Welcome to Litsy!

I probably did this book a disservice by racing through it on the last day of the year but what a gorgeous book.

I learned so much about living through the Sri Lankan civil war between 7 Moons and Brotherless Night. This is a perfect pairing if you have read one. 7 Moons is beautifully told, I love the concept and the character of Maali was well chosen.
4.25/5

It took me about an hour to stop expecting the narrator to ask me to choose my own way through the book. And once I got over the second person POV I had an overall wonderful time with Seven Moons. What prevents it from being a straight 5 star read is the author‘s inability to contain themselves when talking about Maali‘s sexuality; I get it, dude likes to f**k.

Endlessly creative with a fine eye for the depths of human imagination.

A great book with satisfying turns, other worldly tensions in an odd companion piece to “The Famished Road” I read earlier in the season. Deserving of its Booker listing, opening me as a reader to a (Sri Lankan) history and culture and atrocities which I‘d only vaguely been aware of happening.

It is not Good vs. Evil out here. It is varying degrees of bad, squabbling with conglomerates of the wicked.

Sharon Butala is award-winning novelist and memoirist, currently based in Calgary. She‘s also a big reader who talks about her reading with insight and humor. Lucky me, she‘s now a regular guest on my channel for regular, long-form chats like this.

https://youtu.be/6saOgtOTosU?si=Jd7al30_VwoHDBgO

Doing some #audiocrafting tonight. This book is a trip!! #huey #catsoflitsy

February book club pick: a multilayered story that follows a complex character in his journey to the afterlife. I don‘t think I‘ve read anything quite like this story and I can tell why it won the booker prize!

I was patiently waiting for the German translation and now finally got around to meet it. And wow, this is heavy. But I'm thankful for this book that taught me about a war I barely knew anything about. The plot itself dragged every now and then, but it's a pick only for the information I got alone. The way Karunatilaka pictures “life“ after death is hilarious. Yes, there is a good humor in this book, even though we read about devastating history.

I enjoyed this novel; very informative on the recent painful history of civil war-torn Sri Lanka. Maali Almeida, a photographer who has just died, is trying to solve the mystery of his own death by communicating with his loved ones and helping them publish his photos to expose the atrocities of the war. In the afterlife his mission is guided by two opposed forces, Dr. Ranee and Mahakali, each symbolizing a dimension of his country and of its past.

I don't know if Shehan Karunatailaka is unusual in Sri Lanka, but for me it is an #UnusualAuthName. Some mixed reviews from #Littens. My musical friend said the audio would make Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle feel like an episode of Seinfeld. Whatever that means. 😏 #NewYearNewBooks (Google image of Ring Cycle performance from Lyric Opera of Chicago.) @Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

This book hits hard, even in the section epigraphs.

There are good reasons humans can't converse with animals, except after death. Because animals wouldn't stop complaining. And that would make them harder to slaughter. The same may be said for dissidents and insurgents and separatists and photographers of wars. The less they are heard, the easier they are forgotten.

I've been wondering this entire time why this book is written in the 2nd person. There didn't seem to be a point to it. Pleased to see it addressed, in a chapter called The Voice to boot!

:/

What a weird, hard, wonderful read.

An intriguing — if chaotic and stressful — depiction of the afterlife. A narrative that disturbs and challenges, but thankfully throws you the occasional joke.

“The kindest thing you can say about life is: It‘s not nothing.”

Definitely not super well versed in the history of Sri Lanka but this was a beautiful take on love (queer and not) and violence, disguised in a colorful ride through the afterlife

This is so well written. It's satire and magical realism and a murder mystery set against the backdrop of 1980s Sri Lanka. It's dripping in references. It won the Booker so my IRL book club picked it for April. And some of them struggled with it. It's very dark. The main character is dead. And there are so many references if you have no background in this.

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

An ambitious novel, which I thought flowed really well. I also appreciate there were some glimmers of hope amongst all the tragedy. An apt summary from a blurb on the back: “Imagine a mash-up of Stranger Things and Salman Rushdie”. 🤔
#ToB2023 (I do realize the tournament is over - hashtag is for my reference 😁.)

