Welcome to Litsy!

I have a review to post and one weekend book to finish but I am thinking about the first December books already. Week one of the final countdown!

I am going to tackle 2 of my #10BeforeTheEnd (Ours is a chunkster expecting it to take all month) and 2 from the #ToB both Creation Lake & Wandering Stars are on that list and the NYT best books of 2024.

Very unpopular opinion but I just couldn‘t get into this one.

Not as good as his debut, but great! He has such a real voice, and spending time with Orvil and his family and ancestors was lovely. Sadness and happiness together

I‘m reading too many memoirs right now and I‘ve been putting this one off for way too long…

As with Anne Michaels' "Held", I was into the first half but once the narrative reached 2018 it kind of dissipated and/or fragmented whilst feeling increasingly repetitive, not helped by the fact that the various characters are written with the same voice. It's a worthy book dealing with seriously heavy themes and perhaps I'd feel differently had I read "There There" beforehand but, as it is, my reading experience became something of a trudge.

This wasn‘t as captivating as There There, but it was still a really solid follow up and I love the way Tommy Orange says things! He really makes you think and I enjoy his play on words and ability to connect us to history. 3.75/5

Super emotional read with lots of tough subjects including but not limited to genocide, residential schools, loss of parents, addiction, drug abuse, and a mass shooting. I loved the epistolary feel and sometimes-epistolary format and how the book therefore often felt like it was talking directly to me. The writing was lovely and the narration fantastic but this was a bit of a tough book to chill with due to subject matter.

There is a lot to admire in this novel. The first half of the book worked best for me. Once the novel picked up where There There left off, I started to lose interest. Well worth a read, but not on my personal short list. 3 🌟 #bookerlonglist #booker @squirrelbrain @AnneCecilie @charl08 @JamieArc @BarbaraBB @Graywacke @jlhammar @Deblovestoread

This prequel/sequel to There There is a powerful piece of fiction when read as part of that whole story. As a novel itself, this one didn‘t work as well for me. The two parts of this novel didn‘t work equally well for this reader. As a result, although moving, and important, the messaging felt a bit too obvious to me, and accordingly the storytelling was a bit less resonant.

A soft pick - it finished strong but suffered in parts by being to repetitive. #booker

I liked this a lot. Hoping it gets shortlisted.
#Booker24 #Longlist
Powerful engagement with indigenous histories of the US. As the dedication suggests, also a deep dive into youth addiction. Hoping it gets shortlisted.

One thing I want you to understand is that your suffering does not make you special. There's a voice inside everyone who suffers that says, no one else has it like this, and so much selfish action comes from listening to that voice. You are not alone, you are not special, and there is help. We have one another."

All the Indian children....went on to have ....Indian children....whose Indian children became American Indians, whose American Indian children became Native Americans, whose Native American children would call themselves Natives, or Indigenous, or NDNS, or the names of their sovereign nations, or the names of their tribes, and all too often would be told they weren't the right kind of Indians

Third hold this week came in but I can never bring myself to extend them after waiting so long.

#audiobooks #libby

#BookerLonglist

I had a hard time getting into this book but once I got through the first part it picked up for me. 3.5 🌟

Heavy stuff. Didn‘t quite reach the heights of There There for me (loved that one), but still very good. Only my second from the #Booker2024 longlist (after James).

#bookerlonglist 9/13

As with There, There, this was a tough read although, I think because I knew what to expect in terms of the author‘s style, I found it a little easier to read.

I preferred the first half of the book - the more recent sections (based in the aftermath of the Powwow in There, There) became rather repetitive.

This will be borderline, I think, for my own personal shortlist although I can see why the judges may shortlist it.

I remember being impressed by There, There, but rarely remember it. Still, I wanted to read this one as well. And I'm glad I did, because it's so important to remember what Europeans did to Indigenious people all over the world. That colonization is not over and done, that it still lives on from generation to generation. Therefore, it's so important that we read those books and listen to what their authors have to tell us.

#roll100 @PuddleJumper

This follow up to There There is worthy, but does not surpass what Orange has done originally with the characters and vibes of his first novel. I enjoyed the audiobook‘s various narrators which emphasized various Native American experiences, both past and present. Themes of heritage, addiction, and familial connection across generations.

I loved his 1st novel, There There (2018) This 2nd novel is more of the same, but this time it‘s not new. And he never changes style. Several characters all written in the same style. Oye. It works for one character, Orvil. For the rest, well, so so or worse for me.

I liked the first half better than the second because I was more interested in the characters &their story. I wish the author had focused on either the present or past &explored those stories in more depth. Addiction,as much as it is a real issue,was too repetitive. I ended up not being as emotionally engaged as I could have been.Overall though, this is a great book, a writer whose voice I love to hear& I‘m looking forward to what he writes next.

“Lony feels worse because he doesn‘t even care about being Native or Indian and would rather just have a normal life and not have to always feel so heavy, have to carry more than it feels like he should have to carry.”

And heavy it is, this prequel/sequel to There There. Tommy Orange dedicates his second book to ‘everyone surviving and not surviving this thing called and not called addiction‘. ⬇️⬇️ #camptob

I haven‘t tried this local (and significant) book club before. It‘s free to join online. I started the book last night.

