Welcome to Litsy!

Mei is the titular mongrel - a child of a Japanese mother, who she loses when she‘s just six, and a white father. Yuki leaves Japan to study music in London and falls in love with her older teacher. Haruka works as a hostess in Tokyo‘s sex district.

I loved this tangle of narratives and couldn‘t put it down at times.

If you liked #womensprize nominee River East, River West then I think you‘ll like this too. For me, this one is slightly better.

Restless indeed! I thought this was terrific. Captivating and heartfelt historical fiction inspired by the life of Grenville‘s maternal grandmother. Now I‘m very interested to read One Life: My Mother‘s Story, nonfiction about her mother Nance.

#WomensPrize

There are so many books I‘d rather read than this #womensprize longlisted books in which some short stories are rather artificially sold as a novel. Too far fetched, maybe entertaining but man, why this nomination? There are so many books much, much better than this one. It‘s a fast easy read but I just don‘t bother enough to finish it.

I am DNFing at about 50% but not marking it as a bail. It is totally me, not the book. The writing is good, the short chapters make it an easy, fast read. I can easily see why it‘s on the #WomensPrize longlist. The mental health cycle it deals with is hard and I am avoiding picking it back up. Time to call it.

#bookmail! Tagged and The Anomaly are for book club. River for my #WomensPrize reading. And Nightwatching just because - sounds like a page-turner!

#WeeklyForecast 20/24

I am reading The Good Samaritan and it is as engaging as I expected. Next will be Six Stories because of @Reggie ‘s review. And I have one more book to read from the #womensprize longlist. I haven‘t heard much about it but it does sound good.

Although The Maiden in the title refers to Scotland‘s guillotine it is a story of women in 1600‘s whose lives are dictated by the men and fate. A mother trying to raise two daughters after the father gambles away their funds, a man grooming a young girl for his future pleasure and abusing every other female in his path, a man who needs a wife but doesn‘t want one. The women trying to survive the hand they‘ve been dealt. 4🌟

#WomensPrize

Dolly‘s was the transition generation. Dolly Maunders is born at the end of the 19th century, just when things were starting to change for women and their possibilities in life. Dolly wants to grasp them all, there‘s always something better, somewhere. Her restlessness is understandable but has its bad sides. She‘s never quite happy with what she has and it makes her a rather cold, dominating mother. ⬇️⬇️

Two books given to me by a friend / neighbour. Stone Yard is brand new - she loved it but ‘never keeps books‘. Great for me! 😃

That inspired her to get the other book, which she found rather depressing and didn‘t enjoy as much, but it‘s a free book, so….

(We did just give them our barely-used travel crate for their new puppy so a fair exchange I think! ☺️)

#WeeklyForecast 19/24

I am still reading What‘s Left of me Is Yours, which is set in Japan and I am enjoying. I have another #womensprize book lined up, the one on the shortlist I hadn‘t read yet. Mrs Caliban I am going to read because of @vivastory ‘s review.