Welcome to Litsy!

It‘s a Barbara Hambly/Benjamin January kind of night…

A fast-paced story about 18-year-old Josie Moraine who lives in New Orleans and dreams of going to college, a dream she doubts will ever come true. She counts among her friends, Willie, the madam who operates the brothel where her mother is employed, and Patrick, the son of the man who owns the bookstore where she works and lives. Different from other books by this author, but like everything else I have read, I loved it.

A sad book on a sad day. I‘m glad I read it though. Like any other big, sad, emotional event I didn‘t really have my facts straight. Rivlin is a good writer and I‘ll read more of his books in the future.

Taking my hygge hour early tonight so that I can go to bed early. Eating cereal for dinner (Which I love- that‘s not a complaint.) and doing my best to make a dent in the tagged for my work book club. #HyggeHour

As lush, dense, and layered as Rice gets. This is her deep dive into the gens de couleur of New Orleans in the years before the Civil War. Melodramatic, broadly populated, and phenomenally detailed. I took my time with this one and read it in chunks, as much as I enjoy Rice's prose I do find I start to drown in it when reading too much at a stretch. The richness of character and setting is well worth the push.

This book looked at the preparation (or lack thereof) and response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and the gulf states. The focus is placed on New Orleans where things went completely off the rails. With the storm having been nearly twenty years ago, I had forgotten a number of the details or never knew them as an outsider. The poor decision-making, lack of planning, and inadequate response made for a maddening listen.

I colored this picture on the Zen Color app and I wanted to make up a story about it.

#haiku #haikuhive

I listened to this in prep for vacay time! It focused heavily on the 18th and19th centuries with only a chapter or two on more contemporary times. I was hoping for more balance…but now I know all about its time as alternating French and Spanish settlements along with it being the main hub for the slave trade in the US in the 50 or so years leading up to the Civil War. It was so informative I zoned out of long periods of time 😴

#bookspinbingo

We're saying these words every day, but they were written in 2010. When there's a hurricane, we build a prison. When someone looks different, we send them away. These aren't leftovers from some traumatic national crisis. It's who we are. We love this shit.

I read this in almost disbelief. These are Americans? How would you find Americans who would treat people like this? Now it's every day. Can't go a day without seeing a vid of ICE agents breaking car windows to get at people. Jan 6 rioters battering cops and then taunting them after being pardoned. I must've read too many comic books. America is the home of evil people. Our default react is to do evil. Zeitoun should've woken me up to this.