Welcome to Litsy!

Jane Flanagan returns home to Maine to lick her wounds after steamrolling her life and career while under the influence. There she reckons with her mom‘s recent death, her family‘s legacy of alcoholism, and the unexpected history of a house she “adopted” as a teen. There is a lot going on in this book between Jane‘s story, diversions into indigenous history, and first person deep dives into historical characters with connections to the house. ⬇️

First read of 2025 is my #TBRTarot pick. This is a solid collection of short stories. My favorites from it are “A Study in Black and White”, “The Hanging of the Greens”, and “Confinement”.

#25Alive #Winter

#12BooksOf2024 @Andrew65

I adored the movie as a teenager. The dialogue of the saucy sea captain was a delight to read, as was the relationship that develops between Mrs. Muir and her captain ghost. The movie followed the book fairly well and is a quick read at < 200 pages. If you love an impossible romance, this one more than suffices. Yet, I might prefer the 1947 movie just a bit over the book--probably because of #sexyrexy. 😀

Finished this one the other night. It was fine - a little disappointing, but I can‘t quite articulate why. Most of the stories felt a bit undercooked, if that makes sense. There were three that I‘d say I enjoyed: The Eel Singers by Natasha Pulley; The Chillingham Chair by Laura Purcell; and The Hanging of the Greens by Andrew Michael Hurley. The others had potential but somehow fell flat for me.
#snowedin

Ending the year on a bit of a mediocre note. 'The Winter Ghosts' was atmospheric and 'How my Neighbour Stole Christmas' was funny. However, neither really captured my attention... I think I'm falling into a reading slump ... I need something strong to start the New Year.

This was a short but solid title that focused on the Victorian era tradition of telling ghost stories by the fire on Christmas Eve. Far from scary though, these tales are served with healthy portions of wit and sarcasm.

#bookspinbingo #wintergames #wintergames2024
#XmasChaCha #littenlisten @TheAromaofBooks @StayCurious @aperfectmjk

Catching up on posting! I've had this ARC, from my days as a bookstore owner, for something like 15 years. My husband read it back then and recommended it, but I only just now got to it. It's fantastic. So atmospheric and nice and long.

Another one from the Ghost Story Collection. I quite enjoyed this particular story, centred on the belief that the dead can be disturbed in their sleep through a modern railway. A fun, quick read!

A collection of short ghost stories all written by the author. Like many collections, it's a mixed bag - some of the stories are really quite effective with the ambience & creeping sense of menace, whereas others either wander off into too much extraneous detail or frustratingly fizzle out just as they're getting good. Given James's background, it shouldn't come as a surprise that so many of the stories are based around religion & the Church.