Welcome to Litsy!

It‘s a war story, but it‘s more than that. It‘s an exploration of whether being “neutral” and being “innocent” are the same thing, or even compatible. #bookspin and Q for #LitsyAtoZ @TheAromaofBooks @Texreader (photo is Saigon 1955 from the Internet.)

Hmmm. Who could I be thinking of. 🤔

My #bookspin and #doublespin for June. Maybe next month I‘ll pay closer attention to what I put at number 12! @TheAromaofBooks

I haven‘t read many Q books but I loved this one!

#alphabetgame #letterQ @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

I only had two titles to pick from, but this was an interesting book. It started slowly and demanded a decent amount of concentration; for a short book, it packs a ton of information in it! It had a slow, but nice build towards the ending with a decent twist to finish things off! I should definitely try more of the author‘s work.

#AlphabetGame #LetterQ
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

I think this may be one of those books that works better in print than audio as I‘m sure there was more depth to the story, that the love triangle was a metaphor for foreign intervention in Vietnam just before the US became officially involved. On audio, this is basically a battle between a British journalist and an American spy over a Vietnamese woman. The way Phuong is discussed, as if she was property not human, is gross. ⬇️

#oppositeday #loud @Ruthiella has a high opinion of this Greene I haven‘t read , need to get to it.

“The morning Pyle arrived in the square by the Continental I had seen enough of my American colleagues of the press, big, noisy, boyish and middle aged, full of sour cracks against the French, who were, when all was said, fighting this war.”

My all time favorite Greene-takes place in Vietnam 🇻🇳

#LitsySpringBreak. South East Asia

An indictment of America's growing involvement in Vietnam that proved to be prophetic when it was written in 1955, the book often gets cast as an anti-American screed, a message many found hard to take from an upper-middle-class Brit whose own empire was waning after centuries of being the most efficient killing machine since ancient Rome. But there's plenty of evidence in the book that Greene admired America's naive optimism, and I think...👇

I finished both a slow #ChapterADay reread of Pride & Prejudice with #PemberLittens and a quick few day read of this book today. Such very different experiences but both enjoyable!

This was a fairly short book, but it required some careful concentration as the story moved back and forth through time. I found it very thoughtful in the way it built towards revealing the truth of events.

#1001books #Reading1001
#TBRTakedown September 2020

I absolutely should not be starting another book right now, but I am. I‘m justifying it by the fact that this one is fairly short, I haven‘t read any #1001books this month, and there are only a few days of September left. So far, I‘m not sure what to think about these characters, but I‘m appreciating the setting of Vietnam since I went into it without knowing anything about it.

#Reading1001 #TBRTakedown September 2020

Three books that made me want to travel:

📚 After reading The Quiet American, I wanted to visit Vietnam.
📚After reading The The Enchanted April, I wanted to travel to Italy in the spring.
📚After reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, I REALLY want to find a doorway to Narnia. I was just old enough to know it wouldn‘t work, which made me a little sad at the time. 😢

#3books

📚 The Quiet American
✒️ Anna Quindlen
🎥 Quadrophenia
📺 Quincy
🎤 Queen, Queens of the Stone Age
🎼 Quadrophenia (the whole album), Question - Old 97s
#ManicMonday #LetterQ

Total dud. Had to stop reading at the halfway point. What am I missing here?

Great story and great reading such that is hard to stop.... till the very end with a surprising turnaround. #2020

The Power and the Glory still is my favorite of Greene‘s, but I want to read everything he wrote. And this was excellent!

I‘m not a huge fan of history or war themed books and luckily I didn‘t let that get in the way of reading this gem! Greene is one of the best authors I have ever read, every sentence plays a crucial role in the book. It took me a few weeks to read this book, I found myself rereading paragraphs to make sure I got the hidden joke or a piece to the plot. The naive role I have taken on politics will have to change thanks to this read! 😉❤️

I‘m loving this book! It‘s surprisingly funny and the writing is so on point. Like the author thought about each placement of each word to make sure the sentences are rich and bold! ❤️

I‘m so excited to read one of his books! I have a few by him but haven‘t gotten around to opening one. Cheers!

One of my goals is to read more classics in 2020. Next up: The Quiet American by Graham Greene #classics #saturdayreading

#AuldLangRead #populartheyearyouwereborn
Both these books were best sellers the year I was born. Gift from the Sea was my mom‘s copy- this edition published the year I was born. I have read both.

