Welcome to Litsy!

This was beautifully written, but I can't remember the last time a book left me feeling this thoroughly bummed out.

So... thanks?

This is a poetic and philosophical tale of a young woman's flight from civilisation into the wilderness of 1500s (?) America.

There's a lot of survivalist detail, which I usually find dull, but the story is embellished with flashbacks to her life before.

I'm not unmoved, but will have to see if it sticks with me.

I recently finished the tagged book, where she briefly mentions Indigenous cultivation of nut trees in North America, and today this article appeared on cbc.com.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-hazelnut-research-1.7392860

It's a quick, interesting read!

"But of course men, particularly the godly ones, have little common sense."

#ReadAway2024
The #Naturalitsy #BuddyRead for August, it took me a while to get to & through this book. It‘s a pick for me for the gorgeous atmospheric writing but it was very moody & bleak so, although fairly short, I had to work my way through slowly as I struggle with too “heavy” books right now. Very thought provoking & also quite graphic in its descriptions. This is my first Lauren Groff (I‘m not sure why) & based on it, I would read more.

Back to Hilo for the day… trying to finish up this one from last month.

Geoff‘s nameless heroine escapes from the starving Jamestown colony in winter & runs & runs & runs, with only what she‘s wearing and a few useful things in a sack. Run she might, as dangers abound - the bone chilling winter cold, men sent after her, wild animals, the local Powhatan (not friendly to the colonists,) lack of food, disease, and the wild terrain. A terrifying journey, with flashes of awe and wonder, because the wilds are beautiful too.

5 ⭐️s
One of the most beautiful, poignant novels I have ever read. This one will stick with me for a long, long time. I‘m so grateful for book clubs/buddy reads because they expose me to the magic of something I never would have had on my radar otherwise. This will be another one I need to hunt down and own. Wonderful message of what it means to truly know and embrace your place in nature. It‘s impacted me greatly and I want everyone to read it.

#Naturalitsy #buddyread for August. This is a read at your own pace read. A discussion thread will be posted at the end of the month.

All are welcome to join us. Please let me know if you wish to be added/removed from the taglist.

@LitsyEvents

The story of a young woman‘s fight for survival against devastating hunger, the dangers of a foreign wilderness, disease, despair, and unfathomable loneliness.

Repost for @AllDebooks

#Naturalitsy
We're moving on to fiction for our August #buddyread with Laura Groff's The Vaster Wilds. 🐺

All are welcome to join us. Please let me know if you wish to be added/removed from the taglist.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/sep/21/the-vaster-wilds-by-lauren-groff-r...

Original post - https://www.litsy.com/web/post/2755048

#Naturalitsy

We're moving on to fiction for our August #buddyread with Laura Groff's The Vaster Wilds. 🐺

All are welcome to join us. Please let me know if you wish to be added/removed from the taglist.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/sep/21/the-vaster-wilds-by-lauren-groff-r...
@LitsyEvents

This novel, about a servant girl who escapes from the Jamestown colony to strike it out on her own in the woods of Virginia was simply okay. The description of the ordeal of survival became repetitive as well as the over-use of the word “piss;” this story‘s lasting impression in my mind lies in phrases such as, “the brown, sick piss.” The story also seems to have some kind of spiritual eco-consciousness message towards the end, I think at least.

I'm not sure what to say about this, except - LG is one of the greatest living writers. I was having a great morning but now I'm just standing here in my kitchen watering my plants and contemplating my own mortality idk

3.5⭐️/5⭐️

Low pick. 3.5⭐. I was a bit disappointed in this. I love Groffs writing but my brain while reading this kept comparing it to a very lyrical survivor type show. I think it wasn't given justice b/c I was also reading In Memoria at the same time. Overall this was fine. I am glad it was short I don't know if I could handle much more of the girls struggles. It is a gorgeous and harrowing book just maybe not for me.

Good timing for this quote as the Internet also debates what is scarier a man or a bear?

"She would leave this place as soon as she could; she would put as much land as it was possible between herself and the men or the bear; she did not know which to fear more, man or bear or perhaps her own small starved feverish self."

3.5 ⭐

The Vaster Wilds is a well written, fictional, account of a young girl's escape into the wild unknown. A lonely and rather depressing tale throughout which the girl attempts to put distance between herself and her past, both physically and emotionally. Displaying a wealth of courage and headstrong strength, the girl makes her way across waters and lands trying to find a place of solace and comfort - a place of safety and belonging. ⤵️

"May you drown in a malmsey butt, welsh hag, the girl said." ?

There's one I haven't heard before. ?

What a gorgeous and perfect novel. In the 17th century, a teenage girl flees into the American wilderness from a fort in Virginia and tries to survive on her own in the wild. Almost no characters have names, almost no dialogue, but a rich interiority more than makes up.

First let me say that I listened to the audio of this book while reading along. The narrator, January LaVoy, did an excellent job with this story. She made it come alive.
A young girl takes off from Jamestown after some pretty awful things happened. She runs through forests and floats on water for the most part. She's totally alone and goes back and forth between her running and before she left.

