Welcome to Litsy!

I‘ve only read a couple of so called mosaic novels and found them pretty hit or miss but this one really worked. Overall I enjoyed the overarching narrative for the titular character but was disappointed with one of the side lines because I felt it was a little mean spirited. I think the worst part was that you could see the violation a mile away. But overall very good.
#BuriedAliveChallenge

#BookReport
I didn‘t finish any of my main reads this week just a couple of cheesy Harlequins that I don‘t track. Mostly because I started taking a Spanish class and am currently on vacation in Las Vegas to visit my good friend that had a baby last month.

#WeeklyForecast
My goals this week are basically the same as last week only maybe throwing in the new BookSpin that‘s coming this week.

The sci-fi in this is wonderfully woven and seamless, if maybe sparse in “how it works” detail. Yet McHugh‘s world creation is incidental to the human stories that unfold. Her stories show a humaneness that, fraught with problems or rife with victories, are timeless even if in this futuristic setting.

Happy #BookSpin Day to all who celebrate. I am so excite to put together my tbr pile for the month. I think I was doing fine until the three library holds lol. The tagged is my book spin and the double is next to it on the side. Thankfully the chunkster curse didn‘t follow me into the new year.

This book started off great, with the author giving a good description of an interesting world and a character with an interesting dilemma. Much of the book is about people who for one reason or another just don‘t fit, don‘t fit into society, into jobs, or into relationships. I can roll with that. Aside from an uninteresting race scene I liked the journey this book was taking me on...👇🏻

My problem with the characters in this is the book has multiple POV(which I love in dystopians), but none were as developed as Zhang, but he got so much more screen time than any others.

There were a lot of parts where I was bored out of my mind, but there were a lot of parts where I really enjoyed myself and felt warmed. I never forced myself through the book, but I did wish that there was some overarching plot.

This was written in 1992 and takes place a couple of centuries in to the future where the U.S. is taken over by the Chinese. There is no plot but we follow this wonderful character arc of Zhang, an ABC, American Born Chinese from New York City, and also gay in a world where it is punished by death. In between his story are other stories of side characters. It‘s very slice of day to day life. With the exception of one story, I enjoyed it. Pick!

I found this engaging, but ultimately it seemed pointless. The book has storylines for 4 characters, but they are pretty much totally unrelated - you could have removed any of them, and it wouldn't have made a difference to the rest of the book. The world building is fairly interesting, but I think the point the author is making is that human emotion and ambition is the same in any world, so the world building is somewhat irrelevant.

This was well written. Awesome food-for-thought about the human condition.

Brilliant look at those on the edges

Finally, this may be my favorite book I've read this year. It takes place in a future, China-dominated Earth (with one tangential story on Mars), and tells the story of Zhang, a gay ABC (American Born Chinese) man as he tries to navigate life in a world where homosexuality is illegal. It takes a science fiction and slightly dystopian framework and tells an absolutely beautiful, heart-wrenching story. Highly recommended, even for non-SF fans!