Welcome to Litsy!

Good dystopian read.

More zinnias flowers.

This book is …
How I feel about the generation before me.
How I feel about the people who gave up trying to stop COVID after the first couple weeks.
How I feel myself separating from our current status quo. I would love to ditch 99% of the world and start over with the few who get it.
It‘s a breakthrough in the relationship between science & faith.
It‘s disturbing, and unsettling, and hopeful all at once. Just like every great Millet novel.

This was really good even if it does sort of fizzle out at the end. This is sort of a post-apocalyptic climate disaster tale with the bible as inspiration. That sounds dreadful but it's really well done. It was on Roxane Gay's recommendation list for books that came out in 2020. I generally like the books she picks so I gave this a shot though I normally would have passed.

#BookSpin done!
@TheAromaofBooks

#BookReport 07/21

It was a week filled with #ToB21 books (and yes, a #ReadingAsia2021 one). The shortlist really is so good this year, all books feel unique even if I don‘t like all of them as much. My favorite this week and probably of the Tournament is Transcendent Kingdom. I can‘t wait to see with what Yaa Gyasi will come up next 💜

So far loving the way Evie luxuriates in cynicism and parental neglect #audiostitching

During a multi family vacation a bunch of kids is frustrated by their extremely self centered parents. Parents who have ruined the planet and don‘t care at all about the well-being of their kids. With a lot of humor Millet writes about the kids creating their separate reality until an environmental disaster reaches them. Millet seems to get lost in her own story. ⬇️⬇️

Nope 🙅🏻‍♀️
If I had known the premise of this book I would never have picked it up at all... just doesn‘t work for me!
#tofb

I don‘t know whether I really liked this book but I definitely appreciated it. The apathetic tone keeps the traumatic events at arm‘s length, and the pace moves so swiftly it‘s hard to take it all in. But that‘s all clearly intentional, and it somehow works. Worth reading, but bleak. #TOB21 book 9 done! And impulsively decided to do #24in48 - it can only help with getting me through the rest of these TOB books! 😅

This is my second “end of days” book this month. Climate change predictably fucks us over. Simply put, the parents are depressed and self-medicating and the kids are pissed. At their parents for being crappy parents, but also at their parents‘ generation (and the ones before) for ruining the planet. It was very oversimplified in so many ways (like this review, TBH), but it was a fast read and I enjoyed it well enough.

This novel starts with a multi-family vacation on the coast, with parents that are a bit absentee and children who talk like they have PhDs. A storm comes and along the way it starts to become clear that these are not normal times or circumstances, and it rolls over into an apocalypse journey/survival tale. If the tone of this post comes across as unimpressed, that is an accurate interpretation. ↘️

I don‘t really know what to say about this book. I‘m not sure if it‘s brilliant or a complete mess, though certainly both are present. It‘s a allegory about how past and current generations have focused on greed and self-indulgence at the expense of the planet, a debt that will shortly come due for the children and grandchildren. But it‘s weird. I‘m giving it a pick as I think it‘s thought provoking and certainly the topic is important.

An unusual and imaginative story, maybe a fable or parable. The writing style is in keeping with the storyline. It‘s succinct and portrays very well the horror of what is happening with some great imagery. There are a host of interesting characters, the parents being horrifying and the children scarily self sufficient. A dark and thought provoking read. It‘s a story with a warning for our times but it is left on a ray of hope, thankfully.

Just about to start this one!

I wish I had a better sense of what the author was trying to accomplish here: is this book supposed to be some sort of allegory, a commentary on modern families, or culture, or something else? Whatever she was trying to do, I don‘t think she was terribly successful, as the book, though fun to read, is a bit murky and confusing. Some great characters among the kids, though, and Millet‘s portrayal of the parents is both brutal and hilarious.