Welcome to Litsy!

(This is not a book to listen to unless you make a list of the characters as you go along.) A Pulitzer Prize winner. This story of black slaveowners in Virginia is filled with great characters, historical details, and a lovely style of narrative (some would disagree) full of incidents that will make you wonder, cringe, cry, and revel in the details. I‘ve made a commitment to read it again in a year. There was so much that I‘m sure I missed. ⬇️

Pet peeve alert: I‘m not a person who looks at the end of a book while I‘m reading it because I‘m afraid I‘ll see something that spoils the ending. So here I am, 3/4‘s of the way through this book of many characters, only to see by accident that there is a listing of characters at the end of the book. This would have been very helpful to have for the first 1/4 of the book. Why do they put this at the end? It‘s so annoying.

Stamford, a 44-year-old slave, separated from his parents when he was very young, can‘t remember the names of his parents and begins to doubt he actually had parents. This quote … 💔💕

Just not in the right head space for this. Made it about 20% of the way, can‘t seem to get invested. Will try again in a few months. #Bookspin #20in4 @TheAromaofBooks @Andrew65

Time to start this Pulitzer winner! 😊

This is very good. I understand why it won so many awards. The writing is lyrical and deep.
I struggled with keeping the characters straight and probably could have used a character guide. And while it is an interesting setting - Black slave owner plantation - I struggled with the length and a big of boredom, but that is on me because it is an excellent book.

2nd Bingo!
February has been a very good bingo board for me! As someone who is normally all over the board and after almost a year only got my first bingo last month, this month it is 2, with a week left for another 🙏

Thanks @thearomaofbooks for making it fun to get all these TBRs off my shelf.
#bookspin #bookspinbingo

Another exciting pandemic Saturday night with an impending snowstorm to really keep me stuck inside. #lovemybooksbutIwanttoleavemyhouse

I'll try again someday but just couldn't connect this time. 😔

"My soul's often wondered how I got over . . ."

What a start!

I'm trying to be better about posting on my bookish social media other than Twitter.

That being said:

My first blog post in a long time is three historical fiction mini reviews. Featuring a Pulitzer Prize story set in pre-Civil War Virginia, a family drama set during the Nigerian War, and a coming of a novel set in Civil Rights era Mississippi.

https://bit.ly/3fCJb9m

This book mainly focused on the people of a certain slave plantation in Virginia and the many trials and tribulations experienced by a variety of characters. It was extremely dense, heavy, and long, so it took effort to get through it but I did enjoy it once I got into it.

#blitsy Thanks for organising @Chelleo and for the books @Annl

This Pulitzer Prize winning book takes on the moral complexity of slavery in an epic way. The story of a freed slave and his wife who are taken under the tutelage of a successful white business man unfolds with power, passion, and a sweeping sense of history. This is a great read - I flew through it! 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

I love learning new words from books. The Merriam-Webster app gets alot of use on my phone. Edward P. Jones "The Known World" was loaded with new to me words.

A rewarding epic saga with a broad cast and a leisurely pace. So leisurely that it took about four hours before I really felt invested in the #audiobook. Fortunately, it was pleasant to listen to Kevin Free‘s narration while I was knitting, so I didn‘t give up. I also enjoyed the author‘s way of jumping briefly ahead by decades, giving glimpses of the future for his characters, a technique also used by Meg Wolitzer in The Interestings.

Whew! I extended my yarn by twisting in the tail from the start of the project and then I had just enough to finish casting off the final row of this shawl. #audioknitting project started a month and 6 audiobooks ago.

Oh dear. 25 stitches still to cast off and only enough yarn left for about 10. #audioknitting

#Bookstoread

My copy of this book is so pristine because I have owned it since it was first published in 2003! I‘m finally reading it! #readsoullit day 6: in the street.

Starting another #Pulitzer winner on #audiobook.

The perfect afternoon? I think so.

Without a doubt, the most unwieldy part of packing is the book selection. A novel is de rigueur, but what if you‘re not in the mood for that one? Better pack two. Then, I always want a history and some poetry. I always want to take Milton, but I‘m teaching Chaucer next year. So, that choice is made. Where am I? Jones‘ The Known World, Kent‘s The Good People, Canterbury Tales, and Usama Ibn Munqidh‘s The Book of Contemplation. Probably enough.

Next up!

Still catching up on #riotgrams: this year for #blackhistory month, instead of just doing one big display I filled all of our smaller Level Up displays with books by black authors.

This novel has beautiful writing, a complex structure, and fully realized characters. The story of slavery in our country is painful to read about, but crucial to our understanding of race relations today. We ignore our history at our peril.

Happy Library Book Sale Day! Replacing lost copies, finishing out series and authors, and finding new reads! 9 books, 9 dollars! 😍😍😍😍

When you come home from a long 2 days of travelling to find do that a Pulitzer Prize winning author has sent you some goodies as he promised. 🤓💖📚 #writerswrite #writergoals #writersread

Dewey's Readathon countdown, Day 20: The prompt is "best." Last I heard, this was the winningest novel in terms of cash awards, and when pressed I also refer to it the most often as the book I love best. #readathon #30DaysofReadathon ? ❤️?

Read More Co. asked me to name my ten favorite books. This is what I came up with, but ask me again tomorrow and they'd probably all be different. ❤️

This has been on my TBR for years. Two chapters in, I am wondering why I waited so long.

Current Situation....📖☕️

Two #sophomorenovels that won the Pulitzer. #jubilantjuly

Friday night reading. 📖Pretty sure I've heard @Liberty talk about this being one of her favorites so I had to pick it up. 😊 It won the Pulitzer and the National Book Award so, high praise all around! 🙌

#bookhaul!! Used my Tetris skills at the last day/fill-a-bag library book sale and scored all these plus eleven cookbooks for $5! Now, where to put them.......

This book complicates notions of the slaveholding South by telling the story of a freed slave, Henry, who then becomes a slaveholder. The book illuminates the varied reactions to this reality: disappointed parents who were former slaves; a proud former-master; poor men in the community who resent that a black man has slaves. #blackhistorymonth Full Review here: http://readosaurustext.blogspot.com/2017/02/edward-p-joness-known-world.html?m=1

For #fictionlove I made a short stack of books I love that are February appropriate. #17booklove

The weekend means snuggly morning reading time in bed!!!!! ❤️😍❤️📚

Small book haul from the library sale yesterday. The Known World is part of my #LitsyAtoZ challenge and Walter Mosley is an author I've never read so I'm glad I found the first in the Easy Rawlins series 📚📚📚

My #recommendsday pick! So many intriguing characters and Jones draws you into all of their lives so deeply, which is heart wrenching at times. It has a different narrative structure, which I loved, but may not work for people who don't like stories that jump around.

Have you ever started a book that has been on your TBR forever and just kept thinking "How in the HELL have I not read this yet?!?" I'm having one of those moments. #litsyatoz

My current read happens to have been #publishedinthe2000s. I have no idea how this hashtag evolved, but I love it! Also found an alternative cover of the book. Not sure which design I like better--one is so familiar, and the other so elegant.

". . . the kind of world he wanted to create was doomed before he had even spoken the first syllable of the word master." p. 64

It is rewarding to be reading this book so recently after having read The Underground Railroad.

I found this bookmark in a library book. It's mine now! #readjanuary #readingequipment

🥁drum roll please🥁After much deliberation and with great ado, I have finally made my decision about which #newread to pack with me for #mla17. I've been wanting to read this book for a loooooong time.