Welcome to Litsy!

I‘m not sure why I didn‘t hear any buzz about this book but it‘s brilliant ☢️ a student book rec

I loved Valery and I loved Shenkov and I loved Albert the octopus but I was heartsick about all the people living (suffering) in this town while being lied to by their government. I wish the end had been handled differently but I still really like Pulley's storytelling so this is another pick for me.

My favorite read in November
#ReadingBracket2023

I love reading on snowy days. (And all other days as well 😉) Starting this one now.

I deeply enjoy Natasha Pulleys plots and this one was no exception. Though I feel like her main characters have very similar voices and the books tend to follow the same beat. The ending felt rushed, which i felt with The Kingdoms as well. Nevertheless once i return this to the library, i will also make the rrip to the bookstore to pick up my own physical copy!

I picked this up on a whim from the library and I‘m so glad I did! I thoroughly enjoyed this Cold War thriller from start to finish. The emotional inner lives of the characters were wonderfully written and I was just immersed in the story. I need to read more by Natasha Pulley!

Unexpected joy today as half forgotten preorder arrives! Starting this tonight❣️🌟❣️

Overall only my third favourite Natasha Pulley book, but Watchmaker owns my soul and The Kingdoms has time travel so. I loved Valery, but Anna Shenkovna was delightful as well. As for the plot, I felt like it only really took off in the second half. & I'm glad Pulley finally is letting her queer male characters actually be queer, not just incidentally fall in love with men. Still not 100% on the depth of her female characters, but getting better.

And just like that, Anna Shenkovna is my favourite character. (thank goodness Pulley finally got the ability to write female characters. I love watchmaker but her three first were just sorely lacking in that department)

In which Dima is Alfred the Great, the Vory men are Anglo Saxon nobles, and Valery is Alcuin of York. Just saying.

Ms Pulley has a way with words

When reading Natasha Pulley, it's always a question of what kind of alternate universe will it be this time. The kind with clairvoyants and living clockwork octopodes, the kind with time travel and a Napolean Europe? with magical beings in the Andes? This is apparently the kind where nuclear bombs were dropped on Russia.

Can‘t wait to read this… I mean, I still haven‘t got around to The Kingdoms but soon for sure!

I love it when the postie leaves my book packages at the door (I‘m assuming someone bought it in past the security door at some point during the day) instead of taking it to the post office (especially the ones that are like this that would actually fit in my letter box and don‘t require a signature)

I really like how Pulley‘s books manage to draw me in every time.

But I had lots of issues with this book. Apart from the usual F character to sabotage the MM romance, I wish this book had had at least one sensitivity reader, because the anachronisms and cultural/language missteps were jarring and jarringly obvious to me.

Full review: https://scepticalreading.com/2022/06/the-half-life-of-valery-k/

2.5 Stars

I enjoyed this historical fiction novel set in a “secret” facility in 1960s USSR. The audiobook narration is excellent and Pulley gives the title character a pet octopus which is really all I needed to love the book. I have seen some reviews from others with more firsthand knowledge of the region that were less than flattering, but I enjoyed the writing and the story and I was invested in the characters. (One gripe in the comments though)

Fabulous novel that was absorbing and convincing. I loved Valery's sense of humour, too.

Is there any good international book source other than book depository? A book I want is out in the UK but not in the US and I don't want to give Amazon money if it can be avoided.

'Comrade, I'm going to be strange for a while, if not permanently. But I'm not unhappy or damaged, or I don't think I am. I've just been growing in different soil. I'm okay.'

She shifted her weight onto one side, plainly uncomfortable...'Only you do occasionally seem to hear things that aren't there,' she said.
'I know. Don't you think, though, that all the best people sometimes indulge in a little bit of auditory hallucination?'

He had English language partners too, because so many science journals were in English and he was determined to learn, but English people were useless. If they could hazard the faintest guess at what you might mean, paralysing embarrassment kept them from mentioning that ee and i were very different sounds, or that you were going to seem peculiar if you chose the wrong one when you tried to say you were going home by ship.

My goodness, this book. I finished this within 24 hours because of how enthralled and invested I was in the plot. What is it with Natasha Pulley writing delicate slow burns between complex older men while a whole plot is going on in the foreground??!! I super recommend this book and hope other people will like it as much as I did.

Private Eye July! Love a new BookPage. Seems to have gotten a bit crumpled before it made it to my mailbox, but still readable. Very interested in the tagged thriller included in the “Book in Advance” feature (out 7/26).

So I‘ve held off preordering because I was waiting to see if Waterstones would have signed copies (it doesn‘t seem like it) and then when I went to book depository I was confronted with the 🇬🇧 and 🇺🇸 covers…

Leaning towards red cover… but also really indecisive 😅😂 - what do you think?

The #ShadowCat snores adorably. So cute.

#CatsOfLitsy

In other news, I've made no progress on the tagged book since I sat down to read. But I've heard all about how awful learning four lines of text by heart is. 🙄

#ARC #NetGalley #MountARC

Pub Day: 23 June 2022

First chapter is set in a Sibirian gulag, made me shiver.

This was a page-turner. The plot itself was compelling, but the subtext was equally so. A good portrayal of the cold brutality of a totalitarian regime. Occasionally a narrative device or a character's interior thought felt decidedly 21st-century/Western, but it was never enough to disrupt my suspension of disbelief or investment in the characters/outcome. I received an ARC from #NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

(Pictured: Riley)

The subtext in this is just as engrossing as the narrative.

(Image: Riley in his shark bed.)

Got an ARC of this from #netgalley and it‘s a real page-turner!

There is a new Natasha Pulley book coming this summer! 🎉

I just saw that there will be a new book by Natasha Pulley already this July😱 Instant preorder 💙 I loved all her other books!!