Welcome to Litsy!

A drugs-related kidnapping of a young lad: not a book I'd have picked up, were it not for its #bookerprize longlisting.
I enjoyed the characterisation (poor Dev, especially, and hapless Doll, and prematurely adult Nicky). There's something feels not quite complete about it though, and it could do with one more edit: not least to clear up the nonsensical imagery I kept tripping over (eg. the appearance of a distant building compared to an aspirin).

Ostensibly about a drug-deal related shakedown, this is actually an exploration of the lives of people living at the margins and at risk. It‘s described as “darkly funny” and I don‘t agree at all—I found it to be an encouragement to look more deeply at quiet desperation. #TOBlonglist

@TheKidUpstairs tagged me in a post about favorite books from our #AuldLangSpine matches from previous years. It was fun to reflect on books I wouldn‘t have otherwise read without @monalyisha and her matchmaking skills.
2022 @Mitch “The Book of Memory” - Petina Gappah
2023 @TheKidUpstairs “The Colony” - Audrey Magee
2024 @IndoorDame “Foster” - Claire Keegan
2025 @Singout — SO looking forward to digging in to your list next month!

Posing Copper with the🎄has been a challenge this season! Or maybe he only cooperates when I tell him it is for Litsy?! 😂

Audio 🎧 was a good way to experience this and I give kudos to the narrator Cassandra Campbell 🌟 Her voice was perfect for the present tense and the repetition. We get such interesting insight into a broad view of the female psyche; how diverse our wants and needs might be. We are fighters all.

“Her head feels like it is filled with undercooked pie”

#LitPie #PieinBooks #iLovePie #CaresPieShow #ToBShortList #ChocPearPie 🥧

Starting my last from the #Booker2024 #longlist. This is my first book after drowning in Faulkner‘s Absalom, Absalom! for 20 hours at 4-minutes a page. So, this one is so far crazy fast and clear

#bookerprizelonglist (Yes, I'm still making slow progress through the longlist ?)

To be honest, I wasn't looking forward to this much. Given the subject matter, I imagined it would be rather "tough" in a blokeish way: the book it would have been had Mustafa been the narrator, perhaps. As it was, I found it surprisingly tender. I felt for Khaled, whose life seems permanently provisional despite 30 years of staying put.

I'd have shortlisted it.

Cover to cover in a day! I loved it. LOVED IT.

I had avoided this book before because I really dislike the violence of boxing, but I figured I‘d give it a go since it was on the #TOBlonglist. I reacted to it about the way I expected—I enjoyed some of the character studies, but the boxing was too forward in the story and overall I found it a bit thin.

My 12th from the #Booker #longlist. One more to go.

A sensitive thriller? A low-level violent drug-deal abduction, that becomes very interested in the sensitive nature of its characters. The pacing is careful but controlled. When we want it to move on, it holds its course. Be patient dear reader. I enjoyed it.

#Booker2024