Welcome to Litsy!

#WeeklyForecast

I‘ve started some books that‘ll take a longish time to finish; Dissolution #ShardlakeSeriesBR, a 2 month buddy read and The BookShop Book

I‘ll undergo surgery tomorrow and not sure how much reading I‘ll get done

Tom Lake returned from Libby and I want to continue that

I want to finish The Switch

The rest are possibilities; The Secrets of the Stormforest, Slemme Jenter (Bad Girls) and the Icelandic author Jon Kalman Stefansson

Patchett never disappoints, and this is no exception. I finished it outside, with a bowl of cherries by my side. Knowing Our Town and The Cherry Orchard add depth, but are not necessary for the enjoyment of this warm novel. Highly recommended.

So fun to recognize #StorySettings. Petoskey, Traverse City, and "Washed Cherries" signs bring back great memories as a #MittenLitten. As a teen, hubs worked landscaping at Grosse Point Yacht Club where Sabatian plays tennis and where I grew up on Lake St. Clair. Pic of the #lake where I currently live from outside our small town library. @Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

This is a slow moving story. I enjoyed most of the characters. The locations were beautiful in my imagination. I listened to Meryl Streep reading this. I loved her narration. 4/5

Easy read

Excellent. Beautifully told.

Meryl is a dream, but 80% of the way through I realized that I felt no connection to any of the characters (or a really strong grasp on any of them?) and I felt incredibly bored. Sped through the rest. I wanted to like this more! 2.5 ⭐️ 🎧

#FirstLineFridays

Although listening to the voice of Meryl Streep was delightful, I think I would have enjoyed the book more had I read it instead.

I finished Tom Lake and was left wondering if I should read Our Town.

On my commute the next day, I remembered that I‘ve been meaning to dive into Iris DeMent‘s catalog. A friend introduced me to her song “Let the Mystery Be” (linked below) & I was instantly hooked.

Guess what I found upon listening? Her most popular song on Spotify is called “Our Town.” Another, from her newest album, is “The Cherry Orchard.”

OK, okay. I‘ll read Our Town! 😅

🙌 loved this book, absolutely recommend you get the audio Meryl Streep just does such a wonderful job
5⭐️
#readaway2024 book 14
Goal 2 #awesomeapril readathon

Ann Patchett once said, “That moment when you write a single, perfect sentence is worth more than an entire box of biscuits.” In Tom Lake, she writes her sentence: “Sweet cherries must be picked today and every day until they‘re gone.” Simple & mundane on the surface, it‘s also the wisest counsel. In her novel, she shines a soft, springtime light on the juxtaposition & interplay of joy & sorrow, the sweet & the tart (& how both require work).👇🏻

“If we‘re going to be miserable and cry, let‘s do it in the lake.”

…

“Swimming is the reset button,” Pallace used to say. “Swimming starts the day again.”

“I walk past the kitchen garden. The lettuce and tomato plants and zinnias are already straightening up from the beating they‘ve taken. Those tiny periwinkle butterflies are working their rounds. Where do the periwinkles go in rain like that? It‘s not that I‘m unaware of the suffering and the soon-to-be-more suffering in the world, it‘s that I know the suffering exists beside wet grass and a bright blue sky recently scrubbed by rain.”

There is no explaining this simple truth about life: you will forget much of it. The painful things you were certain you‘d never be able to let go? Now you‘re not entirely sure when they happened, while the thrilling parts, the heart-stopping joys, splintered and scattered and became something else 🍒

Between a so-so and a pan for me. I found this story to be incredibly plodding and slow. An almost actress takes an entire summer to tell her adult daughters the story of her relationship with a man who went on to become a famous actor. Supposedly she has told them this story before, but they didn‘t know how their mother met their father? 🍒🍒/5

In the span of a dozen pages, Ann Patchett‘s referenced Sandra Boynton‘s “Hippos Go Berserk” and Melville‘s “Bartleby the Scrivener.”

I didn‘t know it was possible for my already abundant estimation of her to grow. Yet here we are.

