Welcome to Litsy!

I've not had much reading time the last couple of weeks. Friday morning treat is some quiet time with my second Donal Ryan novel 🫶

This book got a bit of a hammering from our Bookclub last night. We all thought it started off with promise ,but many thought , including me, that too much happened , too fast , too many characters , not enough substance , in the end , not a believable story. His first book, The Spinning Heart , is brilliant. His prose is always beautiful.

I‘ve started this one for our IRL Bookclub… I did love his book The Spinning Heart , this story is starting out promising too 🤞🏻
Opening line… ‘ All the light left Paddy Gladney‘s eyes when his daughter disappeared ; all the gladness went from his heart. ‘ 💔

No one could ever deny that Donal Ryan writes beautiful sentences. It‘s such a cliche to talk about lyrical prose in a review, but in fact you could pick up this book and turn to almost any page and find a passage that rises and falls like music. I loved every second I spent on Ryan‘s paragraphs.

https://sophronisba.com/2022/01/25/strange-flowers-style-and-substance/

All the light left Paddy Gladney's eyes when his daughter disappeared; all the gladness went from his heart. #FirstLineFridays #morningreads

She wants to shout at him, Wake up, wake up, the world is hard and it rushes on regardless of your heart, and people never take the shape you want them to, people are stubborn about that, about being themselves, even when they're trying to be someone else. No one can hide forever.

#morningreads

Reading Donal Ryan's Strange Flowers, and I am once again struck by how beautifully Ryan writes. He deserves to be better known in the States. #morningreads

Beautifully written, multigenerational saga set in 70s rural Ireland, centered around a family and the disappearance and return of the daughter. Gorgeous lyrical language, themes of faith, loss, identity and family bonds are dealt with sensitively. Set at a time when prejudice ran deep and differences were judged with suspicion, I fell in love with this family as they dealt with all life threw at them. Not read this author before, but will again.

Not too bad. I love his writing but there were a lot of topics/themes inside that just made it okay overall for me.

I've been waiting awhile to read this one! Fingers 🤞 it's another great Donal Ryan. I need a really great book to read right now.

Oh, this is a lovely quiet ache of a book! It's sad, for sure, but it's that sweet sadness that's almost more of a pleasure than a brighter happiness is. It'd be a bit desolate, but for the ample, unstoppable love the characters have for one another (and that their author clearly has for them, too). Beautiful! A new author to me, I will definitely look for his previous books.

Set in Ireland, in the 1970s, Moll Gladney goes missing, then five years later reappears without really informing her parents what happened or why she left in the first place. The answer to these questions get answered through the book, so I can't say anything more without spoiling the story. A moving story! #books

A quiet, sad, beautifully written novel. Full of secrets that impact on many lives, but the drama is very gently dealt with and just leaves you with a sad little ache. You feel for all the characters.
Won‘t be everyone‘s cup of tea but I loved it ❤️

#currentread
Started this one this morning. Writing is gorgeous and no serial killers as yet.. I have finished work until 5 January, I have turned the phone off. It will no doubt take a couple of days to disconnect!

Ain‘t that the truth.
The writing in this book is beautiful. I‘ve reread many paragraphs.

“Skin was only there to make a body waterproof, and the colour of it mattered not.”

My #DecemberTBR consists of this pile of physical books, plus the two Kerry Greenwood ones which are both on Audio, and the Dickens and Debbie Macomber which are on Kindle. I‘ve been averaging around 14 books a month so this is doable.... The tagged book I only have a 64-page sample of, the full book is not out until August next year, though ARCs will no doubt be circulating sooner.

#HollyJollyReading
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @OriginalCyn620