Welcome to Litsy!

It isn‘t a visit to NOLA unless you stop at Faulkner‘s House!

I‘m giving this a low pick because I liked the history & characters. My library‘s book challenge has this book as a prompt—they‘re going to do a book discussion & podcast ep about it, so I read it. It started out good, there‘s a lot of action, but it just seemed so slow to me. Based on the history of the Battle of Blair Mountain, the coal miners‘ fight to have unions & safer working conditions. Maybe I would have rather read a NF account. 👇

January #25Alive Bright @Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

So. I‘ve been listening to this. Maybe about 2 hours in. Mark Bramhall is PERFORMING this. But. It‘s dark. It‘s disturbing. It‘s increasingly weirdly violent with bizarre religious fervour and violence. I don‘t mind grit but I‘m not certain I want to continue with it? Anyone else read it? To the end?

I really wanted to like this, as the premise sounded awesome. But for me, it didn‘t live up to the premise. I struggled to become engaged in the story and to connect with any of the characters. Maybe my expectations were too high because of all the hype, but this one wasn‘t for me.

I believe my hopes were too high for this and consequently I ended up feeling meh about it. An American Civil War novel (and its aftermath) that takes place in West Virginia in what was then called a lunatic asylum?? Plus it won the Pulitzer? Sign me up! I was hooked at the beginning and the end but the middle section lost me. A look at how war has wide reaching impacts, through the experiences of a young girl and her mother.

I have mixed feelings on this one. The writing was beautiful, and so much about the story was compelling, but a few cringy sections nearly ruined it for me. It's a pick, but I felt at times like rating it 2 stars and at other times 5 stars. This was my November #Doublespin @TheAromaofBooks

The Haddesleys are an old family that has a compact with the bog they live on: they take care of the land and the bog will provide the eldest male nd heir with a wife. But now the family home is in disrepair and the heir, well, he isn't so into the bog.

I felt a general sense of unease and uncomfortableness while reading and I mean that in the best way. Plus bog. We know how I feel about bogs.

Another book club read. It just wasn‘t for me. Maybe because I did it as an audio book? Maybe because I wasn‘t interested in the topic? Maybe I wasn‘t able to fully comprehend it due to current events? Either way, it was very well written and narrated. I did learn a thing or 2 about the unionization of coal mining. Just too many old western type shoot outs for me.

I‘ve been meaning to re-read this one, and I‘m glad I finally got to it. High school boys building rockets in a West Virginia coal mining town was the kind of memoir I needed this week.