Welcome to Litsy!

Looking forward to #OutstandingOctober readathon! The weather has been fabulous the past 2 weeks in the Inland NW of USA so little time spent reading and little time w/ decent cell or internet. Need to catch up on #Scarathlon for #TeamBOOklovers! Need to read tagged—I‘m sucked in just 10 pages in! Want to finish Don‘t Fear the Reaper, Silver Nitrate and Beware the Woman. Weather is changing, time@for some cozy reading. @Andrew65

I read this a month ago for book club and I keep forgetting to post about it! There were moments in which I connected with this but I felt the most interesting part of the novel was the “lacuna”, the part that was left out.
My least favorite of Kingsolver‘s that I‘ve read and doesn‘t hold a candle to Demon Copperhead. Frieda Kahlo is an interesting secondary character, and I did like the setting but I cannot recommend this one.

I couldn‘t do it @Kshakal 😂 I kept trying to pick it back up, to get at least 35% in before bailing but I just had no interest in forcing myself through that. After doing a quick search online, I saw quite a few people felt this book was missing something and didn‘t feel as bad bailing. It just feels too disjointed and apathetic for me.

Welcome to the time of year where all my photos will be taken on my very messy balcony. My SO picked my next #blindbook and it‘s a reread of The Lacuna. I read this book about 4 years ago and just remember being confused for most of it. After reading the first 30 pages, I can see why. Going to try to be intentional with slow reading this time to try to cancel some of that

#ManicMonday
📕Lucuna
✍🏻 Jhumpa Lahiri
📺 Love Boat
🎤 Lady Gaga
🎵Lose Yourself, Locked Out of Heaven, Lovely Day

Hi @Allylu 👋

Just finished The Lacuna - 4⭐️, which was almost a chunkster at 600+pages. I've started Storyland and hope to finish both these remaining titles by the end of the month.

#SuperSeptember readathon
@Andrew65

#SuperSeptember #Readathon

Not doing too great on reaching my intended goals of finishing these 3 books. I will be happy to finish the tagged by the 25th and start the other two, to finish by the end of month.

@Andrew65

Starting The Lacuna today amongst planning October's reads!! 🎃😍👻😍🎃

#SuperSeptember readathon goals are
**Finish the tagged to complete 2 lines on #bookspinbingo
**Read my #bookspin - The Way to the Sea by Caroline Crampton and #doublespin - Storyland by Amy Jeffs

Anything else will be mood reading and a bonus 😊

@Andrew65 @TheAromaofBooks

This would have been my 3rd ever (I think – maybe 2nd) DNF if I wasn‘t reading it for a challenge. As I do with books I‘m not liking, I ended up skimming, hoping something would catch my attention, but it didn‘t happen. Sadly, this is an author I usually like.

I really enjoyed this historical fiction book not only for the decades it covered but also because of the inclusion of so many well known historical figures like Diego Rivera and Frida whom the main character was friends with as well as for the mention of Zelda Fitzgerald and her death. I love that Kingsolver included even the darker aspects of US history like the Japanese internment. #AuthorAMonth

You can never go wrong with Kingsolver. Wonderful coming-of-age story of a Mexican-American boy during the Mexican revolution. Lots of good stuff about Frida Khalo and Diego Rivera. Inspired me to read a book on Frida Khalo for our book club. Highly recommend this one. I always love how her titles have 2 meanings.

Barbara Kingsolver is a talented writer. I was more interested in the historical characters & depictions at first than with the narrator, which seemed to be by design. The detail and sensory appeal in this story; the connections between Mexican, U.S., & international history; the inventive layers of storytelling; and the shifting notions of identity all work together seamlessly through meditations on art. My first Kingsolver read won‘t be my last.

We are doing a last winter retreat on the lake in northern Michigan. I‘m pretty sure the owners of the house snooped my GoodReads account and curated my perfect bookshelf. It has many of my favorite books and authors, including Joan Bauer, whom I never see people talk about.

Are you kidding me - the MC is a friend to Frida Khalo! Of course this is a pick for me!

...I change out the books on my living room shelf every 6 weeks or so to match the season. This is my ode to Back-to-School. Did I read this book to match the shelf - why yes I did! ...Oh, and if you are a fan of Kansas City - it‘s game day! Go Chiefs!!

I stopped by our Little Free Library on my lunch break. It was a hot mess with books going in every which way. Being a good LFL stewardess, I organized it. There were tons of newly added books and lot that have been taken since my last visit 2 weeks ago! I brought the tagged book home for my TBR shelf.

It's Barbara Kingsolver so it isn't BAD, but I put it aside for a week and wasn't in any great hurry to pick it back up. Despite having Frida Kahlo and Trotsky as secondary characters (and it can't be easy, fictionalising historical figures) it didn't quite come alive. I think the problem is Shepherd: he's a nice enough chap but comes across as so detached from his own story that I wonder how to goodness he's meant to hold the reader's interest.

Loved, loved this book. 🇲🇽

#setinMexico
#biblioMaynia
#cincodemayo
#magicalmay

A timely quote from many decades ago. The College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Illinois is to host a unique collection of works by Frida Kahlo this summer. (Featured on storefronts there last Fall.) I hope it can happen. I was delighted to also see her painted on the wall of a Mexican restaurant recently. I thoroughly enjoyed this book #aboutanartist.
#MagnificentMarch @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @OriginalCyn620

Almost missed this book sale yesterday . Now I hear today and tomorrow all remaining books are free!
It‘s 12 miles away, would you return?

