Welcome to Litsy!

This was a highly affecting book about all kinds of love.

Set in Trinidad, we meet Betty, Solo, and Mr Chetan, and follow their little family for many years. They felt like real people to me, and their stories moved me much more than I expected. It snuck up on me as I gradually got drawn into their lives.

Content warning for domestic violence, self harm, and extreme homophobia.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

4 out of 5

A story of unlikely companions, Betty, her son, Solo, and Mr. Chetan, spanning over a decade as they each reconcile with their past and its impact on their ongoing relationships. Not my kind of novel at all, but I did appreciate the rich cultural insight into life in Trinidad. 4/10

#12BooksOf2022 @Andrew65
My favorite read in January set in #Trinidad about a found family left me with #AllTheFeels and audio narration was outstanding 🙌🏻🎧

My new favorite L book!

#AlphabetGame

#AlphabetGame #LetterL

Other books starting with L:
Life after Life by Kate Atkinson
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara.

I really liked this book. #OwnVoices and lots of family drama to boot. Pick this book up if you are looking for all the feels!

Happy Birthday @julesG 🎂 my birthday twin. Thankyou for these presents. I love the book case 👌and the book and the little case with its own stickers.
I hope we both have a great day 👯😘

I completely totally loved this book up until the point I loved it slightly less.

When Mr Chethan takes up lodgings with Miss Betty and her son, Solo, they little expect how close they‘ll become. Early on, secrets are shared and everything changes. I loved all three main characters & the relationships between them, the little details, the Trinidadian food. And the author‘s narration is just perfect.

Oh this is a heartbreaker. The story of Solo, his mother and their lodger; this covers so much yet with a lightness of touch that then leaves you reeling from the blows. The story takes in domestic abuse, homophobia, illegal immigration as well as families, motherhood, friendship and belonging, and somehow also manages to be funny as well as very touching. Did some crying.

What a lovely book! I enjoyed this deeply felt and raw story of 3 people making there way in the world the best they can through pain, loss, and love. The setting in Trinidad was so interesting and I loved listening to the author read it on #audio . Her voice and accent were gorgeous! #Doublespin @TheAromaofBooks #Booked2022 @Cinfhen @4thhouseontheleft @BarbaraTheBibliophage #Pantone2022 #Cascade @Clwojick

Here is my February #BookspinBingo board! I love the fresh possibilities in a new month‘s board!

#readaroundtheworld #trinidad&tobago Thanks to @sprainedbrain I found this beginning book for 2022 readaroundtheworld. Up until then my reading had been slow slow. This was a rich world of relationships in a found family. I also could not help but cry.

Really loved my pick for #ReadAroundTheWorld for #TrinidadAndTobago 💕

Beautifully written story about a found family, with more than their share of struggle, pain, and heartbreak, but also just brimming with joy and hopefulness. I loved Betty and Mr. Chetan so much, but appreciated Solo as well. I cried like a baby a couple of times, but that‘s ok because when I say I also laughed out loud a lot, that‘s not a figure of speech.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Lots more #audioshoveling on the agenda today in the gods damned winter f$*%ing wonderland.

#audiostitching

This was a Christmas present. I‘ve done odd bits of cross stitch before, but my only attempts at embroidery were back in primary school, so it may end up wonky. I do quite like it though…

And this book needed to be on audio ❤️

I struggled with this one. It is well written but the characters did not click with me. I started reading it in print form and then switched to audio. It may have not been the right time for me to read this.

Thanks to much deserved Litsy-love (thanks for the rave reviews, @AnneCecilie & @Cinfhen ), I decided to dive into this #audiobook for #TrinidadAndTobago- the first country to kick off the #ReadAroundTheWorld challenge! Performed by the author (with no wonder she included a section of an American complimenting the beauty of the Trini accent!), this is a story of the family we make, the love we take (& give) & the secrets we keep. #AudioColoring

A heartfelt story of friendship, motherhood and what constitutes a family. Betty is a single mother, raising her son with the help of her lodger & colleague; Mr. Chetan. When Betty shares a secret with Mr. Chetan the fallout threatens to destroy her relationship with her son. This book set in Trinidad contains all the flavors, colors, foods and energy of the Caribbean. I LOVED IT!!!! #Booked2022 #TitleRepeats #Pop22 #FoundFamily

I read a lot of great books in #August #8thbookof2021 so it was hard to choose one. But I ended up with picking this because I think this has stayed with me the most after reading.

#12Booksof2021

Honorable mentions: Everybody by Olivia Laing, The Rain Heron by Robbie Arnott, Things I don‘t Want to Know by Deborah Levy, The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid and A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson

Hurray for #2022 challenges 🎊🤗🎉🤗I‘m LOVING this audio. It‘s really heartfelt/ parts hilarious-parts heartbreaking. Betty is a single mother, deeply devoted to her only child, a son, but she‘s carrying a secret that threatens to destroy their bond. Author narration is FABULOUS 🙌🏻 #pop22 #FoundFamily #Booked2022 #TitleRepeatsItself

This is my #LastFirstAudio for 2021/2022 💗It was on @AnneCecilie #Top21of21 list and Erik Karl Anderson listed this as his favorite audio of 2021!! I‘m LOVING the accent and I‘m already sure, I want to read MORE Caribbean fiction!!!

