Welcome to Litsy!

Being not just guilty of war crimes, but feeling proud, right, strong, and just because of them, is hard to imagine. What people are capable of, what nations go to great lengths to foster turns your blood cold. How pointless it all seems too. How far flung people became involved in conflicts of foreign nations. How over 100,000 people could lose their life over a rail road that is later simply dismantled.

“And in the deepest recesses of his being, Dorrigo Evans understood that all his life had been a journeying to this point when he had for a moment flown into the sun and would now be journeying away from it forever after.”

#alphabetgame #letterN @alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Australian prisoners in a Japanese POW camp are assigned the grueling job of building the Thai-Burma Railway, also known as the Death Railway. Extraordinary novel. Winner of the 2014 Man Booker Prize.

#Train #SavvySettings
@Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks #ReadingAsia2021 @Librarybelle @BarbaraBB

It seems this month I'm reading lots of emotional books. 💔

This book is so well written, but it is difficult to read because the descriptions are so vivid. It was hard at times to keep going, but at the same time I just had to see it through.

I feel this is one of those books that people need to read, but be prepared because it will take an emotional toll on you.

#BookReport 15/21

A productive week, although I put the tagged one in hibernation. The Shalev is this week‘s favorite!

I feel ashamed of myself but I can‘t focus on this book at the moment. Too much going on in real life to be able to concentrate on the horror of Australian POWs working the Burma Railroad in what‘s now called #Myanmar. I don‘t bail, I want to read it one day. Just not now.

#ReadingAsia2021 🇲🇲 #booker

As per the blurb, this was both devastating and beautiful.

It started off with such gorgeous writing but then, once it reached the ‘Death Railway‘ in Burma it became almost impossible to read. The descriptions were so vividly unpleasant that I wanted to bail more than once.

However, I do think it‘s important to read such histories, even if they are fictional, so I persevered and I can see how it won the Booker.

#readingasia21 #myanmar

I‘ve only just started this last night @Caroline2 so I‘m only a couple of chapters in. It is rather beautiful though, and I love this quote.

Let‘s hope that this is not only a good book, but also a great book!

I get the feeling that it might turn a bit traumatic soon though....

Hey @Caroline2 - look what has *finally* come up as my #bookspin book! When would you like to start our #buddyread?

Also, could my #bookspin and #doublespin books be any more different?! They are polar opposites.... but that‘s the fun of #bookspinbingo...

I‘ll do my full board tomorrow. Thanks for the numbers Sarah!

This is the best book I‘ve read in two years.

Agonizing and so so sad...yet i couldn't put it down. I had to finish this story, as painful as it was.

Wow this was so hard to pick the #top10ofthedecade ! I have picked books published in the last 10 years that I have read that have stuck with me...I can remember how I felt reading them now. Ones I would recommend unreservedly!
I have read many other brilliant classic books this decade like A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Anna Karenina, Frankenstein, Dracula, and books by favourites John Le Carre, Peter Temple, Ken Follett and Edward Rutherford ❤️❤️❤️

For me and my daughter

I don‘t like having to give this a So-So rating. It‘s very worthy - 12 years in the writing, drawing on his father‘s experiences as a PoW. There are some incredible scenes, that will stay with me for a long time. But the whole Amy/Dorrigo/Ella thing - ugh; the female characters are poorly developed, and I really didn‘t care about them, and the only time I felt anything for Dorrigo was in the makeshift operating theatre.

Are you ready to hit the narrow road to the deep north?

#HitTheNorth
#RedRoseSeptember
@arlenefinnigan
@Cinfhen

I couldn‘t think of any #avenuesandalleyways but I‘ve got a narrow road?! 🤷‍♀️ (I still haven‘t read this yet. 🤦🏻‍♀️) #ayupaugust

This book covers two broad themes: the effects of war, and the nature of love. That's a lot to tackle, which is probably why Flanagan did the former so much better than the latter. I think he would have been better off just chopping off the entire first third off the book, like cutting off a gangrenous limb (as the characters had to). Full review here: http://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/the-narrow-road-to-the-deep-north-richard-fl...

I am going to bail on this audio 10 hours in - feels overwritten (self-conscious) and repetitive. IMHO the cruelty and horrendous conditions described would have been more impactful in a shorter work.

#wanderingjune #roadtonowhere

A bit of a stretch but the Burma Railway felt like the road to nowhere while the POWs were building it in WW2. And it says road in the title - so that‘s close enough 😋

I loved this book. I know a number of people disliked the jumps into present and past but I needed those jumps to give my head some space from the POW experience! So many memorable scenes in this, some harrowing, some filled with love.

I haven‘t read this yet, it‘s on my TBR shelf, but it certainly sounds like a #highwaytohell, being set in a Japanese POW camp....

