Welcome to Litsy!

I enjoyed it in the end. Would have enjoyed it more if I'd not been in a bit of a reading slump

A story of a woman‘s acting and dating past, enfolded in the story of her current family life during the togetherness of the early COVID months

November #bookspin

Nothing like waiting until the last minute!

This has everything I usually love in a book…and yet, I didn‘t love it. I have no idea why really. Wrong timing? I know nothing about Our Town, the play the story centres around (but I never want to read about Emily or the Stage Manager again), I felt nothing much for the characters and just felt distanced from the whole thing. In fact I nearly gave up. The last 50 pages or so kind of won me round but I still feel ambivalent.

Next kindle read

I just reread this one and loved it just as much the second time. This time I listened to the audio and it was as wonderful as everyone said. Since I knew the ending, I was able to focus more on the characters and less on the plot. The reflections of a woman to her adult children is beautiful. It‘s about memory and nostalgia, the secrets we hold and the experiences that shape us. I know it will stay with me.

I needed a leisurely story and this is what this is. A story of a family during the pandemic, working on their farm, with the mother telling a story that the kids have asked for of her past with a particular actor. Patchett doesn‘t always hit the mark for me but I really appreciate her inspirational book buying IG posts. Therefore I‘m giving this a pick.

#schoolspirit
#play #ourtown
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks #eggs

September #bookspin started❣️

@TheAromaofBooks

I really enjoyed both books I read by Ann Patchett (The Dutch House a few months ago) - both were audiobooks with Meryl Streep (Tom Lake) and Tom Hanks (The Dutch House) as narrators, so that did contribute to my enjoyment!

Hope September starting off well for everyone - make a great day 🍂

Lara is on her cherry farm with her 3 adult daughters and husband during the 2020 pandemic. The kids ask her to tell the story of her past - when she was an actress and the summer she worked at Tom Lake and dated Peter Duke (now famous actor). Story goes from past to present. Felt like I knew Duke, Sebastian, Palace and Uncle Wallace.⬇️

August #BookSpinBingo - thank you for hosting @TheAromaofBooks -

Make a great day everyone 😎

#AboutaBook
#published2023
@Eggs
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

#Two4Tuesday Thanks for the tag @TheSpineView -

I went to Universal just a few years ago and I am going to Kings Island Friday for my grandsons 4th birthday - no books at the amusement park 🙂

Finished 2 books at end of July - so here is my updated #BookSpinBingo - thanks for hosting @TheAromaofBooks -

Make a great day everyone 🎢 (I think that is a roller coaster emoji 🤣)

Finally getting to read this, a lovely summer‘s evening is the perfect accompaniment ❤️

Close to a #BookSpinBingo this month 📚

Make a great day everyone 😎

late night reading with the pup, finished but it was like wadding through marmite (which I think Is thicker than mud ) so disappointed i had high hopes for this but my goodness not a patchon commonwealth which was one of my favourite books of the year.The premise is great but the story just didn‘t grip me & there was no chemistry at all between Lara & Duke, and a cosy almost brotherly relationship with Jo her husband. Not her best and v overrated

can someone tell me why this book is so popular? reads like a tradwife manifesto so far...

Sometimes you just need a book that‘s comforting, not every story has to have that WOW factor. If you are looking for that, read this!

I loved this story so much. It took me a bit to really get into it, but once I did, I wanted to know what would happen next.

Meryl Streep‘s narration was superb, of course.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This story is starting to really grow on me. I‘m glad I‘m listening to the audiobook, the narration is perfect.

Lara tells her three daughters the story of her past.

Dreamy ✨ Inevitability ✨ Timeless

A simple tale within a tale with a solid ending.

This was excellent! I read and listened to Meryl Streep read it (she is so good!). A family stuck together during the pandemic, looking back at the past. I loved the couple of weeks we were locked down together, my boys with me 24/7. I chose my cloud oodie as the backdrop of this photo as somewhere in the book they are lying on the grass in the cherry orchard looking up at the clouds and deciding if they are ducks or rabbits. ⬇️

Late to the party, but happy just to be here 😉

Up next on audio…

I went back and forth between just liking (so-so) and really enjoying (pick) this. Meryl Streep was a great narrator for this #audiobook, but for the one young 20 something year old daughter who sounded like she was one of Homer Simpson's sister-in-laws with her old lady smoker voice. 😂

⭐⭐⭐⭐

#SummerSouls #Lake
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Eggs

Has it really been 3 years since I‘ve been here? What did I miss?

