Welcome to Litsy!

I dont think ive ever seen my neighborhood so red and orange before!
This book hit me just right. You don‘t often see a male+female friendship shown as something deep and complex, and watch it play out over decades. Sam and Sadie are best friends as children and business partners as adults, designing video games. There is also a lot about gaming in here - not my jam IRL but i found it engaging and interesting. A book with a lot of heart. ⬇️

Current holiday reads. Long veiw - mark hurst tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow -gabreille zevin which got from shop on beach.

I really enjoyed this. I play some video games and like reading about how people make them. The brainpower needed to create a realistic world that covers a mind-boggling array of possible choices is fascinating. My favourite character was Marx because of how he quietly paved the way for Sam and Sadie to do great things. We should all be so lucky to have a Marx in our lives (and need to appreciate them when we do).

This is a soft pick. It was a touching story about friendship and love. However, I found the characters a bit flat especially halfway through the book and did not feel much affinity for them. There were some parts that I loved...but overall, I think the book felt a little too overhyped for me.
#roll100 #24in2024

Quite literally one of the most unique books I‘ve ever read. Heartbreaking yet heartwarming… I loved it. #LitsyLoveReads

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ love, friendship, despair and gaming. This book reminded me a lot of A Little Life, filled with complicated characters, engaging storylines but took me awhile to get through. #grammaslibrary

Sam and Sadie bond over video games as kids, have a falling out, but reconnect in college. They create a video game together and, over the course of 20 plus years, share the ups and downs of life. The story itself becomes almost like a game, as their friendship has stops and restarts. They love each other but they use each other, frustratingly don't talk about things and assume the worst. And Sadie struggles to have her contributions acknowledged.

3-30-24: My 7th book of 2024! I picked this book up at a book swap because I loved the cover. I wound up loving the story too. Sam and Sadie are childhood friends who bond in a hospital over a video game. Through a series of events they reconnect as young adults in colleges in the same city, far from where they grew up, and they bond again over a video game, this time making one instead of playing one. I loved following these characters.

I loved this book, but I can also understand some of the criticisms of it. It sometimes felt a bit crowded and meandering and in thinking about it this morning there are things that I‘m still not sure why they were included, so I‘m looking forward to talking about it at book club, but overall it is a lovely book about the fragility of life and friendship.

I have around 100 more pages and it‘s my bedtime but I know I‘ll be staying up late to finish it and this is making me cry…

I really loved this story. I could almost pick it up and start reading it again. Also made me want to have a go at playing a game. Not a shooting one though. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.

This book was a slow burn for me and I didn‘t really love it until the end. A beautiful illustration of how life is messy and painful and you just have to find a way to keep moving forward.

Happy Tuesday! Here are today's #Two4Tuesday questions. Thanks to everyone who played last week. Have a fabulous day!!

My answers:
💗 No plans, I have to work.
💗 The tagged book because not only is it well written but love and friendship are an important theme in the book.

Want to play? @Eggs @dabbe @wanderinglynn @Read4life @Kshakal @The_Penniless_Author @peaKnit @TheLudicReader @BethM @Jari-chan

This was a long one. It had a saga-like feel, and it took a minute to get absorbed into the story, but I ultimately liked it. A fun visit back to the 90s. Could have done with an epilogue, but that‘s what I almost always say.

1. Flowers … or wine 😀
2. Nothing came to mind, so I asked google. The tagged book was one of the suggestions. It‘s on my TBR for book club.
#two4tuesday

The characters‘ struggle with permanence, even as adults, broke my heart - it‘s almost like they use the idea of nothing ever being permanent in video games as a protective lens in experiencing life. The progression from the childish denial to the gradual acceptance of all BUT one thing in life not being temporary - death - will stay with me for some time.

“What is a game?” Marx said. “It‘s tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. It‘s the possibility of infinite rebirth, infinite redemption. The idea that if you keep playing, you could win. No loss is permanent, because nothing is permanent, ever.”

Thanks for the tag @Eggs

#two4tuesday @TheSpineView

1. I loved only the beautiful by Susan Meissner
2. I am most looking forward to the tagged book… so many people have told me I need to read it!

@BethM @JenReadsAlot @peaKnit

I dk how to describe my thoughts on this one. Probably bc I have conflicting thoughts. Some of the fighting between the leads felt out of proportion. I really didn‘t like the relationship btw the one of the leads and their lover - in any way. Overall, it‘s a pick for me, but I don‘t think I‘ll be recommending it to the average reader.

⭐⭐⭐1/2

This one left me perplexed: I had high expectations but I'm here with a few doubts and many "why?"
The beginning was a massive pick! But as the story developed, i was losing interest because it felt like an endless (and toxic) cycle.. and then the DRAMA happened and I was furious!! At last, the final part that didn't feel like an end at all..

?: ai ichigo ? by nevada, found on pinterest.

Let‘s see what the hype is about!

