Welcome to Litsy!

This was a welcome change from Cleric Chih's wandering adventures, as this time the adventure comes home with them as they return to Singing Hills abbey. A lot here about memory, story, and grief. Beautiful and oddly soothing, for a book about returning home to find your mentor has died and their grandkids are beating down the gates with mammoths.

Great #audiobook performance by Cindy Kay!

I love these covers. These are a series of fantasy novellas and this is the 4th.

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

oOoOO! While most of the stories tend to happen outside the Singing Hills Abbey, this time we are IN the Abbey. Chih goes back after being away for ~3yrs and it's chaos. Cleric Thien has died and their granddaughters are at the gates with mammoths, demanding for their body. This was an interesting read focusing on someone from 2POVs after their death. Who were they? And how can they be mourned in so many different ways?

It's here! I'm loving my new kobo! (elipsa 2e) My other one was old enough that this has a much better screen and lighting. Being able to adjust the temperature of the light is so cool.
I haven't tested out all the features yet, but so far it's great. The stylus works fine with my left-handedness, except for highlighting (it only seems to work left to right, and I highlight right to left) which isn't a big deal as I rarely highlight things anyway.

My book of the week for last week is “Mammoths at the Gates“, by Nghi Vo, the latest book in the Singing Hills Cycle. It‘s an incredibly touching story about loss, mourning, friendship, and the stories that make up our lives.
What stories will you be made of when you die? What tales will come together to form your ghost?
Full book review: https://tardisgrades.blogspot.com/2024/03/book-of-week-march-11th-to-17th.html
#bookoftheweek #serieslove2024

I'm not crying, you're crying!
My favourite book of the series so far.

A belated review from December—

I‘m so glad that @Tea_and_Starstuff recommended this series for our IRL book club a couple months ago, prompting me to give them a second look. The first one didn‘t draw me in on a first read, but worked for me on a re-read, and each subsequent book I‘ve liked better and better. This one, with themes of grief, return, and memory—and the stories we tell after we lose someone—was beautiful.

While these books always have another angle on storytelling, this one hit particularly hard: in grief, does a group of people remembering a person add up to the total of that person? What about the second hand, 'best of' version? When you've been away from a friend, living your lives, how could a return to where you were as children ever equal in knowledge the years you didn't spend together, how you changed and grew? 1/2

Three #bookspin bingos in May

#bookspinbingo #doublebookspin @TheAromaofBooks

5/5

Cleric Chih returns home to the Singing Hills Abbey to find both home and himself changed. I loved that this novella focused on Chih's background and the stories were related to those he knows. I really enjoyed havig more time with Almost Brilliant and learning more about the other neixim.