Welcome to Litsy!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I listened to this audiobook last week while working (I know I‘m behind in my posts). It was a really easy book to follow along with for those of us who struggle to pay attention while listening and working. It was very suspenseful and I definitely cringed a lot at the husband‘s angry outbursts. But the wife has her share of problems. I recommend it.

~ BOOK REVIEW ~
I read this book a few months ago and am just now getting the review up on my blog. The book kept me on my toes while driving in a storm, just like the characters!!
#bookstagrammer #bookobsessed #bookhoarder #bookstagram #bookaholic #libby #audiobook #listentome #bookworm #bookreview #bookdragon

#MarchIntoThe70s Mark and Maggie embark on a road trip hoping a change of scenery will help Maggie with her recent anxiety. But a late start, a petty argument, their neurotic dog and an unforeseen Tri-State tornado make for a bumpy ride. For a novel of less than 200 pages, this book kind of dragged😕and honestly the bickering between the couple had me pretty worn out. #HighwayToHell

Thanks for the tag @Ms_T
1. Yes, but I piggyback Mr Oryx's account
2. Walking the dog is ideal, but I mostly listen while driving to work
3. When I'm a passenger in the car, I often fall asleep and we have to rewind
4. When narrators mispronounce words or names... Isn't there a proof listener?
5. x1.35 is perfect usually @ke633 #tellmetuesday

I notice a lot of unfavorable reviews for this book, but I absolutely loved it and was sucked in immediately. This couple definitely have some problems to work out. I also perceived them grow and gain self-awareness. I found the story to be suspenseful. I unexpectedly needed some tissues. 😢 I was lucky to have met the author at a book fair last year and she signed this copy for me. 🖊 #MountTBR

A book about a failing marriage that I found disturbing, for #TheHoneymoonIsOver. #MarchIntoOz

While I thought this could be a realistic picture of a marriage going through a rocky spot, I didn‘t enjoy it. The narrator of the audiobook was very good, but the story itself was stressful and very dark. Not for me.

Just finished this and I can't add a review because I don't know whether I liked this book or not! This was a weird quick book about a marriage and an awful road trip. Not sure what to think about this one. @valeriegeary I read it after I saw your comments- think I feel the same way you do!

So. I just finished this. And I think I need to talk to someone about it. Have any of you read this recently?

Sprinkles is feeling shy today. Either that or she is embarrassed that I checked out new books from the library, even though I haven't finished my stack from last week. 🙈

#cantstopwontstop #librarylove

Started this yesterday mid-flight. I had finished one book and wasn't in the mood for the other one I had with me.
E-books are not my fave but #blameitonLitsy, I do sometimes buy them on sale. I will probably start doing that more. 😶 There is something to be said for a virtual library, an array of choices.
Reviews for this book aren't great but halfway through and I still like it.

So I was looking through my audible to see what I wanted to post for #lovetolisten and I came across all these stats that audible keeps! I don't know if I should be worried or excited, but anyway I have over 14 days of listening last year and all these "badges!" #17booklove

It was a short audiobook, it had potential but fell way short. The best part was walking to the park w/my little guy & being outside for a couple of hours while we had a break from the rain💙#24in48

This is a story about the after effects of a mugging on Maggie. The paranoia and fear of the unknown that plagues her and frustrates her husband. There was a whole lot of nothing happening in this book. Luckily it was a quick audiobook and I was listening at the park while the kids played.

This book had potential. A road trip between the Midwest and Virginia is a trip I personally make often. I can even deal with characters I don't like. Still, this book just didn't work for me. The middle made me rush to the defense of Ohio (something a Michigander doesn't often do). It also pissed me off for the people of West Virginia. The husband only grew more ugly in my eyes. And the end... Loved her previous books, but not this one. Skip it.

I couldn't settle into The Midnight Cool, so I've decided to finish Listen To Me. I've slowly been reading through this for the past four months or so. Clearly it hasn't grabbed me, but I keep chipping away at it. It's time to put this one to bed for good - if for no other reason that it will buy me some time to figure out where to go next.

Next up...

And I am 100% sure I heard about this one from @Liberty . If not, I may need some kind of help... 😂😂

Very quick read, sort of depressing story of a marriage and the ominous feeling throughout that something bad is going to happen. But it wasn't what I thought. 4 out of 5.

Reading while watching some beach birds #StAugustineFL

Last panel of the day for me. Lily Brooks-Dalton, Brendan Jones, and Hannah Pittard. "Story telling is human nature." #wordstockpdx

Finished with book 1 for the #readathon. This is a short novel and took me less than three hours to read. I liked how introspective it was and the fluidity of the characters. Mark especially had me constantly changing my mind. I liked him at times and disliked him at times.

