Welcome to Litsy!

Now reading. I have just finished the Yazz section and I have to say that what Evaristo accomplished in those 30 pages is pretty remarkable.

Once I adapted to the unique writing style (which happened quickly) I got sucked into the stories. So enjoyable and so many different experiences.

To write twelve distinct, diverse and interesting characters takes talent and ambition. I wouldn‘t be able to say who was who now I‘ve finished it but when reading it they all felt different. I liked the ways in which they connected, and differed. I bought this in 2019 at the Strand when I went to NY for the first time and it‘s one of those books that just holds a memory for me of when I bought it; glad to have finally read it. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Getting reading time in where I can. Holidays aren‘t quite as relaxing with a toddler 😂 but having lots of fun 🤍

Book Three of 2022 Done. I just finished reading this beautiful & different book.! the stories were so beautifully written,the language & vocabulary was crisp & radical.The interwoven stories, the different backgrounds all very vivid and beautifully written.!! The evolution of society, relationships and the modern world is the base of the stories.I am sure one will find oneself relating to some story, some situation when in the deeps of the book.

This book was amazing. 12 different perspectives. 12 distinct identities. 12 people with their own problems, their own victories, their own stories. I just loved it.

Identity. Something I have struggled with all my life. I was born a man, but I've got a confession to make, I've never felt comfortable in a man's body. In fact, there were times it was one of the myriad of sources of despair for me. School made things even worse. "I doubt you are a man" was one of the many barbs that bullies in school used against me, after beating me up, I was accused by them of not being "man enough"....(continued in comments)

This book is absolutely incredible. Evaristo lovingly sketches these women and makes them full, complex human beings, with good traits and bad, spanning so many life experiences. While I‘m sad I didn‘t pick it up sooner, I‘m so glad I just experienced it. It gets all the stars from me.

What a unique structure and writing style Evaristo employs. Without any full-stop punctuation, each line spills into the next as the story jump backwards and forwards across generations. This stream-of-consciousness-flow is balanced with the practical of the day-to-day experiences and relationships that tie these characters together. The story somehow manages to span over a hundred years yet seem firmly rooted in the conversations of today.

In twelve interconnected vignettes, Evaristo explores ways to be British-African. The stories reward close reading-- besides the obvious connections, details from one character play out in another‘s story. It also plays with form; each story has moments of fractured prose breaking into fragments of poetry. The one downside of the creative structure is not all characters are well-drawn and the similarly structured stories began to feel repetitive.

Reading in the boat after a swim in the bay = bliss (apart from when the kids are arguing 🤨)

This was just as good as everybody said. 12 lives in Britain (girl, woman and other), 12 different experiences of the world and 12 different ways of living in it. I loved that it showed different generations and points of view that didn‘t always “get” each other - and yet so much of their experiences interlinked, overlapped, ⬇️

I love how all of these stories intertwined, usually in ways I wouldn't have predicted! A fascinating look between generations and a reminder that someone's surface doesn't show their totality. #contemporaryfiction

This is one of many books I was given at Book club Xmas. It‘s taken me a while to read it as I‘ve replaced my early morning reading with walking. This was perfect for me as it was sort of short stories about different women all connected in some way. Lots of comments on feminism, racism and the political landscape of the time each part is written about. I enjoyed it. Can see why it won.
#joysbooks2021
@MrsMalaprop

Thank you @monalyisha for mentioning the spam folder -- sure enough, that is where my match's #NYWD22 list of books ended up!

@staci.reads has good taste -- I've read, and loved, three of the books on the list. I'm most excited about the three pictured above (one of which I was gifted in last year's #jolabokaflodswap and haven't read yet 😬 ). Now off to research the three lesser-known titles!

There is a lot to admire in this award winning book, the poetic prose style, the diverse female characters, the multiple time lines the characters live in, the sexual spectrum they encompass and then how some characters intersect, drawing it all together. But I just didn‘t care

I‘m struggling to get into this book. Maybe it‘s the season, maybe it‘s the rain, maybe I need another book 🤣🤣 my husband and I dressed up at school yesterday, Frida and the mad scientist

I‘m buddy reading this book with my sister on this crispy autumn day 💛🧡❤️

#currentlyreading

Wow. All the stars and the last few pages brought tears. Evaristo brilliantly brings together so many characters and life stories reflecting the good, bad and ugly of society and our times, as well as the love, beauty and hope as well, all intertwined. My soul needed this novel. And the stream-of-consciousness, prose style worked so well!

I liked it, but I can't say that I loved it. I appreciated its boldness. The author did a good job of creating distinct character sketches of individual women. However, I sensed repetitiveness in the style and a bit of self-conscious virtue-signaling. I also didn't think the sketches tied in well at the end, even though all the characters were somehow connected to each other. Nonetheless, still worth reading for the dynamic prose alone.

This book follows the lives of several black, British women over different generations. I loved it! It felt so unique and candid. I could instantly see and understand the characters, they were so nuanced and detailed and flawed and relatable. A beautiful book and I‘m really glad I read it!

It took three weeks to finish reading this novel. I have got to admit, Bernardine Evaristo is a remarkable writer. I am glued to the book even though the book's content is inversely proportional to my ideology.

This book discusses women and their various sexual orientations, lesbians, non-binary, transgender, etc.

I don't do readathons much, but maybe this will be some additional inspiration to finish my book club reads, including the tagged, my #LMPBC books, and catch up on essays and fiction in the last month's New Yorkers. Thanks for organizing @Andrew65. I think I will take the option of starting today rather than tomorrow. Starting.....NOW! Or when lunch hour rolls around....

