Welcome to Litsy!

Maybe I‘ll read this next year!!! 📚

#Havana
#AMonthofSongs

A selection of books set in #Havana. Historical fiction, spy novels, and one nonfiction look at modern Cuba. #Havana #AMonthofSongs

I can‘t wait to read this one! #havana #amonthofsongs

Havana, ooh na-na
Half of my heart is in Havana, ooh-na-na🎶

Love the cover of this book and Cuba‘s history is fascinating.

#havana #amonthofsongs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @OriginalCyn620

This started out slow for me and I was wondering what all the hype was. But it gets better. The love of Cuba really pulled me in. The history of the place and the people are what made this great. The romances were on the instalove scale but the connection between the generations is intriguing. #readwomen #readingwomenchallenge - multigenerational

Wonderful story!

Brought a few books to the beach with me but have been too exhausted to read much. Today was a bit rainy so I managed to sneak in a few chapters of this and I‘m loving it so far! 🌊

10/10 Exceptional read, an eye opening look at the lives and politics of modern day Cuba, and the revolution in the '50s. Well written characters catch your interest, and the story is interesting without being overly political. The juxtaposition between the beauty of the climate against the harsh political conditions brings a country to life in a very personal way. Reads more like a true story than a fiction novel.

I have always been fascinated by Cuba and have been looking forward to this for awhile. The prose was fine but not revelatory and the story was at times predictable and the romance a bit cheesy but I still really enjoyed it because of the insight into modern Cuba which is fascinating and also quite disturbing. I just realized her new book is a sort of prequel to this so I‘m looking forward to reading that as well. #aty2019 #pop19

🤔🤔🤔

@JenlovesJT47 I received the books yesterday when I got home from work. @Bookishgal71 I will be starting on the book this weekend! #LMPBC

I almost bought this book last week but I already had 4 books in my hands 😁 I wasn‘t sure if it would be interesting but it does seem to be selling well.. anybody else read it?

Misty I do not even know how to begin with now how much you spoiled me. Two books from my wishlist, bookmarks, stationary, the cutest notebook ever, and a travel bookrest that looks like it will be so handy! You are such a wonderful friend and I don‘t have the words to convey how much this means to me. Thank you!!!

There is a group of my teacher friends that do a summer book club every summer and we picked our books for this summer!! #teachersoflitsy #summerreading

Currently reading. About halfway through. Really like it so far. #kindlereader.
Finished! Can‘t wait for WhenWe Left Cuba.

This was a great read, told through two different characters‘ viewpoints and time periods. It was an emotional look at the Cuban experience, seen from the vantage point of those who left Cuba when Castro took over and those who remained. There was romance thrown in for good measure as well, however the most gripping aspect of the book for me was the human impact of separation from home and loved ones.

Airport temptation.

I enjoyed this dual storyline set in Cuba in 1958-59 and 2017. The story is not without its flaws; almost the entirety of the book is telling, not showing, which can be problematic in how the story flows. That being said, if you like historical fiction it is well worth reading. I didn‘t know much about Cuban history, and this has made me want to learn more. I‘ll definitely be reading the sequel. 4⭐️

#catsoflitsy
#Scarlett
#historicalfiction

I picked this up last summer at a bookstore near my cottage and I wasn‘t in the mood to read it until now. I‘m glad that I waited because this was a great historical fiction read! It was also great to learn more about Cuba‘s past and to have a glimpse of what it is like living there now. I haven‘t read many books set in Cuba so this was a interesting. I look forward to the sequel. & I‘ve had the Dirty Dancing Havana Nights music stuck in my head

[#BookReview] Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton was such a gorgeous story!! Although there are two POVs/romances my honest favorite part of this story was the connection our main character, Marisol, had with her grandmother. It was so heartwarming & reminded me of my connection with my Nan. The writing and story are gorgeous.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

https://heathersreadinghideaway.blogspot.com/2019/02/book-review-next-year-in-ha...

The reviews I read before this book were mixed so I didn't have high hopes and it met those expectations. It was a lovely story about snd a woman attempting to learn more about her family's past and her own nationality but it was repetitive. Not only were most of Luis's explanations of Cuban policies all the same in nearly every chapter but phrases (i.e. "A curse falls from his lips") were used over and over.
I did learn more about Cuban ⬇️⬇️

Enjoyable!

We got so much snow yesterday, so I‘m going to read a book with all the heat!!! And watch hockey!

⭐️⭐️⭐️½ • I started out loving this book but found my mind wandering as I kept reading, especially toward the end. The dual timeline thing is super interesting, but the stories are almost too similar. Because of this, the story was somewhat predictable. Also I think it could have been at least 50 pages shorter. But I‘m glad I read it and will read the sequel.

My favorite part about this book was the wealth of information on Cuba past and present. I liked the dual storyline between Marisol and Elisa, but I found both of their love at first sight romances a bit of a stretch.

