Welcome to Litsy!

Finally some delicious sunshine in the Prairies, and a perfect time to read this book set in #Finland.

That‘s Grandmother and Sophia. 💙☀️💙
#currentlyreading

Thanks Kate for the lovely book. ! I also love this print 😍. I hope you and yours are all doing well now , take care ♥️ Cathy X

2021 top reads- apparently a year of reading classics by women and non fiction about women. @britt_brooke

Are you trying to get through more books before the end of the year? One strategy is to read shorter ones! You can see what I have to say about some darling gems here on a video that I made for Shawn the Book Maniac's booktube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joHQDnQmVOc

The gift of a book which makes you move while also bringing a stillness to the rhythm of life, is an excellent gift, no?

I received The Summer Book as a present from the sweetest, @JennyM last year. Thank you, love! 🥰

The writing in here encompasses multiple themes – philosophy, adventure, nature descriptions in their glory as well as chaos, inspirations from Jansson‘s life experiences, humour, mystery, literature and learning. 👇🏽

I love this book. I savoured all 172 pages. It is unlike anything else I‘ve read. It celebrates the relationship between a wild young girl and her equally wild grandmother as they spend the summer on a small Finnish island. Quote: “Wise as she was, she realized that people can postpone their rebellious phases until they're eighty-five years old, and she decided to keep an eye on herself.”
― Tove Jansson, The Summer Book

This vignette-filled short novel should really only be read during summer time 🌞. The relationship between Sophia and her grandmother, on an island home in Finland, was touching— but yet not saccharine.

I‘m surprised by the low overall Litsy rating on this one, which is also a #1001Books.

Just learned that yesterday was #nationalbookloversday . But that‘s everyday for us, right 😉?

📚📚📚📚📚

The 3 large oak bookcases here were built by my dad (who would have been 82 in two days ) ❤️

Tagged book is my current read.

Read this for Mol‘s bookclub (same as Cantoras) - very Steinbeck but a little girl and Gulf of Finland. Great imagery and cherry scenes - some great humor. Curious about her comic.

Got tagged in Instagram to do #SixBooksSixCountries from my #TBRPile so thought I‘d share here too

Finland ~ The Summer Book by Tove Jasson
Sri Lanka ~ Ruins by Rajith Savanadasa
England ~ NW by Zadie Smith
Turkey ~ Three Daughters of Eve by Elif Shafak (also part set in Oxford but still counts?)
Manus Island(PNG)/ but really stateless ~ No Friend But The Mountains by Behrouz Boochani
Australia ~ Song of the Crocodile by Nardi Simpson

Hi, my love @JennyM ! Thanks for thinking of me & sending this beautiful package of love. The Summer Book sounds joyful & just apt for this time of the year. I am super excited about my intro to Australian fiction, & there are plenty to read now ( @Rissreads sent some too). 🥰 Looking forward to discussing them all with you. Litsy has been my happy place since i joined, & as you said it, we have found some wonderful friends here. Happy '21! 😘💙🎈

This little book was perfection for my mood and this place I‘m holidaying in. It really is just a series of vignettes about a girl and her grandmother on an island. It‘s almost written like a picture book - focused on the immediate, with no explanations. What is unsaid is beautiful - as you piece together for yourself why one of them is sad or scared. And they‘re not idealised characters, they‘re knotty and stormy much like the island itself. ⬇️

How‘s this for a reading spot @rockpools ? #armchairtravel as requested. I can hear the water lapping against the rocks as I read. (On the other hand I have been bitten by ants! 🥴)

Packing for a week away - most important items first 😂 I knew Littens would understand!

Just going for a summer holiday break at a friends cottage up in the Bay of Islands. I know we‘re very lucky to be able to get away from the city for a break - many of my friends and family overseas can‘t do this - and I will have them all in my heart as we go.

Arohanui to you all and hoping for 2021 to bring a huge improvement to each of you 💕

I think that I just wasn't in the right frame of mind for this book. I like the setting and landscape of Finland, but the stories were just too bland for me, and I know that that is the point, but I've been feeling pretty bland lately myself, and this wasn't what I needed. #bookspin @TheAromaofBooks #bookspinbingo 🇫🇮🌊

Here's a photo from our little family trip we had couple of days ago. @Cuilin #litsybitsy #bridge #21 🏞️☀️

‘“An orange!” said Sophia contemptuously. “Do you think people care about oranges when they‘re talking about God and the Devil?” Grandmother poked the cow dung off her shoe with her walking stick as best she could.
“My dear child,” she said, “with the best will in the world I cannot start believing in the Devil at my age. You can believe what you like, but you must learn to be tolerant.”‘

Reading a book about summer during summer while wearing my pink mermaid blanket because summer here is a having a bit of an identity crisis. ☺️🏖️🧜🏻‍♀️ #litsybitsy @Cuilin #28 #bookandblanket #bookspin

July has been a weird reading month for me, full of weird reads!! It started off with a slump and bails but ended ok. The Summer book is the stand out but The Bookshop is a lovely comforting read. 👍 #julystats

It‘s been a really good reading week! I haven‘t had much time to read so I‘ve only just started the Kate Atkinson but I really enjoyed the other two. Great books for sunny days. 😎 #bookreport #weeklyreport

This is a quirky read. A Grandmother and her granddaughter spend a summer on a tiny, remote island off the Gulf of Finland. They get up to mischief, have lots of discussions and disagreements and generally put the world to right. I was really taken by this little book. An interesting and unique read. 👍 #Finland #ReadingEurope2020

This one was a mixed bag for me. On one hand, the writing is lovely and Jansson creates a sense of place on the small island. I actually didn‘t mind the lack of plot, since this was really about a relationship and place. On the other hand, I found Sophia melodramatic and a bit obnoxious and the whole thing was a bit twee.

