Welcome to Litsy!

For the vast majority of the people on this planet, the thing that‘s going to kill them is already on the inside

I really identified with this book. Step siblings are so often thrown together, expected to bond and accept one another, then expected to sever the relationships when their parents choose to once again end their marriages. For anyone who has been through that or navigated trauma with siblings and step siblings, this story may ring true. Ann Patchett does such a wonderful job telling complicated family stories.

My fourth Patchett. A story of a step family and how parents can get so wrapped up in their own lives to the detriment of their children. I love her writing and I was invested in the characters and story.

Bel Canto remains my favourite of hers & liked State of Wonder the least.

#firstlinefridays @ShyBookOwl #currentlyreading

“The Christening party took a turn when Albert Cousins arrived with gin”

😆

This made me laugh. How I love Ann Patchett‘s writing & character development. #currentlyreading

#Movie2BookRecs @Klou
Prompt: Daddy's Home

This is the prompt for November 1st. I'm just playing catch up.

June wrap up. One bingo of read books, two more if we‘re counting DNF‘s. Two 5🌟 reads Commonwealth and A Thousand Ships. Several 4 or 4.5 🌟 Legendborn, Punching the Air, Under the Udala Tree, The Other Bennett Sister, Emma, A Heart so Fierce and Broken and White Shadow. I did read both #spin books this month.

#CuriousCovers @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Eggs #LittenListen @aperfectmjk

This might be my favorite Patchett this month.

Like @Riveted_Reader_Melissa I‘ve got books to finish so I‘m in! #20in4 @Andrew65

#authoramonth I bought it when it 1st came out,9/16 .
How is it I just get to it now ? How an illicit kiss at a party will cause families to fall apart & be blended.All the characters in this book kept me wanting to see where it would all lead & speculate how it all might have been different.The best book I‘ve read so far this year . I was enchanted by the disarray.I will not soon forget this book.

This book succeeds in exposing the hell of divorce and remarriage for all the offspring involved. But there seemed to be some superfluous characters and that, plus the flipping back and forth in time, was a challenge. I think I shy away from So-So bc of that downward icon. So it‘s somewhere between a Pick and So-So...
#authoramonth2021 @Soubhiville
#bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks #AuthorAMonth2021 @Soubhiville #LittenListen @aperfectmjk

Excellent book! 💚 This is not typically the type of book I would enjoy, but the writing, and the characters, are both so well executed that I found myself enthralled with these two families.

Patchett has a unique way of writing about normal events in life that make them seem fascinating. And I love that she doesn't shy away from flawed characters.

#BookReport #WeeklyForecast I loved loved loved Commonwealth and A Thousand Ships 5🌟 and I mostly loved Rodham and Legendborn 4 🌟. Legendborn completes the BBRC challenge!

This one is awesome. I almost wish I had given it more attention and read it earlier. The #audiobook is also really well done.

#AutyorAMonth with @Soubhiville

#BookSpinBingo square 3
@TheAromaofBooks

I originally bailed on this book but gave it a second go when I spotted a copy in a local little free library. This is a gorgeous book. Will absolutely be reading more of Patchett in the future. Patchett has a knack for description and writing complicated characters with empathy.

God I love this book! The wonderful balance of characters, Hope Davis‘ fantastic narration of the #audiobook, the nonlinear timeline. It is the book that made me fall in love with Ann, and I‘m so happy to have #reread it for #AuthorAMonth!‘ Great treat on a crappy day. 😁 Highly recommend!!!! #aam

This was a great book. The non-linear timeline made it a little confusing, but it all came together in the end.

#LittenListen #Audioathon #authoramonth

First up for #authoramonth and #littenlisten.

It wasn‘t my intention for my drink to complement my book, but I think it‘s quite pretty!

I feel ya, Ann. When my TBR goes below 100, I panic 😅

5⭐️|| Just finished this and just love this book... the descriptive writing, the character development. I can just feel and smell the summer scenes, including the slamming of the doors, the heat on the vinyl seats. I‘m fairly new to Patchett‘s work, but also loved The Dutch House (though I may have been influenced by the narration and cover on that one!)

I started out ambivalent about this, ended up loving it. It starts a little slow, the timeline shifts around and there are lots of characters but then it just all beautifully comes together. A story of two complicated, messy, entangled families, a secret lurking in the background, the threads slowly pulled together by a book written about them by someone who didn‘t know them. Just 🧡

Another gripping family drama from Patchett! While I didn‘t find it as strong as ‘The Dutch House‘, I still enjoyed the writing and characters. There were some sections of the book that were odd diversions from the primary story that were distracting, but still 4⭐️ overall.

