Welcome to Litsy!

"In a low voice Ivan answers: I love you too.

You don't have to, he says. I would forgive you if you didn't "

Ohhh Sally Rooney. What you do to my heart. I am going to have to move from calling her my Sad Irish Girls novelist to My Sad Irish People Novelist. These Koubek brothers. I want to shake them and then give them a hug. Every is simultaneously the worst and the most heartbreaking character. Rooney is just my kind of hopeless. ?

"Well, if that's suffering, he thinks, let me suffer. Yes. To love whoever I have left. And if ever I lose someone, let me descend into a futile and prolonged rage, yes, despair, wanting to break things, furniture, appliances, wanting to get into fights, to scream, to walk in front of a bus, yes. Let me suffer, please. To love just these few people, to know myself capable of that, I would suffer every day of my life"

Actual, physically by my bed TBR.
I‘m in the middle of three of them. (Why civil resistance works, sunrise of the reaping and language city.)

Rooney gives us two brothers - Ivan, a brilliant but socially awkward chess prodigy, and his older brother Peter, a seemingly confident civil rights lawyer. The story explores the brothers‘ fragile bond as they navigate the months following the death of their father and the complex relationships to the women in their lives. It beautifully walks you through the intricacies of grief, love, identity, and family. The ending just broke me open.

I loved Normal People but I LOVED this more
Again with the flawed people you aren‘t sure you even like and yet they are so REAL. You want so badly for them to get over themselves and work their shit out
All the stars

“Money overall a very exploitative substance, creating it seems fresh kinds of exploitation in every form of relationality through which it passes. Greasing with exploitation the wheels of human interaction generally.”

This book was a drag; paraphrasing from a random review I read online, this book felt like reading one long male ego!

It‘s the weekend now, right?

Wrong book, wrong reader. Page 67 and I am abandoning it. Each paragraph and chapter seems endless.

I just loved this book ❤️

Last October, I was lucky enough to get a signed edition from Powell's along with a swag bag.

I love Sally Rooney and from the first sentences it felt like I was coming home and knew I was safe in the story telling.

The brothers; Peter (32) and Ivan (22) have just buried their father and grieving the loss of a parent. Peter a lawyer taking on work related cases and Ivan is a promising chess player.

So a book about grief, but also felt about double standards and different experiences towards men and women. Peter is dating a 23 yr old

If you enjoy this author, definitely read this. If not maybe assume it's like her other books and read something else. Her writing is beautiful. I read this for our April IRL #bookclub.

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

It took a while for this one to grow on me, but in the end I found it a poignant exploration of how we unnecessarily constrain ourselves with ideas of conventionality. Her descriptions of people‘s inner lives are vibrant and feel authentic. The ending didn‘t quite work for me - I have my doubts about some aspects of their arrangement - but it did feel cohesive with the rest of the story.

Sunday morning chaos!!!🧡

Friday night after date night cuddles and reading.🥰 Just starting Sally Rooney‘s Intermezzo

Grief affects many people in unknown ways. I was a bit hesitant to read this as I remember not loving Normal People, but this was recommended by a friend with similar tastes in books. At first I found it a bit confusing, but the more I read the more engaging it became and I was truly invested in the characters. I especially enjoyed Ivan, Margaret and Sylvia, but came to empathize with Peter by the end.

I am so much better at reading in the sunshine

Graphic is a little misleading because all three of the middle books are still in progress. Sadly I had my book club meeting for Once Upon a River today, and I‘m only about halfway through 😩 But it‘s really good so far! I‘ve enjoyed all of these books.

I loved Normal People so much and I loved this story too, it really hit me in the feels. I don‘t know how she does it, but the characters and plot feel so real and relevant to life.

The beginning of the year has been filled with ~ 500 page books so I hope to have some shorter books on the horizon.

2-26-25: My 15th finished book of 2025! The story of two brothers, Peter-a lawyer and Ivan-a professional chess player, who have just lost their father to cancer. Intertwined with romance for both brothers, as well as grief for their father, their cold mother, their lost youth and their broken relationship. Back and forth they spar, but they love just as deeply. ⭐️⭐️⭐️📖#️⃣1️⃣5️⃣

This is my second Sally Rooney, and I like it quite a bit more than I did that first. This one took me a while to get into, but once I got the hang of it, I enjoyed the meandering pace at which these characters navigate grief, love, family, and societal expectations. It's interesting to see how each character doing what they want affects everyone else and how balance comes from unveiling secrets and being honest with themselves and others.#tob25

I loved this book. I found the flow of internal thought very easy to read. The many intimate moments wonderful and well described. Human relationships are complex , never easy st times. This shows how two brothers navigate the death of their father and much more. The ending did not disappoint either. I found it hard to put down. Just wanted to keep reading. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is a strange, melancholy book, but there are some beautifully expressed descriptions of complex human emotion.

“In her satisfied exhaustion … Margaret feels that she can perceive the miraculous beauty of life itself, lived only once and then gone forever, the bloom of a perfect and impermanent flower, never to be retrieved.” …

When work pops up in the most unexpected places!
🧬🦟🌱

Read for book club. I‘m still not sure how I feel about Rooney, having read three of her novels now. She‘s a ‘blokey‘ writer, which I think is the reason my husband likes her. That and the sex scenes 😉.
Overall this one is a pick. I was engaged and many of the brother/family issues felt very realistic. Looking forward to our book club discussion.

