Welcome to Litsy!

I‘m glad @Hooked_on_books ‘s review pulled this out of my library pile. Great novel about blended family dynamics.

Pia has been living with her scientist mother in Tahiti. During the pandemic, Pia heads to NYC where her cardiologist dad is scarce (busy at the hospital) forcing her to spend more time with her new (younger) stepmom than she‘d like. Bonds and trust are tested among all the family when Pia goes missing.

Pia is living with her biologist mom Natalie in Tahiti, but Natalie contacts her ex in NYC asking him to take Pia for a while. The Wi-Fi isn‘t adequate where they are for remote school during the peak of COVID. But when Pia arrives in NYC, it becomes clear she‘s there for another reason and she starts clashing with her stepmom. This is a very good look at family dynamics and failure to communicate. I really liked it.

This is the low end of the pick scale for me. I liked it better than his book about China, a place he actively seemed to hate. Headhunters is different than his usual travel books, however; here Troost is following Robert Louis Stevenson‘s trip through the South Seas while also dealing with his own alcoholism, so this book is less fun than some of his others.

This one was a little more serious than Troost‘s other books. Having faced his alcoholism and completed rehab Troost takes on another adventure- this time following the steps of Robert Louis Stevenson in Oceania. I actually appreciated his introspection and enjoyed this one more than Sex Lives of Cannibals. (He seems to pick his titles at random. They have nothing to do with the books.) #ReadingOceania24 @BarbaraBB @Librarybelle

When it‘s cold, we snuggle. Who am I kidding, this is pretty much every day.

I loved this slow moving story of Alma, a botanist who after exhausting the study of plants in her father‘s greenhouse turned to mosses. Her life is an unusual one, mostly solitary though she lived with her father and adopted sister, and melancholy. The writing here is beautiful, the pace perfect for Alma‘s life.

This is not a fun book like all of the author‘s books from Oceania—you will learn he‘s sadly and desperately recovering from alcoholism, which isn‘t much of a surprise if you read his prior books. So trigger warning. He takes a solo trip to follow Robert Louis Stevenson‘s travels to his final resting place in #Samoa, with stops in #Kiribati and islands in #Micronesia. Having listened to his other books, this is a sharp departure from his ⬇️

The author is touring islands in Micronesia in this book. At the museum yesterday I took photos of some of the artwork from Micronesia including this “Carved Male Figure,” from early 20th century

#readingOceania @Librarybelle @BarbaraBB

I visited the Oceania gallery at the San Antonio Museum of Art, so be prepared for a few interruptions for pictures of artifacts from the regions I‘m reading about. #readingOceania @BarbaraBB @Librarybelle

My third audiobook by Troost (I‘m two book reviews behind). #Kiribati and #Samoa #readingOceania @Librarybelle @BarbaraBB

#WomenInScience "At no moment in history has a bright young girl with plenty of food and a good constitution perished from too much learning." Inspired by 19th c. journals from women studying evolution & botany, Gilbert creates Alma Wittaker, whose journey both spiritual & physical, leads to unique discoveries about mosses in Tahiti. Yes, EG makes this informative, exciting, & fascinating! Really! #NewYearNewBooks @Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks