Welcome to Litsy!

The author of this book never knew her maternal grandmother, Suzanne, who abandoned her children when they were young. After her death in 2009, Barbeau-Lavalette hired a private detective to learn more and with the knowledge she gained, she wrote a fictionalized account of her grandmother‘s life. Suzanne is written in second-person and in short vignettes, which I loved, but overall, it was just an okay read for me. #CanadaReads2019 #CanadaReads

The well-deserved winner of #CanadaReads2019, By Chance Alone is an incredible memoir of strength, resilience, and gratitude. The author, Max Eisen, was only fifteen when he arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau, and as with all survivor‘s accounts, the horrors he experienced there are incomprehensible. Stories like his are so important, especially as anti-Semitism in on the rise and the voices of Holocaust survivors fade away. #CanadaReads Full review ⬇️

Homes is the story of the al Rabeeah family, as told by one of the children, Abu Bakr, and written by his ESL teacher, Winnie Yeung. Bakr was only 10 when violence erupted around him, and the book effortlessly contrasts the horrors of war with the normalcy of growing up. The story is simply told, making it accessible to all. Stories like this are so necessary, especially as anti-immigrant sentiments are on the rise. #CanadaReads2019

It‘s the first day of the Canada Reads debates! I caught the last half of the debate, and was happy with the book that was eliminated (tagged as a spoiler in the comments). I‘m still reading the contenders, but I might be able to finish them by the end of the week! #CanadaReads #CanadaReads2019

This is an unflinching, yet emotionally distant, memoir which chronicles the author‘s dysfunctional Chinese-Canadian family. Several members of her family suffer from undiagnosed mental illnesses, which they believe are caused by Chinese ghosts. Her memoir is filled with abuse and neglect, and while I commend her for writing so openly, I was hoping for more reflection/growth, and the book would have benefited from some editing #CanadaReads2019

I tried. And then I tried again. And again. I don‘t mind the second person narration. Or the snapshots of life. But I hate Suzanne. She is such a narcissist. I can‘t do narcissists. She reminds me of someone I don‘t care to remember. I just don‘t want to spend one more minute with her. So I‘m letting her go.
#CanadaReads2019

This family. So dysfunctional. I cringed a lot. I found it very hard to read about the abuse. It was so raw and ugly. Mental illness does not excuse abuse. The story does give some insight into what happens when mental illnesses go untreated and what happens when people don‘t trust “western medicine”. The author seemed a bit detached and used dark humor a lot. Understandably though. It had to be very painful to share.
#CanadaReads2019