Welcome to Litsy!

I liked this although it‘s definitely not for everyone. I thought her Latin quest was interesting and her memoir just engaging enough to keep me reading. So a pick for me and a “who knows” for others??? 😝

Is it odd that I liked this book, though I suspect I would not like it's author?

Ann Patty's memoir of musings on the process of learning Latin and how it tied in with or reminded her of earlier parts of her life were interesting. However, as a former editor herself, she really should have got someone to cast an eye over her work.

Although she seems to be a driven, self-reflective but likeable woman, she did come very close to suggesting a gay male friend is an accessory every sophisticated New York woman should have.

This was a pretty quick read and there was some interesting Latin information but some of her attempts to equate her Latin studies and her past felt forced.

"Every dead person is a dead language, and every memory a translation."

I find myself yearning to find a nearby Latin class to audit. #blameitonlitsy @Biljana

At about the 1/3 mark, I started skimming, because OMG Latin!!! 😵I never took Latin; five years of French, a thousand years of Spanish, but no Latin. The author goes into waaayyyy too much detail about declensions and cases and whatnot. It's mind bending. Jhumpa Lahiri's book was much better for being concise.

This book reminded me of Jhumpa Lahiri's In Other Words, in that both are stories of someone studying a language for the sheer love of language. Though in Patty's case it seems to be more a general love of language and in Lahiri's case, a specific love of Italian. #languagelove #language

Full New Yorker review: http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/eat-pray-latin

I bought this one for my dad - but do you think he'll notice if I read it first?