Welcome to Litsy!

“I like to think I know what death is. I like to think that it‘s something I could look at straight.” JoJo one of my all time favorites 💔 #Death #AutumnPlease

Happy publication day to this amazing author!! 🎉I‘m going to buy Let Us Descend later today! If you haven‘t read her tragic story of grief after losing her husband to Covid you should 💔 👇🏻

https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2020/08/jesmyn-ward-on-husbands-death-and-gri...

#TitlesandTunes #Blue
Happy publication day to Jesmyn Ward for her latest! I'm always about 5 years behind, so I just finished SUS. I'd heard it described as a road novel, and it technically is, but didn't feel like one. The journey matters less than the fact that the family must share tight quarters when they'd previously been drifting apart. I spent the whole novel concerned for them all: the entire novel is located on the brink of disaster.

#TitlesAndTunes #Blues
From the synopsis, SUS sounds like a road novel that is steeped in loss and haunted characters (maybe literally?). The perfect pairing with this Lurrie Bell album I picked up at a record shop recently. I'd never heard of Bell before, but his guitar riffs are a joy, the kind of blues that take you on a journey, which is perfect for an emotionally charged road novel. And it certainly channels its own ghosts of blues legends.

Such a beautiful book but so hard to read
4 ⭐️

#SummerEndReadathon #Wardens2023 #ReadMyRoom #BookSpinBingo

Tonight‘s digital before bed book start. It‘s been a day & I‘m now just gonna chill with my Kobo & my🎶🎧. Officially in a 🧠🐿️ wind-down mode & hoping for a few pages before🛌.

Oomph. This is something else. Heartbreaking how the drug addicted mom goes through life and the effect she has on the rest of the family. Lovely how fiercely Pop loves Mam and his grandchildren. Stunning novel.

This book hurts to read. The amount of neglect the mother shows these children- it‘s difficult to push through to finish the book.

Then again, the love of the grandparents, the beauty in the storytelling, and the mystery made it worthwhile .

I haven‘t ever read addiction written in quite this way. Kind of devastating.

I ordered this amazing phone cover from a sweet girl on Facebook!! These are some of my favorite books! Be sure to check out her site! It was only $15!!

https://www.facebook.com/staypressedclothingco?mibextid=LQQJ4d

Another that I had to stick with past the first 30m or so to get pulled in (and also shifting perspectives). This is some great poetic writing! And while I appreciate the reviews that it is sad, I see a hope here and the story of the inevitable return that everyone will make. Waters to waters.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

The writing was lyrical; the story was depressing. I can appreciate why there is a lot of love for this book, but it just wasn‘t for me. 🎧

“I like to think I know what death is. I like to think that it‘s something I could look at straight.” JoJo

#Dead
#OminousOctober

“It stays with me, a bruise in the memory that hurts when I touch it.” 💔💔

#PowerfulBook
#IndelibleMoments

Two more excellent short stories by well-known authors.

"A Wild Rose" is about a pianist whose fingers start giving her trouble. She takes up residence in a studio apartment above Carnegie Hall. I love how Fiona Davis always introduces readers to hidden spots in well-known places.

"Mother Swamp" is an excellent story about a hidden community built by women escaping slavery. Very powerful.

I have enjoyed this short story collection immensely

#bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

Overall, a good book. Not an easy read by any means though. Recommended by my high schooler who read it in class. Lots of symbolism, historical context, social commentary, and deeper meanings. I can see why an English teacher would choose it.

Started a new adventure last night and woke up in the middle of the night with it in my armpit. I love falling asleep with books 📖 🛌

Where Year of the Reaper failed with the ghosts, this one shines. I listened to it so I‘m sure I didn‘t catch as much as I should have. I would love to actually read it.

“Sometimes the world don‘t give you what you need, no matter how hard you look. Sometimes it withholds.”

#Bookyouregiftoften
#BookMoods

Misty!!! I feel like the card and bookmark faerie 🧚 came to visit me!!!! What a wonderful surprise!!! Thank you so much! #Litsyloveletters 💌 just waiting for mailboxes 📭I‘m excited to read “Sing Unburied Sing” too. Best Monday Ever 🤗😘💛

Very different sort of novel. About a black family and a road trip to pick up a father from prison. Has a couple of ghosts as characters and tragedies of the present and past. Poetic writing and kind of a dark story. I'll try to read more by the author.

I'm going to read this one. It looks interesting and won the National Book Award.

“River held out his hands to the dogs like he was a river and they were his church.”

