Welcome to Litsy!

Read in 2024. After my dad‘s sudden death last year I read some grief related books to see if it would help pull me out of my reading funk. This one was a low pick for me (probably because I wasn‘t in the right headspace). I can get her trying to make sense when someone you love passes unexpectedly. TW: because she does speak at length about the suicide of her close friend, as she‘s grappling with her experience.

Crosley experiences loss upon loss within the same few months, the most devastating being the death of her best friend. Crosley‘s dexterity with language and phrasing is remarkable. She writes with wit and precision and depth about grief in a way that makes it more tangible, easier to grasp where she finds herself emotionally. She‘s honest, angry, isolated, and trying to piece together what brought her to such a standstill. It‘s riveting reading.

July was another extraordinary month, with three 5-star reads.

Grief was so beautifully written.

Lula Dean was hilarious, and as a former public librarian, I loved every minute of it.

River Sing Me Home was also beautiful and melancholic. I learned so much about enslavement in the Caribbean. #12BooksOf2024

How to say that you enjoyed a grief memoir? This is almost a memoir in essays or thought pieces. Sloane moves from a burglary, to a friend‘s death & into the pandemic in New York. It is as much a memoir about not moving on - the memories that don‘t leave, the conversations with the person that isnt there anymore, the illusions you have of turning back time & saving them. Very much the internal workings of Sloane‘s grieving and beautifully done.

This memoir about the death of a friend & burglary of her home is honest, bitter, angry, & heartbreaking. I love that she didn't shy away from the hard parts of grief. She didn't wrap it up in a tidy bow & give a life lesson at the end. There are layers of pain when it comes to missing someone, being angry they are gone, & feeling guilty for your life continuing. This is a painful book, full of her scorn for those around her, but it's a truthful.

Crosley uses her razor-sharp words to explore her grief—exactly one month after being robbed, her good friend dies by suicide. This is raw and so poignant. Beautifully crafted memoir.

Crosley is an exceptional writer or articulates grief in an intellectual, relatable, vulnerable way. It‘s not a self help book, but a journey through her own grief of her friend‘s death. It‘s sad, but I kept thinking, “She said that so well,” repeatedly. If you can sit in someone‘s sadness, this is an exceptional book.

Wonderful grief memoir—smart, funny, heart-wrenching. Just a pleasure to read. #BOTM

A wholehearted and enthusiastic pick for this excellent memoir. Read to moving effect by the author on audiobook.

I read my last self-help book on grief years ago, but can‘t quit a memoir of someone with the words to document their own unique experience. Sloane was grieving the violation of a home robbery (jewelry inherited from her mean grandmother) when hit with a grief no one anticipated – the suicide of her one-time boss, and best friend Russell. ⚠️ TW: This could hit hard if moving through a friend‘s suicide remains a struggle to a reader.👇

7 “Denial is also the weirdest stage of grief because it so closely mimics stupidity.”

25 “You become numb when you swallow too much sadness at once. The reason it feels like no boundaries have been crossed is because the concept of boundaries has been obliterated.”

175 The locket: “I‘d turned him into jewelry and jewelry into him.”

185 “How do I keep you buried and keep you with me at the same time?”

^^human need for intention and causality—what did I do to get burgled?

A book of ??s seeking impossible answers:

46 the dreaded “Did you know?”

53 “Do you have to forgive a person who dies by suicide?”

60 “You do realize we‘re all going to get old and die without you?”

61 “How could you have left the dogs?”

64 “How will he know you loved him unless you try to destroy yourself?”

68 “Can we ever get back what‘s lost?”

115 “Were we snobs?”

Blow-by-blow of 2 losses in close proximity: family heirlooms, beloved Russell. Question-filled, loving look at impossible topic: making sense of the suicide of a friend. Musings, not-knowings, wounds. Some of Crosley‘s work crosses into too-cleverness for me & this one gets gossipy. But it works. The suddenness & enormity of the losses, her vulnerability & guttedness, make all the clever & trite bits a desperate attempt at self-protection. 2024

One month after a home invasion with theft of jewelry (meaningful items she had received from family), Crosley‘s best friend died by suicide. She moves through these losses and what they mean in concert. Thoughtful and moving, but of course laced with her signature humor. Excellent book.

Goodreads win!

I loved this. Out in bookstores next week, a nuanced memoir about life and loss, laced with Sloane Crosley‘s sharp humor and wit.

Crosley moves through multiple griefs in this memoir. The theft of heirloom jewelry, the loss of her dearest friend, and ultimately the loss of life as we knew it with the swift coming of the Covid-19 pandemic. Always insightful and frequently funny, this memoir was a joy to read even as the subject matter stung. One turn of phrase had me gobsmacked: 'Ego, as it turns out, is depression's comorbidity.'