Welcome to Litsy!

These are my reads for the week. On audio, I just started The Maidens. Adoring Natural Mother so far— absolutely incredible memoir.

So I finally read one of my oldest unread BOTM books (this one is almost 4 years old 😅)... I put it off because I saw not great reviews, but I needed a #BakedGoodsOnTheCover for #Booked2021.

I really liked this novel about appetites and addiction. Greg is almost impossible to like & there are so many icky details, but I was still very invested. Near the end, the book just about blew my mind. Sad, funny little trainwreck of a story.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Day 2 - 🍬🍫🍕🍭🍪🍩🍟🍰

#7days7covers #covercrush

I wanted this book to be beautiful. I remembered it as beautiful. But it‘s messy because life as an addict and life with an addict is chaos.

I was not a fan of My 600 lb Life when I first read this for the #botmchallenge, but Greg and GJ‘s lives mirror so many parent-child relationships you see on that show. Sometimes I can‘t bear to watch people fall deeper into their addictions and dysfunction, though.

#BFC #BookFitnessChallenge Book 2/8

#TimbitTunes Major 👂🏼🐛🎵 Greg senior a corpulent man, with a #constantcraving for sugary confections (savory, too) sets out on a quest to locate his son Greg Jr ( whom he annoyingly refers to as GJ ) an addict who‘s been missing for 3 weeks. For me, this book was a pan...I found the plot aimless, the writing uneven and the characters bland & detached. Plus, the initials GJ are f%cking annoying as hell. Best part was the cover design 🍩🍭🍰🍬🍪

Next up for #ATY2019, a book with one of the five W's in the title

Wins my award for Best Cover Ever. Irreverent story about appetites, addiction and family.

I‘m finally get around to posting this month‘s #BOTM action. I‘m taking #Ghosted on vacation with me and looking forward to it. I can‘t remember why I added the tagged book though... and that was just a week ago. Have you read it? Thoughts?

#4favesin4days

1. I haven‘t read this book yet, but I believe it is centered around food.
2. Potatoes / French fries
3. Mushrooms 🤮
4. Christmas! I love Ham and my mom makes custard pie, which is my fav!
5. Not Your Average Joes - they are really great with dealing with gluten free!

#ManicMonday

1. #EatOnlyWhenYoureHungry is ..”brimming with the same visceral regret and joy that leak from the fast food Greg inhales. [This book] is a wild and biting study of addiction, perseverance, and the insurmountable struggle to change..” I haven‘t read this one yet, but the cover is pretty.
2. Mexican and Italian food. I could live on either
3. Indian food
4. Thanksgiving (love all the casseroles!)
5. Nada (good food and fun atmosphere)

#ManicMonday

Sounds like a fun, quick read. Who doesn‘t want to roadtrip and eat fast food?!? ;)

Greg is fat. Every other page, Greg is fat. Thanks for the reminder, I might have forgotten.

Still interesting but HEY GREG IS FAT!!!

For a book that was only about 200 pages, it just felt sort of endless. There was some good stuff here about addiction and family but overall, I never really cared about Greg or his son.

Caught a HORRIBLE bug in NY. Thankfully this little nugget doesn‘t mind mouth breathers. 🤒

Read review, follow link: https://lifebooksabdcc.blogspot.com/2017/11/book-review-eat-only-when-youre-hung...

#Candy I know I used this book the other day for the same type of prompt, but it‘s really the only fitting book I have. Also found some candy in the freezer that I can‘t eat, it‘s not gluten free. #SpookyOctober

#BooksAndCandy I don‘t actually eat a lot of candy, so I don‘t have any in the house. I found some maple candies from Vermont when I went there this summer though! Some books on my TBR for the month #RiotGrams

This is called "this book was due back at the library yesterday".

#mustreadfaster

I haven't even started it. ???‍♀️???‍♀️?

Trying to catch up on my BOTM club.

Blankets and books 💛🍁📚🐶

Intensely introspective. A constant state of TMI. So uncomfortable to read but brief sparks of beautiful revelations provide a light in the muck. Provide some hope in the overly relatable hardships presented here.

Hunter managed to seamlessly switch between past & present without confusion. Ultimately I think this compact novel is a gritty gem. Would happily snatch up another story by her. 👍🏻

He got used to everything being upside down. All the blood rushed to his numb head. Everything numb, eyes closed against the floor of the sky.

Easily removed, forgotten, unnecessary. Was that how GJ felt too? Was that why it was so hard to conjure him, to envision his face, to see where he was? Houses remains houses. It had once felt like good news, a kind of freedom he wanted a beer now, painfully cold, to slice down his throat in a fizzing cavalcade. And another and another.

