Welcome to Litsy!

My best friend is reading this with her book club and I thought I‘d tag along (as I think it‘s been sitting on my shelves for about 15 years 😆).

I‘m a bit mixed in my responses to this one. It‘s a charming, descriptive look at Cotswolds life after WWI; I liked reading the idioms & slang of the era & tales of his eccentric, troubled mother. Heavily nostalgic, this memoir keeps from being too rosy-colored by revealing darker events & impulses of everyone. It gets brutally honest at the end with a failed assault on a girl, the valley‘s “in house” acceptance of incest & manslaughter.

Not impressed... This felt like the author tried to write a novel, without actually telling a story, while at the same time writing a memoir, without a point. I don‘t know Lee, so reading about his childhood felt a bit pointless to me.

#Pop21 - A book everyone has read but you

Growing up in the #bucolic Cotswolds

#BeautifulWords @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @OriginalCyn620

This is a lovely book, beautifully evocative of long-gone time and place. Nostalgic without being over sentimental, it doesn't shy away from the dark side of life in a rural village, and the poetic language is interspersed with Sid James-esque bawdiness. Overall it's a wistful and fond recollection of a rural childhood in a chaotic but loving family, an really enjoyable read. The line drawings in this edition are really quite charming too.

Honestly. The whole book's like this. Big Carry On energy. Laurie Lee was the Sid James of his day.

God I miss the rough brews and the staggers and violence 💔

Cider With Rosie; Gin With Arlene #BooksAndBooze

#ReadHarder challenge 17: a book with a rural setting

Some good/great reads with #ruralsetting .

#BiblioMAYnia

The horse is called Rosie, and she‘s working a cider mill. So this is actually (almost) Cider With Rosie!

Having lived around here for almost 30 years, I consider Gloucestershire to be my #Homeland; the photo (stolen from the Internet!) is of the Slad Valley, which is where Laurie Lee grew up, so it forms the backdrop of the tagged book, Cider With Rosie. And of course, cider is made from #apples

#Spooktober @Eggs
#SoaringScores @CrowCAH @Cinfhen

Been meaning to read this one for awhile (read years). Is it good?

I hope you can forgive me @Sarah83 for opening your Christmas present a bit early, but since I‘m going home on vacation tomorrow till the 27th, I thought it was best to open your gift today.

And what a gift! ❤️ I can‘t believe you got me one of the lovely Folio collectibles, and one I have been wanting to read for such a long time. Thank you, my sweet friend! Your kindness really means a lot ❤️

#LittensAreTheBest #LittenLove

#litsyclassics
Just finished my next classic. It was completely different to what I thought it would be like.
Lee tells stories about his childhood in the Cotswolds. Some are quite funny and some (maybe because of the slang) I didn't like. It's like a little time travel. A world without telephone, cars and without Litsy. 😭

Had a horrible day at work. Finally we get our new merchandise management system in November and now everything has to be specified. Who does what and what not. Nothing really works at this time. I am a bit uncertain how to deal with it.
Finally I can read a few pages in my next #litsyclassics . Lovely @DeborahSmall sent it to me and I am pretty excited about it new. #foliofreaks

While softened by the fact that it is seen through a child's ete, the poverty, prejudice and hardship portrayed is hardly idyllic. It is an excellent portrayal of a now bygone way of life, but it's not one I would hope to see resurrected.

Laurie Lee portrays his mother as a strong character, yes also describes her as scatter brained and histrionic because she cannot keep house better under exceptionally hard circumstances.

#1001books

Oh, lovely! My new (old) copy of Cider with Rosie is illustrated

I really 💗this coming-of-age story of how the #mother, Annie, brought up Laurie and his 6 siblings after their father walked out on them. She was incredibly hardworking, kept a good house, loved the children to bits. For 35 years, she single-handedly raised her husband‘s 2 families (he remarried) & clung on to the fantasy that aged and broken, he might one day return to her. When he died, her fantasy ceased and it broke her.
#readingresolutions

This is a nice portrait of childhood, of growing up in a Cotswold village after the end of the WW1. Told through the author‘s child-like eyes, during his young boy and teenage years, it‘s amusing in most parts. Lovely and evocative descriptions of an era long gone. Love the setting and the writing.
#24in48 book one.
#litsyclassics

“I was set down from the carrier‘s cart at the age of three; and there with a sense of bewilderment and terror my life in the village began.”

