Lanny: A Novel | 
pickI loved this slim book by Porter. From young and sometimes mysterious Lanny to the mythological Dead Papa Toothworth, Porter has a lyrical way of describing his tale. I could relate to growing up while not always being understood. 5 stars.
Now onto Porter's newest work: Shy.
#20in4
@Andrew65
so-soLanny is a poetic novelette in 3 parts. Part 1 was OK. Part 2 was excellent. Part 3 was meh.
This could have been a 4 star book, but I'm dropping it to 3 stars because Lanny himself made me want to roll my eyes. He felt more like a plot device than an actual child.
Max Porter is good at showcasing his characters in concise vignettes. His writing is lyrical, his presentation smart. Still, I found Lanny a bit pretentious & contrived.
⭐️⭐️⭐️
pickWow. This started off sounding like complete gibberish but quickly you notice how intentional everything is. I really enjoyed this short book, it was charming but also sad and anxious and filled with possibilities. Not a super complicated plot but guaranteed to give you all the feels.
#roll100 @PuddleJumper
This year I'm actually doing the challenges I've put my name down for 🤭 I feel quite proud.
Here is March's roll100 lineup. Any thoughts? I know quite a few of you enjoyed Lanny 😊
@CBee If you feel like fixing #TBRtarot how about a book with a leaf or parrot on the front 😉 (or is that a budgie? Or a love bird?)
pick
I loved Lanny who is such an endearing little boy and also loved the portrayal of motherhood, the small-town vibes and its colourful characters. This little gem of a novel is just above 200 pages and I am in awe of books like this and a few recent reads that really pack a punch. This story is heartbreaking, endearing, and compelling and has that unique mix of contemporary fiction with folklore and mythology.
pickIf you enjoy reading Neil Gaiman or you liked Lincoln in the Bardo, I think you will like this book. Max Porter has a very unique, poetic voice . The settings is small village outside London where the trees and the land tell tales of the past. In the present lives Lanny; a young, unique, artistic boy who has gone missing. This book is as ethereal and mystical as Porter‘s first book, Grief Is the Thing with Feathers.
pickLanny will drag you back to your childhood and things that go bump in the night. Myths and legends and stories of the missing. So strange.
pickGosh, I Need to absorb this beautifully written book and think about what its message is.
Intricately detailed yet sparsley worded, a mixture of modern life and ancient times.
Birthday Gift from a friend.
Everyone who has read it tells me I'll love it...
pickLanny is a short book, as I said, but it‘s “about” so many things. There are as many interpretations as there are readers. I‘m not sure I could recommend Lanny blindly, because it‘s so weird, but I enjoyed having my mind-boggled. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/lanny-max-porter/
pickI really enjoyed Lanny and would have to compare it to trying a new dish at an upscale and experimental place. It had several ingredients or elements to it. A little fantasy/folklore, domestic drama/suspense, crime drama and they were all so artfully blended together that it really turned out beautifully.
Starting Lanny as soon as the small fry falls asleep for nap! Seeing a lot of love for this one recently & excited to read it myself. I love weird little books.
pickThis was an odd little delight. Thanks @vivastory for putting Lanny back on my #ReadersRadar 🥰The audio, like that of Lincoln in the Bardo, is a true listening experience. I‘m SOOOO glad I went with the audio. Lanny, is a special boy, more comfortable with nature & creatures than with his peers. I don‘t want to say too much, but this was a wonderful way to wrap up my 2020 reading year. This would work for #PoP21 #GenreHybrid
@vivastory posted this book today as one of his favorites from 2020.... reminded me I wanted to give it a go #SecondChance 🙏🏼Anything I need to know to help me better understand the plot, Scott? I remember being confused on my first go around🙈
Day 4 of #12Booksof2020 Lanny, the second book of the year was a five star read & promised a great reading year. A shapeshifting novel of innocence & loss of innocence, featuring the sinister trickster Dead Papa Toothwort, I found Lanny to be the perfect balancing act between experimental & emotionally engaging. I was a fan of Porter's prior to reading Lanny. I am now a convert. @andrew65
BBC Radio drama production of Porters Lanny - free to listen for the next few weeks 🥳
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000pqdc?fbclid=IwAR1N2wda0xLlgp2DKcAEkiauTQ5Oj...
Love a good this or that!
🍎 🍏 orchard 🍏 🍎
🍲 🍜 soup 🍜 🍲
🎃 🎃 spice 🎃 🎃
🔥 🔥 fires 🔥 🔥
🥧 🎃 both! 🍎 🥧
#ThoughtfulThursday
thanks for the tag @MoonWitch94 🥰
Anyone else? @Judybskt @Reggie @Jovy
It‘s not often I can read a book in a day, with what always seems to be a hectic lifestyle. So when I do, it tends to be short books like this Reading Agency Quick Reads novella. I did manage to read the Laurie Lee during the Christmas holiday, and Lanny between events at last year‘s Cheltenham Literature Festival. Such a great book, I devoured it. #3Books #IveReadInADay
@OriginalCyn620
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
pickWeird and experimental novel, with a variety of narrative voices including that of Dead Papa Toothwort, a kind of Green Man or spirit of the village. Strangely compelling.
