Welcome to Litsy!

I really love how Emily St. John Mandel tells stories. This is a little reminiscent of Special Topics in Calamity Physics, but darker. I can relate to Lilia's compulsion to relocate (for different reasons), and it's interesting to see how this manifests for her. The characters are all kind of extreme, which feels slightly unrealistic. But maybe I just haven't met enough people.

(Photo is of Quebec City, the closest I've been to Montreal so far.)

August 20, 2024

I‘ve started dating my posts because I like to go back and look at my past posts, a digital reading scrapbook. Anyone else like the dates?

Coffee date with myself and my book. Reading my way through all of Emily St. John Mandel‘s books. She is in my top five all time favorite authors. 🩷
August 9, 2024

Quiet day outside reading with (one of) my favorite girl.

#dogsoflitsy #sundays

Nothing says Saturday night like a salad and a book. Heyyyyyy 🤗

#AuthorAMonth @Soubhiville

This book was about a woman who leaves her boyfriend out of the blue one morning and his quest to find her and her's to finally stop traveling.
It was okay, a really interesting premise, but I didn't really like or connect with any of the characters.
#AuthorAMonth @Soubhiville
#WickedWords #Date @AsYouWish

This was a fever dream of a novel. Lilia, a young girl, is abducted by her father and they spend the next decade crisscrossing the country to evade a detective. The plot flashes backwards and forwards as the story unfolds. It‘s haunting and beautiful. So many broken people with overlapping lives. The detective‘s daughter and Lilia live parallel lives of loneliness. I loved the slow reveal of the story, though the middle lagged for me.

A young woman is abducted by her father and they almost never stop traveling as she‘s followed by a private investigator hired by her mother. Her boyfriend goes to Montreal to find her. Strange details (why did her mom cover a window and pick up broken glass before the police arrived?) appear throughout that come together in the end. My problem is there‘s an awful lot of philosophizing that doesn‘t change anything about the story. This could / ⬇️

My first book for May‘s #authoramonth @Soubhiville

This was the 2009 debut novel of Emily St. John Mandel. It‘s a beautifully written book about love and loss with a mystery at the center. I found the plot a bit implausible but liked it enough to ‘pick‘ although not as much as some of her later work.

Another great story with some exquisite writing. Not quite as good as her later novels, but beautifully circular with story bits coming together in a wonderful heartbreak.

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 in if you want!

#ABookADay2023

I absolutely love every book she has written that i have read so far. I think it‘s because she writes characters who embrace loneliness and enjoy the subtle life. I love being alone and I love books with the ambiance of quiet introversion.

#tbrtarot. I fudged a little on my book choice as my shop sticker is on the back. From a very young age Lilia‘s life is one of movement from place to place, identity to identity, until one day it isn‘t anymore. Do you know who you are when you haven‘t put down roots, whether roots are a place or a past or on going relationships? I‘m not sure I got answers but I was interested in the journey.

I‘ve been wanting to explore Emily St John Mandel‘s backlist and the tagged book was a good start. 4 🌟

I‘m loving Me on audio and I finished up the JA mystery plus I‘m caught up on my buddy reads. Love having a day that is mostly reading. #NovelNovember

“No one stays forever”

#TBRTarot #November. The tagged book has a Powell‘s price sticker on the back.

#FirstLineFridays

You can see in ESJM‘s debut novel that the author clearly has a gift with word and plot manipulation. While I didn‘t really care for the characters, I was still immersed in each character‘s journey and wanted to understand how and why their paths cross. Lilia is a free spirit always on the move, Michaela only dreams about leaving but each girl is haunted and each holds a secret that threatens their quiet existence. 👇🏼

Starting this book that @BarbaraBB gifted me 💗 happy that my mani is still holding up 😁

LNIM rotates around Lilia, a somewhat mysterious young woman, and a few people in her orbit. We gradually learn her story and the motivations of those around her. This is largely a character study, though plenty happens. It‘s a fairly quiet book and I enjoyed it.

Lilia disappears from Eli's life. We follow his search and explore her past, always moving from place to place so as not to be found.

Although I pretty much worked out what had happened to Lilia long before the big reveal (if not the exact details), it was still an interesting read watching the different timelines and characters come together, though I think my abiding impression is going to be how cold Montreal is.

No one stays forever. On the morning of her disappearance Lilia woke early, and lay still for a moment in the bed.

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

There is a word in the Dakota language, genderspecific and untranslatable, that expresses the specific loneliness of mothers whose children are absent.

---

Is this true and if so, what is it?

Another St. James Mandel I'm so excited to read!

Sometimes, when I am reading a book of hers, it feels as if I am reading weird, captivating, mysterious poetry….