#ReadingEurope2020 #Finland

Short and sweet. #summerinthetitle

Up next.

#popsugarsummer
Think I‘m going to have a go at this one.... 😎🌴💕
Anyone else doing it?

This was a beautiful quite read. A great pick for the times. #LMPBC I will be sending this on tomorrow. @LibrarianRyan

Day 20 - #SummerSolstice #JamminJune
#TheSummerBook #ToveJansson

I read and enjoyed this book in 2015. It is on the 1001 Books You Should Read Before You Die.

Okay #LMPBC í tríєd tσ fíníѕh thíѕ í rєαllч díd вut í juѕt dσn't cαrє αвσut thє ѕtσrч. í dσn't cαrє αвσut íѕlαnd αnd ít'ѕ 4 mínutє wαlk ѕízє. í dσn't cαrє αвσut grαmѕ σr grαnd dαughtєr. í hαvє вєєn trчíng αll wєєk αnd í αm σffícíαllч gívíng ín. í'll mαíl ít σut tσdαч. í'm ѕσrrч tσ dnf

Loved, loved, loved this one! Great if you're looking for a quick read that has depth and wonderful characters!

The Summer Book is the story of a summer spent on a remote island in Finland between an aging artist and her 6 year old granddaughter. It‘s a quiet book, told with equal parts wit and wisdom, and it was a lovely way to start the week ♥️🌿

Using for #Finland #ReadingEurope2020

I‘m a bit undecided on my reading this week, so my #weeklyforecast will be some of these...maybe 😜🤷‍♀️

This was a case of #rightbookwrongtime for me. I‘m a speed-reader anyway but currently I‘m being even more #superduperspeedy for some reason. This book deserves to be savoured and I know I missed much of its beauty.

So, yes, read this book but ensure that you‘re relaxing in the sea-salty air of a chilled-out beach holiday to give it the time and thought space it deserves.

#readingeurope2020
#finland

The best #holiday book I've read. Joy, delight, quiet, rest, arguments, sadness, messiness, conviviality, & solitude. So beautiful.

#MOvember @Cinfhen

This book is composed of brief, individual, quiet moments between 6 year old Sophie and her crabby grandmother spending their summer on an island off the coast of Finland. I found it a bit slow to get into but ultimately sweet and sentimental 💕
#laislabonita #movember

Ps. Am I alone in this being one of my all time favorite Madonna songs?! ❤️🏝

#LaIslaBonita #Movember @Cinfhen

There is so much love for this book about one summer spent on a beautiful island (#laislabonita) by Sophia and her grandmother. I must get to this soon 🏝 #movember

This book was odd, as many from Scandinavia seem to be. The humor was there, though dry and hard to miss but the real gem of this book was the relationship of the grandmother and the granddaughter and the juxtaposition of their experiences and priorities at opposite ends of each other. Short, and a bit boring for being so short but it was alright.
#pop19 #popsugar2019 #popsugarreadingchallenge
A book set in Scandinavia

It's funny about me, Sophia said. "I always feel like such a nice girl whenever there's a storm."
"You do?" Grandmother said. "Well, maybe ..."
Nice, she thought. No. I'm certainly not nice. The best you could say of me is that I'm interested. She extracted a perch and bashed its head against a rock.

Huge congratulations @Megabooks ! 💕🙌🙌👍
I loved this appropriately named book.... ☀️🌊😎
#25etsy giveaway, such a lovely idea..... 😍📚

Congratulations on your fantastic Litsy milestone @Megabooks and thank you for doing this generous #25ETSY #giveaway !❤️
My favourite read this summer, coincidentally, is the tagged book! 😄 It was a wonderful read and I recommend it.

After reading this chapter, I was like, “Well clearly Tove Jansson loved cats.” A google search later turned up her and her black cat, Psipsina. There are days when I realize I know little about the literary world. 😹 #BlackCatAppreciationDay

Happy #BlackCatAppreciationDay! Here‘s to all the kitties - the black ones, the ginger ones, the torties, siamese, tabbies and every other floofy-floof we worship.

Speaking of hero worship - I‘m reading this because Lauren Groff named it as one of her favorite books - so of course, I‘m going to read it! ❤️

This is such a gentle and quiet book. Reading it is like leisurely walking on a beach itself, unhurried, and you‘ll lose sense of time. The stories seems random as they‘re snippets over the long summer Sophia spent with her grandmother and father on an island. I love the relationship and interaction between Sophia and her grandmother; the adventures they shared; the quarrels; the tantrums that Sophia throws. 👇

A cute and nostalgic summer read 🌸

Such a sweet and delightful read. A grandmother's favorite companion on a lonely island is her 6 year old granddaughter. They invented games, stories, arguments. It seems that death was a major theme because the grandmother is nearing her time and the girl's mother had passed away. What a great book to read during summer vacation.

The description is exquisite.

Not a funny moment in the book, but the dramatic six-year-old Sophia made me laugh. What avid reader hasn‘t heard some rendition of this utter despair from their family and friends??

#LilithJuly
This lovely #SmallBlueThing was a charming and poignant read....
Based on the real-life bond between her aging mother, her little niece Sophie and the island her family owned, this is a gentle story of a girl and her feisty Gran, sharing a summer of small adventures on a remote Finnish island. Loved it 💙☀️💙☀️💙☀️