Welcome to Litsy!

Good but not great. I guess skipping quotation marks is a thing.

Just finished this book today. It was so powerful. It really just destroyed me at parts. A very tough topic but handled so well. I fell in love with these women.

#bookhaul from B&N. I‘ve been the personal chauffeur for my husband and his friends this weekend on top of working. He rewarded me by letting me go wild at the bookstore.

A very powerful novel- Mennonite women in the town of Molotschna climb into a hayloft while the men are in town raising money to bail out the men of the town who have been drugging and raping the women- some as young as 4- in the night. Until one woman caught her attacker the men had told the women they were being visited by the devil. The women discuss among themselves what to do- stay and fight, leave or do nothing. This happened.Read it.5⭐️

Starting this today. It‘s raining...AGAIN! I just might stay in bed all day.

Beautifully written story. Heartbreaking and brave. A fictional story based on a Mennonite community in Bolivia and brazen sexual attacks of more than 100 women and girls.

My library hold came in for this one and just 21 pages in and I can tell I‘m gonna need more wine! #WomenTalking #IsAnyoneListening

The women decide to gather and express themselves to each other. Once they agree on the important things, and determine a course of action only then will they be able to #letitbe #beatlemaynia

This is a pick for several reasons but the best is that it is one of a kind with an unconventional format. Based on real events.

I just posted a video of my week review of reading and what‘s on deck plus a vlog on my month of book purchases and unhauls. Link in bio and here: ⁣
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https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGNpG_pEmpa3rmQ4obUhh4Q ⁣⁣
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Any Bay Area Littens going to see Miriam Toews at Green Apple on the Park tonight? I just saw the post on IG that she will be there and I‘m already changing my plans to make it! (It‘s 5:27 am and I‘m so excited!)

#WomenReadWomen2019 Read Along Chat is here for Women Talking! Only three Qs for us here to chew on, mull over, and discuss. Looking forward to reading everyone‘s thoughts. Please feel free to chime in if you have read the book - and just mark with spoilers, if there are any. 🧚🏼‍♀️💕📚Tagging those who have initially expressed interest. 😍

Overnight escape to Calistoga! I‘m reading by a lovely water fountain feature, in perfect weather, and couldn‘t be happier. Finishing up The Lost Man by Jane Harper on audio, Women Talking by Miriam Toews, and Milkman by Anna Burns. It‘s so nice to read in a lovely setting.

Celebrated #independentbookstoreday by visiting my local independent bookstore, Gibson‘s! I got some goodies today ✨📖

Based on a real life event, Miriam Toews writes about how the women of a Mennonite community deal with the uncovering of ongoing sexual abuse at the hands of the men in their own community. Do they stay? Do they forgive? ⤵️

#TFW you visit your favorite indie bookstore on #independentbookstoreday and they make sure you get a special signed copy of the book you‘re really excited to read ❤️

Don‘t forget to visit your favorite indie bookstores today! I‘m still stuck at home recovering, and a little bummed I won‘t have an opportunity to buy some of this year‘s exclusive swag and shop my favorite local bookstores, all of which are having fun events! Oh well, I‘ll just have to live vicariously through my fellow Littens. 😉

#indiebookstoreday

An amazing and poignant novel! Beautifully disturbing and relevant. I am recommending to everyone.

#WomenReadWomen2019 Read Along Chat is scheduled in a few days. 🧚🏼‍♀️📚💕 Just checking in with lovely participants who initially signified interest. I finished reading the book and really looking forward to discussing with you all. I prepared around three questions for discussion. 🤓 How are you all doing so far?

This might be my favorite book so far this year. 💖📚

There isn‘t a CAN‘T EVEN big enough for how much I can‘t even. Based on true crime, it‘s about a closed society where men have ALL the power and women decide to take back some. Anybody who thinks women in these situations need to “stay and pray” can get in line to kiss my ohhhhhhkaaay here are some hashtags #domesticviolence #rape #coverups #sexualabuse #mennonites #canada #faith #survival #feminism #whydonttheyjustleave #because1000reasons

I grappled with the idea of explaining hemispheres to her, how we are required to share the sun with other parts of the world, that if one were to observe the earth from outer space one could see as many as 15 sunsets and sunrises in a day--and that perhaps by sharing the sun the world could learn to share everything, learn that everything belonged to everyone!

This will be one of my favorite reads of the year. I‘ll push it on every reader I know.

It‘s based on rapes that occurred in a Mennonite village by 8 of their men who used animal tranquilizer to knock out women and children then assault them. The book does not focus or retell the attacks, only the decision these women are trying to make about their future in the village.

According to the author, these rapes are rumored to still be happening.

A little over halfway through and I‘m in love. This is the library‘s copy. I‘m going to have to get my own. So good, and so so so flippin‘ important! 👏👏👏

Librarians do it all 🏆

Not for everyone that's for sure, both stylistically and subject matter. A group of mennonite women who have been repeatedly drugged and raped by the men in their community are deciding to leave or stay. That is the setting and what plot there is but this is really a microcosm of global patriarchy, women's options and decisions and less about this specific community.

I‘ve neglected my Litsy posts for too long - back to recommend this beautiful, heartbreaking book. And the mosaic shawl knit while reading it, interweaving the voices of the women as they decide what comes next.

Not a fun read, but an interesting one. I liked hearing women in such different circumstances having the exact same conversation I‘ve had with my own women friends. And I thought the Towes did a great job of crafting voices of smart but completely uneducated women trying to think through complicated problems.