I‘m working on this for the BookTube Prize semifinals, and it‘s not what I thought it would be. Not sure what my original thoughts were, per se, but I‘m thankful to have some reading time at work in between clients. 📚
so-soI love the character Lanny. He is unique, whimsical, elfin sweetness. I hate his parents, they don‘t deserve him and that might be part of the point. This book is artistic and breaks boundaries. I enjoyed Toothwort‘s listening to the town and how the village thoughts overlap in swirls of text visually on the page. The 2nd section I didn‘t care for. I didn‘t like the inner dialogue only being distinguished by plus signs in between. As a mom this 👇
If this quote gets you smiling, this book may be for you . . . 💀
pickOnly people who are close to children will be able to understand the depth of this miniature classic.
so-soWith all due respect to Dead Papa Toothwort, I never reached the right wavelength for this short book (really a novella) and its odd structure. I could call it a little gimmicky or a little lacking in self-awareness, but probably that isn‘t fair when really it just didn‘t really work for me.
pickGenius writer. Gentle turns. Dark twists. Snapshots of a life. Left to fill in the blanks. Unexpected ending, thank goodness. Beautifully haunting and hauntingly beautiful.
Starting a new book in my WFH lunch break. It‘s to easy to just work through when you don‘t have a lunchroom to go to.
1. When I get tired, my eyes lose focus, so no book has ever been able to keep me awake - once the eyes go, that‘s it 😴😴😴
2. Lanny by Max Porter. I didn‘t expect to like it but it was my favourite book of last year.
3. I usually start with, then start to get annoyed with it and remove it!😘
#WondrousWednesday @Eggs
"Ah, Lanny, my friend, look at these blank pages. Don't you feel like God at the start of the ages? You could do anything."
"He has tried to lose the memory of Dead Papa Toothwort. Like the last speaker of any language he has had to forget in order to survive, but some knowledge of it lives in his marrow."
January Part 2: the Institute and Janis were let downs, but I was pretty blown away by everything else I finished at the end of the month. I hope the rest of the year goes this well!
pickOh wow! This book was so beautiful and powerful and I loved every second of reading this short thing.
pick#ReadwithMrBook @MrBook
January book #1wordtitle
Lanny is an eccentric boy who wanders in nature talking to trees.
It is beautifully written, very creative. I loved the floating sentences from the villagers lives and conversations, they painted a clear picture of life in a small country town. This book is part fable, contempory fiction, magical realism and part poetry. It shouldn't work but it does. I'm not sure why but I just liked it!
Is starting this book after a shot of cough medicine a good or bad idea for the night?
Book Haul for my Anniversary!
It was a busy week with my all-day seminary intensive course, but I made it through (occasionally with the help of four beverages at once, see above 😂), and this week I don't have classes! 🎉 So hopefully I'll get to spend lots of time with the books that are calling my name 😍 especially those on @Emilymdxn 's #newyearwhodis list! (Thanks for understanding 😊) I'm dying to get back to the tagged!!!
#GoldOnTheCover gives me an excuse to wheel out the Waterstones Exclusive Edition of my favourite book of last year, with its gorgeous gold leaf.
#AuldLangRead @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @OriginalCyn620
I currently have an intensive seminary course from 8:10 am to 5:40 pm every day with lots of homework for the evenings, so I have essentially no time to read for fun or get on Litsy, but I started Lanny on the plane ride back to Berkeley and am loving it so far! 😍 #newyearwhodis @Emilymdxn @monalyisha
I didn‘t expect to like this when I started reading it, but it had been recommended by people whose judgement I trust. It became my #FavoriteBookof2019. I read it on Kindle, and was toying with the idea of getting a physical copy. When Waterstones released this embossed cover, my mind was made up.
#AuldLangReads @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @OriginalCyn620
pickWhile the focus of Porter's hybrid novel is on Lanny & his family (along with his art mentor & a shapeshifter that I pictured as the offspring of the Babadook & an Arcimboldo painting), their village serves as more than mere setting. Porter's prose occasionally offers a collage of the musings, passions & prejudices of the inhabitants. I found certain techniques by Porter to be more effective than others, but I deeply admire the emotional 👇
And December was the month I found my reading rhythm again, and managed not to leave five books from #readharder2019 until the 18th. So many standouts this month, only Trust Exercise let me down.
1. We saw the New Year in last night, now today is all about resuming normality. We don‘t do anything to “celebrate” New Year‘s Day. Just driving home from the in-laws.
2. Lanny by Max Porter.
3. Hello to my newest followers @AngelaBurr88 @SShiney @Shannon182
#WondrousWednesday @Eggs
My final library haul of the decade was a great one. Amongst other books I checked out the pictured titles for #NewYearWhoDis I greatly enjoyed Reid's prior novel, so Foe has been on my TBR since I first heard about it. I added Lanny to my TBR a week prior to getting my match after a booktuber favorably compared it to Ali Smith. I've decided to begin the New Year with another selection from the list, John Williams' "Stoner".
@monalyisha @LauraJ
pickWow this book blew me away. There is so much to say about how great this book is, and I fear I won‘t do any of it justice. Lanny is the story of a fey child in the vein of Ali Smith (Queen). He is a spirited, almost mythical creature who is able to draw the adults in his life out of their constructed identities. It‘s a story of outsiders, community and human connection. It‘s magical and wonderful. That‘s all.
I want this kind of dinner party too
Unsure why I‘ve been sitting on this for so long 🤷🏻♀️
Christmas came early with this #NewYearWhoDis list from @Emilymdxn ! I always love what you're reading, and I CANNOT WAIT to start on this list! 😍 I'm still working my way through your list from last year and loving it, and this one looks perfect too! I've read and loved 9 and 20, been meaning to read 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 13, 16, 17, 18, and 19, and didn't have 1, 4, 6, 8, 11, 12, 14, or 15 on my radar yet! I'll probably start with the tagged. 😊😍
The best books I read in 2019! I‘ve read 104 books so far this year (currently reading 3 more) and these 12 were my absolute favourites.
From award winners to middle grade fantasy, tear jerkers to ghost stories, books about obsession, family and rock n roll - it‘s been quite a ride. What are your favourites of the year?
