I just want to say, I started this audio yesterday and I fucking love it! Already laughing and crying.

I have a new love for Barbra after listening to this 48+hour audiobook. Easily the longest I‘ve ever listened to, but was never bored. She recounts nearly her entire life, starting in Brooklyn with a single mother, her father passed when she was about 18 months. From an independent young woman turning into a do-it-all genius powerhouse. I loved hearing about the causes she‘s supported and politics she‘s influenced. More amazing than I ever knew!

I could not get into this one. I don‘t feel connections to the characters and can‘t get into a reading flow. I wanted to love it because my bff sent it to me and it has a cool title and cover, but there are so many other books to read, I‘m not wasting my time on it right now. What makes me want to read a little more, is as I just searched on google and Ed Helms may be making it into a movie, and I he‘s pretty funny… maybe I‘ll come back someday.

Welcome @RoseMallow to Litsy! Our kids take music lessons at the same place and we started talking about the books we‘re reading while waiting for them. She just joined yesterday….

Share how you love to #Litsy! I always describe it as Instagram for books and readers.

The author lays into us and tells a difficult truth. We are all complicit, but some may just be sociopathic. If people in power do the opposite of what is necessary for humanity‘s survival, there must be a special place reserved for them.

Sadly we‘ve become a fragmented world.

This book recounts an infuriating history from the 1970s to 1990s when politicians failed humanity and scientists failed to express our existential crisis in a meaningful, change inducing way. This was published in 2019 when politics in the US were at an all-time low for the environment. Our current president has made some advances to implement a “Green New Deal” through the IRA and BIL legislation. I hope these efforts start to make a difference.

Excellent follow up to The Name of the Wind. Now I‘m stuck with my friend who recommended these, waiting for book 3. Love the journey, fae and Kvothe‘s internal and external battles. Kvothe matured and learned so much through this segment of his story, but I felt letdown with more questions along with the Chronicler toward the end.

I enjoyed this. Surprisingly to me, Prince Harry is very relatable, has done amazing work and seems like a down to earth person. I empathized with his struggles of losing his mother, the strife it caused him throughout his life and terror he‘s felt from the paparazzi. I don‘t think anyone could handle the harassment he and Meghan have faced. Fame and royalty are not for the faint of heart-I had no idea the imposition on privacy was so extreme.

I was watching a series, “Aliens Among Us”. One of the interviewees mentioned this book. Written by a US Army colonel in charge of Roswell crash debris/technologies. Colonel Corso‘s job at the pentagon was leaking technologies into society by releasing them to companies to reverse engineer. He claims this explains a huge boom in technology since the 1950s & similar crashes in Russia advanced their technologies. Maybe this is still happening today?

So I‘m not a big Britney fan, but I enjoy audio memoirs for my commute. I enjoyed hearing her background and her story of her conservatorship. It was insane what her father did to her, and no one should have to endure this level of control from another adult. She seemed very naive for much of her life. I‘m glad she‘s free of that and hope she can rebuild her life in a positive way. Overall a pick for me #freebritney

This was a little strange… a self help type/psychology book translated from Korean. Much of the book, the author is recounting, word for word, her interactions with her psychiatrist. It seems like most of her problems stem from childhood problem or issues with societal norms. Some must really like it, as it has been translated in many languages and is a Korean best seller. In my opinion, it was alright. Something is learned from all we read.

Finally, the long-awaited book 3 arrived today! I originally preordered this years ago, then saw signed preorder available, so cancelled to get this one. Can‘t wait to read the final segment - with a new map expanded from Orisha… new adventures and new places! Probably going to go back and read books 1 & 2 again before starting this. Just happy it‘s here! Yay!

I am bailing on this one for now. Perhaps I will come back to it someday, but right now I can‘t get into the book. I feel no connection to the characters and do not have patience for reading 4 page paragraphs in small, tightly spaced font about what seem to be unnecessary details. The couple times I started to get into it a little or started to like a character, the plot jumps around to another character or timeline.

Sad events of a misguided youth in urban Detroit around 1960. Alex lives with his alcoholic dad who works 2nd shift at a car factory. I enjoyed the ups and downs of the book, cheering for Alex, hoping he would make it through his hardships to lead a good life. He is a complex character with a complicated history. The story takes place over the course of about a school year, but has many flashbacks giving the characters tangible depth.

