Welcome to Litsy!

This was my second by Ishiguro and I didn‘t like it as much. (First was Never Let Me Go.)
I found the very proper sounding language of the MC quite off putting, and his professional disconnect was actually disturbing.
But I feel like it‘s a classic and I‘m glad I read it. Also it was my #bookspin- fortuitous drawing as I was already halfway through it.

Pictured behind the book: the first plants in my new garden space! #litsycrafters

I am ridiculously excited for these birthday gifts Barbara, especially the tagged book because you recommended it back when I bailed on Klara. Plus you know my love for short stories and I have never read Lucy Barton, which seems like a great quick read. Thank you! I really appreciate you and your friendship!! 💜🥰😘

#ItHadToBeYou @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Eggs
Prompt: Unrequited Love

14-20 Feb 2022 (audiobook)
I absolutely loved this story told by a slightly unreliable (or just deluded) narrator who served as a butler in a great English house between the wars. As he recounts his years of service he comes to the realisation that the man he had served may not have deserved such loyalty and devotion.
This book raises the question of what makes a good life. For me, the answer is family and friends - not devotion to work.

These are just the books I have on hand; I also have a copy of the tagged book The Remains of the Day somewhere unknown in my book stacks 😆. Let me know your thoughts! @MaleficentBookDragon @MeganAnn @phantomx

An elegant book with a plot simple enough (an English butler, on a road trip, reminiscing on his past thirty years of “dignified” service to a controversial lord and “gentleman”) but which disguises a deeper undertow of meaning: an interrogation of the idea of one‘s allegiance to something that may not deserve such. It is the butler‘s roundabout attempts to hide these truths from himself, even up to the last page, which makes this story so sad.

Book 152

I listened to The Remains of the Day, a well-done novel with a classical feel, by Kazuo Ishiguro. It is a slow-paced dive into Stevens, a butler in England in the early to mid-1900s. His character is so stiff and...butlery, but you warm up to him. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

https://youtu.be/KZ4gaeWD_RE

A playlist of all episodes in the Bite-sized Book Chat series: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU-61cZp1pQdBH5V0Zb9q-2ujl4PY8nhf

Chat #1: with Abhishek from Bangalore

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Chat #2: with with Georgia from York

Nothing Holds Back the Night by Delphine de Vigan (George Miller, translator)

Just read this one, and Klara and the Sun. Both are 5 star. Love the delicate placement of each word. Will seek out and read all of this author!🥰

Oh. My. Word. I LOVED this book! The humor, the emotion, the drama, the relationships! It was so subtle yet so profound. So amazing!! This was my book club pick this month, and I can‘t wait to hear what other people thought! I hope the enjoyed the writing as much as I did! It‘s a bit challenging, but so worth it. This left my in tears! Definitely becoming one of my favorite books.

Yes, the narrator‘s voice in my head was Anthony Hopkins throughout the entirety of this novel. It‘s unavoidable if, like me, you saw the iconic Merchant Ivory adaptation first. Ishiguro is so good - the writing is like a chesterfield sofa with buttery old leather that you just sink into. The story of an English butler who aspires to the very best of his profession while perhaps missing out on his one chance at love is elegant and heartbreaking.

This is a beautifully written book capturing the emotions (or lack thereof) of one man‘s incapacity to live his life for himself because his life is his work and it demands he honorably serve another man. So many beautiful words to slow down and think about.

This year I‘m focusing on backlist titles and this is one that‘s been on “the list” for a long time. Glad to finally crack it open.

I‘m using it as my 1950s book for The Decades Reading Challenge.

#bookspinbingo

A beautifully understated meditation on regret, missed opportunity and misplaced loyalty which also manages to be much funnier than I remembered it.