(For the curious: https://inprinthouston.org/event/inprint-book-club-discusses-wandering-stars/ )

I really enjoy Orange‘s writing style and storytelling. This prequel/sequel ties in Orville‘s family lineage dating back to the late 1800‘s as we learn about each generation‘s story. We are then brought into the more present time as we learn about Orville and his family after the powwow. So much to think about after closing this book. ❤️

#SundaySentence by Clarice Lispector, quoted in Tommy Orange‘s Wandering Stars

It‘s 1864 in Colorado and so begins this story about one Native American family, generation after generation. We live through massacres and shootings and drug addiction and alcoholism and cancer, never really knowing how it‘s going to turn out in the end. It‘s about one family‘s quest to understand their history and come to terms with it. A thoroughly engaging book about a slice of life with which you may not be familiar.

There were children, and then there were the children of Indians, because the merciless savage inhabitants of these American lands did not make children but nits, and nits make lice, or so it was said by the man who meant to make a massacre feel like killing bugs at Sand Creek.

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

https://youtu.be/z_P8wkOpzeA?si=s0v_o4p3DWZ8vjXS

Political commentary

A fabulous biblioadventure

Mystery guest

Johnny I Hardly Knew You by Edna O'Brien

Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange

Marzahn, mon amour by Katja Oskamp, Jo Heinrich (Translator)

Making Up the Gods by Marion Agnew

Young Bloomsbury: The Generation That Redefined Love, Freedom, and Self-Expression in 1920s England by Nino Strachey

In Tongues by Thomas Grattan

This is a story of a survivor of the Sand Creek Massacre and continues on with his descendants. It is about finding oneself, it is about healing. I loved it. “You are from a people who survived by making their surviving mean more than surviving, who did their best to stay together”. Tommy Orange.

Reading these books back to back is breaking my heart 💔 They are complimentary- his 2nd book, Wandering Stars, is a prequel & sequel to his 1st book- There, There. Tommy Orange is coming to Wichita to the Mid- America Indian Center in a couple of weeks. I‘m looking forward to this author event.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🥔

Orange has an unique style of writing that makes the plot and characters unique and intriguing. This has different eras that we visit, with flawed characters who share their perspectives in their storytelling. Good with a little variety in the stories.

Generations of a Cheyenne family grapple with the legacy of a massacre and a residential school alongside the institutional racism that results in severe generational trauma even as they strive to come together and protect each other. This was my first Tommy Orange book and I definitely want to read There There now, specially since the two books are interconnected.

I really want to like Tommy Orange. But I‘m afraid I just don‘t. I managed to get to the 21% mark of this one, but each time I have to force myself to pick it up and read a few more pages. I‘m glad people love him, but I‘m afraid he‘s just not for me.

Prequel - sequel call it anything you like, Wandering Stars is heartbreakingly beautiful. Looking back to the Sand Creek Massacre and following the family line to the contemporary Red Feather family, Tommy Orange examines the generational injury and trauma that often leads to addiction. Orange‘s powerful prose made this work my first 5/5 ⭐️ pick of 2024.

“There There” prequel & sequel. Shifting 1st per POVs (one 2nd person). Addiction & recovery. Bullet as star. Early characters feel in service to research—little dialogue or interiority. Missing the urgency of “There There.” But lovely bits. 2024

P114 “You are from a people who survived by making their surviving mean more than surviving.”

P135 “He was still trying to figure out what was pain & what was relief, what were dreams & what were drugs”

I really enjoyed this follow up to There There. The audiobook production was great!

Orange first goes back in time tracing the lineage of Opal, Orvil, et al through the violence wrought by colonialism. Then he travels back to Oakland 2018 and follows the family after the shooting at the PowWow and the lingering effects of PTSD.

The excellent audiobook production has a cast of 9 readers to voice the multiple viewpoints in this moving novel that begins with a Cheyenne survivor of the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre and his descendants through to contemporary times. Displacement, addiction, home and healing. The novel is linked to the characters in Tommy Orange‘s debut There, There and it‘s every bit as powerful.

We don‘t live on a planet, we are the planet. It made us.

… even wisdom, which word she hates, soaked as it is in new-ageyness, or so Native American-sounding you automatically hear the word accompanied by a Native American flute or an eagle‘s cry. Except that the sound effect everyone considers an eagle‘s cry is in fact a red-tailed hawk.

The only one who can save him is himself, and that is true for everyone.

Recent Reads March 13: literary salon; Indigenous stories; audiobooks; poetry; women in translation
https://youtu.be/1PFEt1JRWf8

#booktube #CanadianAuthor

I knew then that I couldn‘t speak if I wanted to. I couldn‘t say anything and couldn‘t tell if I ever had before.

#aardvarkbookclub #jointoday

I‘d lived enough life, almost died enough times to know when a good thing came along, a thing you didn‘t know could fill you right up, which only when it filled you let you know there‘d been a hole in you before.

#aardvarkbookclub #tommyorange #jointoday

Everything they‘d learned to sit, stand, lean, lie, and rely on, bottomed out from under them as if the earth had quaked and taken all it could into cracks which widened into chasms.

#aardvarkbookclub #wanderingstars #tommyorange

The Pulitzer Prize-finalist and author of the breakout bestseller There There, Tommy Orange traces the legacies of the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 and the Carlisle Indian Industrial School through three generations of a family in a story that is by turns shattering and wondrous.

#aardavarkbookclub #jointoday

#bookmail part 2