A loved this book. A widow lives alone with her son. She‘s looking for an tenant and a colleague at her work is looking for a place to rent. He moves in. A book about family and how this isn‘t only the people you are related to.

TW: Domestic violence and self harm

The voice! I‘m “happy as pappy” when I encounter distinctive voice, and it works in all three of the rotating points of view. The characters in this unconventional family in Trinidad will live on in my heart. Also, all the talk of Trini food, liming and wining reminded me of the wonderful time I spent as a host for a Trinidad-Canada exchange. #LGBTQ

This is exactly how much description I like when I‘m reading about a sexual encounter. 👌

—I would hug you up but it look like you forgot where the shower is. And shave nah, man. I tired telling you that hair on your face don‘t take you.
He stared at me and I could tell he wasn‘t overjoyed. Politeness stopped him from saying it out loud but I knew he was probably asking himself—what the ass this woman think she doing coming to my flat and bossing me around? When he didn‘t move, I squeezed his arm. ⬇️

Oh, the colour made her look like she was swimming in callaloo soup. I won‘t say boo, but you see the replacement yellow sari she bought? Now she‘s drowning in dhal.

(Internet photo)

Oops. Went to the library to pick up one book that came in for me!! I want to read them all right now! Reader problems.

I very much enjoyed reading this exploration of different types of love and their affects. At times humorous, at times heart wrenching, Persaud‘s writing gives it a light touch that makes it very readable.

#12Booksof2020
@Andrew65

2.5 hours reading today for the #NovelNovember readathon saw me finish my #BookSpin selection. This is a beautifully written exploration of different types of love - a mother‘s love, a son‘s unconditional love for his father, forbidden love, destructive love. There are some tough moments, but Persaud‘s light touch stops it from being mawkish.

(TW for self-harm)

@Andrew65
@TheAromaofBooks

I‘ve done very little reading in the last few weeks so I‘m aiming to get at least an hour in each day for the #NovelNovember readathon. 2.5 hours today so that‘s a good start.

@Andrew65

Loved it! Audible is read by the author and I think I enjoyed it all the more because of it! Definitely recommend

Currently reading.

Wonderful book about families and secrets and lots of other good stuff.

#Trinidad
#LGBTQ
#NooneisIllegal

It wasn't so long ago that I was frightened to even look at this murti with her tongue hanging out, all them skulls and blood dripping down. Now I understand that, yes, she is terrifying but that is on purpose. Mudder is the destroyer of evil. She's also a mother and woman. Her foot is on Shiva for women like me to know that we don't have to take shit from no man. At least that is how I understand it.

I could almost taste the relief of telling Solo – like licking down a tall glass of ice water after a day in the hot sun. That feeling as the water wets your throat and spreads throughout your body, cooling your arms, chest, stomach, legs, patching the body back together after the sun had done its best to burn you alive.

Love after Love is an absolutely heartbreaking novel about family & about love. The love of a wife, a mother, a lover, a father figure, an uncle, a friend. First love, yearning for love, abusive love, unrequited love. Set on the island of Trinidad where the pace of life and expectations are so vastly different from elsewhere. Reading a story written in the island dialect was difficult at first but soon became very soothing & poetic (cont...)

I will never forget how one time a woman in the church had the nerve to look me straight in my eye and tell me that if your husband doesn‘t put two good lash on you every now and then, how you will know he loves you? And what about that quack doctor Sunil used to carry me by whenever I needed a patch -up? Is only money he liked? Not once did he ever so much as ask , Mrs Ramdin, how you always falling down so?

Well? What you thinking?
He‘s all right.
Just all right?
Not bad-looking if you like them gym bunny types.
Not bad-looking? Miss B, this man hotter than your pepper sauce. She didn‘t look too happy about that. But you don‘t find he‘s nice?
Look, this is Facebook. Everybody know fisherman don‘t say he fish rotten.

America‘s full of Bad John who could do all kind of thing to my child. But God is love and as back-up my prayer group put Solo on their list. The other day I was passing the Catholic church on the Promenade and I ducked in quick quick to light a candle. When it comes to divine intervention I like everybody‘s god.... And trust me, if I hear anybody having puja I‘ll be front and centre asking Brahma, Krishna and Vishnu to keep an eye on my boy.

Written in Trinidadian dialect, this novel explores the hidden underside of this island paradise. The culture is very male-centred, turns a blind eye to abuse and is incredibly homophobic.

Mr Chetan moves in as a lodger with Betty and her son Solo and the novel explores many different facets of love over a timeframe of many years.

For me, it was a slow start but by the end I loved it.

#covercrush

#arc #netgalley
#jennyis30 #lgbtqromance

Proofs of books due out in Spring 2020, from the Faber Proof Party at Cheltenham Literature Festival