Welcome to Litsy!

I‘ve been doing more chatting than reading in the backyard on this lovely late summer day.

Tom Tom supervises the folding of the laundry and approves of my weekend reads . #catsoflitsy

Once again Colson Whitehead packs a punch. The second book I‘ve read by him. I want to read all his books now. Except maybe not the Zombie book. I am so tired of zombies. Should I read the zombie book too?

This is probably the best book I have read in 2019. It is an excellent book. I immediately liked Elwood, but reading about his experiences at the Nickel Academy was sometimes difficult to read. I found myself taking a break from the book during the week because I found parts of this story angering and heartbreaking. If there is one book I would recommend it is definitely this one.

I had to cancel an overnight trip to NYC because I‘ve got a sick kitty🤢. The sick kitty is in the crate, the orange one is the adorable veterinary office kitty. My guy isn‘t throwing up anymore but he also doesn‘t seem to be feeling better yet. Staying home today has given me the chance to wash all the stuff he threw up on AND to finish this book. Only a couple chapters left.

Lunch with mom and came home with a few of my favorite things #bookhaul #summerveggies

Colson Whitehead's The Nickel Boys is spare and heartwrenching and perfect. I'm a fan of Whitehead's gorgeous prose and ability to deftly move from genre to genre, but The Nickel Boys may be my favorite work of his yet. And yes, that includes his amazing The Underground Railroad. The book, at just over 200 pages, is tight and brilliantly structured, unfolding the story of Elwood Curtis, (continued in comments)

Look. Half Price Books sent me an email with a birthday discount coupon. I *had* to buy this.

Starting the #24B4Monday #readathon with this book. It is rainy and gloomy here, so the perfect day to spend inside reading. I also did not realize #summersendreadathon was occurring at the same time, so I'm participating in both. @TheReadingMermaid @Andrew65 @jb72 @Clwojick

so good that I read this book in one sitting! Very different from the Underground Railroad, but Whitehad‘s mastery of the art, both beautiful and tragic, comes through just the same. I held this book to my heart when I finished it. The story is all too relevant. Pick it up!

Captured from the very first line.

Behind the scenes! 😂😂 #currentlyreading

This book got me emotional. 😿

You must read this book!
#recommendsday

Emotional & raw. Important that stories like this are told!

I went out to get something at lunch and came back with books! That's the way it goes sometimes.
WHISPER NETWORK is for one of my book clubs, and I'm looking forward to reading it. And THE NICKEL BOYS has been on my want-to-buy list since I first heard of it!
#newin #bookhaul #booksforlunch

I finally got the book. 😯

Beginning this one today. Looking forward to reading it because I keep hearing good things about it. Happy Sunday Litsy friends! 💜

Did a little book shopping today. Can't wait to start this one!

Taking some quiet time before heading after a long work today. Contentment is a book, a beer, burger and my border collie.

Two more treats 😋

Book Haul - it always feels like all my library holds come in at the same time. 😺

There‘s violence quietly boiling under ever sentence of this tight wound novel. The fact this is based on a real place, on real lives is devastating. These boys didn‘t have a chance to grow, to live or to become the men they were destined to be.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Not a perfect book, but a very good one. Tells a fictionalized account of an institutional "school" for boys, an alternative to prison, where boys were beaten and killed, especially in the black houses. Emotional portrayal, but not one that had me sobbing, which is kind of nice. Read this for the #BNbookclub, which I am hosting at my store tonight

Also, this was my E for Care of Magical Creatures in the #NEWTs #magical readathon

4.5 stars rounded to a full 5 because so much is packed into this little book. It didn‘t wreck me like The Underground Railroad - I was a mess by the end of that book. This one was more quietly devastating. Whitehead didn‘t pull his punches but instead slipped them around from behind. The violence doesn‘t hit you in the face, it stabs you in the back. I also thought a lot about Ava DuVernay‘s When They See Us, currently streaming on Netflix.

This is a book that will stay with me. Whitehead tells the story of Elwood Curtis, a boy sent to Nickel Academy, ostensibly a school designed to reform wayward youth that is in reality a prison, where racist staff & guards abuse & discard the boys at will. Whitehead based Nickel on the Dozier School for Boys, a real Florida reform school. It's a heartbreaking & angering story, unsentimental & unflinching. Required reading.

“ They has been denied even the simple pleasure of being ordinary. Hobbled and handicapped before the race even began, never figuring out how to be normal”.

Beach reading today ..... #summerisnotoveryet !

😭 What a powerful book. It just killed me. The cover is also so clever.

I‘ve found Whitehead‘s novels to be difficult to absorb in the past. While I enjoyed The Intuitionist, many of his other novels such as Zone One and The Underground Railroad couldn‘t grab my attention. The Nickel Boys on the other hand is delightfully engaging. The characters are so interesting that I finished this book in one sitting. This is one that will stay on my shelf.

Feels good to have a real book in my hands, rather than my heavy-ish iPad. #signed

Well that's Monday night sorted!

I‘m only 30 pages in but, wow. This may be a one day read.

My son bought me this mug!!!
I just finished The Nickel Boys for b&n book club this week. I did not see the twist in the last part coming at all! It was so well done. I‘m glad I read it. It covers so many themes in its little 210 pages and I am excited to hear what people thought and the things they picked up on that I, super oblivious as ever, completely missed. Anyone else read it yet?

This is the first book that made me cry this year. It is such a tragic story but one that needed to be told. The fact that this book is based on true events makes this story even more important. This is story was raw but wonderfully told. It is a story that is unforgettable and will stay with you.

Feel like I‘m watching a horror movie and I just wanna yell at Elwood to not get in the car!

This was a book club pick and like all of Mr. Whitehead‘s books didn‘t disappoint! I insist that you stop whatever you are doing and get a copy of this book now

Wow. This book was perfect. It will stay with me and I urge everyone to read it.

Up next

It feels like there‘s something I‘m supposed to be reading, but I can‘t remember what 🧠 🌫
So, I‘m going to read my first Colson Whitehead.

Audiobook. Narrator was nothing great or bad. I‘m disappointed. It‘s not what I thought it was going to be. Oh it was good, a novel based on reality but not as much of a horror novel as I thought it was going to be. It was a well written and engaging short book. Library loan via OverDrive. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

WOW. What a great book. Good story. It is a page turner.

A disturbing but all too familiar tale of the horrific treatment of African American boys. The story haunts me as to how far we still need to go as a country to heal. I'm afraid our generation will be written about in the same disturbing light on the unjust treatment of many of our citizens. Such dark times.

We must believe in our souls that we are somebody, that we are significant, that we are worthful, and we must walk the streets of life every day with this sense of dignity of this sense of somebody-ness.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that

It didnt stop when you got out. Bend you all kind of ways until you were unfit for straight life, good snd twisted by the time you left.

Everybody around and nobody around at the same time.

...so complacent and sleepy after years of oppression that rhey had adjusted to it and learned to sleep in it as their only bed.

...with the knocking of his thoughts, which rattled around his skull like dice.