Okay. So. I am 60 pages in and I 💯 do not care about any of this and I just deep cleaned the bathroom instead of picking it back up.
I loved her bel Canto and The Magicians Assistant. I love her as a person, but her last couple of book I just cannot seem to get through.
Oh well #bookspin bail this has been sitting on my shelf since 9/2016 😂.
@TheAromaofBooks

I read Bel Canto years ago and had an almost religious experience. The writing here was solid but the story itself just did not work for me. I ended up skimming a good portion of the last quarter.

#common #thankfulthoughts @Eggs

I am posting one book per day from my extensive to-be-read collection. No description and providing no reason for wanting to read it, I just do. Some will be old, some will be new. Don‘t judge me - I have a lot of books. Join the fun if you want.
Today is my first day! I am going to try and continue until I have no more TBTs. #bookstoread #TBRpile

This is a family saga happening over 50 years with 6 children and 4 parents told in warp speed giving us just enough facts and feelings to have an opinion of both the Cousins‘ and the Keatings‘. Sometimes I slog through family dramas even though I like them by the end. I was interested in this one from page to page to end.

What a gorgeous book. It was sort of all over the place with the timeline jumping around over 50+ years and all the different branches of the family... but the prose was so beautiful that I guess I didn‘t care? This was my first book by Patchett and I can see why people rave about her. I have to finally read Bel Canto, which I‘ve probably had on my shelf for a decade.

My find today on my walk. #littlefreelibrary

Some parts were a little slow, but I liked it overall

⭐️⭐️/5 omg I‘m sorry I hated this book. It was dry and boring and it felt so all over the place. Not a winner.

Yes. All of it. ❤️

Good

The more I read Ann Patchett novels the more I want to read Ann Patchett novels.

And #book15 for #BookSpinBonanza is DONE! Which means I‘m on track for finishing the last five by the end of the month. ♥️ Not sure what my #NutsInMay time is, but I‘ve finished 6 books so far! Time for some mood reading! 🎉🌟

@TheAromaofBooks @Andrew65

Bailing/DNF ... I might come back to it, but probably not. I don‘t find myself wanting to listen to this. I cannot stand 2 of the main characters I want to slap them.

Up next in audio

Book - Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
Author - Willa Cather
Movie - A Christmas Story
Band - Cold Chisel
Song - Centrefield by John Fogerty

#ManicMonday #LetterC

Peep my book haul from the library today! One of the few things I adore about Maryland is the library system! There‘s always good stuff on the library sale bookshelves. Hardcovers for $1 and paperback $.50! I‘ve been spending a lot of time to myself in recent months, therefore I now have library cards for 3 different counties. 🤓

I‘ve always been intimidated by Ann Patchett for some reason. I think it‘s because of the summary I read of Bel Canto once, which mentioned foreign diplomats. I assumed it‘d be political & that I was too uninformed; this impression prevailed untested — until now (when I had to read her for book club). She‘s super accessible! Or, Commonwealth is. It‘s all character development & I loved every second of it.

My favorite read of the year, thus far!🍊

“This party always seems like such a good idea in the abstract,” Beverly said. “But every time I have it, I can‘t imagine why.”

Me. Every time.

“Franny put her hand on top of her father‘s hand. She felt the delicate structure of his skeleton beneath his paper skin. She imagined it was like touching a bat‘s wing.”

“She started to zip herself out of her coat and unwrap her scarf, pull off her hat. She wore boots with rubber soles and rubber covering the toes. They were lined with the pelts of cast-off teddy bears. There was no vanity in winter.”

Pictured: Actual boots I‘ve been lusting after. I think they‘d make me look like I have Sasquatch feet. And for some reason, that oddly appeals to me.

“Going to law school had been a terrible error in judgment that she had made in hopes of pleasing other people, and because of that error in judgment she was in debt like some sort of Dickens character...”

“The part that divided her pigtails was wildly uneven, as if it had been made by a drunken finger rather than a comb.”

Uh oh. Someone‘s figured out my hairstyling secrets. 😅 Seriously, no one look at the top of my head. 🙈

“Fix said he would buy the ice himself.”

Deliberate echo of Mrs. Dalloway or nah?

Update: One of the character‘s written a book called “Septimus Porter.” 100% a Mrs. Dalloway reference. Good on me! 🙌🏻

“DAs were the guys who smoked your cigarettes because they were trying to quit.”

Commonwealth is a story of six children who were thrown to be siblings after an affair, divorce, and marriage. It's told mostly through Franny Keatings view point. The story is written as a way to tell the story but also the reflection of their lives. The way the plot went was wonderful. It didn't take the normal path and bounced around from present to past.