Welcome to Litsy!

And Seren needed to check out some of my top books of the year. These are the ones from my shelf in my #top23of23 list. The others were library/ebooks.

I've come to adore the writing of Doireann Ní Ghríofa. This book is a hybrid of autofiction and essay, and it's full of so many beautiful, poetic lines.

I'm absolutely LOVING this one so far. Cannot get enough of Doireann Ní Ghríofa's writing. But also, this cover!!

"The poem's landscape came to life as I read, it was alive all around me, alive and fizzing with rain, and I felt myself alive in it."

This stack of books is sitting behind me as I plow through a crazy, busy week. Can't wait to dive in with the start of vacation time coming up!

Memoir of mother and poet, touching on her passions and ambitions, on her childbirthing and rearing, on her connection to, nigh obsession with, a particular poem and the life of the woman who composed it. 1/?

Etymology, my beloved.

New word alert!
Galacatagogues: foods or supplements thought to increase breast milk production.
[Perhaps only foreign to the non-reproducing 🤷🏼‍♂️].

Poetry translation compared to domestic labour.
I kinda love it.

🐝

I really wasn‘t sure what to expect from this book; from the blurb I wondered if it might be too ‘literary‘ for me, but it definitely wasn‘t.

This is a very immersive, dark memoir as the author traces the history of a long-gone Irish poet, translating her work, whilst dealing with her own challenges of motherhood.

It‘s very unusual, not like anything I‘ve read before and I really enjoyed it.

Thanks for gifting it to me! @Cathythoughts 😘

I found this one via a #bookstagram recommendation. I read the blurb but still had no idea what to expect. As an audiobook it was beautiful. It took a moment to find the rhythm of the book and it was hard to parse out poem from memory sometimes, but I enjoyed this read. The poems were beautiful. I never thought about how the voices and lives of women from the past can often only be found within the words of men.

#OnThisDay in 1773 Art Ó Laoghaire was killed after refusing to sell his valuable horse to a local magistrate. Upon his death his wife Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill composed the keening poem Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire. It has been described as the greatest poem written in either Ireland or Britain in the whole of the 18th century. The tagged explores the life of Ní Chonaill, and the passing of womens' words and stories through time #HistoryGetsLIT

What a spellbinding and original memoir. I found myself wanting to take my time with this one. Read a couple of chapters each evening over the course of a week. A beautiful tribute to womanhood and how literature (poetry in this case) can connect us across centuries.

"This is a female text." Poetic memoir of motherhood and scholarship. Beautifully written. Highly recommended. 4 ?

“THIS IS A FEMALE TEXT.”

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

This was part memoir part deep dive into the history of an unknown to me famous Irish poet. As always, there is scant info about women, but the narrtest the author weaves or guesses or imagined is wonderful. Her own story is also told with honesty and love. Great writer!

Beautiful written, as author says, female text in which she is weaving together very intimate thoughts and moments from her life and life of the, lost in history, Irish poet Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill from 18th century. While reconstructing the life of a E.Dubh (through family letters, translating poems, newspaper articles/mentions …) Ghriofa also ponders about her life, which is revolving around motherhood‘s hardships. 5⭐️ without a doubt

Stunning imagery and prose! I was completely drawn into this book from the first page and it isn't typically something I'd read, our enjoy this much because flowery language often bores me in books. However, it works in this book and the story of a woman who uses an epic poem in order to help her cope with her life was very relatable.

As readers, I think we can all relate to a piece of literature or a character changing our lives.

A Ghost in the Throat opens with the refrain that “This is a female text” and that is what I loved the most about this enigmatic book. Is it a history, a memoir, literary criticism? what I felt this book did so well was illuminate the lives of ordinary women. Gríofa als explores writerly obsession in a way that I found really engaging. She‘s captured here how books can be our lifeboats, the things we cling to in order to stay afloat.

#12Booksof2021 #September

I didn't read a many books as usual in September, but 3 of the 5 were among my favourites of the year:

📚 A Ghost in the Throat
📚 Blaze Island
📚 The House in the Cerulean Sea

I don‘t often get books for Christmas, so I‘m thrilled that my family consulted my wishlist this year! The box set at the end is a series I‘ve long loved. The other three are for a special event that‘s upcoming. I can‘t imagine what it is…🤔😜

#NewYearWhoDis
@TheKidUpstairs

I dare not click on the link!! 🤣🤣

I‘m so taken with Megan‘s list!

@TheKidUpstairs , I hope you like my list even half as much as I like yours! The top row is where I‘ll start in January but I hope to read all of the titles pictured (eventually).

I was meant to read Eleanor Oliphant for my IRL Book Club a couple of years ago but skipped out on that month. Time to make it right! The other 2 on top weren‘t even on my radar but I‘m so excited about them now!

#NYWD22 #NewYearWhoDis

I loved the writing, naturally because Ghriofa is a poet! She made her quest to discover Eibhlin‘s story intriguing such that it kept me turning pages. I appreciated the “female text” theme throughout and understand how it applies to more than the written word.

The element I didn‘t fully appreciate was Ghriofa‘s personal melodramas - there was just a tad too much. Felt a little self indulgent, though there is much to relate to re: motherhood.

“Caoineadh”

I‘m falling down a rabbit hole instead of working. I also had to check out several audio pronunciations. 🤓

"This is a female text."

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It is beautiful and moving and thoughtful. Ní Gríofa shares an intimate portrait of her life, and the life of Eibhlín Dubh, and the power of women's stories, and carving a history out of shadows and glimpses.

TW: birth trauma, suicide attempt

"We cannot know from whose mouths the echoes of our lives will chime. Norrie is the source and the surface from which Eibhlín Dubh's voice reverberates to us. Little starling: she opens her mouth and someone else's words chirp out."

"She is wearing a bright pink cardigan knitted by her grandmother, a female text in which every stitch is a syllable."

Book mail! I‘m excited about this one especially since the author is a poet. I‘m expecting beautiful prose.

"This is a female text, which is also a caoineadh: a dirge and a drudge-song, an anthem of praise, a chant and a keen, a lament and an echo, a chorus and a hymn. Join in."

Oh, this is going to be good...