Welcome to Litsy!

NYC the end of 1937 , Katey Kontent is a NY native who works for a living finds herself meeting & getting entangled in New York‘s smart set. Towles 1st novel is a love story to New York City. Interesting details & descriptions of the culture, night life, & how we get caught up in others lives. I‘m the odd one out I guess, I like this one better than his highly regarded “A Gentleman In Moscow” Not that I didn‘t enjoy that one too!😄

A beautiful summer morning.
June 30, 2025

Majestic New York City, social ladders climbed during the Great Depression, love, war, significant literary authors and their works, and serendipitous “chance” all come together to tell the tale of one year in the life of Katey Kontent, a heroine you can‘t help but root for. Towles‘ setting, character development, and attention to intricate details alludes to the Lost Generation, but focuses more on hope than despair. This is an absolute treasure.

Towles writes such immersive and engrossing historical fiction. This is set in 1938 Manhattan, a time and place when obscene wealth and obscene poverty existed side by side. It's narrated by the working-class daughter of a Russian immigrant, who finds herself on the fringes of the high life, and makes many life-changing choices that year. Not quite as endearing as A Gentleman in Moscow, but really left me thinking.

#TenBeforeTheEnd

Ah this author. What took me so long? Loved this story of post-Depression, pre-WW2 New York. Loved that Eve reappears in Table for Two. Blew through it in 2.5 days.

True?

"She was willing to be under anything, as long as it wasn't somebody's thumb."
I love this book. This is the 2nd or 3rd time I have read it, and thanks to my terrible memory I am again taken in by the waves and circles Towels takes you on with this lively cast of characters.
This is a book for book lovers & word lovers. Some people will not like it b/c it is a bit long in the tooth with a couple too many metaphors, but I think it is near perfect.

Still plucking away at this, some vacations are more conducive to reading than others. NYC is for sure a slow book reading place.

At Bibble And Sip with their cute llama cups 🦙

What a different NYC Katey and Evey lived in then the one today. So much glamour and intrigue.
Re-Reading this as I drink a coffee and wait for the summer rain to pass.

My least favorite Towles; however his writing, storytelling, and characterizations had his trademark richness and depth. Seemed long, but was worth it. Towles‘ theme of civility rules was a nice touch 🩵

#Pantone2024
#ReadAway2024
#Bookspinbingo

I mean, it was fine, just not for me. I read the first 50ish pages in the physical book and when I found that I did not want to keep going I switched to audio in order to be ready for book club. Again, fine, but everyone loves it so much and I had such high hopes.

Towles debut novel is a sure fire hit in my eyes. His writing style is so atmospheric, catapulting you to 1930s New York so effectively, that I felt like I‘d lived that time period myself. Even his most distasteful characters are hard to dislike as they are so richly crafted. It was one of those rare books that you can‘t put down but equally try to slow down reading to make it last as long as possible. Cemented me as a Towles fan for sure.

This is the 3rd time I've read this, and it's still good but I found myself being pickier about it this time. I especially kept noticing how clothing was an important detail in many scenes but the descriptions were inadequate, seemingly anachronistic, or actually anachronistic (like pantyhose). I probably don't need to read it again.

#12Booksof2023 I wasn‘t sure how to choose between this and Sing Unburied Sing for December, but this book has stayed in my head, continuing to replay scenes and make it‘s characters a part of my inner life more and more each day since I‘ve finished it, which for me is one of the marks of a great book. @Andrew65

This was a lovely note to end the reading year on. Fun, flirty, unexpected period details really put me inside those jazz clubs in an era of New York history I don‘t know much about. And while at times these characters seemed vapid and frivolous, Towles has a way of cutting to the core of people so you see the same color and humanity in the unlikable characters as in the charming ones. #20in4 @Andrew65

Sadly this one wasn‘t for me. All the parts I didn‘t like about The Great Gatsby, but more boring. #doublespin this month, but at least I tried it!

Rules of Civility immerses you in the past and I felt as if I was with Kate in the late 1930‘s New York. An enjoyable read.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

#botm #historicalfiction

"It's a lovely oddity of human nature that a person is more inclined to interrupt two people in conversation than one person alone with a book; even if it is a foolish romance."

I loved loved loved this book ❤️

📕 Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
🖊️ Robinson, Marilynne
📺 Reservation Dogs
🎙️ Renée Fleming
🎶 Red Bull & Hennessy - Jenny Lewis

#ManicMonday #LetterR
@CBee

I didn't enjoy this book at all. It was boring to me. I didn't like the writing style of the book and I couldn't identify with the characters at all. I rated this book a 2 out of 5 stars.

Another book long waiting tbr— fantastic study of a year in the 30s in New York and a look at what people do to endure, to “improve” themselves. Great mostly likeable characters from all classes and circumstance. Everyone of them was more complicated than they seemed and while the theme of class was very important, not all assumptions of how people behave are. I loved the references to art and culture of this era. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Actually rating this somewhere between a pick and a so-so. This author has had so much hype, so I think I was expecting more. I liked the atmosphere, but I felt it was missing something. It never really grabbed me like it had hoped. This was Towles‘ first novel, so maybe A Gentleman in Moscow is better?

started out strong but the story never got going or fully captured me. i know it was supposed to be a story about new york and the social classes…which was interesting but never connected deeply enough with any of the characters after the opening 3rd. not nearly as good as the follow up of lincoln highway.

