Welcome to Litsy!

I have to thank my work bookclub for this one!

A story of male friendship in two parts.
Youthful friendship marked by absent parents and a love of music. In the second half the friends reunite due to a tragedy. I loved the writing, the way the characters of the teenagers were so vividly drawn, the humour.

I'm looking forward to discussing with the group how the adult characters' partners were portrayed.

Finally got a dry day and time to read my book in the garden at work.

#MaleBonding #Manchester #WheresthePlaylist

Next up - bookgroup book that comes highly recommended.

❤️😭 a beautiful book about the friendship between Tully and James which captures one weekend in 1986 and a life-changing phone call 30 years later. I loved everything about this book from the music references to the setting (Glasgow) and the book was both funny and also made me cry more than once. 5🌟

I loved the parts about music and movies. 🙌🏻

#Bookspin @TheAromaofBooks

See. A day late @AmyG ! 😂
Tagged by @dabbe for @TheSpineView #Two4Tuesday
1. Flowers, but not red roses. It‘s not a holiday I celebrate (romantically) anymore.
2. Tagged. I haven‘t read it yet, but I think there‘s some platonic love in this one.

A stunner, suffused with pulsing life and love, in all their messy glory. And beautiful sentences that will break your heart.

This book had two halves. Like the soccer matches referred to in both. The first half is youthful & fun. The second is a middle aged reflection. The book begins with a trip to Manchester by a group Scottish boys on the cusp of adulthood. Their mission is to attend a music festival and have the time of their lives. Lots of laughs, alcohol,music and memories made. The second half is more much more somber & serious in tone. Like all our adult lives.

My emotions in chronological order while reading this book.
🤔 🙂😀😂🥳😁🤣 😮 😠😧🫣🥺😢 😭😭😭

A beautiful ode to friendship.

Feeling all the emotions.
“They say you know nothing at eighteen. But there are things you know at eighteen that you will never know again.”

“Morrissey came brandishing a license, a whole manner of permission, as if a new kind of belonging could be made from feeling left out, like nobody knew you as he did.”

“We didn‘t know it at the time, but it was also, for all of us, a tender goodbye, and we would never be those people again.”

Beautiful. The blurb says it all.

Thank you for literally putting this in my hand @Rissreads 🙏.

Finished reading this book about friendship whilst holidaying with beautiful friends in Jurien Bay, Western Australia. How precious is life? ❤️😭🌅

Apparently there is a reason I have been procrastinating on my list of favorite books read this year- this book needed one of the top slots. The story of friends first in their youth when weekends at a music festival are the most important things in the world and and later in life when being young seems so distant but the relationships with those who remember you as you once were are infinitely precious. This was a heartbreaker of a book.

First of all, don‘t judge me for reading gossip mags…! 🤣

Just saw this in Closer magazine… not sure if I could cope with watching it though. 😭😭😭 What do you think @TrishB ?

You may be able to watch it @MicheleinPhilly seeing as you can get BBC programmes; I‘m not sure if you can watch the BBC @CarolynM ?

“Make death proud to take us.” This book destroyed me, right where I am. The first half is set in 1986. A group of boys travel from a small town in Scotland to a music festival in Manchester. James and Tully bond over music, movies, and books. They agree to live a different life than their fathers. The second half is set in 2017. Those boys are now in their 50s. And it hits hard.

It's rdg grp on Wed + this is up for discussion. A bk about abt 2 yng men in Glasgow in 1986, on the cusp adulthood with v different family lives who head to Manchester for a weekend of music and living life. Cut to 2017 + Tully has something to tell his best friend Jimmy which changes their lives. V evocative of the 80's and the joy of being young, nails the feeling of aging, lost youth and friendship. Definitely a memorable and moving read.

25 Feb-9 Mar 22
The first part of this book was very nostalgic for me - friends in their early 20s make haphazard plans to attend a music festival and we are privy to the drunken chaos that ensues. The second part I am fortunately yet to encounter - the imminent and premature death of one of those friends, from a time when we thought we were immortal. The questions around love, debts of friendship and dying with dignity are examined beautifully.

This book is outstanding, the writing is exquisite!
Quotes:
They say you know nothing at 18. But there are things you know at 18 that you will never know again.‘
We came into Manchester like air into Xanadu. The place was a state of mind to us and we saw cascades of glitter in ordinary things.‘
Pure uninhibited joy the first half and utter devastation in the second half.
Thankyou @CarolynM for gifting it to me it‘s now one of my new favourites!

