Welcome to Litsy!

People tend to either like/loathe Zadie‘s fiction writing. I prefer her essays, but this book is my favourite. I was reminded of it when I saw this quote.

The one thing you aren‘t allowed to say in “proper society” is how hard motherhood is, how much it steals from you, how you may not do it again given the chance, which has nothing to do with your love for your children, but the reality of the role. And people will judge you for thinking this.

First Zadie Smith read. Interesting style and quite engrossing. Want to check out her earlier novels and shorts.

I am posting one book per day from my extensive to-be-read collection. No description and providing no reason for wanting to read it, I just do. Some will be old, some will be new. Don‘t judge me - I have a lot of books. Join in if you want!

#ABookADay2023

Decent story, irritating narrator

April is ready to tackle her tbr #catsoflitsy

I love Zadie Smith's essays but always struggled with her fiction. That wasn't the case with Swing Time. I got lost in it and the many themes presented - girlhood, female friendships and how they drift and morph over time, mother-daughter relationships, motherhood (or choosing not to be one), expectations, race, class, education, finance, dance and the love of dance, longing to belong, choices and the lack of choices, the bubbles we all live in.

@Mrs_B @jenniferw88

Any of these that you haven't read or that you fancy? Ward and Walker are essays/short stories. I probably have others on my shelf if none of these work :-)

This one is a tough call, as I like the story and appreciate what all the characters bring, but I didn‘t think the structure worked at all. Often I like a book that jumps around in time, but this wasn‘t done well. I do appreciate the juxtaposition of different races, socioeconomic statuses, and places of origin of many of the characters.

#ReadingAfrica2022 #Gambia

I wanted to like this one a lot more than I did. 😕 I loved the first half, but then it just tanked for me. The narrator became annoying and childish and I just couldn't stand it.

Good morning! I have about one week of summer vacation left and I am soaking it up 🌞📖

#99ponkindle #ukkindledeal #ReadingAfrica2022 @Librarybelle @BarbaraBB

One of the countries I didn't have - #Togo

What a Sunday night looks like when you have Monday off. 👍

Lucas and I asked the salesperson at the furniture store for a good reading couch. I think she hit the nail on the fraking head. (The middle piece folds back up to make it a 3-seater and it reclines. 😉)

#bookspin #bookspinbingo
Second June bingo and on my way to a 3rd before the month ends!
@thearomaofbooks

Is it the heat? Am I cranky? This book gave me nothing. This is my second Zadie Smith and both I felt completely deflated after. It was a slog to get through and my mind kept wondering because none of these characters are interesting.
Happy to have it off my TBR and into my pile for when I get my little free library complete!
#bookspin #bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

#weeklyforcast
Some repeats from last week because reading didn't go so well then. Hoping to finish at least three of these this week for #bookspin and #bookspinbingo!

I wouldn‘t read this Fiction Novel again, however I loved how compelling this storyline was majority of the way through, although losing its touch somewhere just after the middle, it was still a read. Still a book for betterment, a book of race, poverty, love, hurt, abuse and budding friendships. It was a good first read of the author Zadie Smith and it made it to my book journal.

#bookspin& #doublespin!
Excited to get to these.
#bookspin (5) is Swing Time
#doublespin (6) Death of Vivek Oji

Doing some catching up on reviews.

I‘ve read different descriptions of what this book is supposed to be about: dance, immigrant experiences in the UK (which is the reason I picked this book)...it dabbles in these topics & others. There‘s no plot (I wish there was): it‘s about a part of a woman‘s life from elementary school to her 30s. Not very interesting but not completely boring. Doubt I‘ll read more by Smith. #authoramonth @Soubhiville

I'm not really sure what Smith wanted me to take away from this book. There's a lack of focus, like someone threw some vague plot points at her & challenged her to write a story including dance (but not too much), a famous Australian pop star, the Gambia, and no less than 2 preachy characters.

I have zero connection or interest in our unnamed narrator. Her childhood friend was annoying but interesting and sadly her timeline was underexplored.

Audiocrafting (making shaker cards) while listening to the tagged book.

Here's Zadie Smith's Swing Time summing up my feelings so far about Zadie Smith's Swing Time. 🤣
At 54%, I'll finish it, but I still don't love it.

#authoramonth @Soubhiville

Started this audiobook tonight for #authoramonth @Soubhiville

Well, I made it through this one. I thought from the blurb that I would like it more but it just fell flat for me. I really want to like Zadie Smith‘s books, but I haven‘t found the one that speaks to me yet. #AuthorAMonth

3.5 ⭐️

So... Aimee is Madonna, right? She‘s totally Madonna.

There were sections that I found compelling and portions of the writing that I could appreciate, but, man, I just could not find it in me to care - not about the characters nor about the story. I slogged my way through to the end just wanting to get it over with. This was one of those times I wish I could make myself abandon a book. Definitely not going to be near the top of my favorite #AuthorAMonth books 😔 @Soubhiville

I enjoyed this story better than I did White Teeth. I found the relationship between the characters held my attention and kept me wondering how everything would turn out. #AuthorAMonth

I so tried to finish this. I read half but it is not for me.
#AuthorAMonth @Soubhiville

Darn library sticker 😋 Starting my #authoramonth read “Swing Time.”

#ZadieSmith #Authoramonth #loverofbooks #readajourney

@Soubhiville

This is a real page turner (I stayed up far too late last night finishing it). The story opens with the narrator in hiding after being disgraced, and it's quite a journey finding out what happened, jumping back and forth between different points of her life. A great reflection on race, class, gender, and power dynamics in relationships, as well as how friendships can become toxic and go wrong.

