Welcome to Litsy!

If not for #CampLitsy24 I‘d have missed out on this surprisingly tender story. Three characters: a husband, a wife waiting behind for his return, and a solitary man on an island. The island, itself a character, is described with such detail - the wind, the gulls, the sea - I wandered with the husband as he tries to learn the language of the islander so that he can tell him he is being forced to leave the island. It‘s beautifully told.

#WeeklyForecast 22/24

Looking forward to all three of these. I already started The Amusements, which is engaging from the start. A new Ania Ahlborn is always a treat and it‘s time to start reading our first #CampLitsy24 book so @Megabooks @squirrelbrain and I can think of some questions for our discussion about it on June 8 and 15 (plenty of time, I know, we just can‘t wait 😀).

Luthien joined me in the hammock this morning as I finished this short novel. It provides an interesting glimpse of some important moments in Scottish history, but what I loved were the descriptions of the island and the focus on language as John learns to communicate with Ivar.

#CampLitsy24 #DogsOfLitsy

So many books acquired this week! I got a few from the Amazon sale, including the tagged, which I‘m super excited about. My pre-ordered All Fours arrived, too, for #CampLitsy24. I‘m excited for Mother Doll and Murder Road from the longlist. The one that‘s hard to see is The Best American Essays 2023. Happy reading weekend everyone!!

#StorySettings Day 16: These are the books we are reading as part of my #College book club called GatheringReaders. I just realized I have FIVE summer book clubs: two on Litsy (1) #CampLitsy24 and (2) #EuropaCollective. Then I have three face-to-face ones (3) this #College group with doctoral students and faculty (4) Emirates Lit Foundation book club, and (5) book club of two read-aloud with 22 yo daughter coming home for the summer!

Making a head start on this, because it's looooong. #camplitsy24

What an exquisite jewel of a novel! A cloudy, green-and-grey jewel. With such a short book, there was more mood than story—but the depth of loneliness and connection conveyed here was gorgeous. My only complaint was that I wanted more—just a couple more chapters of resolution—and yet I also understand why the author closes the story where she does.

I had this on my holds list and it came in RIGHT before it got picked for #CampLitsy24. ⤵️

Weekend book haul. 😁 Lots of my holds came in at the library at the same time (as they do) and I found a couple of books on my TBR at at used bookstore. And I splurged on a copy of the tagged book since I can‘t get it at the library yet.

This ticks all the literary boxes:
beautiful writing ✅
Not much happens/“quiet” ✅
political ✅
Format change halfway through/“experimental” ✅
It stops rather than ends. ✅
I loved it at first then I got restless. Overall I really liked it but I‘m always left a bit unsatisfied by these types of novels?! 🤷‍♀️ maybe it‘s just me. (Audio version was brilliant tho!) #camplitsy24

You wouldn‘t know it from the sunny day, but bad storms left us without power for 12 hours overnight!

I was so pleased to get my @AardvarkBookClub picks (far right) with the v cute bookmark! #aardvark I bought the tagged for #CampLitsy24, and Impossible Things was just $1 at my library‘s sale.

Library books: Limits and Morningside were on the CL longlist. Mean Boys is a queer essay collection I‘m already enjoying, and 888 just looked fun.