Welcome to Litsy!

I have the day off and would love to spend it reading…but every book I pick up feels wrong for the moment.

What I *want* to be reading is tagged. Unsurprisingly, for how my (and every sane person‘s) luck is going right now, I can‘t find it at any bookstores or libraries near me. I can‘t even buy it on Amazon. ?

It‘s described as “a short, brittle book" & "an oddly satisfying jumble" featuring several of Jansson's recurring tropes…??

What an amazing story and the illustrations were wonderful.

For the rest of the review, visit my Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/BvqzjwlzWp8

Enjoy!

A quick, charming read, whose pint-sized protagonist reminded me of my granddaughter when she‘s cranky. Lovely descriptive writing. A good farewell to summer and my #doublespin for this month.

This was entertaining and wryly clever right up until the end. I want to read the rest of the trilogy now. And I also want to visit Finland. They have an odd, almost absurdist turn of mind there, I think I‘d like it 😊 If you are not familiar with Finnish quirkiness, try this trilogy, or a book in the genre of “Finnish weird.” That‘s a thing. Johanna Sinisalo is a good author to start with.

“The last time I was here was with Lizard Man and AK. Both men tried to kill me but ended up killing themselves instead.” Oh, is that all? 😂 This is the e-book for July at my library - unlimited copies, no waiting. I am enjoying its extremely wry Finnish humor. The fact that the abnormally serious and logical main character (autism spectrum?) has inherited a kids‘ theme park is amusing in itself. Now I want to read the first book in the series.

I'm becoming quite a fan of this chap.
He boards an ice breaker to follow a few days of their work, along the Finnish coast.
Comments on climate change and politics are important, and the history included with Russia and Sweden rulings was very new to me.

Thanks for the surprise bookmail @Jas16 ! Both of these have been on my TBR wishlist for quite some time, and I look forward to enjoying them. I hope all is well with you! 📚🩷

This collection of short vignettes shows a child and her grandmother throughout a summer on a Finnish island. Another gentle read, but beautifully descriptive and full of humor and heart.
#24in2024

Post WWII Finland, two couples, one American and one Russian. A cross country ski race between husbands and wives becoming friends-their only common language French. And then the reality of the early cold war begins. Definitely worth a read.