Nothing felt real, or maybe everything felt too real. Just gestures in the dark, no one knows how to work the flashlight. Or the movie projector. Or the sun was finally gone and the sky was a black wipe of nothingness. Or too muchness.

#favoriteline (of the day) #autumnreads

Pretty vile and cringeworthy so far....

Love the cover though. Fun to photograph.

This has a pretty straightforward plot - man sets out to find his addict son who's been missing for a few weeks. It is about addiction, but it is also about bad, self-indulgent choices, as a romantic partner or as a parent. Self-denial plays a big part as well. I had expected more from the writing. How can a 209 page book use the verb "cheerse" 5 times when it's not even really a word? There also seemed to be no resolution at the end, good or bad.

🤔🤔 Top text is on page 78, bottom text on page 149. Over 70 pages, Deb seems to have lost her ability to cook.

I am speechless now. This book is such a powerful story of addiction and family and heartbreak and real life. I‘ll think of it often.

Edited to add: the name GJ is terrible and I haven‘t struggled reading a name like this since I learned how to pronounce Hermione. (Though I caught onto that eventually!)

Eat Only When You're Hungry captures the long term effects of bad self care, bad parenting, and bad partnering... But in a way that makes you sympathetic for all involved. Is it only me who felt the character of Greg a little too close for comfort? #litsypartyofone

Next up on my reading list. The cover is going to cause me to add 10lbs.

I am feeling overwhelmed by the books I'd planned to read this month so reaching for a short one seemed smart. #litsypartyofone

This fell flat for me. Really important topic, but I simply didn't care about the characters....

I just ordered my BOTM and broke my book buying ban. 😳my daughters @emilyhaldi and @Reviewsbylola are split over this book. One of them liked it and one did not, so I feel it is my duty to be the tie breaker. 👍🏼anyway, that is my excuse. We are reading Little Fires Everywhere for our family book club so I had to buy that one too. #BOTM

I agree with the middle-of-the-road reviews on this one, but it also reminds me of a (watered down) marriage of Lionel Shriver's Big Brother and We Need to Talk About Kevin, so I'll happily listen through.

Exhausted after a late night hosting friends. Today it's books and coffee all day!

Reviews haven't been great for this one but going to give it a whirl anyhow...

I went into this a little nervous after seeing @Cinfhen and @emilyhaldi 's reviews, but I thoroughly enjoyed this one. As Emily pointed out, the characters are all pretty unlikeable, but I found their flaws to be unflinchingly real in a way I could relate to. This is my second favorite book from August. Another winner from #botm. #botmchallenge 38/40.

WTF? This was a relatively short read, easy to digest (😉) with tasty, juicy dialogue BUT incredibly bloated with excessive descriptive language. It doesn't really satisfy, like that doughnut 🍩 it's good for the first three bites and then you're regretting it the rest of the day 😜2.5/5 stars #TeamEmily sorry @Reviewsbylola

I'm only a few pages into this but I have to get this off my chest--I HATE the name GJ. It is hard to read and it is hard to say and I honestly wonder wtf the author was thinking. That is all. 😂😂 #BOTM

I'm trying to eat better.. but starting this book has just made me eat an ice cream sandwich. 😂 30 pages in. So far so good!

I'm still thinking about this book and I finished it two days ago... That means it was thought provoking at least.

Some books I acquired over the weekend! Lindsay Hunter hosted a release party for Eat Only When You're Hungry at Women & Children First and my husband & I went with another couple in our writers group. While there, I also had to get Hunger because I've been dying to read it. Zoe Kazan (who I love on twitter) highly recommended You Play the Girl, and my friend from writers group couldn't say enough amazing/enthusiastic things about The Grip of It.

Balancing out the cover of this book with a yummy salad. This is a story of #addiction and the desire to change, as well as the affects those things have on loved ones. Also, it's making me crave some dessert 😋
#anditsaugust

For whatever reason this book just did nothing for me. I wasn't satisfied with the ending and there really didn't feel like much substance to the story overall. I know several of you said you loved it...not sure why I just couldn't get into it!

I'm disappointed in this book. Mostly, because I read her other two and can't believe this belongs to her. Everything felt so predicable. I could guess exactly where the plot was going and the metaphors she was going to use. And did every women have to be depicted as nagging, overly-perfect or performing oral sex. I'm so confused by this review, so imagine how confused I was about this book. Exactly what motivates these people....argh.

Wow the transformation...
#thatsheavystuff

Anybody else reading this #botm ? I'm having trouble getting into it...