Welcome to Litsy!

Look what arrived! @CarolynM I couldn‘t wait to open it I‘m sorry 😂 There was a little tear in the wrapping and I was like “well I have to open it then”. It was probably because I could smell chocolate! This is such a lovely gift. The book was on my TBR and it sounds perfect for me. I‘m in love with the snowman (already on the tree) the Santa pen and the bookmark. Obviously the chocolate! ⬇️

1. Atlanta, GA (“OTP” for you fellow Atlantans)
2. The Golden Age (tagged). Of course it‘s a Europa edition 😂 as I‘m trying to get through the backlog of Europas on my shelves.
3. 250-350 p. depending on genre. On the lower end for crime novels and true crime, but on the higher end for literary fiction.
4. @Tamra as we‘ve both been on a Litsy hiatus

@veritysalter #lockdownlowdown

Meet Max our new dog.
I loved this book @CarolynM thanks for the gift!
#doublespin #bookspin @TheAromaofBooks

This story is set in a children‘s polio hospital right here in Perth in 1954.It is about Frank a 13 yr old polio surviver and his parents who are Hungarian refugees. The book looks at Franks displacement to the hospital and his parents displacement to Australia. It is a beautifully written story of love, family and home.
#Ozfiction

@CarolynM , it has arrived! Thank you so much for the beautiful Australian card and book. I‘ve actually been wanting to read this one as I‘ve read another one by this author (Gilgamesh) and really enjoyed it.

It was so thoughtful of you to think of me on my birthday! Much love to you, my friend. 😘😘😘

G is really hard, I could pick several for each category

Book - The Golden Age by Joan London
Author - Helen Garner
Movie - Gregory's Girl TV show - The Good Fight
Food - Grapes

#ManicMonday #LetterG

Oh my goodness , this was the last thing I expected... thankyou Carolyn ! I‘m so delighted with both of these books. And your lovely card. The generosity of Litsy is unbelievable ❤️thankyou so much my lovely Literary friend.

I love so much of what Europa publishes so I was happy to discover this on IG. Have you read any of these? I have a copy of The Golden Age, but have yet to read it.

Until this novel I knew very little about polio. This is a touching read and s lovely little story

"I have to find myself
A place where I can breathe.
That's where poetry lives
In the oldest part of us."

I loved this one, so satisfying. First book I've read set in a polio hospital.Fascinating to read about the lives of children in one of those places, especially as the child Frank and parents were Hungarian refugees, "New Australians". What happens to childhood love, what is the long term effect of having that devastating illness, and how does that kind of experience change one's assimilation into a new country?

Sent from my iPad

When my husband went to our indie bookseller looking for a Christmas gift, he asked for something not too sappy with good characters. This was the recommendation, and I agree with the assessment. I was close to the end before I felt truly invested in the characters. The author described the immigrant experience and the common struggles faced by both the patients and the parents as they each faced loneliness, judgment and misunderstanding.

Well written, but missing most of the elements that are generally considered necessary for a "plot." It was very short, and all the secondary characters got their own chapters that I optimistically assumed would come together in a brilliant John-Irving-like denouement, but ended up just being character sketches. Very good character sketches -- but still ...

Meanwhile, I can't figure out who these two people on the cover are supposed to be.

I must be sitting in front of a computer too long. I read this as something 'right-clicking' in his brain.

Like something needed a shortcut to change his font size or something.

I don't know how you get along with those old, crusty #bookmarks. I'm using a fresh, new credit card receipt from the Acme that's only five days old. I bet you're all jealous. #booktober

2/3 through. Probably about time for the plot to start happening, right?

. . . was Detroit in '68, and he told her all romantics meet the same fate some day ... /jonimitchell

So, not to go all "Comic Book Guy" from the Simpsons on you, but a boy who survived World War II, and is now in a polio convalescing home at age 13 (so, math and history says this is a few years before 1958) will not be poring over "much handled Spider-Man comics," since Spider-Man debuted in 1962.

Small things like that bug me.

You might think that a story set in a polio convalescent home in the 1950s would be depressing -- and it is -- but by adding flashbacks to Nazi-occupied Hungary during World War II, the author has succeeded in making children dying in iron lungs the comparatively LESS depressing part.

Anyone read this? It's my next Book Club pick. It is very short, but after staring at it for hours, I appear to still be on page 33.

I had heard this was great and was going to save it for next trip to Australia, but then I saw it at the library and that plan was abandoned! It really is good - well-developed sense of place (Perth) and time (just after WWII) and a quietly developing love story. Definitely recommended.

I could not put this novel down. I must now leave the house and find all of Joan London's books

An almost perfect novel about parents and children, surviving war and leaving your home behind. Joan London's writing is simply beautiful.