Welcome to Litsy!

This book is such a lovely way to begin my summer reading. 5/5⭐️ It‘s also the start of a challenge I‘ve set for myself, my #100DayProject2025 to mark the beginning of my endless vacation, aka forever freedom, aka Renaissance years, aka retirement! My 3 rules: that I own the book, that I journal about it, & that I post daily (to keep me honest 😅). My goal is to read 50 books in 100 days, which is a lofty goal for me!🤞🏽
Book 1/50
(July 2, 2025)

July #bookspin

I‘ve been absolute rubbish about bookspin this year but I‘m going to keep posting and keep trying!

#MidsummerSolace

I hope you've enjoyed our #buddyreads 📚

This is an informal reading discussion for the tagged book. Please let us know your thoughts.

📢 I will post the discussion thread for A Wilder Way around late July, to give our 🇺🇸 readers a chance to catch up.

@TheBookHippie @Chrissyreadit

This is a tenderhearted delight.

#MidsummerSolace

Beautifully descriptive vignettes of summer time on an island. While Sophia drove me crazy with her frequent crying and protestations, this shows a loving bond between grandmother and granddaughter. A nice escape and perfect for #MidsummerSolace #Naturalitsy #LitSolace #192025 #1972

This book is a balm for the soul. Calm, quiet, relaxing, filled with love. It was a perfect choice for #Naturalitsy #MidsummerSolace , as it really did provide solace for me in these stressful times. Escapism at its best. @AllDebooks @TheBookHippie @Chrissyreadit #LitSolace

#MidsummerSolace

Can you imagine? This looks like my idea of heaven. Added to the 🪣 list. ❤️🌞❤️

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2025/jun/23/summer-in-tove-jansson-finland-mo...

It was a pleasure to drop into the #MidsummerSolace reading with this beautiful little book. A collection of vignettes about summer on a tiny island in the Gulf of Finland, it was so charming in its evocative physical details. Weather and nature felt vivid, especially a spectacular and terrifying summer storm. Of course the real star of the show are the relationships between Sophia, her grandmother, and her often-absent father. Lovely all around.

Reading this morning at the laundromat.

#summerreading

#chatterday2025

The plan is to go to the laundromat 🧺 this morning. We go super early (it‘s 5:30 am and we‘ll be packing the van 🚐 soon) so to avoid the crowds.

Later we might go swimming. 🏊‍♂️ Even later we‘ll definitely listen to the Dodgers game. ⚾️ Throughout I‘ll read a bit and I should work on my blanket (crochet). 🧶

Edited to add: Yikes, it‘s Saturday. Protest. We are going to the protest. 🪧

Bird watching at the river mouth. Took about a 30 minute hike through the dunes to get there. Definitely worth it for the beauty of the area. Now we‘re at our usual walking park/beach watching the swallows swoop and swirl, picking their lunch out of midair. :)

#birding
#centralcoast

Halfway through this book for #MidsummerSolace and it's perfectly lovely. I'm really enjoying the easy pace, and each vignette is building a stronger picture of Grandmother and Sophia and their summer together full of simple pleasures. It's starting to veer toward melancholy but I actually love that; the mood is keeping me hooked. Who else is reading this one right now? #BooksAndBlooms

Some morning reading with my tea on this cool and overcast day. I can relate to the cold of May mentioned in this book. We don‘t see any warmth until mid-July here.

#naturalitsy #midsummersolace #buddyread #litsolace

#MidsummerSolace #TimeforTea

Sunny snuggles with the ginger one while sipping herbal tea and reading the tagged.

1) Í have almost never preordered a book. The one time I did I had a negative experience with the bookstore. So now I just wait. Of course, with ebooks it makes it so easy that I don‘t need to preorder. Just put the date into my calendar. ?

2) See above.

#two4tuesday

#Naturalitsy #midsummersolace #fiction
Starting this today with coffee, of course. 📕☕️

#chatterday2025

Shopping. 🛍️ New plants. 🌱 Our day‘s plan had to be altered. 😞 Finally picked up the tagged book at the library. 📚 Tried a new (to us) pizza place downtown. It is Neapolitan, which is crazy because I just this week learned about pizza from Naples. It is pretty tasty. 🍕 My youngest has a birthday tomorrow 🎂 so I should go buy the pancake mix. 🥞 And a speech. I am supposed to write a speech for Monday. 🤦🏼‍♂️

repost for @AllDebooks

We have 2 titles to choose from for our #MidsummerSolace #buddyread
These are intended to be very relaxed, read at your own pace.

Poppy Okotcha's memoir: this title is not available in the US until the end of June. I'm happy to continue the #buddyread into July and August, if you want to join in.

Alternatively, we have Tove Jansson's novel. All are welcome to join us.

May‘s #Bookspin list. May my reading zoomies continue 🤞🏻

#midsummersolace #litsolace # naturalitsy
June buddy read hosted by @alldebooks
original post: https://www.litsy.com/web/post/2858963

#LitSolace #NaturaLitsy

#MidsummerSolace #buddyread 2nd choice is Tove Jansson's 1972 novel.
The non-fiction choice is unavailable in US until late June. So, with that in mind, I will run a relaxed fiction (tagged) and non-fiction (A Wilder Way) #buddyread
for those wishing to participate.
All welcome. Please let me know if you wish to be added/removed from the taglist.

@TheBookHippie @Chrissyreadit @LitsyEvents

A very enjoyable read with memorable characters. Written in short vignettes, it is easy to pick up for short reading sessions. 🇫🇮

Lovely.
An island, a grandmother, granddaughter, loss and love.

