Welcome to Litsy!

I found this at a library book sale at some point and it‘s made a few moves with me. Tried to start it today, but within a few pages I could tell it‘s not for me. Oh well, on to the next book.📚

I bailed pretty quickly on this. Just couldn‘t get interested and then they killed the prairie dog (I love those little rodents) and while I tried to continue, I just couldn‘t

Mini Book Outlet haul, including two favorites I wanted copies of (Anxious People and There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job), one about the history of my hometown (The Vapors), and two entirely new ones.

6-14-21: My 63rd finished book of 2021! Draught has transfigured Southern California. Most of the Southwest has been evacuated. Luz and Ray are squatting in an abandoned mansion living on whatever they can loot or scavenge. When they meet a mysterious child their search for a better future begins. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 📖#️⃣6️⃣3️⃣

6-8-21: New book haul from the library! Yippee!! 📖🎊💖

Claire Vaye Watkins's Gold Fame Citrus has been waiting for me on my Kindle for a long time, and wow--what a read. I now teach at a school with an environmental focus, and this one raised some fascinating questions.
⠀
Protagonist Luz, in her early 20s, was born into a California already preparing for a society-ending drought. The poster child for environmental awareness and drought-prevention measures, ⬇️

1. Nope, grew up all over, 4 states before I graduated high school. Lived in 2 more before moving to Texas, where I‘ve been for 16 years.
2. My health and the health of my family. #thankfulthursday @Cosmos_Moon @MrsWatsonReads @BookDragonNotWorm @HappilyEverKrafter @Ireadkidlit

I'd put this one down for a while, because, well, I got distracted by new shiny books, but took it up again today. We were stationed at Ft. Irwin, CA for a couple of years, and spent a lot of time sightseeing and travelling around the area. Spent a lot of time in Barstow and Victorville, as those are the closest towns to post (30-ish miles across the desert.) The descriptions of the Amargosa salt dunes ambushing towns is brutal.

Dystopian fiction - Ray and Luz must flee California to find somewhere with water. this book was interesting and strange, it did not all come together for me. there were interludes that did not make sense and jumps in time that felt unnecessary. Still it kept my attention and I think will make for a good discussion. With the amazon burning and our current govt some of what was depicted seemed not too far fetched.

Love reading outdoors in the morning. My in-laws home is in the woods and it is just perfect. Happy long weekend!

When everyone else is still asleep it is time to sneak in some early morning reading. Love being the first one up.

Books and dog butts.
The heat wave seems an appropriate time to read about a SoCal drought. It‘s taking me back to the days when we were stationed in the Mojave: “ But it‘s a DRY heat!” 😄 🔥 🔥 🔥

This book has so many great elements—massive drought causing a climate-based catastrophe, small groups of “survivors” forming, a cult-like leader in the desert. But it never quite came together for me. It didn‘t help that the audiobook reader drove me crazy, though I‘m not sure I would have loved the print book, either.

#ReadingUSA2019 #Utah

I just started this one on audio and I‘m not sure I can continue. The reader is saying “Luhz” instead of “Looz” for the main character, Luz. It‘s driving me crazy! There was even a line about how someone was mispronouncing it this way! 😤

I liked this book, but it got a bit slippery in the middle towards the end. It was just too hard to figure out what was happening or why. But I like the concept a lot and I might revisit it. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
#clifi for #booked2019

I am finally forced to put down some thoughts on this book, because of a monthly prompt. It starts in California and has a few odd sex scenes - Californication. Too perfect to pass up....👇

#WanderingJune | 7: #Californication

📷: Google Books

It‘s been a rough week. High anxiety and now I think I‘m coming down with a cold. The only solution is honey lavender tea, a book-scented candle, bubble bath, and lots of books.

This novel felt entirely possible and viscerally real in a way that many don‘t to me, possibly because the climate and landscape is similar to where I live. I thought the themes of faith and betrayal were really well executed. #catsoflitsy

1. The Wise Man‘s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss and Milkman by Anna Burns
2. Gold Fame Citrus by Claire Vaye Watkins
3. Blue

#weekendreads

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
To be honest, all the negative reviews I saw for this book had me intrigued. 😂 I wasn‘t really sure what to expect going in in terms of liking or disliking this, but I was pleasantly surprised when the writing grabbed me right off the bat. That ended up being one of my favorite aspects of the book, although some descriptions were a little too crude for my taste. This story is very bleak, the characters flawed and ⬇️

Completed my #CliFi #Booked2019 pick. Overall I gave it a so-so.
Was expecting more cli-fi and less cult-fi (?). I enjoyed the damaged world Watkins created, but I could have done without some of the odd erotic scenes. To me they were more off-putting than adding to the story.
I found some of the writing style grating also, like the or, or, or/she would, she would, she would sections.
@Cinfhen @4thhouseontheleft @BarbaraTheBibliophage

Getting into my #Booked2019 #CliFi pick this week while I wait for the rest of my winter selections to come off hold.
This seems to be a pretty popular one for this subject. 😀
@Cinfhen @4thhouseontheleft @BarbaraTheBibliophage

This book is bad. There were some nicely worded turns of phrase in book one, but from then on, it just got weird. See above... There were also some good, if improbable, illustrations, but not enough to save it from pan-dom. 1.5⭐️