This story does not bring you back to Kvothe‘s world, but provides a glimpse into Auri‘s. It develops her character by following a week of her life during the time she knows Kvothe, although never mentions him by name. In Rothfuss‘s afterward to the book, it sounds as if Auri was revealing herself to him as much as his readers. Shorter than I expected when I picked it up, a quick read.

A fun read of short thoughts and one of the strangest/coolest covers I‘ve seen. Noted on the dust jacket, the cover is designed by Jonathan Carroll‘s son. This was fun to read, feeling like I was getting a behind the scenes view of the author‘s brain and some snapshots of where some of my favorite novels came from. Also, of course, his love for dogs is obvious, as in probably all of his books a dog plays a prominent role.

Wonderful story. Looking forward to reading more of this saga. Some cool pictures of depictions of Kvothe (Quothe/Kote) and Auri a friend of mine has. The book is as hard to describe as Kvothe‘s love for Denna. After a battle with some unusual creatures and a chance encounter, Kote begins to tell his story of growing up; making his way as a respected performer with his family, to being a lost, lonely youth, and his growth overcoming adversities.

Our little leaper is here. Our 3rd (and last) boy! Welcomed him yesterday. His first birthday he will be four and it will be a Mardi Gras day! Perfect New Orleans baby 🥰 he‘s reading with me in the hospital already and just made 24 hours. Thank you all for the well wishes!

About to meet my third boy in a couple hours. Happy leap day!

I love stories that give me perspectives of lives I will never live and provide a glimpse to empathize their struggles. Lamya comes from a background of conservative Muslim family and country. Eventually she moves to the US and initially lives with her uncle. She starts to find her community through college and young adulthood but continues to struggle with coming out to her family in the US and overseas.

Matthew Perry‘s memoir accounts his life in somewhat of an anachronistic order from his life with his mom in Canada and father in LA, to lifelong struggles with addiction. At the end of his memoir, Perry seems to have overcome his biggest battles, but sadly we know where his story ultimately ends.

Amazing story of a young woman and a tree. Julia Butterfly spent more than 700 days in Luna to save it from the logging industry. She peacefully fought big business and violent loggers at times. Over her time in Luna, she had visits from celebrities building publicity to the tree. Some of her colleagues in protest lost their lives, while Julia stayed in the tree as long as it took, until it was guaranteed it would not be cut.

It‘s been a while since I‘ve posted my read reviews, so I‘ll have a blast of a few. I loved this book! A lovely combination of fantasy time travel and historical fiction.

A harrowing feat of literature, but a bit long and dry for my tastes, even for an audio. I am sure some of the knowledge from this book stuck, but also looked forward to it ending after more than 24 hours of listening. Like some other long anthropology works, seems to rehash the same themes repeatedly.

Got this a couple months ago because my 7th grader needs to read the Raven and Tell-Tale Heart. I read all the stories and poems in this compilation. They were a little too male-centric, dry and built on the boredom for me. I got into some of the poems at the end and some of the stories I did really like, Murders in the Rue Morgue stands out. I also had some trouble with the old English. It didn‘t flow well for me while reading.

This was a beautiful story of love sickness and enduring love in a time of feminine oppression and betrothal in high society China. In reading the author‘s notes and acknowledgments at the end, learning this was a true story, written as historical fiction was touching and amazing. Lisa See talks about the real opera of the Peony Pavilion and how the commentary of three wives on the opera really existed. Loved it!

A lovely Rachel Carson book geared toward children and with her grandnephew Roger in mind, written when he visited her summer Maine cottage. First published as an essay in 1956, she wanted to publish this with illustrations to captivate children, however was not able to complete the visuals before her death. This is a posthumous edition from 1998 with new photos celebrating nature and its wonders. A quick and peaceful read.

This was a sweet sad little story. My son had to read this for his 5th grade class, and he wanted me to read it, too. Omakayas is an Ojibwe girl growing up on an island in the Great Lakes. It follows a year of her life through the seasons, with good times and struggles throughout the year.

Loved this memoir read by the author. Many parts so heart wrenching for her. I‘ve always liked Sally Field but never really knew anything about her. This story must have been so difficult but I am sure it is a huge weight from her chest to tell.

Good little book of short stories, most with some conflicting scientific and religious conflict, some with science and religion supporting each other. I think my favorite in this collection was “God, No Matter How You Spell It” with a little bizarre twist at the end. They each had their own bit of the bizarre.

This was good and historically educational. I did not know about these murders in the Osage tribe. Glad I had a chance to listen to the audiobook before watching the movie. Crazy the audiobook already has movie images on the cover in my library app.

