Litsy

The Correspondent: A Novel | Virginia Evans

pick

#WeeklyFavorite

Not much reading going on but did manage to finish 2 books since the beginning of the month. All the lovely reviews of the tagged book were spot on and I really enjoyed Death of the Author for #CampLitsy.

@Read4life

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DebinHawaii

Death of the Author: A Novel | Nnedi Okorafor

My #Chatterday Saturday vibe is slow. I was slow getting up this morning, went to a 20% bring your own bag sale at the craft store & I‘m now at the coffee shop trying to finish up my very late cards for #SummerCardSwap & finish the tagged book for #CampLitsy before running errands.

AllDebooks

peaKnit A slow vibe sounds lovely! 7h

35 likes1 comment

AllDebooks

World Atlas of Coffee: From Beans to Brewing -- Coffees Explored, Explained and Enjoyed | James Hoffman

Grab a ☕️ and join in the #Chatterday chitchat.

All are welcome to join in. No topics are off the table. This is a safe place to share your thoughts, feelings, plans, and experiences. Just as you would with a friend in the real world.

Wishing you all a fab weekend. 🌞

Sace I hope you‘re having a good morning! Thank you for these Chatterday posts. I don‘t participate much but I enjoy reading the chatter. 17h

AllDebooks Hi, thank you. I do enjoy them. What are your plans for the weekend? 😀 17h

AllDebooks I'm trying to find a plumber. It's 30°C here, and we have no water due to a stuck bath tap. Not how planned to spend today, but here we are. 🥵 17h

See All 31 Comments

ElizaMarie Good morning. I woke up at 2 AM, stayed up for a few hours, did some homework, took a nap, and am now up again, finishing homework and drinking some coffee. Hope to get to a muesum today. 17h

Bookwormjillk @AllDebooks ugh good luck. That sounds like a pain. Chores for me today- bringing my son to get his passport then bringing my daughter to get shoes. We‘ll see which is more painful. Tonight a neighbor has invited us on his boat to see fireworks. I‘m sort of looking forward to that but also feeling drained. Husband really wants to go though so I‘ll make the effort. Tomorrow is mine. 17h

Bookwormjillk @ElizaMarie have fun at the museum! 17h

TheBookHippie @AllDebooks good morning!!! I too am waiting on a plumber… bathroom sink… second time this summer.. was for leaking toilet earlier this month🤦🏻‍♀️ good luck to you!!!! Ugh.. 16h

TheBookHippie @Bookwormjillk tomorrow is yours !!! 16h

Cuilin @ElizaMarie Nice, what museum? 16h

Cuilin @TheBookHippie @AllDebooks water issues all around. A Maine burst in the city we‘re on a “boil your water warning” until further notice. 😑 16h

Cuilin I‘m going to try the gym. First time in two years. 🤞 16h

TheBookHippie @Cuilin 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫 16h

TheBookHippie @Cuilin yay for the gym!!!!!! 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻 16h

TheBookHippie @ElizaMarie ENJOY YOUR DAY! 16h

ElizaMarie @Bookwormjillk @Cullin @TheBookHippie - Springfield MA Art Museum - Wanted to see the exhibits “Witch Panic! Massachusetts Before Salem“ and “Yokai: Japanese Ghosts, Demons and Monsters“ (edited) 16h

ElizaMarie @AllDebooks I didn't work the last few days at my full-time job, but.. All the staff were struggling; there was some sort of water break in the ER, and we were on diversion. And I was told it was horrendous! No regular bathroom use for 48hrs (they had to use the disposable liner toilets and all! 16h

ElizaMarie @Cuilin Great!!! Super proud of you!!! Let us know how it goes! 16h

TheBookHippie @ElizaMarie sounds amazing. I love art museums. 16h

Cuilin @ElizaMarie the “boil water advisory” is still in effect for the whole city today. The second water test results should be known late this afternoon. 😩 I can‘t imagine what it‘s like at the hospital. 15h

quietlycuriouskate Wimbledon, innit? I'm not good for much today: it's too damn hot and I've been up since 5 o'clock after a restless night. 14h

