Welcome to Litsy!

A thoroughly enjoyable read- a bit of whimsy and a bit of gravitas dabbles in a philosophical coming of age. David Mitchell, usually writing more fantastical prose, finds the right timbre to tell this tale.

Just posted our Year in Review episode! We discuss what we read in 2022 and talk about our goals for 2023. But most importantly we discuss the etymology of the term G.O.A.T, The Office, and Harrison Ford. Enjoy!

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6Z8WM58P6GXTKSHakaRbG6?si=l9hr9bjCS92-CvHBdoVm2...

Just released our Black Swan Green episode!

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1u9HXuh6ZrYNxYcGbthXuU?si=yYS5e4ZyTsCtUOTp3xJkc...

Episode 86 just posted! We select a March #botm, discuss Peter's birthday, and I tell an old story I heard about a football player getting stuck in a garage door in his underwear. Enjoy!

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4Ry84tEojC556pySyYmeuN

I think that's the first book by David Mitchell I disliked. Maybe I'm just not one for Coming Of Age stories, but the whole book really, really bored me. It was all the same over and over again. There were some tiny parts that were of some interest, but it just wasn't enough. A huge disappointment, since Mitchell never let me down before. I hope the next book I'm going to read by him will be better again. And no, I won't give up on him just yet.

I'm posting one book per day from the ever growing unread stacks in my personal library. No description or explanation, just books I own and plan to read. #tbr

Day 27

I just started this and it is dense with references I either don't know because they're British or from the early eighties (or both). But I have a question about this one. I recently picked up a box of Alpen to try, never having heard of it before (I actually just finished a bowl right before reading this sentence). For those of you in the UK or Europe, is this a cereal that is universally known? Or was it popular awhile ago but not so much now?

DNF. I didn't like the 13 year old main character's first person 'voice' and couldn't face a whole book of it.

Used my Indigo Christmas gift cards on the weekend. 3 books = $75. Canadian book prices are pretty prohibitive!

A Roll of the Bones is #CanLit from a small indie publisher in Atlantic Canada. My library doesn't stock these kinds of books often so I had to buy it!

Has anyone read The Parisian? Looks right up my alley!

In the village of Black Swan Green (which has no swans...😁), Jason Taylor comes of age in the 1980s. He deals with his stammer, faces bullies, and struggles with family issues. This one wasn‘t what I expected, but I enjoyed it because of the character building and the way each chapter felt like learning a new piece of Taylor‘s life rather than it being a continuous plot.

I enjoyed the #buddyread, @Booksnchill !

Well Whiskey and I took a break from yard work and finished this buddy read with @tjwill my David Mitchell reading buddy. This book was shortlisted for the Costa book award. Written after Cloud Atlas it feels to me as if he had something to say about 13 year old boys, their challenges, their lives and their dreams. Set in 1982 this follows Jason Taylor throughout a year - it is evocative and, if you have read Mitchell, has familiar themes. 5⭐️

The title of the last chapter is the same as the first. 🤔 @Booksnchill

@booksnchill Will we ever find out how the watch was actually messed up? Something supernatural perhaps? I thought the parts with the dad's business trip were interesting, but that definitely didn't make me like him. The lady who randomly starts talking about her son made me cringe.

@tjwill How much do I love Eva van Outryve de Crommelynck😍 This is what is in my head!!!!

@tjwill now I want a rookery with koi! “I want to kick this moronic bloody world in the bloody teeth over and over till it bloody understands that not hurting people is ten bloody thousand times more bloody important than being right”- loving Taylor💖

@tjwill I am a bit- ok, very, confused!!! Finished chapter 1 and first 1/2 of 2 and WHAT Happened to Sour Aunt??? Who is her brother and how did Taylor end up back home? Are we dreaming? Is he- there is a reference to a nightmare but his grandfather‘s watch is broken. Hmmm. However I do feel inside the angst of a 13 year old boy!

Interesting start. Mitchell is a master of the bizarre, and this first chapter is no exception, especially with the mysterious phone call, the Unborn Twin, the broken watch, and the scrit-scrat of the sour aunt. I‘m excited for more! #buddyread @Booksnchill

Ok @tjwill I have my book marked and ready to go for May 1 and our buddy read- excited to get back in to the world of David Mitchell!

@Booksnchill #buddyread starting May 1st? This says it has 13 chapters, so maybe reading one every two days to finish in the month?

BSG is a wonderful coming of age story. Mitchell draws on his own experience with stammering in portraying Jason's life.