#AuthorAMonth2021 @Soubhiville @BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

Although this one was a little better than the other Zadie Smith's I've read, I was still underwhelmed. She definitely has a way with words and writes well, but her stories just feel disconnected to me.

This book follows two friends both with dreams of being dancers. I enjoyed the parts when they were kids, but as adults, I thought the story took too many tangents.

Have I changed? Or has Zadie Smith changed? I really liked White Teeth & On Beauty but read those years ago. I pulled out of my TBR, NW & Swing Time for #authoramonth and bailed on NW almost immediately. Too stream of consciousness for me. Thought I‘d like Swing Time because of my past “dance mom” experience but am not really engaged with the characters or the slow storyline & am pretty sure I‘ll bail 😓. Any of you have this experience? 👇

#authoramonth I started reading Zadie in 2016

Finishing up book four of my Zadie stack here, then I‘ll have read all her books!

🤍I had to start early as library holds came in.

It‘s still snowing it‘s pretty and we are staying in ❄️

Planning my February audiobooks. Swing Time for #authoramonth and The Mountains Sing for #foodandlit #Vietnam and #readingasia2021.

Next up.

What‘s on your #tbr for 2021? Swing Time is high on my list!

I‘m calling it quits. I enjoyed Zadie Smith‘s earlier works but this book is just boring. Two not so interesting girls doing nog so interesting things in a world of music and glamour. I know that the story will move on to West Africa and that might add a lot but I can‘t be bothered any longer.

#Booked2020 #BottomOfTBR

I‘m super glad I found the time to finish my #DoubleSpin for this month, cause I really enjoyed it. Aside from the very (very) multi-layered persepctives on being a black woman in a western-oriented world, I‘m afraid to say I found so many of my own flaws mirrored in our protagonist. The ending was a bit abrupt, but this was a coming-of-(adult)age-story after all, not a whole life-story. Cannot understand why this got so many bad reviews.

#WeeklyForecast 43/20

I am in the middle of Swing Time (which can‘t hold my attention) and just started Death in her Hands.

Malice is my #bookspin and The Dud Avocado the #NYRBBookClub choice.

If I read them all I‘ll finally have some results on my #bookspinbingo card!

This one by #ZadieSmith has been on my radar since 2017. Too many books, too little time!!

#AugustAuthors
@OriginalCyn620
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Here‘s my #BookSpin / #DoubleSpin TBR for next month! I hope there‘ll be a #BookSpinBingo again, too. This method really helps me pick what to read next and keeps me motivated. Thanks for making it happen, @TheAromaofBooks !
1-3 are my current reads (i‘m not sure if that‘s cheating, but who cares), 4 is last months DoubleSpin that I didn‘t get round to.

This was a two star so-so 😬I really wanted to like this book (my first Zaide Smith) so I stuck with it, but the payoff was weak and this story never really delivered. I get what Zaide Smith meant to do, dissecting privilege and biases but she had so many side tangents and her overwhelming amount of words....torture. Did anyone else think Aimee was a nod & wink to Madonna??! I own On Beauty, so I‘ll try it & hope for a better reading experience.

I‘m starting to understand the low Litsy rating 🙄it‘s not that this book isn‘t good, I think it is BUT....geez , Zaide Smith is long-winded. She loves to preen. So MANY words!!!! And you‘re right @charl08 LOTS of storylines going on...every time I think the book is moving forward, it takes 5 GIANT steps backward🙈6 more hours to go🎧

Look at my new listening speed @squirrelbrain I‘m getting there!! Not nearly close to @Megabooks or should I call her #MegaSpeed 😊😘😂 I‘m enjoying both book & audio @Kalalalatja not sure why this has a low Litsy rating ?!? 🤔

This book gets mixed reviews but I enjoyed it. We follow an unnamed protagonist who gets pulled along in the wake of bigger personalities. As a young half caste girl in a working class suburb of London she is a shadow beside her driven academic mother, a competitor with her dancing obsessed best friend and finally a willing acolyte to her famous pop star employer. In all these situations Smith points out how class, race and/or gender become ⬇️

Red wine, good book and woolly bed socks (crocheted by my mother 30 years ago) Also not featured - gas fire and potatoes roasting in the oven. Hub is about to brave the cold and cook large steaks on the bbq because apparently he has Neanderthal leanings and the rented cottage doesn‘t live up to his Steak Standards. 😂😂

For the first time in ages I spent much of the day #audiostitching which made me very happy. 😊
This was my first Zadie Smith novel & I'm of two minds. The language is beautiful throughout but, while this starts as an exploration of identity, friendship, & power, it loses focus midway & by the end the narrator doesn't seem to have grown much. She's the least interesting person in the story. Maybe that's the point but it's frustrating.

This has become my favourite of Zadie Smith's novels. She hooks you from the first page and transports you to different time periods concurrently, following her nameless protagonist. Never confusing, this allows Smith to contrast and compare the experiences of her characters. Race, class, privilege, power, fame are a few of the many themes brought under the spotlight but with skill and subtlety that make the moral messages all the more powerful.

#popsugarreadingchallenge2020: A book with only words on the cover, no images or graphics

Another book that was saved from forever languishing on my TBR through the magic of Overdrive. I love Zadie Smith, I loved this, even when one or two elements didn't work so well for me. She covers so much so well. Her characters are honest and flawed and real. ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2