Welcome to Litsy!

I read somewhere in a review about this book that it is a flawed masterpiece. The same article said that it is about death, especially regarding Mark who has a death of character. These two statements rang true with me. I can‘t say anymore about this book without spoiling it for future readers but it is definitely worth the time. The art descriptions/analysis alone are breathtaking. All those miniature boxes. Last book of 2024. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Each year I aim to read roughly a book a week. In 2024 I read 53 🙌. Here are my 10 favourites (for a variety of reasons). If you‘re a detail person you‘ll note there are only 9 books pictured. That‘s because The Prophet Song by Paul Lynch is currently loaned to a friend. I struggle to choose THE best book, but if I had to, it would be the tagged book, which was an incredible, unexpected, devastating and beautiful read. HNY from Western Australia.

Hard to find words to describe this book just know how it makes me feel —-Wow. Took me a while to source a copy but so glad I did. Thank you @MrsMalaprop for your review which prompted me to look for it.
. As I tend to forget books I read, I‘m going to keep this one with a note on it that tells me to read it again when I think I can‘t remember it.😊.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

‘Wow‘ seems vastly inadequate to describe this novel, but I guess that‘s why I‘m a reader not a writer 😆. I don‘t even know how I came to have this book on my radar, but I‘m so glad. I can‘t say much about it without spoiling it for those who‘ve yet to have the pleasure. I wish I‘d slowed down a bit at the beginning to appreciate the setting of the scene and descriptions of Bill‘s art. Complex. Beautifully written. Magnificent 😍👏🙏

The recollections of an older man are different from those of a young man. What seemed vital at forty may lose its significance at seventy. We manufacture stories, after all, from the fleeting sensory material that bombards us at every instant, a fragmented series of pictures, conversations, doors, and the touch of things and people. We delete most of it to live with some semblance of order, and the reshuffling of memory goes on until we die.

Trying this thing called "reading books I already own". It's quite unusual.

What I loved about this? Nearly everything! While the plot in parts 1 & 2 was a bit predictable, the details about Bill‘s art were incredible. I truly felt I could see it and his evolution as an artist.

The book spans 25 years and is told by an early collector, who becomes best friends with Bill. Their wives have children at the same time, but the families‘ fates turn out very different. A complex look at long-term friendship and marriage.

I can‘t believe it‘s finally here @BarbaraBB and thank you so much for sending it!! I feel very loved, especially since you took time to wrap them in such pretty paper. 🥰😘 I‘m so excited for WIL knowing it was a 5⭐️ read for you! I have already read (and loved) TTD. It was on @vivastory ‘s nywd list, so I picked it up in January. Thank you! You are such a sweet, generous friend! 💕

My rdg grp in Feb is discussing this + her hubby's novel book of illusions. It is a remarkable piece of writing about art , friendship, parenting, marriage and grief. Two NY couples in the 80s, live + love art. Children and Divorce changes the dynamics of the friendship which is explored with precise prose. The picture of grief is profoundly moving. The 2nd half changes tone into an almost noirish mystery. Interesting bk that I'm still digesting.

Normal to begin it after finishing Paul Auster's 4 3 2 1.Hope this will be another masterpiece.

Este libro en particular me gustó mucho. Probablemente la inmersión en la vida de artistas es lo que me atrapó

I always struggle to review books that really resonate with me (even if I don‘t relate to the characters or their lives.) I just felt this one; the characters emotions, their relationships with each other etc, I was involved. It goes to a really sad place - I was not expecting it to go where it did. There‘s a lot of themes running though it like mental illness & art. A page turner but with a lot of depth to it. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Saturday night done right 🍷 📖 🛁

I‘m only 30 odd pages into this but I can already tell it‘s my kind of book. I think it was a gift from @BarbaraBB a while ago if I remember rightly 🤍

While I like lyrical prose, I have zero patience for overwrought pretentious paragraphs (and this book is loaded with painstakingly endless pages of indulgent tangents). I realize this book was published in 2003 but for me it feels VERY dated. I‘ve read stories like this before, so this book felt recycled and stale. I know lots of my Litsy friends really loved this one so I‘m sure this is more my frustration and personal disappointment.

Weird to see my hubby‘s initials on the page of my current book. Even though I‘ve known the character‘s name, I never stopped to consider his initials. With less than 100 pages to go, I‘m still no fan of this book. If it wasn‘t for IRL bookclub I would have bailed by now.

