Welcome to Litsy!

This was my most anticipated #TOB2025 title. I live in a city in Virginia with a large Ethiopian population so I thought I would learn more about my new neighbors. Haha no. That‘s not at all what this was. This was a fever dream that jumped all over the place and I‘m not even sure what happened to be honest. I‘m not mad. Just confused. Still a pick, but don‘t ask me any questions 😂

This ebook is on sale right now and it‘s a marvelous read. It‘s the best #letterQ book I‘ve read since doing the #LitsyAtoZ challenge. I highly recommend it and I hope to read it again someday. Definitely an action-packed historical thriller.

Fiction is the great lie telling the truth…

Spot on articulation for why writing & reading “fiction” is important. 👌🏾 I could listen to Verghese all day - so insightful & relaxing. Bet his medical students like him.

https://youtu.be/-zBo7Fl-iL8?si=NnX_laxXa1ScN5zb

This was a book that absolutely did not grab my attention, I sensed an unreliable narrator who does things that make no sense; I went into it thinking it might be a devastating immigrant story, but once I put it down and then a few days go by, and then when I do open it back up with low motivation and hit a snag (drawn curtains are closed! Not open), WHAT DO I Do? I find many of my friends loved it. #sigh A case of “it‘s me, not the book.”

There are lines and moments that this book that made me want to love it but overall this #tob25 title left me cold. An incredibly unreliable narrator reflects on his upbringing by his immigrant Ethiopian mother and her life long friend who may be his father . There is a lot about the immigrant experience that was well conveyed but everything else was too much of a jumble to make me care. This wouldn‘t have made my shortlist.

After our son was born, I asked her why she didn't get a new Ethiopian passport so she could travel to Europe to visit her grandson. "It's that easy, you think. I get an Ethiopian passport and then go wherever I want? No. How long do you want to stay? How much money do you have? Why do you want to come here? I'm not going to go beg some country to let me in. They want to make you feel like a thief for traveling but look at them...

Just a cute pic of my snowy ❄️ lil Christmas trees 🎄 on my front porch…

My #April selection for #12booksof2024. Love this book.

A strange story of a boy growing up in late 1970s Somalia, and after being passed from his adopted mother to his wealthier aunt and uncle, must choose between the university and fighting in the insurgency against Ethiopia. His mother is originally from Ethiopia, making for some interesting dynamics where the person he is closest to is identified as 'the enemy'. Weirder still is how the close quarters of their housing affects their relationship 👇

I read this a bit ago and just realized I forgot to review it. Another for #tob25 and I feel meh. A community of Ethiopian immigrants in the US, focused on a young journalist who relocated to Paris and started a family. He returns home and learns about Samuel, his father (maybe??) who made a living by driving. I regret not reviewing this sooner because I‘m struggling to remember much about it, apart from the sense of seeking/loneliness.