AllDebooks @ElizaMarie oh I love a good museum or gallery visit. Enjoy. X 10h

AllDebooks @Bookwormjillk a boat trip with fireworks does sound fun. I hope you enjoy it. X 9h

AllDebooks @TheBookHippie that sounds awful. I hope you didn't have to wait too long. We're all sorted now, thankfully. 9h

AllDebooks @Cuilin that's no fun. I hope it is sorted quickly. Well done for tackling the gym. How has your daughter settled into Ireland? Are you coping ok? X 9h

AllDebooks @ElizaMarie OMG, that exhibition sounds AMAZING! 🖤🧙‍♀️👻😈👾🖤 9h

AllDebooks @ElizaMarie Yikes, that is bad news! 9h

AllDebooks @quietlycuriouskate I can't imagine playing tennis in this heat!! It's hot enough just watching Wimbledon on tv. Why is there such a focus on celebrity spotting this year? It's completely OTT. 9h

TheBookHippie @quietlycuriouskate I‘ve been watching off and on. 9h

TheBookHippie @AllDebooks waaaaay to much look who is here going on 9h

TheBookHippie @AllDebooks still waiting … of course we need a new specific piece for a pipe… just a laugh riot… 9h

DebinHawaii Got a bit of a late start today. Missing some sleep so I slept in then went to the “bring your bag & get 20%” sale at my local craft chain. Now I‘m hanging at the coffee shop working on getting cards out & trying to finish up the book for #CampLitsy. Hope all the plumbing issues get fixed & everyone has a good day & weekend.💛 7h

21 likes31 comments

Megabooks

Death of the Author: A Novel | Nnedi Okorafor

IMPORTANT NOTE - This discussion contains **MAJOR SPOILERS** so please be warned if you choose to read it before finishing the book.

Thank you all for joining us and continuing to make this experience fun! Next week we will start discussing the first half of Woodworking by Emily St. James. I will post page breaks later this weekend. Can't wait to see you back at camp next Saturday! Bring a fan because it‘s hot! #CampLitsy25

squirrelbrain, BarbaraBB

Bookwormjillk I was very surprised. When I got to the last chapter I actually thought it was some kind of bonus interview with Okorafor and I had missed the ending. I went back and re-listened to the two chapters before it. The ending for me is what turned a just okay book (don't like story in a story as I've mentioned before) into one that I will remember for a long time. 17h

Suet624 @Bookwormjillk I absolutely agree with you that the ending bumped the story way up for me. I was already a fan of the story, but as things unfolded I recognized the beauty of what the author was doing. 17h

Lesliereadsalot Shocked would be more like it! I did not see that coming and I loved it. Really made it a memorable story for me. 16h

See All 49 Comments

AmyG What @Bookwormjillk said….the ending was what made me love the book. I love a great surprise and this one was fabulous! Thr reader thought one thing and Bam! It was completely different. Because it‘s up to the reader to interpret the story….and the reader read it differently. Brilliant. (edited) 16h

jenniferw88 It really demonstrates the danger of AI! 16h

CBee Absolutely did not see the ending coming and I‘m still a bit puzzled, but in a good way. It leaves things open to interpretation and personally, I loved it. But Jill, like you, I went back and reread to make sure I hadn‘t missed something 😂 @Bookwormjillk 15h

mcctrish @Bookwormjillk @Suet624 @Lesliereadsalot @AmyG SAME!! I was reading it in print and I still had to go back and reread to process what happened! How bloody clever NO is 🤯 15h

Reggie Did anybody else think she was gonna die? The way the interviews were skewing I honestly thought she was gonna die in Nigeria, but then I thought she was gonna die in a shuttle explosion. And then I read the end and thought it was just a creative open ending on the robots part. I was bawling in the last couple parts because of what I thought was gonna happen to her but also the robots. The robots manage to do what it feels like us humans cant 👇🏼 15h