I ended up liking this book a lot more then I anticipated. Cleeton pains a picturesque Cuba, but also spends a lot of time detailing the politics of Cuba. Also, her description of the food always made me hungry. My favorite part of the book was Elisa who desperately wanted to learn about her grandmother's life in Cuba. This book is a beautiful story of love and family.

Takung some time to finish this book before it returns to the library. Also, this is the most beautiful purple drink I've seen! Happy Friday Litsy Friends!

1. So pretty. I'm feeling pink today!
2. My boyfriend and I are going out but we actually haven't figured out what we're going to do yet
3. Blue
4. It's sad but my parents suffered through 3 late term miscarriages before me. So they had no names picked, no baby clothes or diapers before I was born. They couldn't go through getting rid of it again if I didn't make it.
5. ❤it up!
#friyayintro @howjessreads

Very unpopular opinion, but I just didn‘t get into this one. The two timelines/two stories is so done and the just missed romance. I felt that it was all done and done again. So, I stopped.

My current read and my snack for #litsypartyofone. Hope everyone is having a wonderful evening of reading. @MrBook @Ambrosnazzy

“And so occasionally, we do exceedingly foolish things, like sneaking out of the house in the dead of night, because it‘s impossible to stand near the flame consuming everything around you and not have some of that fire catch the hem of your skirt, too.”

This was a great book!!! I loved how Elisa‘s story was shared and then her granddaughter Marisol story and how it switched back and forth in their lives. I learned about the struggles of living in Cuba and how thankful it is to have freedom. Very good and well written book! Highly recommend!

📚INTERNATIONAL GIVEAWAY TIME📚
Happy Sunday you all!This was my favorite historical fiction of 2018 and I'm so excited to share a copy with one of you today!
Chanel is getting ready to launch her second book, When We Left Cuba, this April, so if you haven‘t jumped on this bandwagon, you‘d better get a move on! Check out my IG to enter this giveaway! 😉
Good luck! 🍀

Long post warning: I want to apologize to everyone in all of my book groups. Towards the end of last year, I got into a reading funk where I could only read certain things, like Sweet Valley books or graphic novels. As such, I‘m behind on my required reading and ask for your forgiveness! Left to right: I have 3 books for #thebreakfastbookclub - I just received 1 this week (thank you @Nitpickyabouttrains for the chocolate!🤗), 2 books I just ⬇️

“To be in exhile is to have the things you love most in the world-the air you breathe, the earth you walk upon-taken from you. They exist on the other side of a wall-there and not-unaltered by time and circumstance, preserved in a perfect memory in a land of dreams.”

Love love loved this book....I even listened to it at the gym, I could not put it down. 100% recommend

Why did it take me so long to pick this book up? Beautiful inside and out and I love the going back forth from past to present. Those are my favorite types of books!

Maybe that‘s why I enjoyed this book so much! Our two main characters are essentially foils for the two halves of the authoress - the girl who desperately wants to know her own story and the boy who loves his homeland so much it is his story.

Or perhaps that‘s too philosophical for such pretty cover candy. All in all, this made me want to learn more about Cuba (though plaintains in any form are a hard pass ... just sayin!).

Cleeton‘s Cuba is the breathtakingly beautiful portraiture captured on postcard, pamphlets and various asundry tourism souvenirs. Raised in the US, it‘s the vision of someone whose heritage is the pride of her ancestral roots more than the quotidian birds eye view of everyday life.

As I‘m reading this alongside De Pontes Peebles The Air You Breathe, I am struck by how different the themes of these two novels are. De Pontes Peebles, a native Brazilian authoress, writes of her country as is if she has lived and breathed its air, buried the soil deep under her fingernails and longed for the sun coming up over the horizon. The heaviness of everyday life is deeply felt in the storyline.

#botmbuddyread

I really enjoyed this quick read. While I do agree with the comments regarding the book‘s heavy political themes and reliance on limited action items to slowly move the plot along, at its heart this is a story about finding, not just home and heritage, but familia.

This was a great book. The alternating story lines of a woman caught in the Cuban revolution in the 1950s and the woman's granddaughter who returns to present day Cuba. While there she uncovers her family history and Cuba's complicated history. Lovely writing with all the emotions. The characters were well done. Lots of great history regarding Cuba and Cuban culture. Living in South FL I WILL be discussing this with my Cuban friends. ❤❤❤❤❤

A book with a time and setting I have never read before - Havana during the revolution. One family leaves and how it happens and what happened when one goes back decades later.

Like another reviewer said, this book was good but not great. I enjoyed both storylines and the characters were developed enough to understand the conflict but could have been developed more. The writing was beautiful but some of the overarching themes were gone over and over, which made them feel less significant. 3 and a half ⭐

“The legacy of modern Cuba is that we can enjoy things for a moment, but we cannot truly possess them. The country is not ours; it is merely on loan.”

If things don't look the way you anticipated, change your expectations.

You learn the deepest truth about yourself when you fail at something.

What a beautifully written book, my first read for #2019 and the author dropped a rather large teaser for her next book featuring the exiled Perez family. Now I have to wait til April! I‘m gonna go ahead and give this one 5 ⭐️