I enjoyed the way the Vietnam conflict is represented by the three main characters. Very cleverly done and really smart writing. And yet, I was bored for a lot of this book and kept wishing Phuong was a little more developed as a character.

I think I might have liked this better in print... the narrator was not my cup of tea at all. I also think Graham Greene is maybe not for me, but I have several more to read for #1001books. 🤷🏻‍♀️😂

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Downtown #Saigon

I‘m having a pretty cool literary experience!

A little morning reading in the #mekong #delta
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#vietnam #hammock

Reading while cruising the #Mekong Delta in #Vietnam

Just a little bit of #LiteraryHistory! I‘m staying at the Continental Hotel in #Saigon, #Vietnam - where Graham Greene wrote The Wuiet American… So, clearly that‘s the book I have to be reading right now!

Just a little bit of #LiteraryHistory! I‘m staying at the Continental Hotel in #Saigon, #Vietnam - where Graham Greene wrote The Wuiet American… So, clearly that‘s the book I have to be reading right now!

Wouldn‘t we all do better not trying to understand, accepting the fact that no human being will ever understand another, not a wife a husband, a lover a mistress, nor a parent a child? Perhaps that‘s why men have invented God - a being capable of understanding.

As a comment on global politics, a window onto the reality of war, a character study and a story of a love triangle, this is a novel that works on every level. It may have been written in the 50's about a conflict happening then, but its themes are still very relevant. I wish I'd read it years ago.

My IRL book group is having a Graham Greene month - each of us reading the Greene book or books that take our fancy. I'm starting with The Quiet American and hoping to read at least 2 more.

#AnthonyBourdain recommended this one. I‘ve picked it up and put it down before, it wasn‘t the story I was needing at the time. This time I am sucked in.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Written in 1955, Greene‘s prescient parable cleverly represents the Vietnam conflict with a love triangle. Fowler is a middle-aged british journalist covering the end of French colonialism in Vietnam. Pyle is an American CIA agent who thinks he knows how to fix Vietnam. Phuong is a young Vietnamese woman whose character has little development, though she clearly excels at preparing opium pipes and servicing men who might save her.

I started reading reading this months ago with my best friend. She finished it, but I put it down and never told her😉 Decided to pick it up and stick with it this time.

A story of war, love, betrayal, the meeting of East and West, getting old, and the havoc idealism can wreck on the lives of innocent bystanders. For me the best part is the writing - the ache Greene brings to his characters, the guilt, the sharp insight with which he discovers the pain that underlies the bravado and cynisism. A book that is easy to read but will make you ponder for a long time. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Waiting for the repairman on a snowy day.

#MANICMONDAY #LETTERQ @JoScho

BOOK: The Quiet American by Graham Greene
AUTHOR: Anna Quindlen
MOVIE: Quiz Show
TV SHOW: Queer Eye (the new one on Netflix)
FOOD: Quesadillas (YUMMY!)

Have a great Monday, all!

🍁The Quiet American 🍁The Queen 🍁Anna Quindlen 🍁quiche. #manicMonday #theletterq

A fantastic slice of perspective on culture and history!

Next up, Quiet American by Graham Greene. Coming to the end of the journey Litsy A to Z. #litsyatoz

Anthony Bourdain had listed this as a favorite so needed to check it out. Very good book!!

Hey Litsy, it‘s been awhile. Haven‘t had a lot of time to read lately cause of college prep stuff, but I just finished this one today. On the higher side of so so I would say. Very South Pacific vibes, they take place same place same time so. I‘ll try to post more often as I keep reading!

This was a disappointment, coming so shortly after The End of the Affair. It felt like a lot of blah blah work, blah blah war. The love triangle and the rivalry it caused was mildly interesting. Needless to say, it‘s killed my Graham Greene buzz for the time being. I have a couple more of his books that I still plan to read at some point.

My current read. I think I only read one book in between, The End of the Affair and this is my second. Have you read Greene? Do you have a favorite? #litsy #book #currentlyreading

There are some deep and murky moral waters here as Greene questions idealism, liberalism, accountability, colonialism and war. Fowler and Pyle are brilliantly nuanced from Fowler's selfishness and cynicism and Pyle's idealism and naiveté. Both strew pain in their wake in totally different ways believing that motivations and/or remorse can exculpate them. It's a brilliant, deeply uncomfortable read that balances tension with razor keen prose

It's not every day you have to report a catastrophic risk (and that's a technical term) to your project *sigh*. This calls for a flag of wine and a modern classic!