Welcome to Litsy!

For all the Margaret Laurence fans, The Stone Angel is featured on the most recent episode of Backlisted. Highly recommend! @vivastory @batsy @LeahBergen @BarbaraBB #manawakans https://www.backlisted.fm/episodes/203-margaret-laurence-the-stone-angel

Above the town, on the hill brow, the stone angel used to stand.
#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

A successful #roll100 month! It‘s interesting at both at 17 were about fascism. My favorite was The Stone Angel, but I also enjoyed What She Ate, too. Woman was a bail, and I didn‘t attempt Arsonists‘.

May‘s #roll100 is brought to you by #ALSpine partner recs. The tagged was on @vivastory ‘s list last year (miss you!) and Azadi was not on @Emilymdxn ‘s list, but her review a couple of years ago made me pick it up. Red Pill was a #tob pick I never read. May should be an exciting month!

My last title for the Summer edition of #Booked2022 Set in a Canadian Province

Spanning the late 1800s to the middle of the 20th century, this is the story of an uncompromising and bitter woman. The story at times felt almost biblical in how Hagar Currie Shipley is unable to love or appreciate those who love her most. It was frustrating to read at times - Hagar is often her own worst enemy- but it always felt real.

Had a night away in a lodge with my husband as a birthday treat and finished this wonderful book.
This is the best book I‘ve read this year 🙌😍 It was one of those experiences where I‘m aware of loving the way Laurence writes even while I‘m reading it. Astonishing too to feel I was the protagonist Hagar, I shared her regrets and weaknesses, when we‘re truly so different. Laurence almost performs magic to put you inside Hagar‘s head. 🔽

May #BookSpin plans! Overall the theme this month for me is catch up 😅

My #BookSpin this month is Stone Angel again, so I'll definitely try to get to it this time. And my #doublespin is the 3rd book in a series, books 1-2 were pulled in March and April. So I'll try to catch up that series completely.

Thanks @TheAromaofBooks !

A picture with my elderly Siamese, Basil, felt appropriate for this review. He‘ll be 18 soon and is also raging against the dying of the light #catsoflitsy

This was my first Laurence & it‘s going to take me awhile to process. Can‘t say I loved it, but there‘s something very powerful about reading a first person account of dying of old age. Rightfully uncomfortable & stifling.

Sidenote: Hagar reminded me of Tony‘s mom, Livia, in The Sopranos 😆

#12booksof2021 #8thbookof2021 #August

This is a real #blameitonLitsy - a Canadian classic gifted to me by @LeahBergen and buddy read with @BarbaraBB and @squirrelbrain Such a good book.
@Andrew65

#BookReport 33/21

Another good week. The tagged one was my favorite but I also loved some stories in The Hidden Light of Objects.

90 year old Hagar is nearing the end of her life, her body and her mind are failing, but she is still very much the proud, wilful person she has always been. Remembering events from her long life, she begins to see what that pride and will have cost her. She is an extraordinary character who I will not forget in a hurry. Thanks for the buddy read Barbara and Helen. Thanks Leah for gifting me this wonderful book.

“Odd. Only now do I see that what‘s going to happen can‘t be delayed indefinitely.”

In her refusal to live in a home for the elderly and the wish to hold on to her own independence, 90+ years old Hagar is as rebellious as she has been her whole life. A life that she now revisits to keep the future at bay. Hers hasn‘t been easy and she hasn‘t been the best mother. ⬇️⬇️

(Pic: Kea, Greece)

Hagar isn‘t a likeable character at all but, bizarrely you do grow to like her as well as admire her as she looks back over her life, whilst resisting being moved to a home.

I loved this and want to read more in the series. Thanks for sending me this @LeahBergen and for instigating #laurencemania across Litsy. 😁 Thanks also to @BarbaraBB and @CarolynM for the #buddyread - I‘m sorry I didn‘t post more as I inhaled it in two days whilst camping!

Even in a world where women have more options this quote strikes me as very real.

I've made a start on our buddy read @BarbaraBB and @squirrelbrain Two chapters in and I'm enjoying it.

Last minute camping trip for the weekend. Hoping to find the time to start this book for our #buddyread @BarbaraBB @CarolynM .

We‘re only an hour and a half from home so still in Yorkshire - we have a little bit of sunshine but it‘s rather wild and windy - not like your lovely pics from Greece, Barbara!

Coincidentally while packing for a big move I found this: my response to The Stone Angel from 1991. (Sidenote: at what point does one throw out essays from high school and college?! 😬)
At 18, I claimed Hagar's strength was her greatest asset and greatest weakness. Now I am less sure and more forgiving. (Absolutes are easier at 18). Hagar is strong but she needed to be to survive. She also wasn't given many other options. Laurence doesn't 👇

Another beautiful passage from Laurence! I'm still going @vivastory just slower than I'd like!

Look what just arrived @LeahBergen !! I see from your note that you sent it at the beginning of April 😮 - it‘s been on a looong journey!

