The Futilitarians: Our Year of Thinking, Drinking, Grieving, and Reading | 
pickThis memoir is organized around a year of the Existential Crisis Reading Group, which gathers monthly in New Orleans to discuss readings, books, and the various existential crises of its members. The author is from a New Orleans Catholic family, and suffers through major events like Katrina, the suicides of twin sisters and the death of her father. While sometimes a bit pretentious, I loved reliving the places, food and ambience of New Orleans.
I am so glad this was the book to get me over the hump in my reading challenge! I have had this ARC for too long, but I resisted picking it. I think the book universe put this back in my hands at the right time as it‘s been a hard year for me after the loss of my dad this summer. I‘m glad I had some time to sit with the ramifications of grief because it helped my comprehension of the concepts. Lovely written, thoughtful book.
One of the dangers of working for a publisher is this thing called a holiday book sale....
pickThankful for one more day to break out the hammock before the Seattle rain returns! I'm also thankful for amazing books gifted to me for review as a Little Brown ambassador. The Futilitarians is not one I would seek out, figuring the existential talk would be over my head! Yet it is a beautiful and raw ode to Anne Gisleson's suicidal sisters, her father, and New Orleans. I haven't been back since Katrina, but it has me itching to return.
What a perfect excerpt to read this morning as I'm dealing with a job that didn't turn out as I'd hoped. Looking at a trying situation as an opportunity for change. I love when reading collides with my real life.
So this morning I went to the library. This week the non-fiction shelf spoke to me.
I haven't been on Litsy much lately because I recently started a new job. I have been doing a little reading, though, including this book. The author and her friends start a reading club in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and various other personal tragedies in order to cope. This is a good book, even if it goes pretty "high-brow" at times???
pickGisleson's memoir centres on her year-long Existential Reading Group experiment but really about the author coming to terms with the suicides of her twin sisters in her 20s and the death of her father from leukaemia as she approaches middle age. The Futilitarians is beautifully written and Gliessen's insights gave me much to brood over as I stared down the pointless task of painting my kitchen cabinets. ⬆️ = Sartre, bien sur 😉
Morning reading. ☀️📖🌿
A book club to read literature to heal from life's traumas&sadness.A year in the life of this special book club,Sounds perfect for me,