This is my oddest #buddyread to date. Cheers @Cinfhen 🥂

#booked2019 #clifi

I believe there was a meaningful story somewhere in these pages but so much superficial BS too. Water is scarce & draught has ravaged California and most of the Southwest, when young lovers find an infant they believe may be their savior of sorts. They begin a dangerous quest to leave the barren wasteland & seek refuge in the Midwest. But when they come across a commune real troubles begin. #Booked2019 #CliFi

It‘s an absolutely gorgeous day outside and I‘ve managed to read another 80 pages of this book BUT it‘s not easy going. Claire Watkins has written some fabulous prose but her ideas are all over the place and her structure is random & inconsistent. The world she has created is BLEAK & grim. California is a wasteland, draught has ravaged the state leaving only nomads, scavengers & some unsavory characters.

This quote is speaking to me now. #impromptubuddyread @Cinfhen

I checked out the e version so I could read in bed.

My #CliFi choice for #Booked2019 ☀️☀️☀️so, I was REALLY into this book until it started getting strange. I was about to abandon when @Megabooks suggested an impromptu #buddyread❣️Hoping that‘s what I need to carry me through. What are your feelings so far, Meg??? Anyone else read this one?? Does it pick up again?? I‘ve just met “Dallas”.

💲🌲 #bookhaul #clifi #booked2019 Adding to my long TBR!

“Praise, like criticism, can make us forget what art is for.”

In an excellent article about creative writing, Helen Betya Rubinstein writes that Claire Watkins published “two acclaimed books before looking down at her own work and realizing that all along, she‘d been pandering to old white men.” A worthwhile article for anyone who loves to read.

https://lithub.com/toward-changing-the-language-of-creative-writing-classrooms/

🍎Teacher Meme

🍺Beer Can

📚Speculative/Climate Fiction

🥔It‘s been awhile, but my favorites are the ones shaped like smiley faces.

🎤 I‘ve never done karaoke.

#HumpDayPost

📷: Made with PhotoGrid & Google Images & Litsy Screenshot

Achingly beautiful prose spills out of this novel, which centres on a small family that‘s desperately trying to cross the vast and growing desert that spans North America.

Read September 11-20
Book 38/50

Strange, lyrical, raw. This book is riveting; an amazingly beautiful what if that feels scarily prophetic. I highly recommend! If you want a dystopian page turner with meat on the bones, this is the book for you!

#currentread #travelingreader

Really enjoying this. Max is enjoying his nap. #dogsoflitsy

Diving in! This one has been on my TBR forever! #MountTBR #unreadshelf

Day 4 #readingresolutions cool cover.

So sparkly and bright 😎

#Kindle #bookhaul round 2 😅
The Bone Witch has been on my TBR for ages now.

Side note: I keep wanting to read the title of “Gold Fame Citrus” as “Gold Fame Circus” lol

Having lived my whole life in CA where we're always expecting severe drought or living thru one (like just recently) this worked more for me than it might for others. (Tho it was pouring all day yesterday, LOL) The world is not that unbelievable, & the ways ppl react - the lives they scrabble together, the cult-like society - are within expectation. The end got a bit loopy & pretentious, & I wished it were less odd and more grounded overall. 3/5⭐️

I am acutely engorged with purpose.

[This will be my new response whenever someone asks me if I'm busy.]

Today is the last day of my staycation. I don't want to go back to work tomorrow. Like, really really do not want to. Ever. So I'm spending all day reading and trying to pretend like tomorrow will never arrive. (And hoping this book will be a better distraction than the crummy last one.) 😣 #nowreading

Being a California native (and always concerned about water), I picked this book up without knowing anything about it. Totally worth it. I enjoy books that take me to a new world with people different from me. I didn't like the main character, but this talented writer made me want to explore this character and those around her. Loved it.

I haven‘t ever had a believer‘s disposition. But lately I‘ve been getting comfortable with the idea of something bigger than myself–I don‘t want to say ‘God.‘ When I was growing up people around me used that word in all the wrong ways. It was a weapon, that word.

I found the first third of this book engaging and imaginative and really wanted to enjoy the rest, but once Luz turns up in the “colony” the whole scheme becomes overly familiar/predictable (Is the charismatic-cult-leader-with-harem-of-young-women thing not played out yet? Can it be, please?) and the story loses all forward momentum. Add to that the fact that Luz is unbearably (unsym)pathetic and what‘s left is sadly unsatisfying. ⭐️⭐️1/2

I really loved the first half of this book, but the second half fell a little flat. I should have expected some of the weird cult stuff given Watkins‘s background, and her collection of short stories (which I loved), but it didn‘t really work for me. And wow is that sex scene bizarre. 😳 Thanks to #SullivanCat for helping with the picture. #catsoflitsy

Too much #sunshine is a problem if you live in post-apocalyptic California where the land is parched and the people are thirsty... This book was not my taste, but if apocalyptic fiction is your thing, give it a whirl! ☀️☀️☀️
#marchintooz

I did not expect this book to keep me up late reading, but I couldn‘t stop and now it‘s 2:40 in the morning. Forcing myself to put it down now! 😳😴

Up next.

Fluid prose but not attaching to the characters yet...