Welcome to Litsy!

I loved this - it starts slowly, and the layers of the story build and build so skilfully that before you know it you have such a deep and nuanced view of each character. It‘s sad, involves lots things that might be triggers ( the main character looks after a cemetery) but its joyful too! There‘s hope and reminders about how we live our lives, how we love and care for those closest to us and how we want to leave this life. I love this author!

Turning out to be a perfect bookmark / book pairing! 👍🏼

First few chapters in …. I like this writers style - you go in thinking it‘s a story about one thing and then it‘s about something co pkwy welsh different. Enjoying being gently tugged into the story‘s orbit.

One of the best books I‘ve read in quite some time. There are very few books I ever want to read again, but this is one. I love the way this story unfolds. I‘m glad I listened to the audiobook because of the French pronunciations.

@AmyG I legit squealed when I opened this package!! Everything is perfect. And I love both of these book choices!! 💕 can‘t wait to read both of them!
Thanks for the extra chocolate goodies! I‘m sure my boys will find the stash soon enough 😆
Also, this mug is awesome! I love it so much 🌱
Thanks to @Cinfhen and @TheKidUpstairs for organizing #muglove23 #muglove2023 — my first swap and it was so fun!

Wow. This book. Epic. Completely enthralling. I went into it knowing nothing about it. I suggest reading it that way. Excellent in every way. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #bookspin

These words resonate.

Reading + golf = relaxing Saturday 😎

"My closest neighbors don't quake in their boots."
#firstlinefridays
@ShyBookOwl

I finally read this book and understand all the love for it! It started out slowly and then suddenly in one page it was as if the story was lit with a match. I so loved the way Perrin slowly built the rest of the story from different perspectives, building up to an incredible ending. I will miss Violette. ♥️

January isn‘t over yet but it‘s close enough I know this is my favorite finished in January 23. I want to tag the person who made and offered the bracket graphic but can‘t find the name as it appears I accidentally cropped it on the version I saved. If you know, please comment/tag. This was on my #auldlangspine list as one of @CBee s favs of 22. #readingbracket2023

This is a love story. Or a story of how love always has loss too. Love of family, life, self, friendship. It‘s heartwarming and heartbreaking. Beautifully written. I collect Europa Editions and am so happy to add this to my collection even though I chose audio for this from my #auldlangspine list from @CBee so I could also read another on the list in print. The alternating POV actually adds to the pathos. The plot twist made me gasp out loud.

I wondered if I was disguised. Or if it was myself I had found.

Because I‘m always late to book parties, I‘m grateful to @Deblovestoread for putting this in her #ALSpine list and to @CBee for sending it to me to make sure I would read it. 😀 It‘s a poignant read with a slow burn that veers into a thriller and then ends kind of abruptly. The chapter-header epigraphs were my favorite parts. A lovely book (but I‘d still give the nod to “A Constellation of Vital Phenomenon,” Cyd. 🤷🏻‍♀️)

#AuldLangSpine

Oh @Cbee I'll be thinking about this a long long time.

Thank you so much friend.

I‘ve read SO many amazing books this year, but (and I knew this months ago) Fresh Water For Flowers captured my heart and held on tight ♥️ #readingbracket #thatsawrap #goodbye2022 @chasjjlee

#12Booksof2022 #3

@Andrew65

@CBee OMG I‘m only at Chapter 10

♥️ thank you so much for this gift

Also nothing is getting done today 🤣

And this is why I never decide my favorite books of they year until January. I absolutely loved this complex & character driven story. I went in expecting it to be about a woman in a cemetery and her cheating ex, which it is but it is so much more too. Filled with grief, a bit of mystery, and a few love stories I was enamored with Violette from the jump and could have spent many hundreds more pages with her.
This will be 1 of my top 2022 books

We did Christmas gifts today since the kids are here. Hubby came through with a good chunk of my #auldlangspine wish list. I am very excited for a reading Christmas and a wonderful start to January 2023

This is me, thrilled to receive @CBee ‘s gift of “Fresh Water for Flowers” because it‘s on my #AuldLangSpine list from @Deblovestoread !

Littens are totally awesome. 😍

📚 Tagged
🖋 Jasper Fforde
🎞 Fiddler on the Roof, Four Weddings & a Funeral
📺 Friends
🎤 Fleetwood Mac, Foreigner
🎼 Fear - Blue October, Father and Son - Cat Stevens, Funhouse - Pink, Fairytale of New York - The Pogues

#MANICMONDAY #LETTERF

#ManicMonday @CBee
📕 Tagged above 👆🏽
✍🏻 Claire Fuller
🍿Fast Times at Ridgemont High
🎤 Frank Ocean
🎵 Fly Away https://youtu.be/cJMeTmdfNWk

What you got @Allylu @KarenUK @Megabooks

^^Grief of parent losing seven-year-old child, person suspended in time, imagining lost possibility, listing places mother can continue to find her daughter: in the world‘s whispers, in the sea, in the garden, in candlelight, in the sunrise, in another young girl in the street. This book does investigate healing from grief rather well, though with a tip towards suppression & sentimentality rather than rage/bargaining.

Domestic novel / romance / epistolary / whodunnit mashup. Two generations of romance/obsession intertwined. Violette is frustratingly passive, but forges her path by the end. Something withheld—characters indirect. Evocative, atmospheric. Largely set in a cemetery in Bourgogne, lush gardens & graves. Grief, guilt, forgiveness, finding family. Change of person/POV inconsistent. LONG—one edit more? Cheesy but lovely. Prose lulls, hypnotizing. 2018

There is a particular cemetery in Burlington, edged by Lake Champlain, that I love to walk in. These photos don‘t do justice to the beauty, serenity and peace found there. This morning I suddenly realized how much it reminded me of the home of my favorite character, Violette, from my favorite book, Fresh Water for Flowers. 💕

I can see why this has been a litsy hit! #HeapsMorePraise This tender story about a French cemetery keeper is a triumph of found family and healing.