1. My Grandparents (on my Moms side)
2. My Grandson
3. My latest favorite was Lara and Joe and daughters in Tom Lake.

@Eggs #WondrousWednesday

I loved the plot structure of this book and its slow unravel. Recounted as a story told by a mother to her daughters and layered up with their contemporary opinions all set in the recent timeline of the 2021 pandemic. I particularly loved how the narrator held back some of the more personal truths, precious memories she‘d saved only for herself but lucky you (the reader) is let in on these. 💗

Turns out "Tom Lake" isn't a person, but a place. Was I the only one who initially thought that?

The story is about a woman reminiscing with her grown daughters about her past experiences in summer stock theater and her romance with a fellow actor who went on to become a famous movie star. The plot moves slowly, with the narrative switching back and forth between the past and present.

Not exactly a page-turner, but a sweet and nostalgic tale.

Thanks for the tag, @Deblovestoread !

1. Burn Out: How to Walk Away and Heal - even though I left my job in September, there‘s a lot, physically & mentally, I‘m still unpacking, diagnosing, & overcoming. It definitely takes time, & it‘s been a very slow process. Stress is no joke (maybe that‘s a chapter title).

2. I don‘t read many uplifting books, but the tagged book was such a quiet and beautiful read. So much love and growth. #Two4Tuesday

So far I‘ve been late with every single one of my # #2024ReadingBrackets. #Consistency! 😊 For my March FICTION bracket, I went with a two-fer. Before reading “Tom Lake,” I took @dabbe ‘s advice and read “Our Town.” And I loved them both. You don‘t need to read “Our Town” first—but I believe it adds an even richer, deeper dimension to an enjoyable reading experience.

Tom Lake is a bit of a slow burn to start with but it warms up so much, and really is a warm-hearted novel. Patchett writes beautifully about families, and this novel expertly blends the dynamics of a family with a story about growing up and being on the cusp of adulthood. As always, a story told with insight into decisions made, paths chosen and rejected, and how our lives are shaped piece by piece over time.

So beautiful in its seemingly simple premise: a mom telling her 3 grown daughters a story of her youth while they‘re all home at the family farm during the pandemic. I loved it so much. A bookseller put this in my hands and I‘m glad she did! 💗

Absolutely loved this book. Despite the fact that I have not loved some of the author's prior novels, and despite the reviews that make valid points about the simplistic tokenism of the one Black supporting character, I nevertheless read this book voraciously and was all in for the whole ride.

@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @eggs
#springskies #bookclubread

The last book I enjoyed with a bookclub sticker

#TopRead2024 #ReadingBracket2024

I have a love ❤️/ meh 😏 relationship with Ann Patchett. (The Dutch House: ❤️; Bel Canto, Commonwealth and State of Wonder: 😏). Add this to the ❤️ pile. I adored this story—how it unfolded, the characters, the plot, everything. Read it! And take @dabbe ‘s advice and read “Our Town” first if you haven‘t already —it definitely adds a richer dimension to the experience.

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

It is wonderful.

My new bookcase - don‘t tell my husband, but I think I need to go on a buying spree to fill it up with books instead of cats 😂 (Current book club read tagged ♥️)
#shelfie

A lovely tale of a mother's “carnival“ past in summer-stock theater at Tom Lake, Lara feeds her three-robin-daughters with stories of her 20s actress life and first-love affair with Duke, a fellow actor. Set during the 2020 pandemic at a cherry farm in northern Michigan, Patchett weaves Lara's story between the past and present to show how to come to terms with the choices one makes and how to live an intentional life. Time now to reread OUR TOWN.

#WondrousWednesday
@Eggs (Thanks for the tag!) 😘

1. I'm on a cherry farm in northern Michigan. 🍒💚🍒
2. I would have loved to have been a teacher at Hogwarts. 😍

Play? @AmyG @Aimeesue @bthegood

#BookSpin #DoubleSpin
@TheAromaofbooks

Here are my two choices! Thanks again for hosting, @TheAromaofbooks! 🤩🤩🤩

4⭐️/5⭐️

Well, if you're going to write a pandemic novel it's a good thing to be Ann Patchett, I guess. Oh, you know, the apparent *ease* of the thing!
I was afraid this would be a little too sweet for my taste but there were enough sharp cherries amongst the harvest that I ended up loving it. 🍒
(I especially loved Emily!)

