Welcome to Litsy!

And we‘re down to the last day in our #JumpStart2020 kickoff to our reading year!Some of us have met the goals we set at the beginning,some have far exceeded them & some(like me)have failed miserably😔I pledged a goal of 10 books,instead I‘ve finished 5 & started 5 others.At the moment,I‘m about 100pges into the tagged book about the abduction & Murder of a widowed mother of 10 in Belfast during the worst of The Troubles in the 70s. How you doing?

My #JumpStart2020 day has been switching between these two wildly different books. Even though I‘m a King fan, I believe there‘s a demarcation between his pre accident books & post accident books. But I saw the 1st episodes of the series last night & loved it so bought the audiobook. The other was today‘s #BookMail but I started reading & couldn‘t put it down! I grew up during the worst of the “Troubles” & vividly remember it on the news nightly.

I chose this for #booked2020 #liveandlearn . Since I know little about the “troubles” in Northern Ireland as the author refers to them as. Unfortunately, I don‘t feel like I was given enough background on the history behind the troubles to really understand who all the players were in this story. There is a lot here. A lot of people, a lot of events, and a lot of time goes by. I had trouble following it on audio. Maybe print would be better?

Say Nothing was one of my top 5 in 2019 so of course I had to get a physical copy!

Book mail. I can't wait to dive in!

Wanted to read another of my #newyearwhodis picks from @Mdargusch - (as the first pick she chose was brilliant!). But I‘m away from home and thus my books 😩. So starting this instead. I grew up in London during the IRA bombings and shamefully don‘t know enough about the political story. Hope to rectify that.

I was bad. Again. Bought books for a baby gift and these followed me home 😬

I just finished Say Nothing - it is BRILLIANT!!! If you are at all interested in the Troubles in Ireland, I can not recommend this book enough. I'm kind of gutted by it. It's one of those books that I know is going to stay with me for a long time. I think I could've read it in one less day, but I kept stopping to google things. Now, I'm going to switch mental gears and watch the Golden Globes!

Absolutely stunning. Keefe brings the “war” to life in an immediate and haunting way. Reading this books, it‘s hard to determine the scope of the destruction The Troubles brought to Ireland, though you feel the desperation and fear of the countrymen. I found the reaction of the Provos IRA members, such as Delores, particularly poignant, as the moral and ethical ramifications of the what they had done were impressed upon them during peace time.

#NewYearsDayBrunch #coffeeandbooks #celebration #NewYearNewYou #WonderousWrdnesday
🎆 We celebrate New Years Day with a brunch of quiche Lorraine (my Mom‘s name!), fruit, muffins, coffee, tea(my son is a tea drinker).
🎆 Hard to say, but picking Say Nothing, 5 *****
🎆 @Cweeeevs @TheAromaofBooks @Come-read-with-me @ameliaR230 @Jess861

#DecemberStats #FavoriteDecemberRead
Stats: 15 books, of the 15, 4 audio
1 non-fiction*****
10 mystery- 4 of the 10, audio
2 fiction; of the 2, 1 political parody
1 YA fiction
1 poetry
Favorite December Read: Say Nothing*****

THIS is why I wait until the 31st to do my best of the year/decade lists.

Absolutely extraordinary.

5⭐️

I always love President Obama‘s book lists! I especially love that Say Nothing, my number one pick of 2019, is on his list too. I also read and enjoyed Furious Hours. I‘m saving this list here to refer back to later. Cut off from the screen shot is The Orphan Master‘s Son by Adam Johnson.

This excellent audiobook kept me company through my Christmas baking and gift wrapping. The subject matter wasn‘t exactly cheery for the holidays, but the story was absorbing and the narrator was perfect. The publishers have been advertising this book as a true crime thriller, but I found it to be a narrative nonfiction account of The Troubles in Northern Ireland. I chose it after seeing it appear on “Best of the Year” lists, deservedly so.

#FriyayIntro

1. Great nonfiction book tagged 📖
2. Caution: Extreme laziness coming! I love reading in my Tempurpedic adjustable bed 🛏
3. I‘ve wasted a lot of time watching impeachment hearings; good time spent on Dems‘ debate 📺
4. Baby Groot, but to be honest these figures are not really my jam—I know that‘s heresy on Litsy—sorry! 😐

@Andrew65 @EadieB @Crazeedi @squirrelbrain

Tagged book is on my Santa list 🤞🏼

https://bookmarks.reviews/reviews/say-nothing-a-true-story-of-murder-and-memory-...

#snowdaylunch #ChristmasCards

Lunch on this cold icy day. Started some Christmas cards. The nerve injury to my writing arm is better but keyboarding & hand writing are among the activities that aggravate it & increase pain. Dave that for work but hope to get some cards done slowly as well.

I can tell from the first few pages this is going to be a tough one. As a child of the 70s who grew up in the UK close friends with children of RAF parents in the 80s and early 90s, I very much remember that terrorism wasn‘t always as easy to blame on the ‘other‘ as it is nowadays. When we got our driving licences, we knew that we didn‘t touch any car without checking the wheels for suspect devices. I remember the events of this book at the time.

#theTroubles #grace #sliveroflight
Father Alec Reid,while understanding his Republican community in Belfast,abhorred the violence on both sides. He is administering the last rites to Corporal David Howes (British military)whose car turned into a funeral procession of those who had been killed when an East Belfast loyalist threw grenades,guns on a previous funeral,killing 3 & wounding 60.The crowd pulled he & another from their car & killed them.

I never do a #weeklyforecast cause I‘m a moody ass Scorpio BUT I‘ve read the first 80 pages of the tagged and am hooked. The Whisper Man is the book club pick for my local indie and I promised some folks I would go. Place your bets as to whether this introvert will show.