Violette grew up an orphan and married a no-good man in her teens. They work at a railroad crossing, and V is raising their daughter, the joy of her life. When a terrible tragedy strikes, he looks for answers while she turns inward. Later, she meets a man whose dead mother had an unusual request.

#AlphabetGame Letter F

I was planning to only choose books that I read a long time ago so I wouldn‘t be digging the books again that you‘ve already heard me rambling about!

But I can‘t ignore this one, last year‘s favorite 🤷🏻‍♀️🥰

One of the #womenintranslation books I am hoping to get to this month

Have you read this? What did you think? I am currently enamoured with French writing.
#alphabetgame #letterf @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

#sundayfunday

1. I don‘t think it matters if your thumb is green,I think it matters whether or not you enjoy it and what it gives to you,I started this about 30 yrs ago when it was just dirt I have had many failures in some plants dying but other successes with so many taking root and thriving.
2 Fresh Water for Flowers in this story used gardening to inspire friendship&healing ❤️‍🩹
3. My library sale I picked up Gardening Hints and Tips

Love love my package from @CarolynM for the #recipeswap thank you so much for this beautiful package… sorry I was out of town for my best friends wedding since Thursday love it… I‘ve been tracking your packages, sorry they have got to you yet but they are on the way I have the tracking information if needed 🤗📖

Violette is a cemetery keeper living a quiet life. Her husband disappeared years ago. One day a stranger knocks on her door wondering why his mother want to spend her eternity with a stranger.

I can‘t explain it but there‘s something about this writing that pulled me in.

I hadn‘t read much into this before I knew that I wanted this book to last forever, but at the same time I wanted to read on to know what happened next.

I was at an author event yesterday hosted by her Norwegian publisher. It was free.

They talked about this book, and her other novels.

Her third novel will be published in Norway January next year and sounded really good. About three friends over thee decades.

During the signing of the books she had had interpreter with her, and she talked with everyone. She was just the sweetest person.

This was a slow burn,I really enjoyed it but thought it was a little too long,I enjoyed the way the story was woven,I liked the creativity and thought it was very atmospheric with beautiful writing and I was happy with how the story ended
I accomplished my goal of finishing this book
#awesomeapril#readathon

#Gardens
#SavvySettings

“If a flower grew every time I thought of you the earth would be one massive garden.”

I could visualize Violette‘s and Sasha‘s garden 🌼🌸💐

I came across this in another book group… it looks like it could be helpful with books with many characters.
bookcompanion.com. This website gives you names of books and the list of characters in the book - chapter by chapter. It also has discussion questions. 📚

This sounds very similar to the scene in The Bridges Of Madison County. That scene tore me up!! 😭😭😭 if you haven‘t read it and watched it you should!!

Well, I‘m definitely in the minority here… I really wanted to love this one, but I‘m struggling to finish it. I‘m not a fan of the alternating time lines. The writing is beautiful, I just feel like it could have been 100 pages shorter. 🤷🏻‍♀️

#UnpopularOpinion

#TwosomeThurs

1. The tagged book is my favorite of the year so far.

2. I‘m a bit of both.

Want to play @Christyco125 @DaveGreen7777 @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks . Everyone else?

#BookReport: All 3 books were great but the tagged book gets all the 🌟s.

Current reads: Just started Tea Girl. Am about halfway through Missing Trees. I am liking it but am waiting for the two time periods to come together. Lily is breaking my heart.

My first DNF this year. I think it‘s a me not the audio book. Maybe I‘ll try again someday in print.

I have no idea what‘s next.

Weekend reading. I made it a little over halfway in the tagged book last night. If I didn‘t have to work today I would have stayed up and finished it. It is a book I would willingly give up much needed sleep for. Tonight I need to read my #SundayBuddyRead section of Luck of the Titanic, too.

“My closest neighbors don‘t quake in their boots.”

I am loving this book and HATE that I can‘t stay home and read today. Sometimes adulting sucks.

I'm really looking forward to this book, much beloved by fellow Littens, featuring a cemetery caretaker. Set in France, home to the renown #graveyard Pere Lachaise, I imagine it is quite evocative. #savvysettings @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Eggs

“There‘s something stronger than death, and that‘s the presence of those absent in the memory of the living.”

In the school pickup line savoring this book waiting for Forrest 💗

Loving this one so far!

#Graveyard
#SavvySettings

I think most of us can relate to this!!

“It‘s a luxury to be the owner of one‘s time.”

Starting this one… I‘ve heard good things 🌸📚

#WonderousWednesday

I didn‘t take any Valentine pics but here‘s one of my mom‘s Christmas Cactus from a few years ago.

Just started the tag but I‘m counting on it being a pick. Also reading The Wife Upstairs which is meh and listening to She Who Became the Sun which is a pick.

Today I‘m grateful for all my #LitsyLove penpals.

Want to play @TheRiehlDeal @UwannaPublishme @MaureenMc

I finally stopped crying. What a beautiful story about love and loss. I spent the last two days reading it and now I know why so many love it. This one will stay with me for a long, long time. All the stars.
Thank you @kspenmoll for giving this to me. And thank you @Suet624 and @CBee for telling me I must read it.