Welcome to Litsy!

My great grandfather and his younger brother and a barn
#barn
#falling
#familyhistory
@eggs
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

The three short stories in this collection are sad and strange, the protagonists living liminal existences which alienate them from the rest of humanity. There's a feel of Kafka's "Metamorphosis" in the changes that the characters undergo: surreal and tragic.
The longest (but still fairly short) story, "Nami, Who Wanted to Get Hit (and Eventually Succeeded)" is the saddest, dealing with bullying, child sexual exploitation and abuse, ⬇️

"Asa lived with her mother in a small rented apartment."

#FirstLineFridays @Shybookowl

And now, for something completely different!

Three short stories, large font to make it look more substantial than it is 🧐, but it looks pretty, so, like Dr. Frank N. Furter, we'll forgive it.
I bought this RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institute) bookmark today. It doesn't fit the criteria for #BookmarkMatching , but there it is, anyway 🔖

#doublespin for this month was 5 more short stories in this anthology… I‘m up to more modern stories now and finding them more enjoyable than some of the older stuff!

"It seems that somehow the hearts of human beings and trees are connected."

- The Princess and the Nutmeg Tree ??❤️?

#FirstLineFridays @shybookowl

"The ghost stories and strange tales that make up this book are set in the ancient Japanese province of Shinshu, or Shinano (now Nagano Prefecture), located in the center [sic] of Japan's main island of Honshu, a region intersected by three mountain ranges, mist-covered streams and a number of large and fast-flowing rivers."

At about ½ way through, the blurb descriptors of spine-chilling, spooky & terrifying ??

Bertino‘s follow up to Beautyland is this very interesting collection of stories, ranging from realistic to heavy on the magical realism. I think it‘s a really good collection and can‘t point to a single story I didn‘t like.

The blurb says that these are traditional stories of yokai, spectral apparitions of varied kinds, which Wada retells in "spine-chilling" & "terrifying" fashion ?
Some I'm partially familiar with (the Snow Woman, the kappa, & the tengu ?) but I'm hoping to encounter lots of ghosts that are new to me ?
The book is copiously illustrated by the author's daughter, Haruna Wada, who really deserves a cover credit.
I think I'm going to enjoy this one!

Heading out for our local #NoKingsDay protest and taking it to the streets. 💪🏼🇺🇸