Welcome to Litsy!

A pick, but with reservations.

Bunny is hard to love, & by her own admission, even harder to like, particularly in the grip of her (severe) mental illness. Yet she never gives up on herself & never stops trying to find her way back to the world.

The novel (& Bunny's personality) really starts to sing once she has her New Year's Eve breakdown & she is hospitalized. But then the book just sort of... ends. And I get it, but still, it's jarring.

I loved this. Bunny is a vivid, strong character who sees the world darkly, is not easy to like but as she says ‘has feelings too‘. Trying to cope with the world (so much of which is absurd, as she observes with pitch-perfect dry wit), overwhelmed by depression, yet she is mature & self-aware. Her relationship with her husband is beautifully portrayed (‘Albie is a good man, but he is not a saint.‘) A very funny book with depth & heart.

Just started this (matching the grey sofa!).

My best reading buddy, Herbie 🐶

Some of this novel is amusing, but mostly it's just bleak. Bunny is a bit like how I imagine I might be if I lived in a huge city in a tiny apartment with annoying friends and no children to distract me from myself. At one point Bunny refers to Stockbridge, MA, when I think she means Sturbridge, MA, which I found a little distracting because otherwise she seems like a stickler-for-details narrator, despite her lies to herself.

Ready to go 🤓
#bookspinbingo

This is an incredible book. Raw and honest and funny and devastating. If you have depression, you will weep just from recognition.

“Generally speaking, I am a headache of a person who is not easy to like” p.32

This perfectly captures how I‘ve felt about myself over the past 2 years. It is so frustratingly accurate!

Here are my top 10 books of 2020!

#bestof2020

@shadowspeak17 We have parallel #NewYearWhoDis experiences: We both included The Memory Police, and I read Flowers for Algernon in high school. :-)

I'm very excited about this list. Vandermeer's 2nd Borne book is a nice surprise, as is this Murakami. I think I'll start with Rabbits for Food and then I'll let the January #bookspin draw help me select the order of the others. The only one I can't find at the library is The Lion's Den.
@monalyisha

1. Rabbits for Food by Binnie Kirshenbaum — It‘s also been my favorite book I‘ve read so far this year.
2. I promised a friend that I‘d read If on a Winter‘s Night a Traveller next, and I‘m also hoping my friends and I will finish our group read of Dune.

#Two4Tuesday

I don‘t think I‘ll get any other books in before the end of the month, so here‘s my wrap up for the second quarter of #booked2020

#MakesYouLOL: Dreyer‘s English
#PanAsianAuthor: The Memory Police
#AnimalOnCover: Rabbits for Food
#WineOrWhine: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This is my first 5 star read of the year, and I would highly recommend it. I found this book sad, funny, and spot on with its descriptions of depression. It was also very readable. I was totally engrossed in the story from page one onward. I loved Bunny‘s character too, although I do understand why some people don‘t. Really, I think this book is definitely worth a read, so if you haven‘t read it yet, you should totally fix that. 😁👍🏽

Thankyou @Cuilin for the tag
1. I love a lovely cover
2. Tagged ! Halfway through & I got distracted by another book ... must return to it soon
3. The radio in the morning/ the telly at 6
4. I‘m usually awake already
5. I tag all who‘d like to join in

#FriYAYintro
@howjessreads @4thhouseontheleft

And I couldn‘t resist ... after the glowing review on Litsy this morning, & there was only one copy left ... 👍🏻💚 ( and it may work for #MakesYouLOL ... that‘s laugh out loud , right ? 🦕

It‘s so rare for a book to successfully be this bleak also this genuinely funny, I have no idea how she manages it! This story about a woman whose depression resists treatment - we see her at home with her husband, having treatment as an inpatient in a hospital, and extracts of her creative writing - shouldn‘t have been so readable but it just was. Razor sharp writing, never self indulgent, but still building to a genuinely touching ending

This one grabbed me from page one thanks to the very distinct voice and darkly hilarious exchanges. We witness Bunny spiraling into an abyss but all the while it‘s the humor that keeps it interesting. It‘s the first book out of the chute this year and I‘m relatively sure I found the novel of the year.

January 2020 started in typical Keeping Up With The Penguins fashion: a glorious mix of old and new, good and bad, happy and sad... I read four books from my backlist TBR (A Single Man, Party Going, The Golden Notebook, and Nineteen Nineteen), and four fantastic new releases (Big Lies In A Small Town, Shark Arm, Such A Fun Age, and Rabbits For Food). Full reviews all here: http://www.keepingupwiththepenguins.com #AllTheBooks #January #Booked2020

Wow I really enjoyed that! Started and finished today. A great choice for a more introspective/introverted weekend.
This is dark and dry humour, somewhat depressing, but honest. Maybe hopeful? But for that, you'll have to judge yourself.
I think I like the end that calls into question any narrator(person) as honest and reliable.