I‘ve not read the book (not even heard of it - is that really bad?! 😳) and it looks fascinating - gorgeous cover too. I love the personalised squirrel bookmark and the maple chocolate isn‘t going to last long in this house! 😁

Thank you so much for these lovely gifts! 😘

I needn't have worried. This book is as wonderful at 48 as it was at 18. (Canlit with Ms Blok!) Maybe better? The writing is excellent. I could quote a line from each page. Here's a bold comparison but Shakespeare is coming to mind. Hagar's flaw, that fierce stubbornness that leads to such folly, feels tragic in a Shakespearean way. Maybe she'll get some catharsis. I'm not far, only about 50 pages in.
And apparently there's a film. @vivastory

Ok Scott, I'm going in! Full disclosure, I would have said Margaret Laurence was my all-time, favourite writer when I was 20ish. I read ALL her novels. I loved them all...and I haven't read her since. So rereading her comes with some excitement and fear. Will I still love it? @vivastory But if memory serves, Hagar is an undeniably good character.

Why yes. Yes I did put glasses on The Stone Angel.
As I finished this I realized i had read another accidental #readcanada entry!!! #manitoba.

The reason for this re-read was because we decided to downsize and bought a sweet little stone cottage. The people we bought it from have named it Stone Angel; inspired by this book. Strange choice for an homage. Any interpretations welcome!

The house has a “home of homes” vibe. 💚

A good book, although a bit heavier, description-wise, than I've been used to these days. That said, it resonated with me personally because my own grandma is about the same age as Hagar and we are facing similar challenges to make sure she can stay independent as long as possible. This theme makes it a timely book.
#BookSpinBonanza book 4

"Above the town, on the hill brow, the stone angel used to stand."
USED TO? Was it a Weeping Angel?? ???#DontBlink

This is a #CanadianClassic and one that was on the curriculum when I was in high school. I remember quite enjoying it. Interesting side note: I haven‘t opened this book in years and when I did, I found these retrieval request notes, probably from my school library! #GratefulReads #readinhighschool

Thank you @LeahBergen I cannot tell you how delighted I am by this little taste of Canada! The books sound great and I love the Flames swag - the stubby cooler will definitely get some use over summer. I am very grateful, my generous friend.😘

#7days7covers #7covers7days #covercrush. Day 2. @andrew61 want to join in? Post a cover for 7 days no explanation. Tag someone else each day.

I loved this book from the perfect first paragraph to the last sentence. Dying (though she doesn‘t realize it) Hagar Shipley looks back on the entirety of her life growing up in Manawaka, Canada. A new favorite!

It‘s in Hagar‘s nature to be a holy terror and she is self aware enough to know and accept it.

This classic Canadian novel is an unsentimental look at the life of a fierce uncompromising prairie woman and aging out of independence.

This is the reward when it finally hits 80 again after 6 months and the winter we‘ve endured!

And when my grading is done!

Who doesn‘t have one of these grumpy older women in their lives! Sad, poignant tale about Hagar‘s life and her coming to the end of life. I completely loved her in this, despite the fact that she isn‘t loveable at all.
Thanks @LeahBergen - it‘s only taken me since last June to read (which isn‘t that bad actually!).

I hated this book with a fiery passion when I read it in school. I hated this book with a passion when I read it for the #readharder challenge.

Time for #NovemberTBR! Lots left over from October (and August... and September...) and a couple new pre-2018 TBRs in my never-ending quest to #readmyowndamnbooks plus my #girlybookclub book and my #mummydaughterbookclub book plus a couple #readharder challenge books. There‘s no way I‘m getting through them all but I‘m gonna give it a try!!

Sick in bed, but have two of my three favorite things with me: a book and #Hester. The third, #sancho, is snoring in his own (heated) bed.

#dogsoflitsy #sickday

#sangria #booksandbooze #outsidereading

90 degrees in #Phoenix

Found a local #coffeeshop to spend some time in until my flight home...and interrupted #craft club!

#hotel nights

#Reading while #flying

Someone needs a #haircut.

#Hester #dogsoflitsy

#Hester gets the corner of my bed while we both listen to her old geezer brother #Sancho snoring from his heated bed. #dogsoflitsy #petsoflitsy

Laurence's Hagar completely reminded me of my own grandmother; two strong, proud women full of gumption saying what they mean, and being exactly who they always have been. 4 / 5 ⭐

I can't believe I missed yesterday's #Canada prompt! My shelves are chock a' block with Canada!

Here's a small selection of Canadian classics 🇨🇦❤ The only one I haven't read (yet) is The Stone Angel, which I picked up from a Little Free Library earlier this week. I absolutely love The Diviners, so I feel I should read the rest of the Manawaka series.

@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @vkois88
#AugustisaTrip

A moving character portrait of 90-year old Hagar Shipley. The novel explores aging in a very real way as Hagar struggles to maintain her dignity and come to terms with the choices she‘s made in her life. Her reflections were honest and tho she could be infuriating and blind to her own faults - these facts also made her very believable. Thanks for the red @LeahBergen #booked2018 #mcover70