I feel I may be one of the last people who hadn‘t read this already! What a beautiful book. It is a talented author who can write something that seems so simple and yet tells you something profound. It‘s like the magicians sleight of hand. You‘re busy looking at the wand and meanwhile a rabbit has appeared in his other hand 🤯 ⬇️

𝙸𝚝𝚜 𝚊 𝚋𝚎𝚊𝚞𝚝𝚒𝚏𝚞𝚕 𝚍𝚊𝚢 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚒𝚝 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍! 𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚕𝚢.

𝚆𝚑𝚊𝚝𝚜 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢𝚒𝚗𝚎 𝚎𝚕𝚜𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐?

𝚆𝚑𝚘𝚜 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚢 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚜𝚞𝚖𝚖𝚎𝚛? 𝙵𝚎𝚎𝚕𝚜 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚒𝚝 𝚒𝚗 𝚜𝚞𝚗𝚗𝚢 𝙲𝙰 𝚝𝚘𝚍𝚊𝚢!

Oh my. What a tour de force! A masterclass in top quality literature! This is nothing less than exquisite. It's hilarious (the birds & bees scene) & it's clever (the slow reveal of truth) & it's poignantly, infuriatingly, heartbreakingly sad. How a thing done with such sublime subtlety can pack such an immense emotional punch is an absolute wonder. There are so many layers here, so much to unpack that ... cont. in comments ⬇️⬇️

This is a remarkably restrained piece of writing, and in this way it‘s classic Ishiguro. This examination of a world and time in irreversible decline is a story where much more happens between the lines, than on them. It‘s a story about the distance that often sits between our interior and exterior worlds. It‘s a story that asks us to imagine how life might have been different, and reminds us how difficult an imagination that is to have.

This was exquisite! Loved it! A really lovely surprise how much I enjoyed it. 💛
Another beautiful gift from @CarolynM
It looks splendid with my birthday flowers!

3/5
After hearing so many good things about this book, I had to pick it up. I am not quite sure what the reason for the popularity is. The writing is very intriguing. However, I wasn't drawn to the protagonist who seemed very superficial with no character arc. Except for a few mins almost at the end, the story was rather dull

Starting this one tonight. This is one of those books that I think I've read. I'm pretty sure that I haven't but I still think I have ... if you know what I mean 😏🤔😉

This one has been on my tbr forever, finally starting it today 😊

I understand why people like it, however this is definitely not my favorite book. It was a tedious reading to be honest.

Brilliant! I finished the book today and immediately watched the movie. Of course Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson are both wonderful and give heart breaking performances, but all the subtle nuances of the book are not quite achieved. I was also surprised that a rather crucial passage by Ms. Kenton is omitted, uttered by her at the end of the book. As usual, no matter how well done the movie is, the book is simply better! Strongly recommend 🤩

A quiet Christmas around here! Reading, watching movies and eating! 🎄🎁😀

So after getting a lot of bloods taken at the doctor I decided to go into a couple of charity shops and found a lovely selection of books including an immaculate copy of the remains of the day. Very happy with this little haul for (c8! ?
I‘m also trying to rebuild my Agatha Christie collection as I lost them all due to moving so many times
#bookhaul

I'm rating this a pick because I enjoyed the writing and I was never bored with the story BUT there was something about it that didn't ring true, something contrived and artificial about the whole thing, which meant it never engaged me emotionally. #Doublespin
Does this qualify for #Booked2020 #PanAsianAuthor?

Day 16: #3Books I love

▪️The Remains of the Day
▪️Tin Man
▪️The Woman in White

It‘s hard to narrow it down to three but these I loved hard!

And there‘s my #bookspin done! It feels good to get this off the TBR, even though I didn‘t love it. It took about 70 pages to get really into it, but it was immersive. An English butler reflects on his years of service to determine if he‘s truly satisfied with the life he‘s lived. Definitely an interesting perspective of pre-war England, but not worth a reread for me. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Unlike my last review, this one seems to be a book that finds a way to be admirable at any time. A couple decades ago, I imagine it was read as an emotive recollection of times changed, love lost, and emotions suppressed. Today, readers will focus on the lament of complicit inaction. It‘s a layered book with pinpointedly ornate style—a rich read in many ways.