#first (last) #oppositeday
Had 13 books on my kindle with last in the title, these are some of them

"Last Night in Montreal" is an intriguing story and decently paced. Not quite a mystery, more of character development with elements of suspense. Mandel is a gifted storyteller and an exceptional writer, and here, the perspective-switching narrative worked well. However, some of the characters felt monotonous, and the protagonist was inscrutable, not relatable, nor likable.

Nothing like a library haul to brighten my day!

I... um.... I... Wow.

Wow. Wow. Wow. Gorgeous, crazy, disturbing, beautiful... Wow.

⭐⭐⭐⭐✨/⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Funny, you can learn more about yourself through fictional characters.

Lilia has been moving all her life. When she was 7 her father picked her up from her mother‘s house, and since then she‘s never spent more than a few weeks in one place.

Mandel does character and emotions really well. I was anxious as Lilia got ready to leave each place, as she runs away from her demons, even as she‘s not sure what they are exactly.

There are several other important characters, and each is tragic in their own way.

The plot isn't quite perfect but Emily St. John Mandel is such a masterful storyteller that I didn't really care. Her words completely suck me in. I've read Station Eleven, The Glass Hotel, and now this, her debut. I'm already on the library waitlist for the rest of her backlist 👏🏽

PS: I've finally started getting books out of boxes and back on bookshelves in the new apartment! Yay!

Everyone (but me) has read Station Eleven. I was wary about starting with her debut instead but I needn‘t have worried. I was transported inside this book every time I opened it. Just astounding what she does with words. I loved her style and will never do it justice in my bumbling review. It was beautiful and haunting and suspenseful yet agonizingly slow paced which added to the tension. I loved it. So. Much.

This one took a few unbelievable turns that put me off a bit, but man, can Emily St. John Mandel tell an engaging story. Can‘t wait to dive into her latest now!

A menacing, tense, slow burn, Mandel's writing, as always, demands her reader to engage, and take notice. Yes, there are some twists of plot less credible than others, there are some untidy turns of phrase. I was prepared to forgive these because Mandel's 1st novel really captured the essence of what it is to feel lost and listless, unrooted and unknown, to not know one's self and perpetually failing to find one's self but not for want of trying.

This book had a lot of potential and picked up at the end but it took a long time for me to get invested and then it was over 🤷‍♀️

Book club bonus reads #indiebuddyreads

It‘s been a crazy couple of weeks. Grateful for a quiet Saturday AM...🙏

In anticipation of her upcoming new release, I went back and read her debut novel. The writing is fantastic, but the structure and characters in this book left me cold. I often had trouble understanding some of the characters‘ motivations, and the thinking of all the characters seemed not quite mature. 3⭐️ #indiebuddyreads

New book who dis?

#becausethenight #marchintothe70s
Some night titles off my kindle.
I will probably use the tagged one for #night-orientedtitle for #booked2019 but I have a few choices as I‘ve only read two of these!

Hello from Romania! ??

This was NOT my favourite book. I plan to leave it behind in the café.

Horrible, selfish characters. Depressing. All kinds of trigger warnings. I‘m giving it 3 stars because sometimes the writing was pretty, but otherwise it wasn‘t for me.

About 40 pages left- so hooked! A beautifully written book, amazing the way the different stories are intwined.

“She moved over the surface of life the way figure skaters move, fast and choreographed, but she never broke through the ice, she never pierced the surface and descended into those awful waters, she was never submerged and she never learned to swim in those currents,these currents; all the shadows and light and splendorous horrors that make up the riptides of life on earth.”

For reasons I'm not sure of, 'defenestration' is my favorite word. And a book has been defenestrated!

My reading companion😻

Looking it up on wiki, I see it's Mandel's debut novel so it's understandable why it's not reached the finesse of Station Eleven and it feels cluttered. It's a bit of a tiring read and I feel the revelation was not...revelatory? BUT I'm not wholly unenticed, because it is a book of road trips and traveling and a woman who always leaves and those were interesting enough to see through the end. This one showed Mandel's promise as a storyteller.

Have you subscribed to the Reading Women Newsletter? This week we have two book reviews, news, and recs from our backlist. STATION ELEVEN took the world by storm when it was released, which made me want to go back and read her other books. LAST NIGHT IN MONTREAL was just as good. Has anyone else read it?

#becausethenight #rocktober
@Cinfhen @BarbaraBB
Lots of books with night in the title on my kindle...of which I haven't as yet read any 😔

Because I loved Station Eleven and because she has a new book coming out in 2019, The Glass Hotel, I wanted to read her earlier novels. I hope I'm giving myself enough time, funny-not-funny.