The movie is premiering in Finland. https://youtu.be/Wzn7SAIXBkA?si=919qJHAFTR6L03xk

3✨ I wasn‘t completely engaged to this story, but enjoyed the relationship between grandmother and granddaughter. Read for #FoodandLit 2024 Finland

Audio cleaning today. This is fluff from a stuffy not snow. Got to love chewing pups. 🐶 🐶 🐶 🐶🥹🥲

I want to thank #foodandlit2024 for encouraging me to choose a book from Finland. One of my best friends growing up had a Finnish dad and a Swedish mum and I was exposed to all of the best things from each culture and continue to love Scandi style above all others. This novel is a love letter to summer and Finland told in short vignettes that flip back and forth through the main character‘s , Sophia, childhood summers with her grandma and father.

#foodandlit for December is Finland not sweden 🤦🏻‍♀️ and I‘ve started this to close out the year with because I knew that when I went looking for books to read! my husband‘s family is from Sweden and we go to a Swedish fair in Toronto every year to stock up in Swedish treats for Christmas- these Polly candies were new to us. They taste like a cross between a rum ball and a milk dud. I will do better with food choices going forward

I‘ve been hearing huge praise for this book for about 15 years so I think my reading experience suffered a bit from sky high expectations. But it is charming, with some lovely nature writing and the relationship between the little girl and her elderly grandmother is touching. Sophia Jansson‘s delightful afterword underlined the strength of the connection, both to the people and place. The photo is an outer island in the Stockholm archipelago.

A quick, charming read, whose pint-sized protagonist reminded me of my granddaughter when she‘s cranky. Lovely descriptive writing. A good farewell to summer and my #doublespin for this month.

Thanks for the surprise bookmail @Jas16 ! Both of these have been on my TBR wishlist for quite some time, and I look forward to enjoying them. I hope all is well with you! 📚🩷

This collection of short vignettes shows a child and her grandmother throughout a summer on a Finnish island. Another gentle read, but beautifully descriptive and full of humor and heart.
#24in2024

A fantastic start to my holidays! Reading by my friends pool (yes I did swim!) and eating fairy bread!
This is my book club book. It‘s a short, quiet, reflective read. It‘s a book about a 6 year old girl and her grandmother over one summer on an island. Not much really happens but it‘s beautiful and atmospheric. I hope to one day have grandchildren of my own who I can ramble around with in nature just enjoying life and each others company.

A lovely, quiet book that follows a 6-year-old girl and her grandmother through one summer on an isolated island in Finland. Beautiful descriptions of island life and the relationship between these two strong minded, clever individuals.

#Top10Summer2023 @cinfen
Thanks for the tag, @batsy 😊

These were my 5⭐ reads for June-August - some of my 4.5 ⭐ books would comfortably sit here, too, but the judges scores are in, so my hands are tied!

I was at turns charmed, then saddened, then amused by grandmother and Sophia‘s adventures on their quaint island. Sophia‘s papa is around but absent…I don‘t remember a single thing he said in the book. The action is largely between the young (6) Sophia and the elderly grandmother who carve, explore caves, picnic and through it all discuss minute details of life on the island but have much deeper meaning. #NaturaLitsy readers would appreciate!

Next summer activity: baseball for my oldest! Love watching him play. Still slowly making some progress on this slim novel which I‘m finding both sweet and melancholic.

I‘m very much enjoying summer and soaking it all in with my family. We‘ve been camping this weekend with friends. The weather was perfect! Bonus: I snuck a few pages in while others unsuccessfully fished.
I‘m sorely behind on reviews but hope to catch up today! I‘ve missed you all!
Ps — The Summer Book is a perfect read for camping!

#StoryGraph: fiction classics literary lighthearted reflective relaxing scandinavian translated-works
165 pages • first pub 1972 • 4.5 Stars

Sophia and Grandma live together on a Scandinavian Island for the summer. This book is translated from the Swedish, is character driven and I would classify it as contemplative literary fiction. The story of these two endearing characters is told via small vignettes about their life and relationship.

This was a lovely book with which to start the summer. A collection of short stories of a family‘s time spent at a summer cottage in Finland. The relationship between Sophia and her grandmother was rendered with grace and love. The author really captured the essence of both characters, likely because they were the image of their real life counterparts. I can see myself rereading this yearly as I ease into the warmer season. 5/5⭐️
(July 7, 2023)

The story of 6 yo Sophia and her grandmother as they spend the summer on a tiny unspoiled island in the Gulf of Finland. They are quirky but solid companions, who find delight in their conversations, play, and building together. “On an island,” thinks the grandmother, “everything is complete.”

#Pantone2023 @Clwojick

#Midsummersolace

Photo challenge - Day 1 -Summer

I chose this as I'm off to the Lake District tomorrow for a restful long weekend. I chose Tove Jansson's The Summer Book as I adore her work and fancied something different to Moomins.

What would you choose?

📷 Picollage stock photo

Enjoying some wine, dessert, and an almost summer read of The Summer Book.

#TitlesAndTunes #IslandVibes @Cinfhen @BarbaraBB
Revisiting a favourite island in Tove Jansson's fictionalised childhood memoir of the close bond that develops between a grandmother & granddaughter during summer holidays on a tiny island in the Gulf of Finland.
Song choice is "That Summer Feeling" from a favourite album, Jonathan Richman's "Jonathan Sings!" It's a record packed with whimsically yearning songs of love, nostalgia and joy. ?️??

Makes me want summer. Soon. Right?

Since I‘m on track with my #clarissa March letters, I‘m doing a reread of one of my favorites to get myself a #bookspinbingo. This is my first month really participating in this challenge and I‘m really enjoying it! @TheAromaofBooks