Reggie do right now which is come together. I loved this book so much. 15h

Bookwormjillk @Reggie yes, I absolutely thought she would die 15h

vonnie862 I was taken by surprise a bit because I felt that it missed something. After going back to the audio, I was a bit confused. 15h

Jas16 @Reggie yes! I thought she was going to die. From the title of the book to the interviews, I really thought I knew the ending. I was shocked by an ending I didn‘t see coming at all and completely in awe by jt. 15h

Reggie Also, I love that to release frustration and anger she goes to a Black owned shooting range. 15h

Reggie @Bookwormjillk @Jas16 yay, good to know I wasn‘t alone. 15h

Butterfinger This is exposing my weirdness, but the ending made me of standing in front of a trio of mirrors and when you manipulate them just so you see innumerable reflections of yourself. I couldn't help thinking that way it ended, Zelu wrote that the robot wrote her story and it would be a neverending circle that was going to make my brain explode if I kept think8ng about it. I know that makes no sense. 15h

ImperfectCJ I'm enjoying reading everyone's comments. I just finished it this morning, and I love this novel really hard. I'm going to need to process a bit before I can discuss, but I love the ending and like @Reggie and others, I thought she was going to die, too (although I started to question that after her family's reaction to her going into space). And I like Okorafor's billionaire way better than our real-life ones. 14h

Suet624 @Reggie I totally forgot about the shooting range!! And yes, we were certainly led to believe she was going to die, and I was trying to figure out how she was going to wrap up the book 14h

BarbaraBB @Reggie Yes I thought so too and yes @CBee I am still a bit puzzled too as I didn‘t see it coming. Who is the real author, Ankara or Zelu?! Brilliant! (edited) 14h

squirrelbrain @Reggie @Bookwormjillk @Jas16 @Suet624 - yes, me too! I‘d heard that there was a ‘shocking‘ ending and was sure that‘s what it would be. 14h

Deblovestoread Such an unexpected twist. I almost want to reread it with the new information to see if I think differently about what is “story” and what is “real”. 14h

CBee @Reggie YES! I thought the same. And I loved the robot arc. How beautiful it would be if humans could do that ♥️😢 13h

CBee @BarbaraBB so brilliant! 13h

CBee @Butterfinger makes sense to me! 13h

rockpools @Butterfinger This totally makes sense to me! And like @Bookwormjillk I thought I‘d reached a bonus interview and had to re-listen! Although I didn‘t *love* the book, I seriously do admire it and how she‘s put it all together. There are So Many questions you could have asked for this one. Excellent ending! Thanks for hosting, Meg! 13h

ChaoticMissAdventures Curious if anyone has read the 1967 essay “The Death of the Author” by Roland Barthes? I am not sure how much Okorafor took (if anything) from it, but is all about the intent of the author. And I think it is really interesting to think of that here. He says: “writing is the destruction of every voice, of every point of origin. Writing is that neutral, composite, oblique space where out subjects slip away, the negative where all identity is lost“ 13h

ChaoticMissAdventures it's a bit high brow but you can read it here: http://www.ricorso.net/rx/library/criticism/guest/Barthes_R/Barthes_R2.htm 13h

TEArificbooks @reggie yes through the whole book I was thinking she was going to die. I thought maybe a crazy fan or an accident in the driverless vehicle or in Nigeria or space shuttle or gun range. But I was not expecting the twist ending. It definitely made it a memorable book. 13h

JamieArc @Reggie I thought she was going to do too, and the interviews were a sort of story on the life of Zelu. But then in the last interview with Msizi, he says that he and Zelu DO work together, not past tense, so that made me change my mind. 13h

JamieArc During the last third, I was thinking that the story was slowing down, and the star rating was going down a little, but then the end happened and like others, I was pretty wowed and I‘m sure this book will stick in my head. It got my mind in a tizzy. Robots writing about humans writing about the robots. This is where I like the Barthes idea @ChaoticMissAdventures : who IS the true author? Lines are blurred. The author is dead. 12h

