Welcome to Litsy!

The last A. S. Byatt I read (tagged in the comments) was said to be autobiographical regarding her relationship with her sister, Margaret Drabble. So of course I now need to read at least one of her books. I found this at Alleyway Books in Apex.

I admired more than I loved this one. Beautifully written and intellectually rich, it lives almost entirely inside the mind of Aaliya Saleh, a solitary woman in her seventies whose life has been shaped by books, music, and war-scarred Beirut. Witty, scathing, and quietly feminist, it was not pacy! I‘m glad I read it, even if it did slow down my start to the year. .

Bailing at 41%
I hated this and it isn't interesting enough to hate read. I have been avoiding even listening to this for 2 days. Every woman in this novel is the whiniest privileged woman and it is boring. We are spending all of our time with Toni a war obsessed professor who took Zenia's bf in college and who lives in fear Z will come back and take him back? He is not even a great guy? There are so many moments I swore out loud in disgust

We get independent stories of each of the four women in the friendship, and a fifth story with the estranged sister to Desiree. The friends finally come together in the final quarter of the book. Without the book the few times time didn‘t move forward added to my confusion. But still, I was quite interested in all five of these women and their lives. Dang, I did myself an injustice here by not reading with the physical book..

#majicmonday @Eggs
1. The Genius of Judy by Rachelle Bergstein
2. The Hallmarked Man by Robert Galbraith
3. Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney

@birdwing @Gatita play along! 👋😊

What is it about books about women written in the 1990s?
They are such push overs, so whiny, so boringly priggish. I am hate listening to the tagged at this point, mostly because I need 2 Atwood's to push down a bad man from my most read list. I am begging 1993 Atwood to give these women spines!! .

They Were Her Property was not a light read. The title alone gave me a visceral reaction, but my need for confirmation pushed me on. Jones-Rogers makes it clear—white women were active, knowing participants in slavery. This book angered me at times. Sitting with that truth isn‘t easy. It deepens our understanding of American history!
Full review here: https://www.instagram.com/p/DTJYnuiFA0D/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

On the 12th day of Christmas, I declare the best book to be...
December was a tie but since I've reviewed Wifey, Women Talking gets the nod here. Based on true events from the early 2000s where nearly 200 women of a Mennonite community in Bolivia were SA'd. This brief book takes place over two days where a few of the women meet up to discuss what they're going to do. The narrator is a male teacher in the community taking minutes, as the women ⬇️

#12BooksOf2025

December favorite

My copy arrived! Naturally, it brought a few friends with it (and there are three more still on the way, and I don‘t even remember what they are). Komi is for the kiddo, and the rest…well, there‘s kind of a theme, isn‘t there? #bookmail is the best mail.
@GingerAntics I‘m ready!