Bookclub meets on Tuesday so I need to finish this one. Although I was really looking forward to reading it, I‘m sort of struggling to pick it back up. I‘m not a fan of any of the MC‘s plus the NY art scene is NOT my preferred scene. Bailing is not an option with my bookclub so I‘ll just push through.

#MOvember #LivingForLove Still waiting on my shelf(.. sinse the long ago & brilliant buddy read of The Blazing World... after which I hurried to get this one & read it ... still not read 🙄... one day 👍🏻❤️

Look what arrived SUPER FAST from #BookDepository @squirrelbrain @Leftcoastzen @Billypar @BarbaraBB ‼️Now how long will it sit unread ❓🙄

A meditation on what love is, who we love and why we love, that also looks at loss in the same in-depth way.

#isthislove
#ayupaugust

*David Coverdale was born in Saltburn-by-the-Sea, North Yorkshire, in 1951*

This book is about the characters, not the plot...at least for the first 2/3. Then it gains momentum and pivots into an anxiety-inducing thriller of sorts. Hustvedt brilliantly captivates the reader with her intricate weaving of relationships and tensions between two families (as well as their internal struggles) so that by the time action ramps up I was emotionally invested enough to experience their anxiety as my own.

Last year I read a wonderful book that explored grief. It was profound, shocking and sad. It lingers with me still. Recently the BBC World Book Club read it and the author was interviewed. They contacted me about submitting a question to the author! I did, and you can hear me here: (My question is posed at about the 8:10 mark of the video.)

#BBCWorldBookClub #SiriHustvedt #1001books #Reading1001

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3csyx67

Thank you so much @eraderneely and @kathedron - so kind of you to send me these. I look forward to reading these both.

#SundayCatchUp

Leo tells himself for a long time that he‘s just #paranoid when it comes to his best friend‘s son, Mark. Something is or isn‘t off about Mark, and Leo can‘t figure out if it is all in his head or if something darker is going on.

#AnglophileApril

It started as a leisurely-paced story of two arty families living in each other's pockets: all very nice, but... . Then she dropped a plot bomb that made me see how skilfully she'd lulled me into a false sense of security. And that turns out to be the warm-up act for an altogether more unsettling story.

Family, relationships, friendship, contemporary art, mental illness, how we perceive ourselves and others, the improbable endeavour of living...❤

#MusicalNewYear #SeasonsofLove I still havnt read this one ... & I think , I know I will love it when I do .... this year 👍🏻♥️

Thank you so much @BarbaraBB for sending me this book, a lovely little surprise this morning. So kind and thoughtful of you ♥️ I really appreciate it! It‘s one I‘ve been really wanting to read! ♥️

@TrishB yours was the first Christmas card I got this year thank you, and for the pressie 💕

@kaysworld1 thank you for the card 😁

Okay the book is picking up it's pace 🙃
Good! I was about to DNF it :(
#hotchocolate #readon

New read. After cleaning and rearranging my book shelf I found out that I have a lot of books that I haven't even picked up after buying. This being one of them. I really want to finish the lotr story but if i keep buying books with out reading them then whats the point? 🧐
#bookaddict #newread

I won‘t say who, but let‘s just say that there‘s a #psychopath in this book, and it‘s creepy!

#NoFemmeber

@squirrelbrain Helen, Thank you so, so much for sending me this book as a birthday gift! It was a delightful surprise, and I can't wait to read it!

#jbuk #litsy #birthday #birthdaygirl

Hi #LMPBC friends. These are my four ( and I have others if these don‘t work 👍🏻) Id love to read them all !! .... let me know @Lel2403 @jenniferw88 @Moray_Reads ( sorry for humble display 🤷🏻‍♀️... getting down to business 👍🏻...
Thankyou @suvata ... you are so good to organize this lovely Litsy Bookclub ❤️👍🏻

Having an author on your TBR for FOREVER (and really wanting to read her because her books invariably sound amazing, and also she‘s a fellow graduate of your small-town Minnesota alma mater) + a Book Outlet sale = #bookhaulmotivation

1.tagged book also A Tree grows in Brooklyn & The Overstory by Richard Powers
2.70 ,on track to my goal.
3.I‘m just grateful that friends & family have made it through the challenges this year.
4. I live in Arizona so happy it‘s not 100 out. All the holidays Halloween,Thanksgiving and Christmas.
5.kinda late to the party so any Litten that wants to join in.Love the positive vibes,great reviews,and spirited people here on Litsy.
Thx @Eggs

#WhyDidItHavetoBeMe #ABBAinAugust
@Reviewsbylola @emilyhaldi @Mdargusch @Meredith3 @Cinfhen

This took a lot of turns I wasn‘t expecting, and had me gripped in their lives at each turn. It doesn‘t read as if there‘s a set plot, it‘s not formulaic at all, but I loved the meandering through their lives over the years. It focuses a lot on art, artists, galleries and shows and I ended up going to the Brooklyn Museum just to get that gallery feel. Highly recommend! Sorry for the lack of detail, I don‘t want to spoil anything!!