MeganAnn Yes, like a lot of others I definitely thought she was going to die until the last quarter or so of the book. The end was definitely a surprise and I loved it. It gives so many layers to every chapter before. I think this is one that will make for an excellent reread someday to see what other things I might notice after knowing how it ends. 12h

Megabooks @AmyG @bookwormjillk it made the book for me, too! 12h

Megabooks @jenniferw88 I am terrified about the AI provisions in the large bill passed here in the states recently. It paves the way for almost no regulation, which is terrifying. 12h

Megabooks @Reggie I absolutely thought she was going to die! I love your interpretation that the robots are doing what it was not possible for humans to. 12h

Megabooks @rockpools You're welcome! Sometimes genre fiction doesn't work well at Camp Litsy, but I loved the discussions here. I read this book back in February, and I was so excited to see it keep moving up in the voting. Campers exceeded what I thought the discussion would be! 12h

Megabooks @MeganAnn Yes! Rereading it knowing the end was a really good experience. It was one I didn't mind revisiting at all! (I first read the book in February then again for Camp Litsy.) 12h

Bookwormjillk @Megabooks this would be a good one to re-read knowing what happens at the end 12h

AmyG @Reggie Yep. Same. I thought she was going to die. 12h

Christine @Butterfinger I love your interpretation!! And yes re: the better billionaire, @ImperfectCJ ! 😂😭 11h

BookwormAHN I loved it especially the surprise ending. At some point I plan to reread it and especially pay attention to the robot parts to see if I missed some clue or something 10h

BkClubCare I might have to reread it, as well. I have already forgotten a lot. 😕 10h

Well-ReadNeck Love, love, loved the ending!!!! I was really loving this one but the ending catapulted it to the top of all the books I‘ve read this year. There is so much here and I loved this twist and like so many of you, will likely re-read. 10h

julesG @Butterfinger - makes so much sense. It was clever and I am still not sure which of the two stories was the book-in-the-book one. 9h

GatheringBooks Like everyone here, I enjoyed the ending - and found it to be very clever - and very loopy and all-inception like. I suppose what detracted from my fully embracing the story is that i did not find any of the characters likeable at all. So i was not fully invested in any of them - except perhaps for one of msizi‘s friends who called zelu out on some of her BS, forgot her name, but i liked her no-nonsense attitude. 8h

Kitta @ChaoticMissAdventures thanks for thé link, I‘m going to read that! 8h

Kitta @Reggie I also thought she was going to die, and that kind of made reading it a bit off putting for me - every time she was doing something dangerous I kept thinking « okay this is it » and then she survives. Very annoying. The interviews spoke about her in the past tense and the title made it seem that way too. idk I assumed wrong I guess. 8h

Kitta @Bookwormjillk agree with you here, I didn‘t like the story much but the ending bumped it up for me and I‘ll think about it a lot. I also thought I was reading something by the author at the end not Ankara. 8h

Chelsea.Poole I absolutely never would have read this without #camplitsy so thanks to the hosts, as always! Really enjoying everyone‘s thoughts on it as well. I don‘t have much to add other than I wasn‘t expecting Zelu to die or trying to pretend it wouldn‘t happen, one or the other! I was super involved in that storyline and allowed the robot sections to just exist, definitely should have been thinking more about those parts. Perfect for current events. 5h

BarbaraJean I guess I should have put my comment about the title from question 1 here instead! I was surprised by the ending, and like so many others, it absolutely made the book for me. I admired Zelu, but didn‘t much like her, and her family infuriated me. I enjoyed the robot storyline much more than Zelu‘s storyline—and the framing made Zelu the focus, so I didn‘t enjoy the book as much as I wanted to—until the two converged at the end. 2h

BarbaraJean @ChaoticMissAdventures YES to Roland Barthes. I don‘t know if I‘ve ever actually read his essay, but I read so much about and around the idea in lit theory classes. And I think Okorafor MUST have intended to reference the idea if not the essay directly. 2h

