Welcome to Litsy!

The combination of high expectations and high page count mingled together to make me want to quit this many times. I persevered (I‘m leading the book club meeting for it tomorrow) and the ending was worth it! A family saga across 70 years set in India…unbelievably tragic and relentless in its melodramatic tone but despite myself, I loved the family matriarch and cried at the end. Heavy on the medical/disease/hospital scenes which aren‘t for me.

I finished one more since this was sent to me so 52 books this year!

Tagged was my favourite, I think. It‘s hard to pick!

#goodreadsyearinbooks

I‘ve still got time to read more books so this won‘t be my final count, but I did meet my Goodreads Challenge of 100 books, so that seemed worth celebrating. Apparently Covenant of Water was the longest book I read this year and it I think will also make my top 10. But I am not one to do a Best of the Year List until I actually reach the end of the year! So that‘s still to come. And if you‘re a Goodreads user, send me a friend request.

At times I feel like this book should be called "How many horrible things can happen to one family".

From the connecting train being delayed this morning to finding out I would be spending the whole of the afternoon and evening alone instead of seeing a friend, I was quite low by the time I got off the aeroplane in Cape Town. And my book, my one book I had idiotically packed, was nearly finished. So I consoled myself...

I was in the mood for a historical fiction read when I came across The Second Life of Mirielle West. I don't think I've read anything based around the leprosy colonies. It was interesting to learn about that but I can't say I really liked this book. Some of it felt like it was dragging on to me. Then the end felt so sudden almost like there should have been a few more chapters between the last and the epilogue.

This is an old obscure book left on my mother‘s shelves. I think it‘s actually a 1963 printing. Anyway, I‘ve started. The author grew up in Hawaii. Molokai was the leprosy quarantine island in the 19th century.

I'm not going to lie, it took me a while to read, and I thought of bailing. But I'm glad I didn't.
The beginning was hard, because I didn't see the links with the different characters, but eventually everything links together.
I liked learning about Kerala, about the politics, about the progress in medicine along the pages. Some parts of this family saga are more interesting than others, but so is life. A solid 3/5 for me.

Absolutely fantastic! This epic story will have me thinking for years to come. A real #chunkster , this story follows generations of families from India and Ireland, a community dealing with Leprosy and other challenges, and Doctors called to serve their people with empathy and grace. Wonderful on #audio, Verghese delivers another world class novel worth every minute of your time. #BookspinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

This one is much more of an epic than I‘d thought it‘d be, going in. It tells a very human story, firmly rooted in the geography and culture that it is set in, benefitting from the author‘s own heritage.