Welcome to Litsy!

I don't often reread books 🤔😒 terrible I know, but l had to for my bookclub so l decided to reread this after 30 years ago and it was brilliant again !! I think l have changed a lot over the years yet the haunting themes of family, place, birth, death resonate as deeply as it did the first time. Books are magic and truly this one is! there is magical realism ; terror ; dreams die, characters fall but you stay with them., forever it seems.

Two families, the Pickles and the lambs, have had complicated years but the Lambs move into a Perth house inherited by Sam Pickles. This is a house haunted by its past so the subsequent 20 years up to 1964 find us watching the lives of parents + children as age catches up on them in this strange home. A captivating read in which character leap of the page so I was totally invested in what happens but with a strange ref to a real serial killer.

There‘s something about a chunky family saga that I love - following the ups and downs of multiple family member‘s lives over a generation or two. And this one has a wider cast of characters than most - two working class families with money troubles end up sharing a big old colonial “mansion” in a small town. Each family brings their own ghosts and brokenness and the house has some of its own too. Winton can really write and there are some ⬇️

Hi, hi! It's here, it's here. Thank you so much for this box of happiness and love, my friend. I am a novice when it comes to #ozfiction, hence, very excited to get to these. And, my winter has become so much more interesting now, because that's a beautiful mug to consume my daily dose(s) of coffee. Love the card and your sweet note - Merry Christmas, and a Happy 2021. 😘❤️🎈

@Rissreads

1) Melbourne, Australia
2) Cloudstreet
3)👇
4) Too many! The Burbs, Yellowbeard, A Fish Called Wanda, Nacho Libre, Young Frankenstein....the list goes on, just realised I must like comedies 😁
5) Friends, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, Poldark & Outlander
6)👇
7) Rainbow or if I have to choose only 1, teal
8) Biography or Historical Fiction
9) Cheeky Face Australia (my own business, I'm a face painter & balloon twister)
10) Cat, Dog & 2 Turtles

After reading Cloudstreet, then watching the miniseries, I've wanted to delve further into the mind of Tim Winton.
Loving watching interviews with him, learning more about him, his style and where he grew up in Western Aust.
Other books I've read of his are..
The Ryders and Scisson.
Also half of Shallows and The Boy Behind the Curtain.
I intend to keep hunting for more of his work either in hard copy or audiobook.
What a great Australian author!

Oh wowsers! Just finished this little beauty of a book.
This is definitely the best book I've read this year!
All the characters so dear & perfect in their impersonations & fragilities.
I feel like I've lived their 20 years in that house Cloudstreet. Watching them grow & grow old.
Winton has such a way with words it's like I'm reading poetry for much of it. I've underlined so much & loved the narration by Peter Hosking, bringing them all to life.

Loving this book atm!
Been readin it flat out like a lizard drinking!

I love all of the Aussie slang that's in this book. Even though my mum preferred us to speak the Queens English instead of short cutting words when we were kids, she also used quite a bit of Aussie slang in her speech, words like drongo, dag & strooth!
This book is sure bringing back memories of childhood for me!
Loving the mix of dysfunctional & hardworking families too.

Ready for my afternoon coffee and a biscuit paired with this awesome book, Cloudstreet!

Just started this book this morning as we enter another 6 week lockdown here in Melbourne, Australia.
Time to read in bed and make myself a fresh slow pressed juice, amongst daily chores, including tidying for a house inspection via photos instead of a walk through this time.

So far, I am right into this book already! I've heard good things 🙂

Another audiobook just came in last night. So that makes 3 Tim Winton books in a row on my list, hmmm I see a pattern...

I've just started Shallows recently. I'm enjoying it but I have had to rewind it a few times, due to lack of concentration I think.

Now that I don't have work I am not doing much driving to listen to my books, I might have to take up knitting again.

She suffered for her lifelong inability to be a man.

#bookhaul #bookgifts

I am very spoilt this week! It‘s like Christmas part two 😍

The lovely @Rissreads gifted me the mug and the two books in front - perfect timing as I have a new appetite for Australian writing after loving Too Much Lip. Thank you so much!

The pile of 5 books in the background is my book haul from the second hand bookshop and thrift shops 👍👍👍

So, I went a little overboard with the Folio Society Summer Sale. But, in all fairness, these volumes were a really good deal. And who doesn't need a little #foliolove from time to time? My order arrived today and it feels like #ChristmasinJuly. 🎄#foliofreak #bookoholic #bookhaul #sorrynotsorry

Classical Australian novel. Highly recommend 👍

A wonderful Australian saga that follows the life of #smalltownboy, Fish Lamb, and his family. It‘s a great read 👍

#wanderingjune

In between a soso and a pick but it edges into a pick. The writing was wonderful, closely observed and never cheesy, and I loved the originality and sense of place. I felt like I knew the setting and society so well even tho I don‘t know the first thing about Australia. Having said that, I found it difficult to keep track of who was who which made me enjoy it less (maybe that‘s my fault) and it took me a long time to get into it, so not perfect.