I wish I would have read this with a book club, because I had questions and strong opinions that I don‘t see posted in reviews. Looks like I‘m the only one who couldn‘t stand one of the main characters! Despite that, I really liked this book and am glad I finally pulled it out of the TBR pile to actually read.

“What is a game?” Marx said. “It‘s tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. It‘s the possibility of infinite rebirth, infinite redemption. The idea that if you keep playing, you could win. No loss is permanent, because nothing is permanent, ever.”

All the stars. I was not expecting to love this book so much. I‘m not into gaming. At all. And yet this novel spoke to me in so many ways. Really, it is about how we deal with grief and loss in life, about friendship. I got a bit teary towards the end.

The hype is real- this novel is a really immersive and emotive reading experience. Zevin has managed to craft a novel which is about gaming, but is still engaging for a reader who is not a gamer. I found this novel engaging on an ideas level, as well as being invested in the friendships and trials of its characters. For me, it was shy of being pitch perfect as the proliferation of traumas throughout required me to suspend a bit of disbelief.

I was reminded of A Little Life when I was reading this (nowhere near as heart-wrenching or good IMO). I did like it though.
I knew nothing about it before I started and chose to read it because I received it in my book club‘s Secret Santa, and I have promised to loan it to another member of my club who is keen to read it.
I should add that I read the second half with a Covid brain, and that may have impacted on my experience of it.

A new audiobook for an easy sunday morning.. I've heard great things about it!

Great book to start the year with! You don‘t have to be a gamer or a fan of romance to enjoy the story of this tender but fraught relationship because it‘s really about friendship that survives lapses, creative partnership and a different kind of love.💗

My last read of 2023 has been on my list all year. My favorite part was about the gaming and I am not a gamer but I identify with the creative process and Zevin gets that really well in this book. I think she was heavy handed with the plot in spots and maybe tried to do too much but overall I was glad to spend time with these characters.

Goodreads was down for me yesterday, which is where I track my reading, so I couldn't choose my book for June until now! 😂

#12booksof2023 @Andrew65

There is so much this book did that I liked and that moved me—on the level of nostalgia, for sure, but also in form, and in how it thinks about games and gaming. But what I‘m thinking about most right now is how the structure is so much like a romcom, and yet the central relationship is rooted in friendship and collaboration. There is something deeply lovely about how it shows the power and impact of love outside of romance.

Next

@yourfavouritemixtape #AuldLangSpine list. Despite being short, it is great! I‘ve only read To Kill a Mockingbird, but that was many years ago so I may revisit it. Tomorrow has been on so many of my BookSpin lists, but for some reason never got to reading it, so I was really excited to see it. I will be reading that first since I own it. No Two Person is also one I have been wanting to read. More below ⬇️

Starting a day late for #12booksof2023.
I read so many good books in 2023 that it is hard to narrow the list down…but this one is in my top 3 reads for the year (2nd or 3rd place).

Runner up for January: Babel by R. F. Kuang. This one would have made the top 12 list if read in a different month. Lol

#andrew65

Bailed after 127 pages.

I'm in the definite minority, but this was not for me at all. I hated every character and found the storyline to be all over the place.

I loved this book.
Sam and Sadie are friends and partners in creating a video game. Their friendship was built on a shared love of video games and creating other worlds. From the references to 1980s gaming to theory behind virtual worlds to Southern California locations, I loved all of it. I laughed, I cried, I texted my sister to see if she remembered Leisure Suit Larry. (She did.)
Photo = current knitting project

#book17of24for2023 #Novemberbookclub

“‘What is a game? Marx said. ‘It‘s tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. It‘s the possibility of infinite rebirth, infinite redemption. The idea that if you keep playing, you could win. No loss is permanent, because nothing is permanent, ever.‘”
#November2023

I finished this book today at lunch and wound up crying like a goofy goober in one of my fave restaurants. I really loved this book with its wonderfully flawed characters and nostalgic bent. It kinda had me with the title before I ever read it because it references one of my favorite Shakespearean passages, and I wasn‘t disappointed. The author once again knocked the wind out of me emotionally- not much else can be said sans spoilers.

#book.16.2023

Rdg grp this week will be a discussion of this bestseller. I am torn as I felt that the story of a childhood friendship emerging from illness into an adult bond that inevitably has highs + lows is a well trodden tale but it was very readable + I liked the characters.Gaming is not something I know much abt so I found the descriptions dull. Certainly worth reading but won't linger long in my memory but an enjoyable read. Should be a gd discussion

20th Oct 2023

Oh this made me read past my bedtime for the last two nights. I just had to know how it ends. First it felt like a warm blanket with the gaming and the 90s. I read so many gaming-books in the actual 90s. Then it shifted and I just had to finish it. Fast.

I‘m not into video games at all, but I still really enjoyed this book, which goes to show how well it‘s written.

Alright, I'm going on the tomorrow train. Wish me luck!
#audiobook

Discussion Question Number Two.

Discussion Question Number One.

Thanks to @Daisey , @SoniaC , and @tpixie for joining me this afternoon to discuss this month‘s book.