I finished this a few weeks ago but was having trouble gathering words to review… this is a harrowing true story of 2 young Jewish sisters fighting as Nazi resisters during the holocaust & through the end of WWII. Their strength, cunning & selfless courage saved so many & kept their family together through most of the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands & Europe. This is an amazing account detailing their lives & eventual experience in Auschwitz.

This is another one my son has to read for English this year, so decided to read, too. I give it a “meh”. I wasn‘t really into the storyline, and felt bad for Buck.

I enjoyed this, but just thought it was okay. I‘m sure restaurateurs and cooks would have a greater appreciation for this book. I could see my mom liking it more, having a lot of experience in restaurant kitchens, as well as cooking for a convent for 17 years. Some fun anecdotes of kitchen life and compelling to hear some of Bourdain‘s back story. I enjoyed his food network series much more.

My son has to read this for 7th grade English this year, so I decided to read it since I haven‘t before. It‘s different than I expected. More sex & alcohol—especially for a Louisiana school, but I like the premise & arc of the story. Not going to mention the sex parts to my 12 y.o. before he reads it—I‘ll ask him about it when he‘s at those parts. He has to read it next quarter. Brave teacher to assign this & wonder if other parents have read it.

Invisible Women reviews places in society where women are entirely overlooked for the default human condition: being male. When women are included in decisions and research, better outcomes are found across the board. Women‘s perspectives find solutions men don‘t see, women account for other women‘s needs in times of disaster and humanitarian aid, outcomes in car accidents — overall providing for the needs of families and communities better.

This is a book of finding good in humans. The author argues where good people stood up at bad points in history. I liked his arguments against some of Jared Diamond‘s theories in his book Collapse. Overall pick, enjoyed his perspectives of good.

I enjoyed this book. Partly thought it could be about 200 pages shorter, but I also liked how it brought the characters through their lives. I disliked Rachel more and more as the book went on, and this probably brought me to tears at least four times. Loved the multi character all women‘s perspective, and political histories of African nations through their experiences.

I think this is my new favorite opening paragraph.

I enjoyed this audio for insights on the connection of disease, thought processes, mental health and health outcomes. I do believe the brain and thought can be a powerful tool, but I thought sometimes Mate stretched the correlations a little too far. I enjoyed listening to his experiences psychedelics and various celebrities he‘s worked with, normalizing addiction and mental health problems, with some relatable stories.

Finished this a couple nights ago… yes I cried. Have been wanting to read this so I can finally watch the movie. Creatively intertwines a murder mystery, love story, sad family dynamics, nature and science. Really enjoyed it and recommend.

Just finished this chonk. I couldn‘t stop til I got to the end. Some mixed reviews here, but I enjoyed it. Gave me a few weird dreams, which can be fun. Very imaginative story about overcoming demons within. The end left my imagination reeling. Some spots were maybe over the top & some people said it‘s too long, but to me it was worth every word. Hope there‘s a movie someday. Perks ended up as a great film adaptation, this one is so different tho.

This was good… he talked about his experience as a resident over the course of 5 years becoming a brain surgeon. He talked about successes, challenges and loss of life in the OR. One of the most interesting cases to me was a meningioma, which my mom had removed in 2015. Was good to hear it is one of the easiest to remove.

A beautiful book of text and imagery I‘ve picked up through each of my first two pregnancies. Now starting again…

I just cried onto the pages finishing this tonight. It is a beautiful sad story. Loved it, loved the characters and wanted them all to live, love and be happy. Most don‘t get that chance. Death tells the story with care and compassion, gently lifting away the souls lost and collecting colors.

Telling this story & transitioning in the public eye is brave & admirable. Elliot‘s story will give hope to others struggling with gender for a happier future. It makes me sad that others will disparage some who already are struggling because they don‘t understand & are scared of things they don‘t know. The world needs more acceptance & empathy. Difficult stories like this helps both sides who choose to read, listen & open their hearts.

Posting to save and listen to when I‘m not at work, and to share an interview with with Litsy of one of my favorite authors on Wisconsin public radio. https://www.wpr.org/listen/2114876?mibextid=Zxz2cZ

This was good & well written, mostly telling from her point of view & feelings from the times in her life she was recounting. I‘d seen this pop up a few times, and the title intrigued me, but made me a bit uncomfortable. Jeannette was made to be uncomfortable her whole life, scarred by things her mother did to her, and sounds like it‘s been a long journey to become a healthier person. This was tough & sad to listen to, but glad I finally did.