I'm calling it. March was fun but my brain has moved on to April. Going to Europe on the 1st (work) so I need to pack. And decide which books should come. Not taking forever books so I already started the tagged for IRL book club. Also put my #SundayBuddyRead on my kindle. See. Someone's ready for April.

#BookSpin #DoubleSpin @TheAromaofBooks

I did it! #ToB2023 #ToB #ToBCompletist

Am on an airplane ✈️
Hoping this means I can get this done!

There‘s a lot going on in this Booker prize winning novel. Sometimes too much, especially with so much brutally gruesome material. Once I got used to the style it did flow better for me, and I did like the surprisingly hopeful way things were wrapped up. Still took me a couple weeks to get through, though. Will definitely be interesting to see how this does in #tob23!

I did it, I finished this book and I am glad I gave it another try. It is really good.

A Sri Lankan photographer dies and has a week (seven moons) to try come at peace with his life and his death in wartorn Sri Lanka. A typical #Bookerprize winner, and a worthy one.

With this one I finished the #ToB23 shortlist (bailing on two). I‘ll share my wrap-up soon.

I am diving into this one today! Finished Mouth2Mouth last night (um… Still thinking about it) so I am almost to completist status for #ToB2023. Then I will rank from favorite to least.

This one is my favorite cover. 🌟

#WeeklyForecast 08/23

Just started Newcomer and again I am loving a Japanese mystery! I‘m working on my courage to try the tagged one, the last one for the #ToB23. Checkout 19 is from the longlist and I hope to get to that one too!

I‘d had this on my list since the Booker and I‘m glad I read it. Different from the style of book I usually gravitate towards, and I appreciated that. At its heart is a beautiful expression of love and friendship in the context of a culture of discrimination and a horrific civil war. #ToB2023

You want to ask the universe what everyone else wants to ask the universe. Why are we born, why do we die, why anything has to be. And all the universe has to say in reply is: I don‘t know, arsehole, stop asking. The Afterlife is as confusing as the Before Death, the In Between is as arbitrary as the Down There. So we make up stories because we‘re afraid of the dark.

I am an official #tob23 completist! 🎉 This went between a pick and a low pick, but I think I agree with @Ruthiella that 3 or 4 moons would‘ve been enough. I do feel I understand the civil war in Sri Lanka better 👍🏻, but the plot was a tad(!) over complicated.

Almeida is a queer photojournalist in 1980s Sri Lanka. He has just been killed and has awakened in the afterlife. He has seven nights to make peace with his mistakes before moving on.

Trying to manage some anxiety around some medical stuff I‘m in the middle of (nothing dire, still stressful), so I did the logical thing and went to The Strand. The walk combined with picking up these two books definitely helped! Seven Moons is for #tob23 and Liberation Day is a signed copy that jumped in my bag - am a huge Saunders fan and had been meaning to pick it up ☺️

This was a weird one. My first thought was OH NO, HE'S USING THE SECOND PERSON... make it stop!! 😱😱 And then I spent a moon or two confused. Eventually this surreal tangle of stories kind of won me over.

I was hoping to learn more about Sri Lanka than I did. This is a montage of atrocities, a collage of corruption and violence, a mosaic of disillusion and apathy. As a novel it was more artistic than educational.

Still, it was different.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

We must all find pointless causes to live for, or why bother with breath?

Because, on reflection, once you have seen your own face and recognised the colour of your eyes, tasted the air and smelled the soil, drunk from the purest fountains and the dirtiest wells, that is the kindest thing you can say about life. It's not nothing.

Some Batik?

I‘ve now read 9 from the #booker2022 longlist.

I found this a little awkward on audio, opening with heavy satire. But I stuck with it, took it slow, through all those momentum-deadening dialogues, and I feel rewarded. It comes around. It has an overall structural arch that I can appreciate in hindsight and that made it all worth it. I got attached, and I got to really like Maali and his posthumous self in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 1990.