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

1. Too many! Tagged book, story of my teeth, Good Omens script book, progress of this storm. Really need to finish some of them as I dislike having multiple books going at once

2. Sapiens is the next ebook due back to the library

3. Recommended parable of the sower to my boyfriend yesterday

Happy weekend everybody! @moll wanna do your first weekend reads post??

I started this one while I was on holiday last year and never really got into it before I returned home. It has been sitting on my bookshelf since, just waiting to be picked up again, and this prompt reminded me that I should probably do just that.

Since the cover isn‘t any good to look at (thank you, dodgy copy found in Bali), have a picture that I took last Easter of a balloon and some #clouds 🎈☁️

#SpringIntoReading

1. Too many - Cloud Street, Waterlily by Kate Llewellyn , The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis.........
2. Sort of, straighten the doona and give it a shake
3. 24 C
4. Pickles and cheese sandwich
5. Hi to new Littens! Not sure how to tag!

@howjessreads #friYAYintro
Ps it‘s actually early Sunday morning here!

This was a particularly descriptive narrative at times. I adored some of the phrases, such as loveliness leading not always to love. I also found the characters, whilst nit entirely likeable, very readable and I felt sympathetic towards some of their plight. But not all.
I found some of it pretty hard going but this added to the quality of writing.

Really intrigued by the blurb on this book club choice.
I haven't read a great deal of Australian fiction but have totally appreciated those which I have come across.
This looks to cover an interesting section of the twentieth century which my previous reading as been American or European based.

It took me a while to start caring about the characters, but one by one they drew me in. I saw the end coming for a while, but it didn't matter. A family saga I'm glad I read 😊

Confession: I‘ve only ever read one Tim Winton book, and that was Cloudstreet. Do you have a book of his you love or would recommend?

A throughly immersive read which can leave you confused at times but also puts you right in the centre of the experience that the characters are going through. 5 stars

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ If, like me you are a Winton fan and have not read this. 1.You should be ashamed of yourself. 2. Drop everything and read it. The strength of the book lies in the characters. The resolve, determination and humour they find in the face of heartbreak, loss, poverty, is inspiring. I love the way he constructs words to capture the heavy Aussie slang more effectively. This truly is a Classic.

I love Tim Winton. 😊

Love the illustrations in this Cloud Street edition. They have a comic book style. 😊

Seems almost sacrilegious to be such a Winton fan and not to have read this. 😊

5⛤⛤⛤⛤⛤

An authentic portrait of post war life in Perth. Absolutely brilliantly told, it will make you laugh and cry and even a little bit sick every now and then.

@ReadingEnvy
#ReadingOnRoam

#FolioSociety sale! Also in my basket: A Traveller in Time and The Wit of Oscar Wilde..... I think I‘ll have to narrow it down further 😭

Merry Christmas from Australia, where it‘s too hot to wear Santa hats for more then a minute

“After they‘re dressed and gone, hurrying out into the daylit house with news for the world, their sudden love remains in the room, hanging like incense”

“You know boats. You can‘t steer if you‘re not goin faster than the current. If you‘re not under your own steam then yer just debris, stuff floatin.”

“Past emaciated glitter of creeks, into the heat ahead, the bluewhite nothing of distance, they travel.” #aussielit

It is finally cooling down! Cloudy this morning!

Following this FB thread/article closely because I love these too! https://www.google.ca/amp/s/mobile.nytimes.com/2017/08/01/books/review/match-boo... Any suggestions? Some I think of off the top:
Cloudstreet by Tim Winton. Wild Swans by Jung Chang. No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod. East of Eden by John Steinbeck. Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald.
(And on my summer list -Homegoing & The Brothers K)

A beautiful book from start to finish 💙

Not much #sunshine here today but Cloudstreet is full of Aussie sun, as was my recent read The Dry by Jane Harper (now on loan to my mum). Couldn't resist this daggy edition of Hemingway! #maybookflowers

Some #weather titles. I've not yet read Cloud Atlas or Shadow of the Wind. Feel free to comment on how wonderful they are! I can always use the inspiration.

#winteriscoming #aprilbookshowers

#setinyrtown Cloudstreet (1991) by Tim Winton is set in my town. It chronicles the lives of two working class Australian families who come to live together at 1 Cloud Street, in a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, over a period of twenty years, 1943 - 1963. It was the recipient of a Miles Franklin Award in 1992.

#recommendsday #dysfunctionalfamilies I read this about 20 years ago then again last year. It was as good the second time around. Also one if the few books I've read by an Australian author. Excellent ⭐️❤️📚