Already loving this. I know Bunny is seen as an unlikable character but I love her. Maybe it's because I'm understanding where the character's comments are coming from, maybe it's because at times I have the same acerbic look at things, or maybe because I dont have to live with her LOL.
anyway, she'll make you chuckle with some #hardtruth

I'm certain I've already found one of my best books of the year. Rabbits For Food is everything I hoped My Year Of Rest And Relaxation would be: hilarious, dark, insightful, sharp, and so, so endearing. Bunny is a protagonist that I immediately wanted to befriend. I'll be pushing this book into all of my real-world friends' hands. Extended review available to subscribers here: http://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/new-releases/ #NewBooks #MustRead

#audiobook walk today. We did not see any rabbits, much to #Stella 's chagrin.
Started this one yesterday because a NYE party is part of the plot, and I enjoy seasonal reading. It's not a happy book by any measure, but I'm impressed by the depiction of depression Kirstenbaum lays out. People who dont enjoy un likable characters are going to have problems with Bunny. I kinda like her though. Must be my inner SW.
#pibble #pitbullsoflitsy

A stream of conciseness tale, told through the voice of Bunny, a writer suffering from extreme depression. Witty and insightful, Bunny is a “headache of a person” not “easy to like” but she‘s clever and sharp and spot on with many of her observations. It took me a little bit of time to warm to Bunny but once I did, I found myself compulsively ”turning” the pages.A wry but serious look at mental health. I listened via Hoopla / great narration 🐰

Up next! I have both print copy and audio lined up. #RoofTopReading 🎧☀️🐰

Display table at work highlighting some staff favorites. Soooooo many good books.

I‘m glad that Kirshenbaum ends the novel by reminding us that this is fiction. Otherwise, I might have forgotten because this reflects my experience with depression more closely than anything I‘ve ever read. Except I don‘t have an Albie to prop me up. But I do have a very supportive cat. 🖤 This book IS funny. And I like the way relationships between the institutionalized are portrayed. Amazing stuff.

Funny how some books have 6+ mo. waitlists at my library and other new audiobooks are available right this second!

One of my favorite books so far this year. I‘m having the hardest time articulating why. I think it‘s the powerful stream of consciousness writing, the voice of the main character, the deep empathy with which this book approaches mental illness. And it‘s funny. I laughed out loud multiple times. I‘m so sad that it‘s over.

This book is extremely upsetting. I can‘t put it down. Can‘t put my finger on exactly why it is so compelling. I think I love it.

Guess who has 3 more books to pick up?!!?! I forgot how amazing the Interlibrary loan system is. I also forgot they charge a quarter per request🤷🏼‍♀️

Binnie Kirshenbaum captures and depression in a way I haven‘t encountered before. Consuming it in fits and starts when my heart can handle it.

A patron just casually dropped this off on my desk like it weren‘t no thang. #doyouevenknowwhoiam?! #itkindalooksgoodthough #rabbitsoflitsy

📌Midway: What kind of ending can this book have?
📌3/4 mark: Ending this book is going to be hard.
📌20 pages left: Maybe she can pull off an ending?
📌5 pages left: How is she going to end this?!!
📌Last page:
This book is really good. It's a fearless, raw account of what it's like to suffer from depression and be institutionalized. It's also hilarious. But how do you conclude that kind of story? Maybe by not writing one at all?

Oh Bunny! She is a total curmudgeon. And her mental anguish is vivid and raw. Her depression is painful to witnesss. And yet, this book is hilarious!

Little bunny foo foo hopping through the forest......

"Even at my mental-health best, I'm not one for Activities." ?
Just a few pages into this book about a woman's mental breakdown, and I've already laughed a few times.
Also, this is the second book I've read this month blurbed by Deborah Eisenberg, a writer who I'd never heard of but apparently should read. ?

I just can't resist the new release shelf at the library!

I wrote about new releases from small and indie presses at Book Riot, including RABBITS FOR FOOD and more: https://bookriot.com/2019/05/10/may-2019-indie-press-books/

🐇

I really liked this! It‘s all about depression and suicidal thoughts, so it‘s not for everyone, but the protagonist was fascinatingly difficult and interesting, and I liked the narratorial voice.

April readings stats! I‘ve got three books in progress, too.

Reading update!

“You need to listen to me,” Dr. Fitzgerald says. “I‘m trying to help you.” For the duration of an instant, Bunny goes blind. Everything is black, tar-black and deep purple, which is then followed by a ring of light, a crisp and sharply edged light framed by fire, and the glow bores through the darkness. This is how Bunny sees rage. Slow and measured, she says, “No, you need to listen to me.”

To try to read the look on Bunny‘s face is like trying to figure out what a napkin is thinking.