Welcome to Litsy!

Expected to not really like this one, ended up loving it! Yes, it is a bit weird (Shakespeare's appearance put me in mind of Lincoln in the Bardo - no bad thing!) and it features an incestuous relationship (handled in a way that doesn't give you The Ick) but it is just so well written & features (in the Greek myth section) 2 fantastic female characters that I was absolutely hooked. A must for fans of Greek retellings.

Starting this one ... but I'm not really sure how well it's going to go. Haven't much enjoyed any of Haddon's other works & the reviews on this one are mixed. Have had a really depressing run of unsatisfying/disappointing/downright rubbish reads going on for several months now, so this one gets to 25% to turn things around ... or it's a big fat DNF from me!

Maybe it's because I'm unfamiliar with the Shakespeare play that inspired the book, but I found The Porpoise disjointed and unable to excite much emotion in me.

Unfortunately this was a DNF, It started ok but then it went somewhere I wasn't expecting.

Finally starting this book, hope I like it!

These 4 books I hope to get through by the end of October. Empire of the Vampire is taking lot more time to read than I thought. I find it hard to read. #tbr

#TBRPile 📚 “Maja is thirty-seven weeks pregnant. She would not be allowed on a commercial flight but they have been staying with friends who own a vineyard in Bellevue Champillon and one of the other guests, Viktor, has a Piper PA-28 Warrior which he intends to fly back to Popham the following morning.”

Haddon keeps an interesting distance from his characters, but I loved the intertwined narratives.

I'm conflicted about this. I think it's done well, as a tale of female agency hobbled by the responses men make to their bodies (in contrast with privileged Pericles running away to sea to avoid his responsibilities), taking in Shakespeare's play and Greek myth as it does so. Thus it's a pick. Did I *enjoy* it, though? Is that even a word I can use when a major theme is the sexual abuse of a daughter? Can't say I'm thrilled by the ending, either.

#TBRPile - I love books about books. A motherless girl grows up in isolated luxury. She cannot escape, so she seeks solace in her books. Her favorite tales are those that conjure ancient world - of angry gods and heroic mortals, one of whom will come to her rescue. Soon, she will forget where the page ends and her mind begins.

Audio walking to finish this book today #litsybitsy and came back to find the robin babies have flown the nest ❤️This book was a challenge, it starts in present day and then transports back to Greek myth era with a key character waking up on a boat inhabiting Pericles. It was an epic tale but I don‘t know if it was actually Epic. A lot of incest, death, famine, subterfuge, miscommunication, despair and I struggled to track it all

#litsybitsy even though my cookies took WAY longer than I thought and I finished The Sun Down Motel while I iced them, I still hauled my butt out to walk. I‘m back to The Porpoise which has just gone from a modern tale to an ancient one.
These hellebores are in a neighbour‘s garden and I want to buy some

It‘s raining so I cleaned the bathrooms and started this

There were several points where I wanted to bail on this story, and in the end I wish I had because while there was some very beautiful storytelling at work here, the themes this book dealt with alongside what I felt was a very unsatisfying ending just leaves me feeing like there are better ways I could‘ve spent this time. It wasn‘t awful, but for all the horror and tragedy this one holds no happily ever after. ⭐️⭐️

Hmmmm child sexually abused by father? That‘s a big FUCK NO for me.

This is such a great list; selected by writers;perfect for Christmas: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/dec/01/best-books-2019-picked-by-years-be...

Jumps around in time telling a variation of the same tale, quite unique and beautiful.

Well, this one is a surprise! Based on Greek myth and Shakespeare, a whole set of characters have just moved pretty seamlessly from contemporary extreme English wealth to an Ancient Greek adventure. Reminding me a bit of Washington Black but I think I like it more!

I have been feeling poorly for over a week now so am doing nothing this weekend except snuggling and reading 😊🤧🤒😷📚📚📚

Not for me. I did end up liking the ending. But the rest...no thanks.

I had to double check reviews for this book, Haddon so completely aped a type of prose where men look at woman and respond to their feelings about how those women look, that I thought this had been written in the 1920s. It was delicately done. But the structure of the story lost me. There were mirrored, parallel story elements, greek myths, magic? But at the end, I‘m not sure what point was being made. It felt like a thought experiment.

While I was not completely familiar with the original Greek tragedies, that did not stop me from enjoying this strangely hypnotic weaving of past & present. A pregnant woman dies in a fiery plane crash but not before giving birth to a beautiful baby girl. The father, a multi millionaire, is despondent and clings to his child in an unforgiving manner. When a stranger stumbles upon the situation he sets off a chain of events with epic results.

Bookclub girls gave me a gift card for my bday...picked up these two!! Wish I would have checked Litsy ratings first, seems like the Haddon might not be for me 🥺you know what that means....it‘s going out into the Litsyverse 😜

Thank you NetGalley and Doubleday for an Advanced Reader's Copy of this book. This was such a unique book. This was two stories of Apollonious and Shakespeare's Pericles. The way Haddon melds these stories and retells this one is quite excellent. I found myself turning the pages quickly, I loved it so much. Wonderful storytelling.

I had an galley of this one but saw this when I was in the London Airport and grabbed it. The reviews are mixed but the summary is very interesting.

New book from The Little Apple Bookshop in York 😊

This was quite a strange story and really took some following. I'm not totally sure I fully understood all what was happening. It jumps around an awful lot which left me very confused at times. The basic story with Angelica is quite dark and features some child abuse so a warning to those who may be triggered by that. I enjoyed Marina's story most of all but the rest was a little too rushed for me.
#Netgalley

Mark Haddons new novel sounds like quite the quirky read fun way to start my weeks reading off thanks @DoubledayBooks