Welcome to Litsy!

An intricate story about a mother/son relationship. The mother arrives uninvited in Tokyo to see her son after many years apart. He is not pleased but they reach an uneasy truce & try to find ways to get along. Both mother and son spend time apart in Tokyo & in their heads, remembering what led to the distance between them. Both feel misunderstood. But over the course of her visit, they both grow and relations between them thaw. The novel moves 👇

#WinterCampLitsy

Dear #camplitsy friends! Grab your furry sleeping bag: you wanted a Winter Camp and we‘re delivering!

Once the #ToB shortlist is out, we‘ll vote for 3 books that didn‘t make it and read/discuss from mid-January.

Unfortunately our lovely Meg is under the weather and will be hibernating for now. She‘ll join us again in summer. However, Helen and I are delighted to welcome Holly @hooked_on_books to keep the campfire burning!

I‘m glad I read this so I could finish out my reading of the #NBAlonglist for fiction, but it just didn‘t work for me at all. The stories just gave me nothing to hang onto. I‘m a bit disappointed that other books I read this year weren‘t on this list and this one was.

Enshitification is Doctorow‘s very satisfying word for what tech companies do. First, create a great product to lure and lock in users. Then, change the product to benefit businesses/advertisers at the expense of users. Then, change it again to screw the businesses and benefit shareholders. It‘s an infuriating book that‘ll make you feel like you need a forever shower, but he does include some hope at the end.

#ToB26 long listed, but this was already on my radar. As someone who loves those stories about reclusive people living off grid I was hoping for much more of that, since our MC is doing just that—he removed himself from the world at-large after a family fight over politics on Thanksgiving 2016. The novel really takes off when his grandchildren show up at his door. A look at America in the age of MAGA and the creepy Christians-with-guns movement.

Cora meets Sam at playgroup & thus launches the "ten year affair" that sometimes lives more in Cora"s imagination than in reality. This is well-trod territory with a millenial spin.I probably would have been more moved by this book at 35 when I too was immersed in the world of raising kids, managing careers & making a marriage work. At 52, I found it kind of exhausting. That said, I was moved in the end. And Somers makes some sly observations ?

This #ToB longlister is very meta and I can‘t figure out how much of it is ironic. ⬆️

There are various POVs (confusing at times), one of which is a supposed submission for a Creative Writing MFA.

There‘s a lot of angsty conversation so, if you don‘t like that, don‘t bother. However, it‘s not like Rooney where there‘s no communication - here, they over-communicate in a very performative, affected way.

Weirdly, I didn‘t hate it, a soft pick.

I read the fiction part first, and now there is no way to redo and try it anew beginning with NF. I do NOT have advice (other than to say that the print does have note on copyright page in front of NF side…) I honestly had to go review my notes on Biography of X to recall if I liked it or not, maybe ‘respect and being intrigued by‘ is positive enough. As to 💭 on this one, I found it fascinating. #Nov2025 Book 108 #ToBLL26 #ToB #Library

Ugh, this short novel from the #TOB long list is BLEAK. It follows a young woman's descent into serious mental illness. (Schizophrenia is suggested.) Eventually she must choose between life on heavy meds or psychotic episodes. As a reader, we experience both. As well as the hospitalizations in between. The book is well written but it is rough going. Worth reading maybe if you want to understand that diagnosis? Otherwise, I would say skip.

Is this the front cover or the back? I am so conflicted about which end to start 😆 #ToBLongList26 or is it 25? Ack #ToB #MemoirVSFiction #Both!