Welcome to Litsy!

Excited to read this once I‘m done with Emma. A high school student who reads classics for fun, even after reading them for school?? Yes ma‘am.

I‘m so glad @merelybookish pointed me toward this book! I agree with you that it definitely has Ducks, Newburyport vibes. 🩵 I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this story about marriage, life, getting older, finding meaning, and yes, Melville. With poignant pandemic moments throughout, which felt timely as I read this almost exactly four years later. A #TOB long list gem this year for sure.

“Bartleby, the Scrivener” by Herman Melville

“The Immortals” by Jorge Luis Borges

“Hills like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway

And an honorable mention to “Super Human” by Nicola Yoon from the collection Fresh Ink that I recently read

I‘ve never been a huge fan of Melville‘s work BUT I‘ve never read any of his short stories which are supposed to be excellent. So, here goes. Let‘s see if these change my opinion…

#ReadingOnTheTrain #OutAndAbout

Book 1 of 2024. I loved it. A book about Melville, yes. AND not a book about Melville. Also a book about Nathaniel Hawthorne, Robert Lowell, Elizabeth Hardwick, & "the biographer" of Melville. It's a book about making art, marriage, literary partnerships, literary reputations, literary scholarship. Oh, and the male ego. ? And about words, language, connection & why we read. No plot, weird, discursive, witty & self-aware. ☑️☑️☑️ So many of my ?

In the summer of 2022, I chanced upon a reference to CLR James‘ “Mariners” in Noel Ignatiev‘s posthumously released collection of essays. I was fascinated & so I resolved to read Moby Dick, which took me 4 months during that fall & winter. Almost exactly year after finishing Moby Dick, I‘ve finally read “Mariners” and I truly feel like I‘ve completed some sort of visionary quest. Full circle moment for sure!

I was oddly charmed by this book. I am not really a fan of Melville but I appreciated witnessing someone else‘s fanaticism for him. Set during the pandemic the narrator dives into various biographies and discusses his life, work, and different accountings of pivotal moments. As she contemplates Melville‘s marriage her own patient husband is the frequent recipient of her anecdotes and musings including late night texted pictures of moss. #tob24

#tob24 long list

Moby Dick is one of my favorite books, so when I started this book about someone researching Melville, I was excited.

The good: I thought the story was unique and enjoyed the back and forth between Melville's life and the life of the main character. I was also a fan of how things became more blurred between what was real and what was research as the story unfolded.

The bad: For me, the big turn-off is not knowing what ⬇️⬇️

If you are a fan of authors writing about the lives of other, more famous authors or you‘re a fan of Melville, Hawthorne, Robert Lowell, or Elizabeth Hardwick, you will love this #tob24 choice. I am not a fan of these authors, but I found the writing and approach witty and interesting. But in the end not my jam, so I gave it 3⭐️, but I can see why others are enjoying it more! I do want to pull out the Hardwick short stories I own now.