Welcome to Litsy!

400pp in and I think I‘m gonna take a break. It‘s so masterfully crafted— the construction of themes is top-tier— but the themes are constructed in a way to either fill you with dread or completely gut you. It‘s less “setup-and-payoff” and more “setup-and-floor you.” My sister has read the book before so it‘s fun to commiserate with her about it. Definitely gonna put something lighter info the mix!

1. Tagged book ~ I don‘t read a lot of literary fiction, especially if it‘s real heavy or sad, but this book is my favorite of all time.
2.🔪😱☠️🕵️‍♂️👮‍♀️🍿
3. I love puzzles and figuring things out
4. The cover! @MoonWitch94 #ThoughtfulThursday

Her two books have taken my breath away. This one is another masterpiece. It follows four young men, roommates, as they age. 700 pages but I couldn‘t put it down. I laughed, I cried, I sat here stunned when I finished it. This book, along with To Paradise, is truly unforgettable.

Finally picked up this intimidating read! As everyone said, it certainly is tragic. I felt helpless reading this. Wonderful characters, beautifully written. Full review www.anushareflects.com

Probably the biggest chunkster I own! I‘m not into books with that many pages!

#600pages
#BookMoods

Finally getting around to this chunkster. 😊

Thanks for the tag @RaeLovesToRead 😘

1. If we could call Jude the main character in A Little Life, then Willem, JB and Malcolm are *the* best supporting characters.

2. I prefer a strong supporting character.

If you want to play… you‘re tagged! 😁

#two4tuesday

Anyone think@these two know each other?

My SIL warned me that I‘d be crying by the end of this book, she‘s probably right 🤷🏻‍♀️

Got my favourite girl with me to help me read the first few chapters.
#alittlelife #hanyayanagihara #puppy

When your child dies, you feel what you‘d expect. All that's written about mourning is the same. It's all the same for a reason. The sensations are always the same. But this is what noone says- when it's your child, a part of you, a very tiny part of you, feels relief. At last, the moment you have been expecting, dreading, preparing for since the day you became a parent, has come.
It's arrived. Here it is.
And after that, you have nothing to fear.

“Life is so sad. It's so sad, and yet we all do it.”

These are two quotes I really liked.

“Fairness is for happy people, for people who have been lucky enough to have lived a life defined more by certainties than by ambiguities.
Right and wrong, however, are for—well, not unhappy people, maybe, but scarred people; scared people.”

“But what was happiness but an extravagance, an impossible state to maintain, partly because it was so difficult to articulate?”

“Wasn‘t friendship its own miracle, the finding of another person who made the entire lonely world seem somehow less lonely?”

“Things get broken, and sometimes they get repaired, and in most cases, you realize that no matter what gets damaged, life rearranges itself to compensate for your loss, sometimes wonderfully.”

#tarottakeover Oh, this isn‘t a happy card. Heartbreak and betrayal. I‘ve been reading my tarot books. Sorrow.

This book was all about sorrow and heartbreak.
@ErinSueMreads

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Maybe the saddest book I have ever read.
My full review can be found on my blog: https://suspensebookreviews.home.blog/2022/03/05/a-little-life-by-hanya-yanagiha...

I‘m self medicating now that I‘m finished this book. I‘m not sure I will ever recover 😭😭😭😭

Hands down the most impactful book that I have read in a very long time, if not ever. Trust me and don‘t let tragedy scare you away from reading this one, there is a lot of beauty, love, and hope in “a Little Life”, too.

“And so I try to be kind to everything I see, and in everything I see, I see him”

Still plugging along with this, reading in the sun makes it easier

I can‘t read this before bed anymore, I wake up in the night trying to process it. I‘m reading a bit on my planning time at the end of the day. Also a mistake because I am almost in tears

🖤got myself a copy of a little life.
To reread

Fascinating article in the Guardian / Observer newspaper(in the UK) today.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/feb/27/the-best-tv-series-never-made-scri...

I‘d love to see the stage play….

I‘m listening to Brave New World and reading A Little Life and watching news reports on Ukraine 🇺🇦 it‘s all pretty bleak 😢 not my best reading plan

Very happy to have a signed copy of this now.

Starting this today ( I hate the cover and I have put off reading this forever) it‘s either a love it or hate tome, I wonder which side I will land on?

I tried, I really did but got to 20% and it‘s a DNF for me. I hated everything about this book (unpopular I know) and didn‘t care to waste any more time on it
It‘s one of the most dull and pretentious books I‘ve ever read. The characters are awful and to me don‘t feel realistic so I just couldn‘t care less what happened to them. I did read quite a bit and the whole thing just felt repetitive and boring. Not for me!

I feel so accomplished right now as it was a hard read! It seemed that the last few hundreds pages were just dragging on…

The book came across as a story of friendship that followed 4 friends but it really focused mostly on Jude who had been abused by multiple people. So, there is a lot of self-harming, sexual and physical violence descriptions.

The writing is impressive and descriptive but I was underwhelmed by how the story ended.

One of the most beautifully written and toughest books I‘ve ever read. It took me about 1.5 months to finish it because I had to take breaks (almost DNF‘d twice!). This is definitely not for everyone, but I‘m so glad I read it.

**Everyone considering this book should research all the trigger warnings!**

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Starting this while I wait for House of Sky and Breath because why not add to the trauma 🥲 #alittlelife #tbrcrushing

I went into Waterstones the other day and noticed that this book was being sold with a new cover - the iconic but (in my opinion) unappealing US cover reconfigured. So I bought a copy of it online with the cover I ❤ before it goes extinct!

I love the gritty urban imagery contrasting with the sharp block letters and block white background.

Am I going to read it again? Not for some time, I reckon!

In fact, have a few more of my cover crushes while I'm at it!

Haven't read Last night at the telegraph club or A shock yet but I was drawn to their "light through the darkness".

The UK cover for A Little Life is incredible and I love the amazing photograph (and simple design) for Strange Weather in Tokyo too.

I read this in January and I knew it would be a harrowing read. And it was very much indeed. It's hard to think about all the horror that happened to Jude. I loved the friendship between the four of them. Also the other people who really wanted to help Jude. Just an amazing novel, glad to have finally read it.

@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
@Eggs
#Ithadtobeyou

1. January stats

The first book I thought of for “Welcome to New York” was this one.

Set mostly in New York about friends Jude, Willem, Malcom and JB.

I love Taylor Swift so I hope to get to as many as these as possible #fearlessfebruary

@jenniferw88

Great job plugging through to the end, Meg! Even though you didn't care for the book. It's done and finished and you never have to read it again. :)

#ChunksterChallenge2022
@megabooks

#UnpopularOpinion

Whereas I found hope in her latest book, To Paradise, there is no hope for Jude in this book. Her unrelenting flogging of him got tiresome and unrealistic. Even the beauty of her prose (and it is glorious) could not pull me out of my negative feelings towards this book. Maybe my heart is as icy as this deck, but the lack of any lasting redemption made the last 200 pages of this book a chore. Not for me, but not sorry I read it.

Maybe I want another emotional book back-to-back. Maybe I‘ve discovered an author I really like. Maybe I‘m a glutton for punishment. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I‘ve turned my chair around to watch the sunrise where I read. And chill with my mom‘s 20 year old cyclamen. (Yes, my mom is crazy good with plants!) Also that six foot tall Madagascar dragon tree she grew from a 4 inch pot. 🤩

I talked about star ratings on my most recent booktube video: https://youtu.be/5aC6mm9elU0

Saturday and yesterday I went out with 2 different friends of mine to have long conversation about the tagged book 😂