35 likes49 comments

Texreader

Untitled | Untitled

#5JoysFriday

#CampLitsy has given me 2 of the best reads of the year so far! I‘m spending the weekend scrapbooking and card making with good friends. I ♥️ my family to no end and I‘m so lucky to still have my beautiful parents in their 80s. And my stellar team at work are doing their best to keep my head above water. There‘s been so much tragedy here in Texas since July 4. I had to share my gratitude for life today for all I have. @DebinHawaii

Butterfinger Texas has been and will continue to be in my prayers. I'm so sorry you and everyone you love have to witness the devastation first hand. 1d

AnnCrystal 🙏🏼😢 Prayers for your Texas🙏🏼 💝💝💝💝💝. 21h

Bookwormjillk My heart breaks for the people in Texas impacted by the floods 20h

dabbe 💙🩵💙 11h

kspenmoll The floods look so devastating & heartbreaking. 💕 4h

40 likes5 comments

Texreader

Death of the Author (Deluxe Limited Edition) | Nnedi Okorafor

pick

Wow!! Wow!! Wow!!

This may be the best book of the year! Wow!!

Just finished. Review to come. But my mind is blown! 🤯

@Megabooks @squirrelbrain @BarbaraBB

#CampLitsy

TheBookHippie One of the authors I found through #FOODANDLIT !! 1d

squirrelbrain High praise indeed! 24h

BarbaraBB Wow, that‘s high praise! 23h

See All 9 Comments

Librarybelle I‘ve debated trying this, as it‘s not my typical genre. I may have to try it thanks to your glowing praise! 19h

Megabooks So glad you enjoyed it!!! 17h

Texreader @Librarybelle Only part sci-fi. But don‘t neglect that part if you do read it. It‘s amazing. You don‘t see that ending coming 17h

Suet624 @Librarybelle It's not my typical genre either but #CampLitsy25 had me reading it and I am not disappointed. A really good story. 16h

Librarybelle I guess I‘ll put it on hold through the library…I‘m now having a bit of FOMO. Thanks, @Texreader @Suet624 ! 16h

Prairiegirl_reading I got stuck behind Wild Dark Shore. I just struggled with that one and I just can‘t get it finished! I have been listening to woodworking so I‘ll least be ready for next week. I really want to get to this one eventually! 13h

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sarahbarnes

Woodworking | Emily St James

pick

I learned a lot from reading this book and am glad it was on the #camplitsy itinerary this summer. ♥️ Looking forward to the discussion!

Ruthiella I still have to read the SA Cosby title, but I am pretty sure Woodworking is going to be my favorite of the six. 1d

sarahbarnes @Ruthiella I really liked it too! I‘ve tried Cosby before and he‘s not for me so I don‘t think I‘ll read that one. I still need to read Tilt. 1d

squirrelbrain They‘re all so good - it‘s going to be difficult to choose! 24h

BarbaraBB I need to get to this one soon (and Tilt and the Cosby)! 23h

34 likes4 comments

mcctrish

Death of the Author (Deluxe Limited Edition) | Nnedi Okorafor

pick

I don‘t know why my copy has a canada sticker on it. I can‘t wait until Saturday to talk about the second half of this. I can‘t believe how many layers there are to this story and someone was smart enough to bring it into being 🤯 #camplitsy

TEArificbooks Great photo. I want to be on a beach reading. 2d

Suet624 I agree with you. 2d

mcctrish @TEArificbooks I‘m so glad the day we went to visit friends was such a perfect beach weather day 2d

mcctrish @Suet624 I dreamed all night about it 2d

64 likes4 comments

Texreader

King of Ashes | S. A. Cosby

Just finished. Whew!!! This is one brutal book!!! Review to come. #campLitsy

@squirrelbrain @Megabooks @BarbaraBB

BarbaraBB Can‘t wait! 2d

squirrelbrain I just started it last night….. 2d

AmyG @squirrelbrain Me, too! 50 pages in and it‘s already really good. 2d

squirrelbrain I had to go check @AmyG and I got to p 54! 👯 2d

63 likes2 stack adds4 comments

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