What an amazing book. Not merely about the art world, as I had thought. In this novel, boundaries are broken in art, but families, people, and hearts are broken also. 💔💔💔 Don‘t want to give away anything by saying more. I had such a hard time putting this down, and feel that I can say this is one of the best I‘ve read in a long time. #1001Books

At the oral surgeon with my current read (also an #1001Books). It‘s very good so far. Younger son is having his wisdom teeth removed 😱🤕

Lovely #bookmail from @squirrelbrain ! Thank you so much, Helen! 😘 I've been feeling a bit flat since getting back from my week by the sea (and am wilting in the heat, besides) and your kind gift was just the thing for lifting my spirits. I commend your Litsy stalking skills. 😉 And thanks, also, @Kalalalatja whose review led me to stack the book. Looking forward to reading it! ❤ #jbuk

Spent a lovely afternoon in the garden reading the second half of this book. It was so much more than I expected and thanks to @Kalalalatja for her beautiful review that moved it to the top of my TBR pile!

I‘m not sure what I was expecting but it certainly wasn‘t this sweeping epic of love and loss; unputdownable....

Oh, wow. This was my first Hustvedt, but I‘m pretty sure it won‘t be my last.

I expected this to be a daunting and high-brow read, but it turned out to be much more relateable than I imagined. Hustvedt demands something from her readers. This isn‘t an action-packed page turner. It is a slow character study filled with art, mental illness, friendships, grief and love. It left me quite breathless at times, at others I had a lump in my throat.

Treated myself to a bunch of peonies today, and now I‘m going to treat myself further with a cup of coffee and some quiet reading time 👌

I‘m in the final stages with my thesis, and I‘m hoping to hand it in by the end of the month. Which is good, because I‘m beginning to tire of constantly thinking and worrying about it, and my energy is running low. I‘m trying to give myself these little #selfcare moments, so I‘ll be able to finish strong!

Not really a #bookandbeachtowel, but a book and a blanket, which is a close as I get. We are having (for Denmark) insanely warm weather these weeks, and today is supposed to reach 30 degrees, and I can‘t really deal with it 😅

#ReadingResolutions

This book. My heart, my mind, my goodness. Breakfast banana muffin and a nice cuppa PG Tips—it‘s a very good birthday so far.

“I‘ve always thought that love thrives on a certain kind of distance, that it requires an awed separateness to continue. Without that necessary remove, the physical minutiae of the other person grows ugly in its magnification.”

“My parents didn‘t speak about the Nazis, only about our preparations to leave home, and it‘s hard to know to what degree my childish fears were related to the fear that every Jew in Germany must have felt at the time. The way my mother told it was that she was taken by surprise. A party whose views had seemed absurd and contemptible suddenly and inexplicably took hold of the country.”

It is a lush , deep,novel.What I like so much about it , the characters are flushed out, complicated.How friendships begin , evolve ,and ride out the problems that come. How some difficulties seem to pounce upon you , yet when you look back on it, some of the signs were there.Hustvedt writes with power and intimacy, I felt I was part of their circle.

Some lovely #bookmail from the even lovelier @Suet624 ! Thank you, dear friend. ♥️ This really brightened my day. If it wasn‘t for all my real-life responsibilities, I‘d be diving right in!

@batsy Per Sue‘s suggestion, I‘d love to send this along to you next, if you‘d like it!

#THEWALLSARECLOSINGIN

This was my favorite read of 2018. May I be blessed with continued abundance.

Thanks @Liberty

Yin Yang and What I Loved.75 pages in .Love the characters,love the art,love SoHo , feel there‘s trouble ahead.....

This was a slow, dense and meaty read. Love, loss, desire, art, memories, hysteria, mental health and the illnesses associated with it, friendship, betrayal. The descriptions of the artwork are captivating and inspiring. The pieces of art made me want to get busy with all sorts of materials. The book offers a deep immersion into these characters and I miss some of them already.

#MountTBR