Welcome to Litsy!

#pop23 #52bookclub2023 #alliteration #bn2023challenge #nonhumancharacters

#readharder23 #favoritebookofafavoriteauthor #donnatartt

Just as wonderful as I remembered. Witty and whimsical, the perfect read for an afternoon curled up on the sofa, feeling rotten with bronchitis! Cheered me up no end. So lovely on friendship and the joys of nature… the riverbank seems a pretty idyllic place to be.

Loved this so much! A (very) loose retelling of Little women, but really more a story of four sisters, their mother, and one young man who enters their lives. Beautiful character writing, melancholy at times, so full of warmth and love. Sad it‘s over 💕
#booked2023 #pop23 #classicretelling #52bookclub2023 #publishedin23 #bn2023challenge #toughchoice

The coziest of cozies…. Made me giggle, gave me Midsomer murders meets Miss Marple meets Thursday Murder club vibes… And written by the only British clergyman to have had a number one hit single. A fun palette cleanser… and such cute endpapers of Cosmo and Hilda, our hero‘s faithful pups. 😍 #pop23 #containsamap #bn2023challenge #cozymystery #52bookclub2023 #adedication

#AAM First time reading this, and wow does this little book, pack a ginormous punch. This writing is spare and lovely. The story is of friendship, poverty, brutality, loneliness and the so-called American dream, and an ending so heartbreaking it will stay with me long after finishing the story.

A 60s-set safari vacation for a group of movie stars and their entourage turns deadly. Cinematic and well-paced. A bit action heavy and character light (not in number but in depth) but definitely gripping. The huge cast of characters, given multiple chapters, featuring both memories and their present horrific events, were handled so as not to be confusing. And I enjoyed the snippets of gossip rags as clues and red herrings. Just not really my jam.

A fun read. A podcaster returns to teach a class, at the fancy boarding school of her childhood where she was an outsider and her once roommate was murdered. Reads like a mystery, layered with interesting takes on the #metoo movement and grooming, collective memory, race and privilege, the exploitative nature of true crime, wrongful imprisonment and so much more. Sharp and nuanced, I found the ending unsatisfying but all the more realistic for it.

I found this very lack luster…. And just because it‘s about three thirty-something women, does not warrant the comparisons to Fleabag or Rooney it‘s been getting. I found the ‘feminism‘ dated, the characters dull, and just generally this didn‘t seem to have anything new or interesting to say. It‘s a shame, because the reverse love story idea is a good one…. #booked2023 #pop23 #lovetriangle #52bookclub23 #letterH #bn2023challenge #aboutafriendgroup

Just… so… good. Love Levy‘s writing…. These are more vignettes than stories, but still loved the heck out them. Perfectly imperfect….

I always love me some dark academia, and although this is no ‘Secret History‘ (what is?) I still really enjoyed this NYC story. The Met Cloisters, a museum specializing in Medieval artifacts, is the perfect eerie setting, and the study at the center of this novel is of divination and historical tarot cards. Secrets are in abundance, a fish is most definitely out of water, and motives are endlessly questionable. Twisty, atmospheric and lots of fun.

Wow. This graphic memoir of a musician and artist, who develops a rare condition after taking a headache tablet on vacation, is moving, harrowing and so heartbreaking. Such a scary story, as ‘friends‘ abandon her abroad, she goes into a coma, loses her sight, at some point her hearing and develops a terrible skin condition. As she briefly regains some sight and races against time to collaborate on this memoir, i felt for her so much. Inspiring.