Welcome to Litsy!

#2023ReadingBracket @chasjjlee

Thanks to these Litsy folks for today‘s prompt:

#TEMPTINGTITLES
@Eggs
@AlwaysBeenALoverOfBooks
@LitsyEvents
#LitsyEvents

Today‘s Prompt: TITLE WITH THE WORD DEATH

HISTORICAL FICTION - ITALY

The writing in this book is beautiful and descriptive and is an outstanding debut.  

Marvelous, magnificent, original, and impressive are some adjectives to describe this book.

You will not want to put it down.

REVIEW: https://tinyurl.com/2s38jedz

Thanks so much Amy for the book and sweet card!! I can‘t wait to read it!! 💗💗💗

#LitsyLove

#2023ReadingBracket March I loved this book!

@chasjjlee

Fabulous! The life of a woman and the many deaths she escaped.
Thank you @Crazeedi as you sent this to me in a swap. Loved it.

#Doublespin @TheAromaofBooks
#pantone2023 @Clwojick

Really good 5/5

A book letter a day.

Have you read this book?

Marvelous, magnificent, original, and impressive are some adjectives to describe this book.

You will not want to put it down…https://tinyurl.com/2s38jedz

@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
#AlphabetGame
#Letter S

@julietgrames
@eccobooks
@HarperCollins

So much deeper and darker than I expected this to be - it‘s quite troubling in places and will leave you a bit hopeless, but it was a compelling read.

Cheers to Grames for a stunning and well-researchrd debut! This deserves its own perch on my best reads shelf. 👑📗 This book had a hold on me from start to finish. It never loosened its grip. It gave me an avenue to explore my own memories, those that were lost and forgotten due to the enormity and all-consuming exigency of being an adult. As if my childhoold was from another world, one which isn't my own.

#frostbeartstudio #julietgrames

Trying to devour Enchanted April and this in a weekend, whilst social engagements are afoot. Think I can do it!🤸🏻‍♀️

I think we all have people in our family tree we wonder what life was truly like for. I went into this book hoping for a family saga I could sink into for the weekend. Instead I got unrelenting tragedy and abuse that make me wonder what the point was other than despair over how awful life can be. I know many loved it but this book just did not work for me.

Emotionally draining, yet beautiful. Stella‘s story left its mark on my heart.

Now that I don't have a commute, my audio listening has slowed way down. It took me most of the month to listen to this! I just need to find other ways to work audiobooks into my reading.

I liked this story of Stella Fortuna and her early life in Italy and then her life after she came to America. She was a great main character and I felt like I really got to know her and sympathize with her. Life was not always easy for her. Strongly recommend!

1. Tagged book, Sweep in Peace by Ilona Andrews
2. I am sure there is something, but as I use Litsy and then stop using it, I can't remember. lol
3. Coffee. Sometimes wine. 🍷

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

1 - The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna (audio), What we See when we Read (NF), and Sweep in Peace.
2 - The House in the Cerulean Sea. It just makes you feel better about the world even if it is a fantasy novel.
3 - All of Angie Thomas books! Looking forward to her third book out next week!

Sorry, @Kalalalatja #newyearwhodis! I don't dislike this book at all, but I'm fifty pages in and it's just too depressing to read this year. I need books that are slightly more optimistic. Good writing, interesting plot, but too depressing right now.

#bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks
Square 24 ✔️

@Crazeedi THANK YOU SO MUCH, my friend!!! What a way to usher in 2021. I love all the books...such wonderful choices. What great socks, beautiful angel ornament, lip balm, towel, notebooks and stickers for my Litsy Love letters. I am so using the bath bomb today. Ha! I will eat chocolate in the bath while reading. ❤️ just a lovely swap. 😘😘😘

#Bestof2020 #Bestof2020swap @candority

Not at all what I was expecting, not at all. A breathtaking account of the relationship of a mother and her children spanning over generations and two countries. The research and time taken to bring this story so much color is overwhelming. It was so easy to get lost in the saga, I am in love.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2 I saw this author in person the week her book came out and I‘m embarrassed it took me so long to read it! Her writing is so engrossing and the story went in places I didn‘t expect. Some parts were hard to read but overall this was such a good book. This may be my favorite book this year!

#3books #thatmadememad

Stella: I hung in there, kept reading even as wondered why I was still reading, and then Ms. Grames you went too far. Had I been reading a book instead of an ebook I would have thrown it across the room.
H P & the Order of the Phoenix: I will never forgive this particular death
Just Mercy: I read this a few years ago. The mad it inspired lasts today but it introduced me to The Equal Justice Initiative.

My library finally started pick up service so it's on to more books!

I had no idea what I was getting into with this book. I love the story of Stella‘s life! From a small village in Italy to immigrating to the US, this is the 100 year story of Stella‘s family and how she‘s loved, abused, and everything in between. The direction your life takes isn‘t always a choice. In a much milder way, I can relate to Stella.

My first pool read of the summer. The air is finally warm and it‘s a beautiful day but the water is still cooooold. I‘m really enjoying this story of Stella 😃

I think I‘m going to enjoy my next read 😃 enjoying my deck before the rain starts 🌧 ☔️

I don't know if it's me or the book, but I'm not into this. It portrays life so bleakly.