#booked2019
Fall
Prompt 21- New in 2019
 @4thhouseontheleft @BarbaraTheBibliophage @Cinfhen

I know it‘s early April but this will probably be one of the best books I read this year. Eight women gather in a loft of a barn to decide what must be done once they find out that a group of men in their Mennonite colony have been drugging them and attacking them at night for years. This could have been a one note book of anger and rage but it‘s quite the opposite. I was in awe of Toew‘s writing, her women, and their ability to love and 👇🏼

Such a powerful and moving read! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Full review at erinkonrad.com

#NetGalley

Extraordinary. Heavy, as the book is full of philosophy and pain and horrible acts occurring in a culture of patriarchy and misogyny to the extreme. But there‘s also much light, with many funny moments and characters I completely loved, and these characters‘ thoughts and choices felt searingly relevant. This is a book I will almost certainly reread (after I go back and read everything else Miriam Toews has written - this is my first of hers).

In the middle of all deciding what to do about the horrific events that have transpired, Toews breaks things up with girls talking about if a boy likes you in the colony, he will intentionally miss when throwing animal turds at you. And sometimes it‘s poetry and sometimes it‘s this. I remember John Cage from college and how this piece of his, 4‘33” is him just sitting at the piano not playing but whatever happens during that time is the music👇🏼

Some not-so-light reading at soccer practice.

Sitting at the salon getting ready for Margaret Atwood in Houston tonight. I figured this book was an appropriate readalike for Handmaid‘s Tale.

This is a really important story based on horrifying true events - recent ones at that. I struggled with the tone for a bit but ultimately got used to the writing style. A difficult read because of the subject.

Repost for @GatheringBooks :
#WomenReadWomen2019 ReadAlong Chat this April is Miriam Toews “Women Talking.”
Here is a New York Times‘ profile on the author and her Mennonite conscience: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/28/books/miriam-toews-women-talking.html
Tagging those who have indicated interest.
Let me know if you are keen to join, so I can tag you, too!

8 Mennonite women from the Molotschna colony gathered to have a secret meeting to decide whether to stay & fight, stay and do nothing, or leave after what had happened. Minutes were taken by the narrator of the story, August Epp. I had a hard time getting into the story & characters, and desperately wanted to, especially when this is based on true events. I guess the writing style used to approach the subject matter, just isn‘t for me. ⬇️

#WomenReadWomen2019 ReadAlong Chat this April is Miriam Toews “Women Talking.”
Here is a New York Times‘ profile on the author and her Mennonite conscience: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/28/books/miriam-toews-women-talking.html
Tagging those who have indicated interest.
Let me know if you are keen to join, so I can tag you, too!

A group of Mennonite women meet to decide if they will stay in their community after 8 of the men are caught drugging and raping the women, knowing that they will be expected to forgive their rapists, or if they will leave everything they have ever known. Extremely powerful read - I need someone I know to read this so I can discuss. Based on true events.

Saw this in the bookstore but decided to order it from the library. I love Miriam Toews.

Repost for @GatheringBooks :
#WomenReadWomen2019 ReadAlong Chat in April since end of March is just around the corner. Tagging those who have expressed interest. Based on a harrowing real-life narrative, the author imagined how the women would have “talked” among themselves while protecting their daughters, sisters, mothers. Do join us!!!

Once again Sunday morning finds me catching up on The New Yorker and this article on Miriam Toews is wonderful and will make me move this Mennonite born Canadian author up my list. I have heard amazing things about Women Talking. Important note, her last name rhymes with “saves”- I have not heard it pronounced that way yet so that is new - also the Plautdietsch term( her parents‘ first language) schputting- irreverance of serious or sacred things.

#WomenReadWomen2019 ReadAlong Chat in April since end of March is just around the corner. Tagging those who have expressed interest. Based on a harrowing real-life narrative, the author imagined how the women would have “talked” among themselves while protecting their daughters, sisters, mothers. Do join us!!!

Repost for @GatheringBooks :
#WomenReadWomen2019 ReadAlong Chat schedule for April-June! So excited to share that I just finished reading tagged book and done with our May book, too! Both are rich for potential discussions! Will be reading Elif Shafak soonest. Women authors from Canada, Australia, and Turkey! Reading women from around the world. Let me know if you‘re keen to join our chats! 📚🧚🏼‍♀️

#WomenReadWomen2019 ReadAlong Chat schedule for April-June! So excited to share that I just finished reading tagged book and done with our May book, too! Both are rich for potential discussions! Will be reading Elif Shafak soonest. Women authors from Canada, Australia, and Turkey! Reading women from around the world. Let me know if you‘re keen to join our chats! 📚🧚🏼‍♀️ Tagging those who have initially expressed interest in joining. 🧚🏼‍♀️📚

This novel is definitely true to its title, made up almost entirely of women talking—illiterate Mennonite women of a remote colony who have recently realized that the nighttime terrors the men of the colony have told them are dreams or demonic possessions or punishment for sins were actually these men, their relatives and neighbors, tranquilizing and then raping them. Inspired by real events...👇👇👇

WOMEN TALKING by Miriam Toews
Philosophical/religious conversations around horrific attacks on women in a Mennonite colony.
⭐️
#bookreview #netgalley #reading
Full review: https://lostnagoodbook.wordpress.com/2019/02/27/women-talking-miriam-toews/

This is an odd book to try and review and I‘m not sure how I really felt about it. A few parts punched me in the gut, and the entire premise is horrific, but this is less of a novel and more of an extended philosophical debate on religion and belief. It wasn‘t my cup of tea but can see the appeal for some readers. Thanks to Bloomsbury and #netgalley for the chance to do an early review.

(Also, I‘m on vacation so YAY 😎)

From the frontispiece.