#readathon update: I have read a total of 1 hour and 14 minutes so far and spent about 30 minutes cheering readers along on social media. My morning didn't allow much time for reading because we had made plans to take our two smaller children to a local greenhouse. It was a great set up, with a bounce house, corn pit, hay maze, haunted house, and some farm animals. Now that we're back home though I hope to spend the rest of the day reading.

Starting off the readathon with a Cinnamon Dolce Latte from Starbucks and Listen to Me. I love stories about marriage so I am looking forward to this one and the short length makes it perfect for the #readathon. Will only get a short amount of reading time before we take the kids on an excursion but then I hope to read all afternoon and all evening!

I think this did a pretty good job at showing some of those tiny nuances of marriage and being with another person even when you're both going through some things, but the overall storyline of the book... meh. And I wasn't a big fan of Mark, the husband

Next up.

#weekend #readersgonnaread #catsofLitsy #readingbuddy #newbooks

This ominous story is an examination of potential dangers and insidious nature of fear that exists in our every day lives while giving an inventory of the fragile dynamics and polarizing climate of marriage and how their individual neuroses go from friction to harmony within minutes. It's an honest account of the balance we seek and sometimes find in relationships and how that translates to the balance we desire to find in the world around us.

Page 6: "Maggie...dedicated herself anew to her sadness, to the Internet, to any story that might confirm her suspicions of the world, of the turbulent state of humanity."
And with that, Maggie, I'm along with you for this story. Because I get this. I've lived this. This makes more sense to me than anything else could, ever.

I enjoyed the read, I do feel like the ending could've been better but overall I enjoyed the alternating points of view between both characters and the emotions, I understood both of them and exact why they felt that way!

The writing was so good. This is very much a character driven novel and those are my favorite kind. Not a lot happens, but I found the story to be engaging and powerful.

While reading this book and noting the increasingly misanthropic musings of Mark and Maggie, our white, professional, liberal protagonists, I recalled a certain "creative" translation of a line from the Dammapada: “We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world.” (Full review on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1747239243?book_show_action=false)

I have no idea where this book is going but this road trip is so familiar I could cry. I once directed my husband to what Google maps claimed was the IKEA but was really just some random office building in the industrial part of the city. I had been to this Ikea before 😳

A road trip. A young couple, their marriage on the rocks. Maggie's trauma from being mugged months back having been reopened by a murder in the neighborhood. Mark's compassion and understanding on the wane. The reader, on the edge of their seat – but why? Who or what's dangerous? What's lurking behind the next corner? A violent storm, yes, but is that all? In wonderfully literary prose, Pittard creates a mindfuck of an eerie tale. Unputdownable.

When you can't find a book because you can't remember the name so you start scrolling through your tbr and fall into a Litsy rabbit hole and then realize you've had it on your e-reader for a week 😳 #booknerdproblems #couldhavebeenreading

Plus a pet peeve is factual errors.

There was no veterinary program at Howard University when Maggie attended veterinary school.

Storms move west to east (or more precisely southwest to northeast) over Cincinnati.
😡😡😡 Get your facts straight Pittard!!!!!

Yup. Still can't read books about unlikable married couples! I thought the dark part would be enough to make me feel differently, but nope. Will probably come back later. Plus, a spoilery reason in a spoiler tag.

Just started this while keeping my grandson, despite mixed reviews I was intrigued so giving it a go.

#currentlyreading #augustofpages #augustphotochallenge I'm dealing with depression today. I'm hoping it clears up soon. ❤️💙 Litsy, obviously!

#currentreads #augustbookofpages #currentlyreading

I'm actively reading the first 8, all except The Tudors of which I hope to finish this month - probably too ambitious.

I've delayed getting that far into the Backman novel, and have put Pilcrow on hold temporarily, in order to try to pull that off.

The last two are the books my cousin and I are reading aloud to each other for the Read Harder challenge so those only get dipped into occasionally.

My #currentlyreading stack is ridiculous. I'm going to spend most of my time this weekend on Just Listen to Me and The Vegetarian since they're due at the library soon.

I'm trying to read a short story each night from Frangipani Hotel. Loving it so far!

The Serpent King is my at-work lunch read. It's taking a while to finish, but it's fantastic!

NOS4A2 and Awakening of Sunshine Girl are both audios I'm working through.

#augustphotochallenge

🎧 #AudiobookReview | Beautiful, astute novel about marriage. Maggie & Mark's marriage is strained after she is mugged & now deals w/daily trauma & fear. On a roadtrip, they hit a terrible storm that tests their abilities to understand & trust each other. Pittard's lush prose sings w/Xe Sands' voice. She makes acute, insightful observations about individual tics, trauma, & how we make relationships work despite hardship. 🌧

TRIGGER WARNINGS👇🏼