I am bailing at about 3/4 mark of this audio. Maybe I‘m just crabby, but I can‘t listen to the repetitive melodramatic victimization anymore. “The vagina is the flesh of trauma” - 🙄 it‘s all too obvious. This one isn‘t for me.

I found myself utterly struggling with this book. I feel like I‘ve read it (or stories like this one) countless times before. It‘s so repetitive and predictable and halfway through I‘ve decided to bail.
I must find a book I really can sink into now, not one that annoys me.
It‘s a shame, and it‘s me. And these times. I know.

#ATY2020 #PromptfromapreviousATYchallenge

Here is my April #bookspin list. I‘ve barely started my March #bonusspin but might get it done by the end of the month. #triplespin will be too ambitious with other challenge reading to be done but I‘m looking forward to what the #booklottery has in store me. Thank you @TheAromaofBooks for continuing this great #clearyourtbr method! If you haven‘t tried it you should come play!

#WeeklyForecast 14/20

I am still reading Woman no. 17. Halfway through and not sure what to think of it. Based on @Kalalalatja ‘s review I now finally want to read Stella Fortuna. But there‘s also our #NYRBBookclub read (which may be a bit too heavy for me these days) and the only Dutch book nominated for the #InternationalBookerPrize.

First #QuarantineBook finished! That‘s one good thing about having to stay home - plenty of reading time! And with a book as good as this, reading time is needed! I felt bad every time I had to leave Stella‘s life story, and what a life she lived. It was darker than I had imagined going in, but Stella is the kind of character that you can‘t help but love, no matter how dark it gets. She is flawed, she is strong, and she felt real. 🙌

Stella and these pretty tulips from my sister in law brings some brightness to a gray and rainy Tuesday in Denmark 📖💐

#currentlyreading #booksandflowers

Today I opened my first print book since the middle of February, and I started a new audiobook for the first time in two weeks (Know My Name). I can‘t remember the last time I went this long without reading, but I‘m so happy to be reading again 🙌📖

#currentlyreading

#februarywrapup
Not my most prolific month, but lots of good reads..... Dreyer‘s English and Leading Men being my favorites, though I did really enjoy everything I read.....
Also ticked off lots of challenge prompts too 😊👍

Love a great family story? So does Lynda Cohen Loigman, which is why she recommends this book for #read99women. Read her review on my blog: http://www.greermacallister.com/blog/2020/2/8/read99women-lynda-cohen-loigman

Although it ran a bit longer than it needed, I really enjoyed this sweeping saga that takes us from Calabria in the early 1900‘s to the present day USA. Stella is beautiful, stubborn, brave and infuriating and I loved spending time with her as she grows, emigrates, endures terrible trauma, escapes death (a lot!) and survives. There‘s so much sadness, but also joy and humor. And I liked the ambiguity and touch of magic of how this story concludes.

#bookreport

- Although it ran a little long in the end, I loved feisty Stella and this wonderful family saga and immigration story, that takes the reader from the early 1900‘s in an Italian mountain village to present day US... 4⭐️
- Flip-flopping between audio and print for Dreyer‘s English which I‘m loving. It‘s the perfect combo of funny and informative! 🤓
- only just started the Lido, but think I‘m going to love this story of friendship...💕

#weeklyforecast @Cinfhen

Current read is for an IRL bookclub... loving it so far....
Next up, a couple for #Booked2020 , for #liveandlearn 🤓& #covercrush 📚😍

I really enjoyed this multi generational saga of strong Italian village women & their American immigrant experience. But I was not entirely ... perhaps satisfied with it. It left me not a little melancholy. Neither Stella or the sympathetic reader is given any resolution, any emotional release. While not every story has a happy ending, this one didn't seem to have any hope either. Some of Stella's experiences are deeply traumatic... ⬇️⬇️⬇️

#weeklyforecast @Cinfhen

All three of these are for upcoming bookclubs....
😊📚📚🎧

Starting this one this evening. Love this simple yet effective cover design, especially the font.

With thanks to #netgalley for this book!

I had thought 5 stars ... but now I‘m finished I‘m thinking 3 ✨..... I really enjoyed this story & insightful look at Stella‘s journey through life ! A great read , although maybe a bit too drawn out in the end. But I‘d still highly recommend 👍🏻❤️

Love this one ❤️

Good book ❤️

This was so great!! I'm so glad I read this and before the end of the year! Really loved it!

#friyayintro @howjessreads #WinterGames #ReadNosedReindeer @StayCurious @Clwojick #HolidayRecipe
⛄Tagged book was my favorite of the year
⛄cozy reading spot is my sunroom in my comfy chair
⛄7 pumpkin rolls made to give away
⛄ baby Yoda since I don't know the other

I read more into what this book was about and decided it would be the next one I read.

I opened it up to find a family tree!! An even bigger sign this is the perfect book for me to read next!

I wish I had someone to discuss it with. It begins with the idea that Stella had a stroke and as a result didn‘t talk to her sister for the last 30+ years of her life. Then we get the book, and then the stroke and how it changes her thinking so that she blames Tina for all her problems.

But did the stroke fix or ruin her reasoning? I wish I had someone to argue with!

This book is upsetting me in at least 8 or 9 different ways.