be hard to follow, this story requires some attention to follow. However, the stories that are shared are moving and leave you pondering.

I love Erdrich so I was easily convinced to give this book a try. She tackles love and conflict in family, love, politics, history and more. Her style of writing is so unique, and her descriptions always pull me in. I recommend this book and the rest of the series as a fun and intriguing read.

This is a family saga that takes place mostly on a Chippewa reservation in ND. Each chapter is narrated by a different member of the Nunapush/Lamartine or Kashpaw families. We learn of the past, their hopes, struggles, dreams, talents, and weaknesses. It is about love and grief and kindness with a touch of revenge and despair. #1001books #nativelit #diversereads #familysaga

Seven day FB challenge pick.

#fiercefeb #goodmorningheartache

Louise Erdrich broke my heart about four times in this book and she started right in the first chapter. It was my first time reading her work and I loved it. A family saga of the Kashpaws and Lamartines most of the time but with each chapter almost a short story from a different person‘s perspective. The writing is phenomenal 😍

🌟🌟🌟 I didn't like the pace of the book. There were great chapters and then when the chapter was over so was my interest. Descriptions were amazing. I will try this author again.

Part of my order has arrived.

"Gerry's problem, you see, was he believed in justice, not laws."

Dinner is cooking. Time for a beverage and a book.

Starting this now, if I can read around Alabama. #popsugarreadingchallenge #Alabamaslife

Couldn't get enough Erdrich in 2017. I read 9 of her books. I'll probably devour the rest this year. Toril Moi wrote in a recent book review: 'In his 1925 essay “Notes on the Novel,” Spanish critic José Ortega y Gasset, in his deeply non-modernist way, argues that a good novel has to create a world. The writer‘s world-creating powers immerses the reader in the book‘s universe and makes us forget our own.' Erdrich definitely has this superpower.

Went to to the bookstore. Looked for a copy of Love Medicine and didn‘t see one. Went to the basement of the store and found Julie Murphy‘s first book which is the only I haven‘t read of hers. Looked through the used books and found LM for $6.50. Got home and realized the Julie Murphy book is signed!

I like the quote, but I love how the old books look!❤️

Beautiful prose and a nice dose of magical realism. This is a book with a lot of heart. It's going on my favorites shelf for sure.

This was one of my #fivestarpredictions. I started it tonight so let's see if I was right!

I generally don't buy books so if I'm spending money, I'm expecting a lot. These are a few of my #fivestarpredictions that I bought at full price.

"As time went by she broke, little by little, into someone whose shoulders sagged when she thought no one was looking, a woman with long ragged nails and hair always growing from its beauty-parlor cut."

I really enjoyed the bookstore at Wall Drug in South Dakota!

#junebookbugs #indigenousauthors

Some #indigenousauthors from my shelves.

I am so glad to have finally read Erdrich's first novel that is more like a compilation or patchwork of short stories centered around two Chippewa families over multiple generations. It touches on so many themes and issues. Each section stands alone but it is stronger in its connectedness. I won't forget June, Marie, Lulu, Nestor and Lipsha. I highly recommend this novel. Even though it was written in the 80s, it is still fresh.

#feistyfeb #lovetitles

I just started my first book by Louise Erdrich. So far the writing is superb and the story is dark. I am enjoying it very much! Does anyone have any other Native American authors that they would recommend?

About to start this Louise Erdrich novel. I've only read Round House by her. I thought it was fabulous. Anyone read this one?

Here's my poor baby (pictured with the book I'm reading) before we leave for the vet! He's getting his urine retested/checked after that scare two weeks ago. Hopefully he's all better now! Wish me luck getting him there! Haha #catsofLitsy

So much me...