💔⛪️🎼

One of my favorites ❤️🖤

#SavvySettings
#Church

Very spiritual

Heartbreaking story about drug addiction, grandparents raising grandkids, inter generational trauma, racism, and how the past can still affect so much of your present. Such a well written book especially dealing with such difficult subjects. I definitely need to read more of Ward‘s books. #bookspin book #booked2022 #bookedreadingchallenge title that repeats itself

This might be my favorite of my #NYWD list that I‘ve read so far. I see why all the love for it. The characters are so raw and richly created, a beautiful entanglement of beauty and flaws. This book had intimidated me for a while. Not sure why, but I‘m glad I was nudged to read it. I won‘t be surprised if it makes my top list of 2022.
✅ #Booked2022 Title Repeats Itself

Hoping to finished the tagged book for #NYWD and #Booked22 along with making progress in Dune and Forbidden.

When you know a book is going to break your heart only a few chapters in. 😭 Jesmyn writes people we may know so well. Forgot to add it meets #pop22 10

Thanks for the recommendation @Readergrrl what an excellent book! #NewYearWhoDis

#sing #beginswith
Exquisite,lyrical and raw, this novel sings.

#BeginsWith #Sing
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Eggs

This one is still on my never ending TBR 😬

#BeginsWith 🥳📚 #Sing 🎶

#BookNerd 🤓📚💙

“The memory is a living thing – it too is in transit. But during its moment, all that is remembered joins, and lives – the old and the young, the past and the present, the living and the dead.”

#Beginswith #Sing

One of my all time favorites ❤️

#NewYearWhoDis

Thank you @Readergrrl this list is magnificent!! So after researching your list, instead of completing school work 😂, I have chose the tagged.

And I have to add, Addie and Circe were not only two of my favorite reads, they are also new favorite main characters.

This was amazing! I read it before, but I think in the wake of 2020 it was even more powerful. Beautiful story about love and disappointment in families

I hope you all have a happy Saturday 💕😊

#currentlyreading

#Birdoncover
#FallTreasures

“The memory is a living thing – it too is in transit. But during its moment, all that is remembered joins, and lives – the old and the young, the past and the present, the living and the dead.” -from One Writer‘s Beginnings, by Eudora Welty

One of my all time favorites 🐦❤️📚

“It stays with me, a bruise in the memory that hurts when I touch it.”

📚The tagged and Evelyn Hugo 💚💚

📚📚yes!! I know it shouldn‘t be, but it is 🙈🙊

📚📚📚 Where the Crawdads Sing

#ThoughtfulThursday

@MoonWitch94 💜

A beautiful book about the past, addiction, love, and the affects of trauma (personal and family) on relationships. Obviously, also ghosts. There are multiple narrators and I enjoyed how each had a distinct voice in audio. Thanks to #authoramonth for getting me to pick it up!

#travelreading

“The music, all violins and cellos, swells in the room, then recedes, like the water out in the Gulf before a big storm.”

#Bird
#CuriousCovers

Such a moving and phenomenal book… ❤️

Insightful, sad, realistic, enthralling - I look forward to reading more by this author.

Just starting this one.

I mourned after this one with a terrible book hang over...

#Maycharacters #mourns
#Jojoandkayla

💔💔💔

I didn‘t quite manage to finish this in April for #authoramonth but I‘m so glad I‘ve read it. The relationships in this book are beautiful and heartbreaking. There were many lumps in throat and needing tissue moments. I think I need to re-read the ending though, some of it was lost on me as I pushed through to finish whilst half nodding off!

Story revolves around a dysfunctional family, where a 13-year-old boy takes the role of a parent. This part of the story, the bond between sister and brother, is portrayed very beautiful and at the same time - upsetting (and is my favourite aspect of the novel). Author also touches on several topics - addiction, poverty, racism, injustice, mixed marriage, unanswered questions or unresolved/unfinished past that doesn‘t allow ... 👇

I‘m going to give this a pick, even though parts of this book really drove me nuts. However this is very much a literary book and those are often not my jam. There is much to like, especially the way it is written.

Tonight‘s litsy upload has been brought to you by the letter A. #AudioKnitting along to April‘s #AuthorAMonth that finally became available on Libby app.

@Soubhiville

Even better than the last one! It touches on so many issues: grandparents raising grandchildren, racism, drug addiction, incarceration, caring for elderly family members, children raising parents, and how the past, thought long buried, can rise up to bite you. It sounds all over the place, but it blends so seamlessly into the craziness that is real life. The universal craziness of family dynamics & how different family members deal with them.

So much going on in this book - maybe too much. The opening scene was a bit gory and I almost didn‘t go on. It is a haunting read. I turned the audio off several times to take a break. Child neglect and abuse, death, suffering, cancer, violence, drug addiction, seeing ghosts/spirits, family bonds, racism, hatred... a lot to take in.