Welcome to Litsy!

My weekend plans for #weekendreads

1. Finish Mr. Loverman and Red Clocks for #Roll100 .

2. Get stuck in to Childhood‘s End for #ClassicLSFBC .

I‘m pausing on Das Achte Leben for now. Will pick up again in April. 🤞

Evaristo pens a suave, wise-cracking, impeccably dressed OAP admist the bedlam of his long awaited 'coming out' as he prepares to divorce his wife, Carmel, to start anew with his lover, Morris. Admittedly, most of the characters irked me more often than not, and my mind wandered throughout the last hundred-so pages as I wrestled with an overall indifference towards the immature/unlikeable supporting cast, and the self-centered protagonist.

Mr Loverman was great! Bernardine has such talent for building communities and complex charaters within her books. A love triangle between Morris, Barry, and his wife Carmel. A wonderful exploration of living secret lives and the trials of being a closeted older gay man from a Caribbean community 🇦🇬

My favourite thing about reading Evaristo is the certainty that all the characters‘ vulnerabilities and multitudes will be done a thorough and beautiful justice. Barry is conflicted, shady, petty, stubborn, entrenched in his time, queer and ultimately human. Grateful always for the nuance that is definitely one of Evaristo‘s superpowers ( that + some of the best sex scenes I‘ve ever had the pleasure to read)

Last week, I went to two literary events. On Monday, Bernadine Evaristo came to Zurich to talk about her book, Mr Loverman. On Friday evening, Deborah Levy came to talk about her latest book, August Blue. Both events were really brilliant.

@Cinfhen to add books to a challenge, there's 2 ways.

1. Look up the book's title & go to the page. Scroll down to 'add to reading challenge' and go from there - it should be easy from here.

2 is pictured. Go to the reading challenge and click on the prompt. If the book you want is listed, just click on the + sign (which is actually the - sign on my picture).

Hope this helps!

Well that was something. Barry was so good at hiding, he even hid from himself at times. It was great to see the story from both sides even though neither were really the whole truth.
#Booked2022 - A COMING OUT STORY
#Pantone2022 - #coffeequartz #chicorycoffee

#readingtheamericas2023 ideas post 1. From top to bottom, left to right.

Antigua & Barbuda, Argentina, Bahamas, Barbados, Bolivia, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru.

@Librarybelle @BarbaraBB

3 out of 5

Lots of humor here and a lesson about living your authentic self. I recommend the audio because the Caribbean accents of the narrators in conjunction with the dialect make the story come alive.

The “speaky spoke” line made me laugh out loud!

It‘s a bit morally thorny. 😏

This is an incredibly sweet book. I usually don't like novels with unlikeable characters and in this one I only found Morris to be someone I'd want to know. However, Evaristo does such a fantastic job of developing each of the other flawed humans. Life is messy and complicated and though many of the characters had regrets, I truly wished them all happiness and comfort.

My favorite read from #July #7thbookof2021
#12Booksof2021

I just love the way Evaristo uses language to convey such passion. She is an incredible writer. She cleverly uses different flashbacks to drop in background stories which completely alter your interpretation of the current events. Superb.

I loved this book, if possible more than her “Girl, Woman, Other” which I‘ve already read twice.

Barry is in his 70s and has been married to Carmel for 50 yrs, but for even longer than that he‘s had a relationship with his best friend Morris.

Loved the humor and the characters even when I didn‘t like them. This book reminded me of how much I love Evaristo‘s writing and that I want to read more by her.

#WeeklyForecast

Continue Invisible Women #SheSaid and Ghost on audio

Finish Mr. Loverman

Read Whereabouts and I Am Not Your Negro.

And then I‘ll see where my mood takes me next

I am posting one book per day from my extensive to-be-read collection. No description and providing no reason for wanting to read it, I just do. Some will be old, some will be new. Don‘t judge me - I have a lot of books. Join the fun if you want.
This is day 120
#BooksToRead #TBRPile #TBRMountain

I wanted to love this one but I didn‘t. I can‘t exactly pinpoint why, but Barrington irritated me. And it all felt a bit too much. But to be honest I felt this way too with Girl Woman Other so maybe Evaristo just isn‘t for me.

Thank you Jessie, for sending me this book ❤️❤️

What an ingenious inventive fun book! I celebrate Bernardine Evaristo‘s creativity and skills in giving her characters so much life with so much love for them. She deserved the Booker Prize all to herself! I will miss Barry‘s verve and gift of the gab!

#readingstats for June

Living in London by way of Antigua, Barry is a witty, elderly, secretly gay man. We follow as he navigates life shortly before (forcibly) coming out, learning about his family & early life in Antigua. While I enjoyed Barry's humorous observations about life & love & human nature, I still found him to be selfish & narcissistic. Had I read in print, I probably wouldn't have finished. The deep baritone voice by Ron Butler, however, kept me engaged.

