Welcome to Litsy!

I‘m ever so slowly making my way through my #10BeforetheEnd stack.

This was a dense and thought provoking read. Translated from the Turkish and set in the 16th century during the Ottoman Empire, this reflects a culture which is largely unknown to me. It does have a murder mystery as its overarching plot, but that‘s just a framework used to delve into larger philosophical questions about art and religion.

#WhereAreYouMonday

This Monday finds me in 16th century Istanbul among the scribes, miniaturists, gilders, and other artists of the empire who have been commissioned to create book which will also be a work of art for the sultan. Only 50 pages in, but definitely getting The Name of the Rose vibes.

#HauntedShelf
#DeadSerious
#LoversGaze

I got the ARC of this from #netgalley, long before it was published in August, but it had mixed reviews so I wasn‘t really tempted. It‘s recently been announced as being one of the BBC Between The Covers books so I picked it up, and absolutely loved it.

It‘s really devastating though so be warned, with some CW. Following 3 different people in different timescales, all linked by water, I loved how it all came together in the end.

“O, ömrü boyunca hep “acele etmiş”tir; bu yüzden de hrp “geç kalmış”tır. Sürekli bir panik vardır hayatında: Bir kitap okur, bir komedi seyreder, yorulur. Birileriyle birlikte olur, derdini anlatamaz, telaşlanır ve incinir. Küçük dertler, bir yerlere ödenmesi gereken paralar, bazı şeylerin tamir masrafı hiç eksik olmaz ve bu panik duygusuna katkıda bulunurlar. Ve hep acele edilir.” Önsöz, 11. sayfa.

This book broke my heart. Brutal and beautiful. A drop of magical realism. Three lives separated in time and place, connected by a drop of water, the Tigris, and the Epic of Gilgamesh. I found it a bit hard to get into the present tense narration, but all three narratives gripped me. (Content warnings, but the most horrific events are off page and there's nothing gratuitous.) I fully expect to see this listed for the Women's Prize next year.

What a book. This is a new to me author and this book is so hard to describe. It's definitely going to be at the top of my favorite books for this year. This is such a good one. One you won't want to put down and you definitely can not just skim through it and understand what is going on.

Full review: https://lsmoore49.blogspot.com/2024/09/there-are-rivers-in-sky-elif-shafak.html

@shafakelif
@aaknopf

When you have the perfect bookmark for a book. 💙

After really enjoying her previous 2 books, I am unsurprised that Shafak‘s latest is terrific. It follows 3 main characters in three different times and thus took me a little time to settle in, but I was absolutely rewarded for doing so. The storylines are all equally compelling and I had so much empathy for each of these characters. And I loved how she used water to show how truly connected we all are. Just superb.

Armanoush (Amy), an American Armenian teen, travels to #Turkey to learn more about her family. She befriends Asya and her family of kooky but wonderful aunts—each of whom must come to grasps with Amy‘s harsh family‘s past due to the slaughter and ouster of Armenians. The book reveals a delicious commonality between the cultures: food. A bit of mysticism helps tell this story. Amy‘s broken family in America don‘t know she‘s made this trip. The ⬇️