Welcome to Litsy!

This is the second book I‘ve read by Williams & I just can‘t say how much I appreciate his writing. While this novel definitely has a plot and characters I grew to adore, it is the writing, the turn of phrase, the truths that so resonated for me that made this special. There is a brief lull where I wondered where we were going and why, but it didn‘t matter ultimately. It‘s a meandering, extremely Irish, tale - one I was delighted to sit with.

I have lived with this feeling for years!

My great-grandparents to the US came from Ireland. Is that why I love the writing of Williams so much? Ireland is in my blood and each line of this book feels perfectly attuned to what I need in an Irish story. It meanders & digresses. I don‘t understand how Williams writes the way he does. It‘s so potent & creative and funny and surprising. I‘m moving very slowly through the book which just demonstrates the amount of respect I have for him.

If you‘re a mom and it‘s the first day of school for your little one, you know this feeling.

This made me laugh out loud. It seems pretty accurate. I‘m really enjoying this book. Each paragraph has a sentence that‘s so unexpected.

OK #LMPBC #GroupX : you have set the bar high! Here are my considerations. I was also thinking about The Good Lord Bird but it looks like it‘s over 400 pages. Has anyone read any of these or have any strong opinions either way?

Reading this, inspired by @Cathythoughts if I remember! Always love an Emily Dickinson reference - and aspire to be “not a Good Example” and “a Peculiar Case” myself 😂😂

@CarolynM #ISpy a book with a fish on the cover! Erm, still tbr!

Would you like to look for a book(s) with a house on the cover, @vlwelser @Laughterhp @LauraJ ?

"We tell stories. We tell stories to pass the time, to leave the world for awhile, or go more deeply into it. We tell stories to heal the pain of living." ??

"I love the feel of a book. I love the touch and smell and sound of the pages. I love the handling. A book is a sensual thing. You sit curled in a chair with it or you take it to bed and it's, well, enveloping. You either get it or you don't."

I feel seen! I totally am obsessed with the handling of books! I'm sure you littens feel the same way! ??? Also this book has a slow pace but it's oddly enveloping and oddly beautiful. I love it so far.

#AyUpAugust #rain I read this recently & the story is beautifully told through memories & metaphors of rain .... evocative rain.

“We tell stories. We tell stories to pass the time , to leave the world for awhile , or go more deeply into it. We tell stories to heal the pain of living”

A pick for me ... IRL Bookclub divided on this one. I loved the poetry of it ! There was no real story & too many book references, some said.
I thought it really captured the Irish Parish ... and the rain was a character itself.
.. The sea is the mothership , the rain , the river , learning from the river that everything passes. The salmon swimming against the tide ... loved all the images & metaphors of rain. I could smell it. Evocative rain

When anyone reads Shakespeare they become Shakespeare, or take Yeats , spend an afternoon read aloud , as you do , sounding out the lines , letting the rhythms fall, following some of it and not following all of it, doesn‘t even matter Without you even noticing it at first, just softly , softly , you rise..and human beings become better, more complex, loving,passionate, angry subtle and poetic, more expressive and profound .. Altogether more fine

I need to get started on this one for IRL Bookclub.... I hear good reviews ♥️ what did anyone think ?! Yay ? Or Nay ?

Day 2 for #adventrecommends
This book burst my heart open.
When I‘m forced to choose ONE favorite book, this is the one.

#UnpopularOpinion time. This book is very difficult to like. I heard so many great things about it—but I don‘t know why. The first part is like reading the Bible (he begat him begat him begat...), and the second part‘s not much better. Niall Williams style does not agree with me and is overly lyrical and sentimental. Brutally honest: this book seems like it is something a person would recommend to seem smart and well-read. 😬

So many books on my to read list!

I‘m having a lot of trouble getting into this one. It‘s beautiful, but the writing style doesn‘t agree with me. I‘ve heard such great things that I expect a massive payoff for the effort if I just trudge on, though. Someone reassure me that I‘m not wasting my time! 🤣

Starting this one that‘s been on the bookshelf for a bit. I‘ve heard a lot of great things about the author and the book itself, so...

#BooksAboutBooks

“It's been well-thumbed, at least triple-read, there's that smell the fat orange-spine #Penguins get when their pages have yellowed and the book bulges, basically the smell of complex humanity, sort of sweat and salt and endeavour. Like all the fat orange Penguins, it gets fatter with reading, which it should, because in a way the more you read it the bigger your own experience of the world gets, the fatter your soul.” 🧡🧡

#QuotsyJan18

#tuneintonovember #historystickstoyourfeet This has been on TBR for a while.... I think I heard about on the BBC open book radio show... but I can‘t remember it‘s been so long! 😂.... might just get to it next year if I use it for the weather prompt for #pop18 challenge! @Cinfhen @Robothugs

“My hope is a small h.”

I‘d like any chance to promote this wonderful novel of the chronically ill and #Fragile Ruth.

The scene in which her friend washes her hair is one of the most touching I‘ve ever read.

#Rocktober

"The waiting is the worst for someone like him. He's got all that mind, all that inner country he keeps going in, mines and craters, caverns and dead ends. Mind has Mountains..." I'm meeting a friend for our weekly hike. This time we're going to wander around the gorgeous Discovery Park in Seattle. But she's running late so I'm squeezing in a chapter or two. #prehikereading #amreading #historyoftherain

"We are our stories. We tell them to stay alive or keep alive those who only live now in the telling. That's how it seems to me, being alive for a little while, and the teller and the told." #historyoftherain #amreading

The chronically ill Ruth is, despite what she‘s going through, so cool. Cool and poetic, a combination that makes this book so special. Of course Vincent Cunningham is in love with her! He is also someone to love by the way: the scene in which he washes her hair, I won‘t ever forget. Nor will I forget the last chapter, the last alinea, the last sentence. Man, how Williams can write! My new favourite book. #booker #manbooker

I get lots of rain where I'm from, so I'm choosing this for day 2 #aprilbookshowers photo challenge.
One from my TBR on #weather from an Irish author.

These were the #irishauthors that I found on my bookshelves #marchintoreading
I think this is the first time I've read all the books I show for a challenge 😀

"We are our stories. We tell them to stay alive or keep alive those who only live now in the telling."

I am glad I persisted through the disjointed beginning of this book because the second half was truly beautiful. This book is uplifting in the terribly sad way only an Irish tale can be.

books are living things, they have spines and smells and length of life, and from living some of them have tears and buckles and some stains.

Reading in the back seat while my 17 year old drives, this book offers up the best description of arthritis I have ever heard " the pipes sound like arthritis must feel, an achy resistance to fluidity."

Page 176, and now this is getting GOOD!

A quote of a quote attributed to Robert Luis Stevenson by the narrator: "When I suffer in mind, stories are my refuge, I take them like Opium."

I have to admit all the moving back and forth in the story is losing me. Not that I can't follow, but I can't sustain interest. But this is my selection for my book discussion group at my house. I must finish. the comments here from others that it is a good book are sustaining me. I hope the narrator picks a thread and stays with it a bit.

Books to live by. 'Nuff said. #LitsyRiotLive #bookstoliveby

I want to stay in bed and read this morning, but Jack is arguing that he needs his walk already.

There is too much adrenaline and rhetoric in his blood stream...It's the age of speeches.

What a great paragraph.

"We are our Stories. We tell then to stay alive or keep alive those who only live now in the telling."