💯

Currently in Greece in an interpreting assignment. Could be worse 😉

"life is an adventure to be embraced with an open mind and loving heart" ~ Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other

Usually the Awards Winning books and I don't really get along ? but this one here, it was one of very few books I've truly enjoyed last year.
#CuriousCovers #Yellow ?
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Eggs ? hope you don't mind me jumping into this book covers photo challenge ?
#bookquotes #booknerd #booknerdslife

I liked this! There's so much topics that this book deals with, I feel like it would be an excellent read for a discussion. It's books like this that make me wanna join a book club, but there isn't any around where I live. 😅📚📚

I love how the absence of capital letters and punctuation conveys a feeling of freedom and engulfs the reader. The depiction of issues generations of women have dealt with, some I knew in depth, others less and was grateful to discover, is engrossing; the writing flows in an absorbing way, making the book hard to put down.

"actually it's the commodification of it that bugs me... once upon a time feminists were so vilified by the media it turned generations of women away from their own liberation because nobody wanted to be denounced as one, they're in a lovefest with it, have you seen all this glamorous photoshoots of stunning young feministas with their funky clothes and big attitude...

feminism needs tectonic plates to shift, not a trendy make-over"

Happy to have the chance to read on a plane again after over a year of no flights.
This book is simply unputdownable!

I'm posting one book per day from the ever growing unread stacks in my personal library. No description or explanation, just books I own and plan to read. #tbr

Day 2

Loved this book! The stories are engaging and real, and beautifully woven together. Gorgeous 💚

This was an interesting read; the format is strange with nearly no punctuation or capitalization and odd paragraphs which both helped and hurt the flow. I own it in paperback but switched to listening on #audio and that improved my experience. The multiple character backstories and how they split and intersected was fascinating; being introduced to such a wide cast was really enjoyable. #BookspinBingo #FabulousFebruary @TheAromaofBooks @Andrew65

#currentlisten while #audiopainting

Brilliant; interesting, funny, sad and entertaining. Made me think a lot.

I spent the morning driving around dropping books at Little Free Libraries in my general area and then working on this fun little puzzle my sis gave me, all while listening to the tagged book.

This work was gorgeous and gave me A L L the feels. Some parts were more relatable than others, but the whole thing was just so... real? This was a refreshing read, altho heavy at times. #BookerPrize2019 #BlackAuthors #Feminism #LGBTQ #2021

I really appreciated this book and would recommend it to others in a heartbeat, but it wasn't quite a favourite.

Nevertheless, I really appreciated the cast of characters, the LGBTQ representation, and the discourse about race. I just didn't get on with the writing style as well as I would want to, and that's really my main criticism, which feels like it might be more of a problem within myself than a problem with the book!

I have to fight the urge to quote EVERY line in this book. Such a beautiful fun read 🧡.

“instead he‘s President for Life of our family”
“it was his pulpit and we were his captive congregation”
“she‘s never complained about her lot, or argued with him, a sure sign she‘s oppressed”
“they didn‘t realize unprotected sex meant a dance with death”
“there is someone for everyone in this world”

This book is so so far from my typical read. And it was brilliant! Thank you so so much for the recommendation, @Kalalalatja #newyearwhodis

#bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks
Square 22 ✔️

I wanted to love this because I‘d heard such good things, but it just wasn‘t for me (surprisingly, because queer womxn‘s lit is VERY much my area of interest). I think the stream-of-consciousness narration style and switch from 3rd to 1st person made it difficult for me to feel immersed in the stories. I liked seeing how the character lives overlapped and interlaced, though.

1. Girl, Woman, Other (which is superb!)
2. Yes, I read more in general in 2020-- especially more light reads + found I like audiobooks if nonfiction and read by the author.
3. The Vanishing Half

@ozma.of.oz ☆ #SundayFunday

Wow. I could hardly put this book down. Its untraditional organization and beautifully interlaced characters were absolutely gripping. Gorgeous book!

#Jumpstart2021 #OnNewYearsDay

Some of my top reads in 2020!!

And onto my first fully-2021 book. I know amost nothing about this going in, so I'm very curious.

Day 6. This book should have won the 2019 Booker Prize outright. Evaristo weaves the stories of 12 women/non binary people, spanning the late 19th century through to contemporary times. The lack of punctuation was a little difficult to get used to but then the writing flowed.

Thanks to @Andrew65 for hosting.

For Molly‘s bookclub - loved and loved the vignettes/overlapping stories. No punctuation, no problem.

This book just kept getting better as it went along. My favorite part was possibly the epilogue.

We read this for #SheSaid with @Riveted_Reader_Melissa and the final discussion is Sunday.

#BookSpinBingo square 3
@TheAromaofBooks

📚🍫☃️🥳

Thank you, @BookNAround! I have heard such great things about this book! The chocolate looks yummy too! Happy #JolabokaflodSwap, everyone! And thank you, @MaleficentBookDragon for organizing this fun swap! 💗👏👏👏

@Cathythoughts, thank you for this #jolabokaflod (I can't wait to read it!) and the delicious-looking clementine & dark chocolate!

@MaleficentBookDragon Thank you for organizing!

an enemy of the nation on account of his skin colour
to be stopped and frisked by the cops, which began when he was twelve and looked fifteen, terrified when these grown men manhandled him in the street in front of everyone, tried hard not to cry, sometimes did
their parting shot, on your way, Sunshine, your lucky this time
[...]
I started wearing suits outside of school, even though my mates laughed at me and others thought I‘d become a Jehovah‘s