I admire this novel for its craft and creativity. I see why it won the Booker Prize last year. I learned a great deal about Sri Lanka. It has some profound observations about war, love,betrayal, and forgiveness. I think this will stay with me for a long time. 4 🌟
#TOB23 #52BOOKCLUB23 #setinwar
@LauraReads @KarenUK @britt_brooke @CarolynM @Smarkies @LeeRHarry @Clwojick @BookBelle84 @Jennifer8 @AshleyHoss820 @Read4life @Bluebird

I just couldn‘t get into this. It felt like a zombie movie to me. I have too many books to read to waste time reading something I don‘t enjoy. #Allhailthebail
The cover is beautiful though.

I think it could have been 3 or 4 moons instead of 7 and none the worse. Maali is a supposedly apolitical photographer in late 20th century Sri Lanka who narrates the story from the afterlife. He documented some of the worst atrocities of the civil war. Is that what got him killed? Maybe I, like Maali, became numbed by endless brutality presented, but I found this Booker winner too long, too repetitive and occasionally ponderous. #ToB2023

Given the tepid Litsy response and my own less than stellar history with Booker winners, I fully expected to hate this and bail fairly early. But I didn‘t hate it! I didn‘t love it, either, but I liked this solid look at sectarian violence in 1980s Sri Lanka. It‘s overly long and I would have wanted it tightened up, but good enough for a low pick from me. Plus, cool cover. #tob2023

When this won the Booker I wasn‘t interested enough to pick it up. #tob23 made me give it a try and ultimately I am glad I did. I didn‘t love it, it could easily have been a couple of moons shorter and been all the better for it, but there parts that I couldn‘t look away from.

On a whole, this was a good read with an interesting narrative. It had a lot of insightful moments about people and their motivations and power struggles. But it would definitely have helped to know more about Sri Lanka and the war.

I have no clue why this has a blank gray audible book cover. I started on January 1. It‘s heavy satire which is tough on audio. I can appreciate it, and find it interesting. but I‘m not really enjoying it. #booker2022

1 Nov-9 Dec 22
#Bookerlonglist 6
Disappointed this won the Booker as I found it a real slog. I quite like magic realism but this was tedious and I found it difficult to decipher what was going on. Possibly did not help that I knew so little about the Sri Lankan civil war. None of the characters interested me and the plot went nowhere.

This has some mixed reviews but I really liked it! It‘s long for sure but the audio flowed well and didn‘t feel too dragging for me. The ending was very satisfying and I thought it was a very satisfying ending for an MC who didn‘t believe in anything. I also thought the second person narration worked really well - a hard thing to get right without it feeling pretentious and forced.

A lovely way to have spent a cold MN evening.

#ToB23

I started this one on audiobook, but it just didn‘t gel for me. I preferred the print which I saw the snarky and sarcastic bits better. The second person point of view didn‘t completely work for me. Liked it but didn‘t love it.

I found this book clever enough, with bits of stellar writing & whip-smart dialogue. It was too long, but my main problem is with the emptiness of its politics. Maybe I'm biased because my family is Jaffna Tamil, though we are Malaysian. I've not experienced any of this first hand, but have heard about it & lost close & extended family members to SL state violence. Maali's glib nihilism as a photographer who has seen it all felt aimless. #TOB2023

#ToB23 #ToB2023

I had a tough time with this one. I couldn't connect with it, and at first I was enjoying the format, which was almost like an interconnected short story book, but as it progressed I became bored and had to push myself to finish.

There were some thought provoking ideas presented and some lovely writing. In the end though, it just really wasn't for me.

So many of my library holds have come in at once. Going to start with this one as I‘ve been looking forward to it for ages

1 The Lonely Hearts Hotel
2 What is Not Yours is not Yours
3 Caleb‘s Crossing
4 Parable of the Sower
5 NW
6 The Luminaries
7 Oranges are not the only Fruit
8 Gustov Sonata
9 The Master Butchers Singing Club
10 For the Wolf
11 The Master
12 Holding
13 Hotel World
14 A Place Called Winter
15 The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida
16 Lincoln in the Bardo
17 Library
18 Library
19 Audio
20 Audio
December #bookspin #doublespin @TheAromaofBooks