From my first book that I‘m reading for #24in48
#hour6 #openinglines

Tackling my physical TBR books, here are my planned #julytbr . I‘ll be pleased if I can complete them this month.
#readingresolutions

I first read Cider with Rosie at school and enjoyed it, identifying with the author's portrayal of childhood, I suppose. When I re-read it as an adult, and a father, I was overwhelmed by the yearning nostalgia of Lee's prose. But there is no mawkish sentimentality here, no perfect idyll. In places there is a lurking, murderous undercurrent, a burgeoning and threatening sexuality that had gone over my head when I read the book at school. 👇🏻👇🏻

Ciders with Laurie 🍎 🍻 🍏

My #currentread is this memoir about a boy growing up in the Cotswalds after WWI. He has three older half-sisters: Marjorie, Dorothy, and Phyllis that help care for him. Of these #sisters he writes, "generous, intelligent, warm-blooded, and dotty, these girls were not hard to admire."
Photo from a 1998 TV adaptation
#150pnpcoverparty @LeahBergen @CrowCAH

1. Nope. Sometimes I tune in for half-time show but JT is not a draw. (My 12 year-old daughter just realized last year the Super Bowl is not related to bowling. 🤣)
2. 53 F
3. Cider with Rosie (#LitsyClassicsAtoZ letter C)
4. The Scottish highlands are calling.
5. 👍✋👊

This memoir is an ode to Lee‘s childhood in a remote Cotswold village. It is also an ode to that way of life, which had been ongoing for centuries, and began to rapidly change when he was about 12. No longer remote, no longer insulated, busses and cars made it easier for people to come in—and to leave. Very sweet, I think my mom would like this a lot. 191/1305 #1001books #192019 #1959

My first start of the new year! #1001books

Getting ready for January! #libraryhaul #1001books #reading1001

#greenbooks #decktheshelves
@Tiffy_Reads @JoeStalksBeck
Not many green books on the shelves!

#litsyclassics #litsyclassicshost #litsyclassicsmatches

@merelybookish @Liz_M

New in: @erzascarletbookgasm

The best way to consume #apples #riotgrams @bookriot

Tagged by the lovely @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks for #bookcolortag #greenbooks!! 🙈I must love green books because this isn't all of my green books! 💚💚💚💚💚

I love PINK books and would love to flood the tag with the color pink! Tagging @JazzFeathers @LauraBrook @Melwilk @rubyslippersreads @elliemcc11 💖💖💖💖💖💖

Endlich Zeit für die wichtigen Dinge. Schaut mal hier. 😍 Die liebe @DeborahSmall hat mir ein tolles Überraschungspaket geschickt. Ich weiß gar nicht, wo ich zuerst hingucken soll. 😍 und ich bin jetzt offizieller #foliofreak. 😙 Ich hab mein erstes Buch von ihr bekommen. 🤗

Now it's time for the important things in life. Lovely @DeborahSmall sent my thus surprise package. I don't know where to look first. 😍 so many lovely things. 😍

👇

Next up.

A week or two ago, someone I was speaking to seemed genuinely surprised that I'd not read this before.

In the bookshop over lunch today, I had ten minutes to choose something before heading back. I spotted this just as I was about to give up on their cryptic display tables and queue for an overpriced wrap at the market instead.

I wish I could remember who I'd been having the conversation with, as now I could say Look: I'm reading it.

A book for the senses. Laurie Lee describes his youth in rural England just after WWI. His home, its surroundings, his family: all are full of colours and smells. Nice read but a bit too sweet for my taste. #1001books

i took this yesterday and its probably one of my favourite pictures i've ever taken! (although i did get laughed at by two middle aged women for reading in public - i mean come on, really???????)

the full picture is on my instagram! the fact you can't post rectangular images is totally messing with the pictures i've got though, especially when the crop tool makes everything so blurry 😥

#RuralSetting #AprilBookShowers @RealLifeReading

Opening line:
"I was set down from the carrier's cart at the age of three; and there with a sense of bewilderment and terror my life in the village began."
#bookgnome #dumbledwarf #laurielee #ciderwithrosie

Actually, cider (and beer) with @LBApple before we see Louis C.K. later.