Reading this novel reminded me of watching black and white films from the 1930s with their snappy dialogue and glamorous set pieces. I enjoyed the language and the plot, but I found the character of Katey to be rather flat. I never felt that I really knew her, but perhaps that was intentional. Overall, this was an enjoyable read.

Amor Towles wrote “A Gentleman in Moscow.“ After I read that one, I had to read another by.him. I wasn't disappointed at all! While I do believe the “Gentleman“ is better, this one was still a page turner.

Even though there were some parts that I didn't understand (why was Katey so easily accepted by upper classes) I really enjoyed the tone of this book. It's character based rather than plot focused and relies on the writing and setting to pull you in but it worked for me.

This was a quiet, nuanced book about people I didn‘t like very much. The ins and outs of social life—what a strange world—and the beautiful writing kept me reading.

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain
1. Rules of Civility, Excellent Women, The Golden Thread
2. A Walk in the Woods. (It‘s the only naturey book I could think of that I‘ve actually read.)
3. The Rules of Civility. Yesterday after dinner. 😍

Thanks for the prompts, Rachel!

Madam Bastet continues to be my companion while I read this.

I'm still enjoying it, and it feels like a fast read, but I feel like I've been reading it for a decade and I'm on page 120 out of 324.

This type of novel isn‘t usually for me—poor women in the 1930s who meet a wealthy man and get sucked into his orbit. However, this one has me hooked.

Amor Towles could probably write a book about worms and I‘d love it. 😁

Enjoying this one more than Gentleman In Moscow. Towles does the thing where he writes so well, you believe you're one of the characters.

I'm way behind on this one, but finally getting to it.

My May tbr for #bookspin. I can't wait!

@TheAromaofBooks

Kate reminisces after a visit in the 1960s to an exhibition of photographs of 1930s travellers on the NY Subway, one of whom she recognises.

I wanted to like this book but I actually found it a struggle to get through. Most of the characters and events made no impression at all so that I had problems understanding references to earlier events and had no idea what was going on at times when I'd picked the book up again after doing other things.

On the night of October 4th 1966, Val and I, both in late middle age, attended the opening of Many Are Called at the Museum of Modern Art - the first exhibit of the portraits taken by Walker Evans in the late 1930s on the New York City subways with a hidden camera.

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

I love Amor Towles‘ way with words, his eloquence, the depth of his stories. But this one took a little too long to get to the point. The plot was lacking in a bit more drama or action, so I found myself getting distracted and not being able to focus on the story during certain slow points. It finally sped up a bit toward the end. Despite that, I mostly enjoyed it and found the characters likable which is why I wanted to know where they ended up.

My next listen…

Rounded up from 3.5 to 4 because the author does so good with characterization. ❤️ I feel I need a pause before starting my next book.

Very enjoyable! My #doublespin for March @TheAromaofBooks

While this didn‘t start out being a favorite, and I put it down a couple of times and came back, after I switched to audio about a third of the way in, it became more interesting. 3 ⭐️

Life doesn‘t have to provide you any options at all. It can easily define your course from the outset and keep you in check through all manner of rough and subtle mechanics. To have even one year when you‘re presented with choices that can alter your circumstances, your character, your course—that‘s by the grace of God alone. And it shouldn‘t come without a price.

it was still a view that practically conjugated hope: I have hoped; I am hoping; I will hope.

I wonder if this line was the first thought/plot of the story in the Authors mind: “The year 1938 had been one in which four people of great color and character had held welcome sway over my life. And here it was December 31, 1940, and I hadn‘t seen a single one of them in over a year.” It certainly sums up the story for me.

Should old acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind? Sometimes, it sure seems that‘s what life intends. After all, it‘s basically like a centrifuge that spins every few years casting proximate bodies in disparate directions. And when the spinning stops, almost before we can catch our breath, life crowds us with a calendar of new concerns.

A lost art? : he “made a reasonable stab at launching a conversation by asking people what was the best thing they did in 1940. It made me a little nostalgic for Dicky. No one could get a table talking nonsense like Dicky Vanderwhile.”

I am struggling with this one so I switched to audio to try and finish it up. I loved A Gentleman in Moscow and The Lincoln Highway was good too (just not AS good). This one can‘t hold my attention. It has its moments but then I‘m back to mind wandering. 😶‍🌫️

I love his other two books, and lots of folks I know love this one. So, here I am giving try #3 to see if I can finish it off. I just find this one hard to keep track of the characters and I don‘t feel a sense of the time setting era.

One must be prepared to fight for one‘s simple pleasures and to defend them against elegance and erudition and all manner of glamorous enticements.