Welcome to Litsy!

“She had planned to spend a nice, lazy holiday with the new book her father had given her at Christmas and a box of candy.”

Those sound like FANTASTIC plans for New Year‘s Day, and I feel that “regretful peep” at her book!! But I love the plan to brighten someone‘s New Year, anonymously—with such a wonderful result. ⤵️

#KindredSpiritsChristmas #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead

Yule tradition! I used to have an elaborate setup for burning new year wishes, and alas it was lost in the move SO. This year I got a free candle from work and my boyf‘s wish burned to the bottom of the candle in record time lol. Happy Yule to all that celebrate!

#wintergames #xmaschacha

Fun little comedy, even if predicable. 🧔 Beards are a theme. 😉

Quick listen on YouTube with an excellent narrator. I just discovered his channel - “Bitesized Audio Classics.” https://youtu.be/gRRXJdoEfFo?si=vNJVK703Kzur6V0l

Very very sweet stories all variations on some themes: 1) a very poor family cannot afford anything for Christmas and something happens that means the family can have traditional Christmas food and the kids gifts, and 2) there‘s been some rift in the family (normally over inheritance of land) and something happens to heal the rift. I would have preferred some diversity in themes. Short and good for a low-anxiety read. ⬇️

I loved reading about all the little secrets as the Joseph children prepared gifts for each other! (Also, why are children so often described as having “curly heads”?!) In the end, this is yet another sweet story of kindness and sharing at Christmas. 💜🎄

#KindredSpiritsChristmas #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead

Another heartwarming read today for #KindredSpiritsChristmas - The large, poor but happy Josephs family gets a nice Christmas surprise from some wealthy visitors on Christmas Eve night. 4⭐️ 80 points

#HolidayBookDragons
#WinterGames2024
#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 What a trip… Separate short stories of rejection (feminist dudebro no women want to sleep with, woman romantically obsessed with a friend, etc.) that veer into the very explicit, and then into someone creating an online bot universe? Finishes with a “rejection letter” to the author about the book‘s flaws. I liked some, some went maybe farther than necessary, and the end got too navel-gazey for me. Soft/equivocal pick. #ToB25

I read a lot of Anthony Trollope novels a few decades ago but had not heard of this surprisingly short (especially for AT) holiday tale! Honestly, it struck me as what the 1893 version of a comfortably predictable but charmingly written sit-com episode would be!
Delightful!

Of late, I have been drawn to more “literary” or “challenging” books and this one certainly challenged me! These stories are spare and minimalist and require work of the reader. All of them deal with the lives and experiences of women and the way they interact with the world, in ways both big and small. While some of the stories were opaque in their meaning, I think this is a book that would be served well by being re-read.