Growing up gay in 1950s Antigua, Barry Walker had three options: to get married to allay suspicions, commit suicide, or be murdered. Now it's 2010, he's in his seventies and living in London, and he has a fourth option, to leave his wife for the man he has always loved. But will he take it? 👇

That is an understatement of such magnitude it falls firmly into the category of mendacitude.
🤣

#coffeeandabook

What a delightful book! Written by the author of Girl, Woman, Other, this is the story of an elderly gay man who realizes it‘s time to tell his family that he and his best friend of many years are lovers. Beautifully told, witty and tender.

(This is a small patch of my front garden.) #bloominglitsy

I was looking for a new audiobook this morning and saw @ljuliel 'S post about this book. Hoopla had it, so I snatched it up.
So glad I did! The audio is phenomenal and there are a lot of funny bits in there too. Yay, And yay for Littens who share the good stuff. ❤️

I‘m done with the very clever sheep and back at work (still sniffling and puffing) so it‘s time for a new companion on the road. Definitely chose a promising one with this - already in love with Barry and with James Goode‘s narration.

🌟🌟🌟🌟

Absolutely loving this audiobook!

Evaristo is a new author to me, I heard about through the Booker Prize and thought I'd see what she'd written previously.
This is a book like no other, and is funny, heartwarming and real. I whizzed through it as it was so enjoyable. I'm looking forward to reading this author's other works.

My last quiet day as project starts tomorrow through 9/2, no days off. Finishing up this fabulous West Indian Brokeback Mountain featuring roguish Barry and his friend since they were boys in Antigua, Morris. They live in London, deeply closeted. Barry‘s marriage to Carmel is about to implode and he dares to think he and Morris, now in their 70‘s, can live together.. s‘wonderful.

I definitely recommend this story about a man in his 70s finally deciding if he can upend his life and leave his marriage for the man he‘s loved for 50+ years. I loved the ending because it wasn‘t too pat. The two readers were excellent with the accents of the Caribbean characters and added a great deal to the story.
#audiobooks
#readharder2018
#colonialorpostcolonialfiction

This is an interesting find that I discovered and downloaded from Audible yesterday. It‘s about a married man from Antigua in his 70s, living in London and carrying on a relationship with his (male) boyhood chum for over 50 years. He is trying to make his peace with being gay and to find a way to live the rest of his years with the person he loves. The audio is great, lots of humor. I‘m really enjoying it so far. #lgbtq

74yo Barry is not your typical protagonist. Originally from Antigua, he lives in London with his wife and they have two grown daughters and a grandchild. But Barry has been keeping a secret (or at least he thinks it's a secret) for decades - he and Morris are lovers. An entertaining funny read but also a soul-searching one as we consider the effects this man's decisions have on his family through the years.


you look up at the diamanté sky, stretching yonder into infinity

you wonder if you goin' miss it when you travel and then you correct yourself: you taking the sky with you to England, Sweet Girl, sky's not goin' nowhere you're not

A half-slice of triple chocolate cake (it's really Nigella's Quadruple Chocolate cake but without the chocolate shards on top) to ready myself for morning drop-off on a very wet back-to-school Monday. Have a great week ahead you guys!

Dinner (ribs, coleslaw and Israeli couscous) and a great read. If anyone's looking for a book with an elderly gay protagonist (i.e. to fill certain categories for challenges) this one's for you!

Our Deep Cover book club is reading Mr. Loverman this month! Available on eBook and eAudiobook from hoopla with your MPL card.

I'm also a fan of the spoken word and always have an audio book on the go. This month's listen has been Mr Loverman by Bernadine Evanisto narrated (brilliantly) by James Goode. It's the story of 74 year old Barrington Walker from Antigua. Heartbreaking and hilarious in equal measures, highly recommended. ~Jacqui

I love Barry. So filthy and self-assured despite his old knees.

#diverseathon #recommendsday #lgbtq

Somehow this flips between funny (and filthy) and heartbreaking all in a few pages.

#diverseathon #recommendsday #lgbtq

Go Barry! Good for you 😉😉

#diverseathon #recommendsday #lgbtq

For men who are so desperately in love, these guys bicker CONSTANTLY 😂😂

#diverseathon #recommendsday #lgbtq

😂😂😂

#diverseathon #recommendsday #lgbtq

I'm excited to #recommendsday this book! Barrington is 74 and "a flamboyant, wise cracking character with a dapper taste in retro suits". And he's in love with Morris.
Excellent writing, funny and frustrating and moving and some excellent quotes (coming up!)

#diverseathon #lgbtq