#snowday #coffeeandbooks #Mondaymorning #teachersoflitsy
First we had a 2 hour delay-two hours later we had a snow day!Meanwhile Robert shoveled out the car.Then I proceeded to get it stuck in a snow bank! After shoveling etc, I finally drove it out.Just then, while still in the car, a text came through that school was closed.So happy- it‘s icy & snowy & after my major car accident when I turned 30, I have be shy to drive in bad weather. Saved!

#weeklyforcast #nonfiction #mysteryoftheweek #holidaycheer
Hoping this week to continue reading Say Nothing ( on pg 200) #nonfiction
Finish The Disappearance of Alistair Ainsworth #mysteryoftheweek
Read A Maigret Christmas #holidaycheer
Here‘s to a good reading week!

#Saturdaymorning #SunshineBlueSkies #34degrees #nippy
#booksandcoffee

Breakfast rather decadent: hot apple pie with whipped cream, french roast in my new cat mug, thanks to @Jee_HookedOnBookz . I just love the feel of the warm tail around my fingers!!!
Happy Sunday all! I hope to head out fir a walk later.

#odyssey #escapeplans #thetroubles #saynothing
Brendan Hughes,IRA,Belfast,escaped from Long Kesh prison much like Odysseus escaped from Cyclops‘ cave.

#hungerstrikes #theTroubles
This book is teaching me so much about this time in Irish history. Using hunger strikes as a political statement dates back to the Middle Ages in Ireland.
Apologies for the state of the quote. Hopefully you can read it. 🤪

#catsoflitsy #Thanksgivingmorning #gratitude

So thankful for Em & Poe & this riveting book on this Thanksgiving morning. And if course, my coffee, not pictured but by my side!
😻😻📚☕️🦃

#BookReport
Finished A Murder in Retribution #SoSo #kindle
Finished Lilli de Jong #LilliRead
Finished November Road #botmbuddyread #Rivoting #5stars
Started The Ruin #audiomystery 61% finished
Finished Silent Voices #mysteryoftheweek Adore Vera!
Started Say Nothing #nonfiction Reads like a novel

https://apple.news/AATKMhC0UTaKVO4aO-STxWQ

Update: Meghan :Biography Say Nothing : Released This Year #nfNovember

Don‘t go first

A gruesome form of natural selection

An engrossing nonfiction narrative that reads as smoothly as a novel. I found this fascinating and horrifying. The book focuses most heavily on a few leaders in the IRA during The Troubles— Dolours and Marian Price, Gerry Adams, Brendan Hughes and, as a counterpoint, the kidnap and murder of Jean McConville. Through this lens we see the movements and motivations of the militant IRA and the effect those actions had on ordinary Irish people.

This book is amazing. So well written, and reads as a novel. Even having grown up in the IRA “troubles” era, the sheer length of the conflict had much of the world engaged, I didn‘t entirely understand it. This book will explain it well and have you engaged throughout. No wonder it‘s winning accolades. #nfNovember

Next up. #nfnovember These library holds all come at once!

Incredibly well researched, well written and accessible book about the Troubles in Northern Ireland, focusing on IRA members and the disappearance of Jean McConville. Such an important topic for people in England particularly to educate ourselves on right now, when we have to be so terrified of what our brexit mess could do to Ireland. I learned so much from this and recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more.

This was an incredibly well-researched book. I absolutely loved it and knew nothing about Northern Ireland‘s struggles until reading this and now I have a new interest.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2

A work of narrative non fiction I wish I had read prior to reading Milkman and For the Good Times. It‘s just a stellar bit of work that manages to convey the complexities of “The Troubles” while not letting the weight of all that history bog it down. By allowing the reader a hook with the story of Jean McConville it is constantly reminding you of the cost of political violence and asking you does the ends justify the means.

Sometimes my local library really comes through.

The National Book Award long list for nonfiction came out today. This is my favorite award category! I absolutely loved Say Nothing, and I‘m reading Thick now. I hope to get to several of these before the awards are announced.

Not the best Nonfiction I have read this year but still recommend (4/5⭐) Listened via Scribd

I started this book on audio but even with a great narrator I could not focus so I waited for the ebook from the library. When I started that I thought I would end up bailing until suddenly it changed from a book I struggled to read to a book I seriously could not put down. This is nonfiction that I would reread and is definitely going to be one of my favorite books of the year.

Starting my new audio 🎧narration is 👌🏽♥️

While I recall the Chumbawamba song I had to look up the meaning of #tubthumping . Urban dictionary says it is what the Irish did as part of their revolt under English rule...so free association brings me to this nonfiction title about Northern Ireland that I want to read...maybe for Nonfiction November?🤔
#RedroseSeptember

1972, Jean McConville, 38 yo mother of 10, was dragged from her Belfast home, her children clinging to her legs. Her abduction was one of the most notorious episodes of The Troubles. This book is a searing chronicle of the lengths that people will go to in order to pursue a political ideal, and the ways in which societies mend – or don‘t – in the aftermath of a long and bloody conflict. I found this book most interesting. Highly recommended!

This mornings audiobook.

#summersendreadathon

This book is so good! It goes into detail about “the troubles” in Northern Ireland by focusing on a few notable participants in the 1970s and ‘80s, but it includes what happened to those who eventually died in later decades and those who were still alive at the time the book was written. I think the author did a great job of remaining impartial.

I loved listening to this audiobook, but be warned that the narrator has a strong Irish accent.

Patrick Radden Keefe's Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland is a fascinating, horrifying account of The Troubles. While nominally focusing on the Disappearing of widowed mother-of-ten Jean McConville, the book broadens quickly into an investigation of the IRA's top operatives, ranging from the 1970s (and some history of what came before) to modern day. (continued in comments)

The disappeared. Too much has been lost and sacrificed during the path to the peace.