Thanks for the tag @erzascarletbookgasm ! 😘

I read this book recently and loved it, but I‘ve never seen the film.

1. I love A Place in the Sun (about people buying holiday homes abroad) 🏠 ☀️
2. I had a private yoga lesson today - loved it, and I feel amazing now after having a rather grumpy, grouchy week!

If you haven‘t played before, why not join in? It‘s fun!

Thanks for the tag lovely Jessie @erzascarletbookgasm 😘

1. That would have to be Normal People... twice 🤭
2. Lots of things but I‘ll pick my dogs who sit and warm my feet while I work 🐶

#ThankfulThursday

Would you like to play @Cathythoughts @TrishB @Kalalalatja @BarbaraBB @Cinfhen

The brief synopsis of this book almost put me off reading it, but I‘m so glad I did. Peter Beech put it perfectly ‘It‘s about how class conditioning can turn you into your own worst enemy, making you complicit in your own subservience‘, tragically Stevens only really begins to truly understand the impact of this and admit it to himself once it is all too late.

📖 The Remains of the Day (tagged)

🖊 Sally Rooney and Marilynne Robinson

🎥 Romeo + Juliet

🎤 Radiohead, RHCP, The Racontuers (already used Ryan Adams for A or he would be first)

🎶 Raising the Dead (Johnny Flynn), Red Eye (Vance Joy), River (Natalie Merchant), The Rock Show (Blink-182), Romeo & Juliet (but only The Killers version because omg Brandon Flowers‘ voice) Rosebud (Ryan Adams)

Ok I think I‘m done. 😂

#ManicMonday

Unsurprisingly, this movie-cover copy of The Remains of the Day appears to have been cast off, unopened, from a high school library. Something kind of nice about giving a long-ignored book some attention.

I can‘t believe I‘ve not read this before now....

What an amazing book.

The writing is so beautiful and the sad, pathetic character of Stevens is so wonderfully drawn, it feels more like a biography than fiction.

I want to read it again already and I *never* re-read books.

Also... #covercrush.

No. I can‘t do it. I can‘t stand the way the butler speaks. Life is too short and I won‘t spend another page like this. Bailing on this one 😩

Excited to start this one. I‘ve heard great things!

A very strong character study of a butler at the end of his esteemed career. The Remains of the Day certainly won‘t be for everyone, but it was for me. Highly recommended for the patient reader/listener. Overall rating: 4.38 stars

Day 7
Seven books that left a deep impression on me. #7days7books

"Why should one not enjoy in a light-hearted sort of way stories of ladies and gentlemen who fall in love and express their feelings for each other, often in most elegant phrases?"

A fantastic work of literary fiction!

What is the point of worrying oneself too much about what one could or could not have done to control the course one's life took? Surely it is enough that the likes of you and I at least try to make our small contribution count for something true and worthy. And if some of us are prepared to sacrifice much in life in order to pursue such aspirations, surely that in itself, whatever the outcome, cause for pride and contentment.

Bella and I are enjoying our outdoor reading time before it rains for the next few days. #dogsoflitsy #currentlyreading

Thanks @Chrissyreadit for posting this book list challenge! I spent most of my dinner break at work going through this but it was fun! https://www.listchallenges.com/1000-books-you-may-have-actually-read

I just came across this interesting sentence. I dont know if others have trouble instantly seeing the difference in the words with ough in them but I do. So having these 3 words together in a sentence was neat and may help in future.

I have read this novel, just listened to the audio, and watch the movie annually - it never disappoints. Stevens might try fooling himself under cover of his professional ideals to avoid a sense of guilt, loss or vulnerability, but not the reader. Nothing escapes his attention, except the feelings of Ms. Kenton. Thus he cannot abdicate his little share of responsibility for the past.

My interpretation, but definitely rich enough for more!