When The Lacuna came out I got to hear Barbara Kingsolver talk about writing it & she signed my book! Reading it sparked my Frida fandom.
🇲🇽 Oops just realized I‘m a day ahead for
#Mexico
#letstraveljuly
@OriginalCyn620
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Much of this book was set #downinmexico - I loved it!

#wanderingjune

This is a tricky one to rate and review. For the first 2/3 I was not enjoying it, not really following what was going on and while I could appreciate Kingsolver's beautiful writing, the story just wasn't doing it for me. Then, it all came together and I felt like shouting “Yes!“ during some of the passages. So to round it off I land in the middle. Better to go out with a bang than have a good start and then fall flat. I still love Kingsolver.

I loved the first half. His childhood was fascinating, esp in the boys school then Mexico with Frieda and Trotsky! Loved it! Then the second half dragged a bit for me. ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

I adored the first half of this book, enjoyed the third quarter but grew (a little bit) impatient and bored with the last quarter.

However I‘d still highly recommend this book overall. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I adored the first half of this book, enjoyed the third quarter but grew (a little bit) impatient and bored with the last quarter.

However I‘d still highly recommend this book overall. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I‘m nearly halfway through and loving it so far! How are you getting on @Caroline2 ?

I‘m diving in ladies....! Exciting!! 😯 @TrishB @Cinfhen

This book was EPIC! I am in awe of Barbara Kingsolver. She made the decades of history fly by. So many famous people graced these pages and I was enthralled. “The past is all we know of the future” Using the premise of diary entries and correspondences 500 years of Mexican history is beautifully recorded and shared to create this powerful story of friendship, censorship, art and politics! I LOVED it!!! #politicalIntrigue #Booked2019

500 pages in and I can‘t put this book down! I‘m completely engrossed. The amount of research and historical detail is incredible. What begins as an overview of Mexico‘s glorious early days soon becomes a passionate story of Frida Kahol, Diego Rivera & Lev Trotsky told through the eyes of an unforgettable character, Harrison Shepherd ( a mix between Owen Meany & Cyril Avery) Just as good as Poisonwood Bible. I‘m hooked!!!! Images from Google

Dear Barbara Kingsolver, Please don‘t disappoint me!!! Your 670 page tome is calling to me on this sunny Friday ☀️Taking a break from the dragons and “fair folk” that hang out around the Invisible Library 🐉🧚🏻‍♀️

#luck #quotsymar19 @TK-421

⭐️3/5 I didn‘t love this like I hoped. I found it hard to get into and didn‘t understand what it was about until I was almost finished with it.

I‘m constantly torn between my strong feminist ideals and wanting to just be a trophy wife so I can sit around and read all day with no responsibilities.

I‘m supposed to be cleaning but not even my audiobook can tear me away from The Lacuna and to my responsibilities today.

💕♥️💕♥️💕♥️💕💖💖
Honestly. SO MUCH LOVE for this audiobook!!
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
I loved every moment of the 19 hours and 15 minutes spent listening to it.

Since I‘ve discovered I can only read so much War and Peace in a day, throwing this into the mix to help me survive my double shifts!

I have been enjoying this audiobook immensely! Narrated by the author and with music sprinkled throughout, this has been an excellent and sweeping story!

Epic. Explores massive global events through a highly intimate lens.

Written in 2009. Set in 1946. #timewarp to reading it 2019.
#MusicalNewYear @vivastory @Cinfhen
“When anything happens,the commentator has to speak without a moment‘s pause for gathering wisdom. Falsehood and insanity are preferable to silence... The talkers are rising above the thinkers.”
(Here‘s us, dreaming of a return to sense.)

#friyaintro @howjessreads
1. Transport, reading minds is too scary for me.
2. The Lacuna by Kingsolver about Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo
3. To say YES to more social events instead of holding up and reading
4. Flowers with Olivia Colman
5. Got it 👍💕✌🏻

The Lacuna
#quotsyjan19 @TK-421 #9process
...pan dulces made with wheat-flour dough. Puffy and soft with a grit of coarse sugar on top, filled with pineapple, sweet and tart from the oven‘s wood smoke. ..pan dulce is no easy trick. The vanilla has to be from Papantla. The flour is ground in a stone metate.

🎉 I‘m about to see Barbara Kingsolver in Seattle. I fell in love with her back in graduate school. (That was the ‘90s.) 🎉

Every once in a while, I come across a book that I don't want to see end. Of course I want the well written conclusion, but also I dread the closing of the book. For me, this was one of those. It was beautiful and tragic at the same time, full of the prose that Barbara Kingsolver is known for. "The Lacuna" will stick with me, much like "The Poisonwood Bible" has. ??????

"If you're standing in the manure pile, it's somebody's job to mention the stink. Those congressmen are saying we have to call it a meadow of buttercups instead of a cesspool."

Found this rather fitting after the shit show that was America today. #BelieveSurvivors #IBelieveHer

"A novel! Why do you say this won't liberate anyone? Where does any man go to be free, whether he is poor or rich or even in prison? To Dostoyevsky! To Gogol!"

So much truth in these words! I often read to escape my own thoughts. It distracts me from the chronic pain I have and gives me space to relax again. ?