This is a great pandemic book. The story is not about the pandemic, and though the plot is because of it, it is completely background noise. I liked this look back at Lara's time at Tim Lake, the TL scenes felt very Dirty Dancing to me, this summer in a picturesque Midwestern camp, the staff running around putting on a play, while quiet debauchery goes on. Normally I am not a fan of book with multiple storylines but this is very well crafted 👇

This last week I finished 2 incredibly different books. Both American but of 2 different Americans, and yet both are set in and around Lansing and Detroit Michigan! I just thought it was interesting, Michigan is not a place I read about often and to be reading such wildly different books both partially taking place there was unexpected.

Ann Patchett‘s writing is gorgeous and skillful. Meryl Streep‘s narration is equally brilliant. If family stories, contemporary/literary fiction are things you gravitate towards, I think you‘ll love this. I can see the appeal and all of the positive reviews are totally justified. I got a third of the way through the audiobook. It‘s just not for me, and that‘s okay.
#auldlangspine

#FirstLineFriday
@ShyBookOwl

“That Veronica and I were given keys and told to come early on a frozen Saturday in April to open the school for the OUR TOWN auditions was proof of our dull reliability.“

Love, love, loved every minute of this one.

I've heard mixed reviews on this one, but I found it lovely. The daughter/mother relationships, the quiet, beautiful love story of Lara and Joe, contrasted with the story she tells her daughters of her summer at Tom Lake when she dated a now-famous actor, Peter Duke, worked on many levels. This is my 5th Ann Patchett and my 2nd favorite, behind The Dutch House. This was my #Doublespin for February @TheAromaofBooks

Liked not loved this one. It‘s a bit too sweet to my taste, all of this loving family in the cherry orchard. In the midst of the pandemic but why use that setting when it hardly adds to the story? I liked Lara‘s story of her past a lot though. I was charmed by Duke myself too lol 😜

#Roll100 #Pop24: 24-year-old character #ATY24: botanical cover

Book mail is the best mail!

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Patchett‘s writing is so smooth and lovely, but this story didn‘t do it for me. Though I‘m generally over pandemic novels, I would‘ve preferred more of the Covid isolation story than reminiscing on mom‘s very brief acting past. I get what Patchett was doing, I just didn‘t like the story. I couldn‘t give a damn about Peter Drake. Our Town holds no significance for me. A whole novel about this? Oof. I didn‘t love Streep‘s narration either.

#WeeklyForecast 08/24

I am in the midst of Roman Stories as well as The Sparshold Affair. I am loving the Lahiri (thank you Helen!) but about to bail on the Hollinghurst. I loved other books by him but this is just boring so far (at 30%). Many Littens seen to love it though. We‘ll see. Next will be the tagged, a very hyped book. I am always a bit disappointed by Patchett‘s books but have high hopes this one will change that 🤞🏽

Reminded me of Bridges of Madison County. Beautiful prose and themes.

Once we started making the hopeless rounds of oncologist appointments, the past broke away. All the things I‘d thought about myself before—I am an actress, I am not an actress, I was in love, I was betrayed—disintegrated into nothing.

So true.

The past need not be so all-encompassing that it renders us incapable of making egg salad.

We are swimming through eternity, my daughters' bright mermaid legs kicking out towards deeper water. I stay beneath the surface and marvel for as long as my lungs can hold.

"Swimming is the reset button," Pallace used to say. "Swimming starts the day again."

Emily needs lifts up a branch to be tied. "I'm starting to understand something here," she says, and all of us think she's talking about the tree.

"Every thing leads to the next thing."
Maisie stops to look at her sister. "That's called narrative. I guess they don't teach you that in hort school.'
"I understand narrative, idiot, but when you see it all broken down this way, step by step, I don't know, it's different."