My review: https://tinyurl.com/38dh4mzy

My 2nd Groff for #authoramonth #aam This was an interesting read, all from the perspective of an escaped servant from colonial times as she is fleeing abuse and disease and struggles to survive the wilderness, injury, and being hunted. This is an adventure story that reads like a fable, a mystery and a tragedy all in one. It‘s hard to read, this is dark and depressing but the prose is quite lovely so that made it a pick for me. @Soubhiville

I learned two new words today! 🤗

#AAM #doublespin My first Lauren Groff book was an #auldlangspine recommendation from @Chelsea.Poole and I loved it! The first half was incredibly tense as we meandered slowly through what felt like an extended exposition of period syntax and visceral descriptions of survival alone in the wilderness. But once I relaxed into the rhythm of the novel, the story really opened up and took on a new dimension of spiritual insights that resonated deeply.

#authoramonth
The Vaster Wilds
my first book from this author ✍️

#litsylove
#bookspinbingo

This is one of those books that I objectively know is a Good Book™️. A historical tale of a girl fleeing the starving Jamestown settlement, it seamlessly combines the visceral experience of surviving alone in the wild with the haunted inner life of the girl recalling her journey to that point. For the first half, I was heavily invested but I struggled with the end where its more dreamlike, spiritual bent left me a little unsatisfied. Still a pick!

The moon hid itself behind the clouds. #firstlinefridays @ShyBookOwl

I was going to read this last month but I held it for February #AuthorAMonth

I have read and loved each Lauren Groff I‘ve read (Fates and Furies, Florida and Matrix) so I‘m really looking forward to this one.

@Soubhiville

Good but hard subject.

I suspect this won‘t be everyone‘s cup of tea as a slow-paced novel. I have a serious book hangover though. Beautiful writing. 5 stars for me. A servant girl flees the colony Jamestown in the 1600s and makes her way through the land. A contemplation on survival and death, and strangely uplifting.

I think I need to concede that Fates & Furies was a one-off Groff.

This was interesting and unique but I didn't go absolutely nuts for it the way most people are. I felt the same about the Matrix. So I think I might need to take Groff off my must-read list.

And this swift and gorgeous and too-rare strike to the heart was just like when one of the goldsmith's apprentices beat and beat at a tiny lump of gold until all across the marble table on which they worked an astonishing thin leaf of gold spread outward; the vividest moments were when the leaf gently tore and one could see the cold sharp veins of the marble before the leaf was healed again by beating.

First day home from vacation and before Christmas gets put away I think I‘ll just sit here with coffee and a new book. 😊

#readinginthenewyear

My StoryGraph will never look like this again in 2024.

My #Top23of23! I can‘t wait to look back at the hashtag and all the ones I‘ve missed. Thanks for keeping this alive @BarbaraBB 💜

Notes: a few authors would have more than one: Kim Hooper (People Who Knew Me), Kent Haruf (Eventide), and Silas House (Lark Ascending), but I wanted max diversity on my graphic so my favorite of the two is there.

A lot less nonfiction than usual this year! 🤷🏻‍♀️

I still need to review two (Perrin and Alberta).

Boxing Day is a great time to read a book in a day - which is a rare event for me! And this tale went so fast.

Enormous skill on Groff‘s behalf to instil so much grief and joy into so few chapters, the hardship, visceral fear and relief of escape and survival told predominantly through our protagonist‘s solitary journey in nature. This is a real feat of writing that probably should have made my #top23of23 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book is proof that some authors are uniquely gifted to write ‘It sucks to be you‘ in the most poetic of ways!

This was amazing! Loved the interiority of the main character - she is smart and insightful. Also loved the appreciation of the beauty of nature. Interesting that no character (aside from Bess) is named.

So there I was reading my library book and what falls out of the book but a BOGO coupon for the most delicious hot chocolate in the land. I am blessed!!! The main character in my book would kill for this coupon. It‘s also so weird that I‘ve spent 2 days with this novel and I‘m only now discovering it.

I LOVED Groff's novel Arcadia, then couldn't get into Fates & Furies (I did finally finish it). Matrix wasn't my thing. Monsters of Templeton is okay. This one was really good! I found it compulsively readable. It's not my favorite book ever, but it was solid & Groff's writing is superb (even in the books I wasn't into). At the time, I thought Arcadia was a fantastic post-9/11 book. In the same way, this feels like a response to Covid isolation.

I spent the long weekend in my childhood home.

A Woman versus nature narrative. A Meditation. Everything I say on its face I don't like. But this is in subtle but profound conversation with preceding Matrix and succeeds at what it does. This is not an adventure story. This does not follow an Aristotelian structure and to judge it as such is a disservice to the work. Further thoughts on Youtube --> https://youtu.be/GfUH62QxwXg

I know so many people absolutely loved this story, and I really wanted to, but I ended up finding it just ok. The writing is absolutely gorgeous (for the most part…some discussion of the main character shitting was kind of 😳) but it was so very bleak and just left me feeling kind of unsatisfied. The narrator was also just ok. Definitely worth a read if you love this author and I will probably read more myself but not rushing out to do so. 🌟🌟🌟

A servant girl flees a colonial settlement and is forced to attempt to survive weather, beasts, navigation, and her memories. This book, for me, was when I truly saw what everyone already said about the genius of Groff as a writer. I loved this book and devoured it.

Still working on this one. Taking lots of time to think thoughts on it.

When you leave your colonial settlement and strike out into the wilderness on your own, you might eat a lot of #berries #hopefulharvest

A girl runs from her Colonial town and has to fight to survive the winter wilderness. We suffer alongside her as she battles hunger, cold, and exhaustion and learn where is is from and why she is running as she contemplates her own past. Vivid and dark this was a book I experienced more than read.