I remember reading this when my eldest daughter was a few weeks old but I remembered little else. It's completely different from his other novels, essentially a YA novel about a kid struggling with bullying and his parents' marriage trouble, but it's beautifully and uniquely written and is a pleasure to read. A great reread.

"I quivered to own such an unownable thing." Isn't that beautiful? Incidentally, I saw a bunch of the most beautiful ducks this morning when my mom dragged me along to visit someone. There were, among others I can't identify, wood ducks and mandarin ducks. I feel blessed to have seen such beautiful creatures, but it seems incredibly dodgy to me that the local old-age home in a small town in northern KwaZulu-Natal has all these exotic ducks ?...

Oh for Pete's sake. We're heading to my mom's for a few days, about 5 hours away. I left Jane Goodall behind as it's quite a heavy hardback and thought I would read an Anne Tyler that's been on my TBR shelf. Started it and realised I already read it sometime though I didn't add it on Goodreads... Luckily I have the Kindle but such a waste of time to read a print book!

Not so much #underrated but certainly not one of his best known - I can thoroughly recommend this coming of age #spooky novel - a good pick for October!

#underrated
#31bookpics
@howjessreads

I love this image of the rooms of his past and future. Such beautiful writing.

Less overtly experimental than his others this is just as wonderful in its own way. Think a darker Adrian Mole. Mitchell is brilliant at evoking the agonies of early adolescence, the need to seem "hard" and get to hang out with the cool kids, the ignorance of the facts of sex and the wild speculation and the collective patriotic madness that gripped the country during the Falklands War, all rendered perfectly.

Should I get it? It‘s only $1.99 right now! Has anyone read this one? What do you think, @Booksnchill ?

Happy Foto Friday. #fotofriday. Still reading BSG, should be able to finish tomorrow. For my 75 group friends, I‘ll post the larger image later today or tomorrow.

“Art fabricated of the inarticulate is beauty.” p147

#vacationreading. “Oily flies fed on curry-colored cowpats. New leaves oozed from twigs in the hedges. Seeds thicken the air, like sweet gravy. “ Love the imaged this invokes.

On LT I do a #Fotofriday post on my thread in the 75 book challenge group. I thought I would start sharing it here as well. Book-wise I‘m going to start the Mitchell after I finish Underground Airline

One of my favourite #smalltown coming of age stories, and Mitchell showing he does simple just as well as #complicated

#BeastsGiveawayChallenge @ruthemmielang

#augustgrrrl (again) @Cinfhen

2nd book I've read by Mitchell and I'm determined to read them all. He's becoming one of my all time favorite writers.

#maybookflowers #blackandwhite
A few selections. I love black and white covers but don't own too many.

#feistyfeb #bildungsroman
I do love a good coming of age story, so I had lots to choose from. Because #riotgrams was a stack today, I decided to stick with just one of my faves. A departure from Mitchell's usual epic, multi storyline, time and locale hopping tales, Black Swan Green tells the story of one boy and one town in a beautiful, engaging way.

An amazing coming-of-age story told in a way that only David Mitchell could make so wondrous. Each chapter is almost a stand-alone short story, and encapsulates a different aspect of growing up and life in general. #recommendsday

#publishedinthe2000s #readjanuary better late than never. Here are a few books by some of my favorite authors that were published in the 2000s. Half of a Yellow Sun is one of my favorite books and the other three are on my TBR.

These are my favorite books I read in 2016. Two Mitchell's and two Mantels 😻 Hard to pick a number 1. They were all so good. Probably a 3 way tie between The Dark Tower (for sentimental reasons), To the Bright Edge of the World (beautiful, beautiful, beautiful) and Black Swan Green (which I just finished and I'm still a little blown away by. More quotes to come)

Slow start, but really strong ending. It follows the year in the life of this young teenage boy, Jason Taylor. It explores popularity and how fickle it is. He has a stammer and that adds complications to how he navigates school. Super British (that is a plus in my book).

Stopped by a book warehouse sale on my road trip this weekend--everything was $1!

I keep the books I borrow from friends and family on one shelf! #SomethingBorrowed #Booktober

@RealLifeReading

Eva Ayres, Robert Frobisher's object of desire in Cloud Atlas, is a character in this book! We get her perspective on what happens in the Letters from Zedelghem story. I love it when authors carry over characters from book to book. ❤️ David Mitchell! #24in48

"Dead things show you what you'll be too one day."

This book was recommended to me by a devout reader trying to get me to read Mitchell. Four of his books later, I can say that I was sufficiently hooked. Whimsical, poignant, and fresh - I loved this book.