#maymoviemagic

I‘ve had this book on my TBR shelf for 4yrs now! 😲 #long&windingroad #beatlemaynia

I‘m home sick today, which gave me the perfect opportunity to scroll back through all (!!!!!!) my posts while watching old seasons of Drag Race. I posted my first post in May 2016, and while I started on a negative note (still don‘t like the book), my Litsy experience has been beyond positive and wonderful ❤️❤️ #LitsyMemories #FirstPost

"Like you've thrown a plum and an orchard comes back at you. [...] These two completely different things, a note and a room, finding each other. [...] Do you think that's what we mean by love, Mr Evans? The note that comes back to you? That finds you even when you don't want to be found? That one day you find someone, and everything they are comes back to you in a strange way that hums? That fits. That's beautiful."

I‘ve read a lot about WWII but knew nothing of the railway through the Burmese jungle built by Australian POWs. The topics are HUGE- love war death obedience honesty loyalty forgiveness. Flannigan made me see all these in a different light. It‘s a brutal but brilliant read. I loved it in audio, the narrators New Zealand accent was very compelling.

2014 #manbookerprize winner 📖🏅

I'm not familiar with war novels. This one describes war atrocities so realistically that it almost completely overshadows the love story

Blimey.
Not sure what to say about this one. Horrid detail in the POW section but that was expected and contributed to the plot. Beautifully description about life and love in other chapters. Characters are so simple to imagine. But it's left me feeling quite sad. Which I guess it would. And should. Very glad I've read it though.

I've wanted to read this for some months and now beginning it.
Beautifully written :)

Part war story, part coming of age - this is a great book.

My choice for #adventrecommends
What I loved about this book was the honest and disturbing perspective of the Japanese during the building of the Burmese Railway of WWII. Unsettling and astonishing.

This is a gripping, vivid story about death and violence and the terrible traits of humanity, and all the ways we destroy and degrade and torment each other. It was inspired by the author‘s father‘s grueling experiences as a POW working on the notorious “Death Railway” during WW2, in which starving and dying prisoners were forced by the Japanese to hack through the Burmese jungle and build a railway from Bangkok to Rangoon. It's not an easy read.

I‘m so behind with my bookstagram posts - I read this back in the summer when I had pneumonia but the book‘s impact has lingered (much like the impact of the pneumonia unfortunately). It doesn‘t flinch from the horror of the Burma death railway and the evil of those who ordered its construction.

Having lived in Tasmania for many years, this novel, of course resonated with me and made me smile when it spoke of places that I am deeply familiar with. The actions of my neighbour, a WWII veteran who would get drunk, sing and piss on his lemon bush makes a lot more sense now. Also I've heard criticism of Darky ending up being Dorry's nephew but this is so possible, everyone is connected in Tassie.

All that war, all that pain, all that loss - amounting to nothing.

A day to die.
Collective death.
Prompted me to wonder whether humans have gone to war in an attempt to give death more meaning rather than getting old and fading away one night.....

I am loving this beautifully written book. It‘s nice to be reading as it‘s been a tough week with no time for books.

I read a lot of historical fiction, and specifically a lot of WWII era historical fiction, but this book has stuck with me since I read it more than two years ago. Dorrigo Evans isn‘t the most likable character, and this is a hard read with scenes of a Japanese prisoner of war camp and so much suffering, but this book is wonderfully written and powerful.

#Australia #AugustIsATrip

"Who he was he had no idea..." I get the sense that Dorry will never have an idea. Will that be the point of the book? It does seem to question existence and meaning quite regularly. I am enjoying this novel but not finding it as poignant as perhaps it was meant to be.

#Newyearreads #Flowers #ozfiction 📚📚📚🇦🇺👊

A good book, he had concluded, leaves you wanting to reread the book. A great book compels you to reread your soul.

It has been on my reading list for a while so I was slightly disappointed that it wasn't a book I couldn't put down. That said, some parts of the book left me thinking so I would still recommend a read.

My haul from the Lifeline book fair #toughguybookclub #lifeline #richardflanagan #scifi #orwell

#Firstsentence @BarbaraBB what a great idea ! I haven‘t read all this book ( but I intend to ) the opening paragraph ( not sentence ) I love this” toddling back & forth in and out of transcendent welcome...into the arms of women who loved him “ ❤️❤️❤️I tag @jdtchicago @TrishB @Andrew65 @Ms_T @Centique @EvieBee @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Izai.Amorim & all Littens 💖

Book 4 that I've started today. It's been a great day so far despite the constant headache. I know this one is going to be hard, but also hopefully great.

Three strong books set in jungles, and the much tamer one behind our apartment. Still too many wild boars and snakes for my liking! #welcometothejungle #Rocktober

#Snacks, snacks, snacks. My sweet-tooth is indecisive today and for some reason I'm just not connecting with this book 🤔
#30daysofreadathon

I was tagged by @kspenmoll and - pile of #blue books for #boockcolortag
tagging: @batsy @BarbaraBB @Izai.Amorim @maich @Ms_T and the color is #gold or #silver

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