I found this book interesting. Two, once close, brothers lose their father and handle the grief in totally different ways. However, they both have deep-seated issues. One more than the other, and he comes off as a bully and insists the other has more problems. The book is slow and dry in parts but interesting in others. (catching up on January)
#BookedForLife

#5JoysFriday @DebinHawaii
1. Today‘s #breakfastandbook 🤤
2. Returning to work & getting to spend a rare 2 full training days with colleagues. As a school psychologist working in schools, I hardly ever get to do this.
3. Karaks (black cockatoos) in a tree in my neighbourhood.
4. Going to the museum with the family & doing a Kimberley VR (far north Western Australia).
5. My son getting his first professional job promoting early childhood literacy!

It took me a minute to get into the story... but soon I found myself absorbed in their lives. The end had me a little choked up. I really enjoyed this one ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

On my last day before work starts again I treated myself to this one. And I couldn‘t stop reading. I loved all characters and spending time with them. I wished for their happiness and felt their disappointments, helplessness, uncertainties and anger. I wanted to help out with the misunderstandings and things unsaid. That‘s what Sally Rooney is such a master in: creating characters who feel so real, having the most terrific dialogues. ⬇️

#12Booksof2024 SEPTEMBER
I love how Sally Rooney writes relationships and I think this is her best yet. Wonderful characters, So good. ❤️

All our books, for Jolabokaflod & Christmas Day. Feel rich in books!

I did love the story and themes of this novel which are right up my alley, but I couldn‘t get over the multipage paragraphs with dialog and no quotations marks. For some reason seeing an entire wall of text page after page made turning the page feel overwhelming and had a surprisingly large effect on the quality of the reading experience for me. I might just be in a reading funk?

For some reason it has taken me way longer to get into this book than her last few novels, but I‘m halfway through now and finally getting hooked into the story.

Thinking about that day, the dog running for the tennis ball, the pasta they ate together, the feeling wells up inside of him painfully. Wanting to say and hear the words again, that can never again be said or heard. To return to the house once more, and not find it dark and empty, but airy and bright again with open windows. To spend an afternoon together, playing with the dog, eating dinner, doing nothing, only being together, just once more 🏠

Three main characters who each are struggling through grief and other issues tell this character driven story. I liked Ivan and Margaret so much- though the plot is subtle, the pages are turned quickly with general curiosity of how all of this will end. Great read!

An intimate story about two brothers with strained bonds working through grief in different ways after the passing of their father, while also in complicated and unconventional romantic relationships. A depiction of the different shades of masculinity. Rooney as usual relies on rich intertextuality and research to enhance the intellectuality of the novel. Repetitive in parts but a beautifully written work. Narration on Audible is excellent.

Really liked Normal People. Really didn‘t like her last book which I believe I bailed on due to lots of boring people having meaningless conversations. This one is magnificent. Two brothers and the three women in their lives. And their relationships with their parents. Every word that they speak is very real, very believable. Every situation is very true. I really feel like I read something here.

4.5⭐️/5⭐️

8-31 Oct 2024
Two very different brothers in the immediate aftermath of the death of their much loved father.
Whilst there were many characteristics of Rooney‘s previous books, I enjoyed the differences in Intermezzo - the focus on male characters and in particular the happy ending. Ivan‘s chapters were easier to read but once I grew accustomed to the style of Peter‘s voice, I also enjoyed his story.

Masterful storytelling and sentences that sing with artful rhythm. Her best work yet.

This is the first time I read a book by this author and it took me a while to get used to the writing style, which included lots of inner dialogue and some incomplete sentences. Once I did, I got hooked on the story and although I found myself wanting to yell at the male characters at times due to their poor communication skills, I got attached to them. The female characters were strong and likeable. Thanks to Edelweiss+ for the digital ARC. 4/5

By god, Sally Rooney, you‘ve done it again. Our best living fiction writer idc idc!! (Photo taken seconds before Theodore tried to take a chomp of out the book lol)

I enjoyed this more than BWWAY. The story of 2 brothers Peter and Ivan, I love how intimate & fly-on-the-wall it is, giving us a sense of real people. They‘re complex & flawed so we sympathise with one, then the other. Their conflicts feel true, details add texture. Explores siblings, grief & changing relationships. Some plot points felt contrived but it was an immersive reading experience.

I‘m so behind on my book reviews! 🫠 stand by for a batch of them coming soon (after I‘ve had a coffee 😅) … 📚

Yes: I loved INTERMEZZO, the new novel from the brilliant Sally Rooney.

First Rooney, and enjoyed the experience, mostly. Not a 5-star for me due to its length, which made me feel like the story was dragging at times.

Even though I enjoyed this one, it does not make me curious enough to read her backlist.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

We made it through the first quarter of the school year! Time to enjoy a long weekend filled with books. I'm finishing up the tagged book while Lucas enjoys Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree. 🤍📚