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️Carolyn, thank you so much for this gift! I have stacked the book after seeing it in your favourite reads of the year, and how wonderful it is to receive a copy from you! Thank you, and I also appreciate the pretty cleaning cloth, I should use it to wipe my bookshelves but then it‘s too pretty to use!
Happy 2022! @CarolynM

#12booksof2021 #5thbookof2021 #May

My no.1 book of 2021. I loved the joyous youthful energy of the first part and the melancholy and tenderness of the second.
@Andrew65

This book made my heart grow 3 sizes and then shattered it into a million pieces. I could barely read the last 20 pages due to the fog of my tears. So poignant and relatable. I loved everything about it. ❤️

Oh I loved this one ❤️ the first part made me feel quite nostalgic, a lot was my 80s life -except obviously in Liverpool.
The second part was 💔 but so well written.
Thank you Cindy 😘

#litsybookmail
Woohoo look what‘s arrived 😁
Thank you so much to my lovely friend Cindy- this must have been very quick- you‘ve only just read Ariadne!! Looking forward to these. 😘♥️

They were boys in the 80s and they lived life to the max. A highlight was Manchester‘s Festival of the 10th Summer. That weekend marked the end of their shared youth. Reality hits hard thirty years later when they‘re men with jobs and marriages and responsibilities. It makes them yearn for the days when they were young and invincible.
A great story about male friendship.

(Picture: Sifnos, Greece)

Stunning writing 🙌🏻🙌🏻
A story of male friendship from best mates to closet confidants
Part one set in 1980‘s ( when punk rock ruled 🇬🇧 and friends could fix anything
Part two - present day when you learn friends can‘t fix everything but the friendships of youth are unbreakable

Poignant, character-driven literary fiction about friendship, love, & grief. Atmospheric writing containing some wonderfully emotional moments & capturing the capriciousness of youth in post-punk era Britain. Told in two separate time periods, which disjointed the novel somewhat. A good read for those who love literary fiction & should be able to create an even deeper connection with those who grew up in Great Britain or have Scottish backgrounds.

#BookMail Thanks to a wonderful review by @CarolynM and a total #CoverCrush I couldn‘t resist this one from #BookDepository

Very much a book of two halves. In the first it's 1986 and Jimmy, Tully and their Glasgow crew spend a weekend carousing through the pubs and clubs of Manchester in haze of drugs, booze, music in the exuberance of early adulthood. The second part, 30 years later, sees the ties of these old friendships tested in the face of mortality. It's seriously good. I loved it.

I received the first book in a book subscription my aunt gifted me for my birthday. Such fun packaging, and the selection is one I‘ve been wanting to read. Really cool

So excited to start this 💥🙌💥 #currentlyreading

This is most definitely a book of two halves. In the first half it is 1986; James and Tully and their mates go on a bender in Manchester. Whilst I enjoyed this part, it did feel a little bit derivative in places, like I‘d read it before.

The second half, when Tully rings James with some terrible news, I absolutely adored. It‘s a heartbreaking paean to male friendship, which then made me want to re-read and reflect on the first part again.

The first part of this novel is set in 1986 and is mainly taken up with a booze and drug-fueled weekend in 1986 as a gang of young lads from Glasgow descend upon Manchester.
Halfway through we skip forward 30 years and meet up with our heroes firmly into late middle age. I don't want to give spoilers but the book takes on a much more sombre hue. A lovely, honest, unsentimental paean to friendship.

Because of my job (bookseller) and Litsy, it‘s rare to find books #IreadbasedSOLELYontheircovers because usually I‘ve seen reviews or posts.... but here are #3books that I loved, and went in blind...

- Mayflies, because the cover reminded me of a cheerier A Little Life!
- The Regrets is striking and odd...🤷‍♀️
-Pew is a beautiful naked hardcover, and I had no idea what the embossed splodges of silver foil were.... 🤷‍♀️

All 3 were fantastic!

#popsummer20 #summerbeforecollege
A bittersweet story of lifelong friendships, nostalgia for youth, love and devastating loss, written with such heart, compassion and sensitivity.
It‘s the summer of 86, as a gang of young Glaswegians take a road trip for the ‘Festival of the 10th Summer‘. These lads are full of bravado and exuberance, formed by the books and music they love and the movies they endlessly quote..... (continued below 👇)