This was a beautiful read and only cements what I already knew - Ann Patchett is one of my favorite writers. I found myself thinking more than once how lovely it would be to live in an orchard, or near one - but I think I‘d be disappointed to find that I wouldn‘t be living with the Nelson family 😂 #tbrtarot #flowersoncover

Long languid days of actual cherry picking, and learning that your parents had fulfilling and interesting lives before you were born. #sundayfunday

#WeeklyForecast

I‘ve started some books that‘ll take a longish time to finish; Dissolution #ShardlakeSeriesBR, a 2 month buddy read and The BookShop Book

I‘ll undergo surgery tomorrow and not sure how much reading I‘ll get done

Tom Lake returned from Libby and I want to continue that

I want to finish The Switch

The rest are possibilities; The Secrets of the Stormforest, Slemme Jenter (Bad Girls) and the Icelandic author Jon Kalman Stefansson

Patchett never disappoints, and this is no exception. I finished it outside, with a bowl of cherries by my side. Knowing Our Town and The Cherry Orchard add depth, but are not necessary for the enjoyment of this warm novel. Highly recommended.

So fun to recognize #StorySettings. Petoskey, Traverse City, and "Washed Cherries" signs bring back great memories as a #MittenLitten. As a teen, hubs worked landscaping at Grosse Point Yacht Club where Sabatian plays tennis and where I grew up on Lake St. Clair. Pic of the #lake where I currently live from outside our small town library. @Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

This is a slow moving story. I enjoyed most of the characters. The locations were beautiful in my imagination. I listened to Meryl Streep reading this. I loved her narration. 4/5

Easy read

Excellent. Beautifully told.

Meryl is a dream, but 80% of the way through I realized that I felt no connection to any of the characters (or a really strong grasp on any of them?) and I felt incredibly bored. Sped through the rest. I wanted to like this more! 2.5 ⭐️ 🎧

#FirstLineFridays

Although listening to the voice of Meryl Streep was delightful, I think I would have enjoyed the book more had I read it instead.

I finished Tom Lake and was left wondering if I should read Our Town.

On my commute the next day, I remembered that I‘ve been meaning to dive into Iris DeMent‘s catalog. A friend introduced me to her song “Let the Mystery Be” (linked below) & I was instantly hooked.

Guess what I found upon listening? Her most popular song on Spotify is called “Our Town.” Another, from her newest album, is “The Cherry Orchard.”

OK, okay. I‘ll read Our Town! 😅

🙌 loved this book, absolutely recommend you get the audio Meryl Streep just does such a wonderful job
5⭐️
#readaway2024 book 14
Goal 2 #awesomeapril readathon

Ann Patchett once said, “That moment when you write a single, perfect sentence is worth more than an entire box of biscuits.” In Tom Lake, she writes her sentence: “Sweet cherries must be picked today and every day until they‘re gone.” Simple & mundane on the surface, it‘s also the wisest counsel. In her novel, she shines a soft, springtime light on the juxtaposition & interplay of joy & sorrow, the sweet & the tart (& how both require work).👇🏻

“If we‘re going to be miserable and cry, let‘s do it in the lake.”

…

“Swimming is the reset button,” Pallace used to say. “Swimming starts the day again.”

“I walk past the kitchen garden. The lettuce and tomato plants and zinnias are already straightening up from the beating they‘ve taken. Those tiny periwinkle butterflies are working their rounds. Where do the periwinkles go in rain like that? It‘s not that I‘m unaware of the suffering and the soon-to-be-more suffering in the world, it‘s that I know the suffering exists beside wet grass and a bright blue sky recently scrubbed by rain.”

There is no explaining this simple truth about life: you will forget much of it. The painful things you were certain you‘d never be able to let go? Now you‘re not entirely sure when they happened, while the thrilling parts, the heart-stopping joys, splintered and scattered and became something else 🍒

Between a so-so and a pan for me. I found this story to be incredibly plodding and slow. An almost actress takes an entire summer to tell her adult daughters the story of her relationship with a man who went on to become a famous actor. Supposedly she has told them this story before, but they didn‘t know how their mother met their father? 🍒🍒/5

In the span of a dozen pages, Ann Patchett‘s referenced Sandra Boynton‘s “Hippos Go Berserk” and Melville‘s “Bartleby the Scrivener.”

I didn‘t know it was possible for my already abundant estimation of her to grow. Yet here we are.

I loved the plot structure of this book and its slow unravel. Recounted as a story told by a mother to her daughters and layered up with their contemporary opinions all set in the recent timeline of the 2021 pandemic. I particularly loved how the narrator held back some of the more personal truths, precious memories she‘d saved only for herself but lucky you (the reader) is let in on these. 💗