Welcome to Litsy!

I knew from the start this book was going to rip my heart out & tear it into tiny pieces, yet I still was not prepared for the grief I'm feeling. A truly amazing novel that shows the best & worst of mankind, & everything in between. The 4 friends, & extended cast of characters, were all fascinating & wouldn't let me quit, even when the going got tough (which it did frequently.) Trigger warnings - any conceivable trigger is covered at some point.

It's been a hard slog, but in the last 100 pages now. Somehow I feel like all the swearing in the world is not going to make this last bit any easier #gutwrenching

#MayMovieMagic what a haunting beautiful song @rohit-sawant 🎵I googled the English lyrics to #LeTempsDeLaAmour and immediately thought of this haunting beautiful story.

🎶It is the time of love,
the time of friends and adventure.
when the time comes and goes,
one thinks of nothing in spite of one's wounds🎶
Fan art from Google (no named credit)

Still too cold to sit and read outside, but going to sneak in 30 minutes of reading next to a sunny window before resuming today's chores #priorities #readingwins

I‘m dying out here people. We must protect Jude at all cost!

Some books I‘m currently reading, most importantly A Little Life which I‘m reading for the fiction side of it. Sometimes getting too much of one thing may make me dislike it so we are evening out the genres!

After years sitting on my shelf, I finally worked up the courage to start this one. I know it will break my heart, but I am ready.

After years sitting on my shelf, I finally worked up the courage to start this one. I know it will break my heart, but I am ready.

It‘s gorgeous weather today! Outside reading with Miss Daisy 🐶

#morningreading Happy Saturday!! I am so happy I picked this book up again! It makes me feel like I know JB, Malcom, Willem, and Jude. I know I‘m in for a 😥 ride, but I‘ve got my tissues all ready.

Third time‘s the charm right?? Love this book, but I‘m the type of reader who is always currently reading 10 books and long ones sometimes get left behind. But I am determined to get all the way through this one...this time🤘🏼

Yesterday I saw A Little Life on stage, performed by International Theater Amsterdam (ITA). It was almost as good as the book and just as heartbreaking. On a surface of 10 square meters Jude and his friends came to live again, Jude being just as vulnerable on stage as in the novel. Apparently Yanagihara saw the performance and was as impressed with the play as I was. 💔

#boysdontcry except in this book... where boys cry, girls cry, you cry, I cry, etc etc 😭😭😭😭😭

#anglophileapril

Happy Easter or a Happy long weekend to you all🐣🌷💖
Will you be reading during Easter Holiday?
What are you reading?
Just recovered from my flu last week so reading has been slow for me but feeling blessed.
Here‘s just some chocolate eggs for you all and some of my red spines books. I have A Little Life on my #TBR since forever and am still a little too scared to start it yet🙈😅 #booknerd #readunglife #livereading #AussieReader #bibliophile

This was without doubt a fantastic book. I don't know how Yanagihara managed to mix chronology, narrator and subject so thoroughly (often not in line with sections, chapters or even paragraphs) without ever confusing the reader. And her ability to get inside the head of someone so completely broken and tell his story over 720 pages without it ever feeling repetitive. I'm in awe. Just don't expect it to be joyful.

@AmyG was the winner of the print to celebrate my Litfluence milestone. Shoot me an email with your mailing address, Amy, and I will stick the print in the mail.
ludicreader@rogers.com

Gray FatMan III *regal accent* is in love with his new Manchester United jersey from his uncle #CatsOfListy

Jude is no #easylover, but he hasn‘t had any semblance of an easy life, so that‘s fair. However, the love story in this book, both the love between friends and lovers were absolutely wonderful and heartbreaking 💔

#AnglophileApril

So harrowing but yet also a story of love and friendship with life‘s ups and downs.

When you are reading a book you really, really love, do you savor it or devour it? I find myself in the odd predicament of not wanting it to end but not wanting to put it down either. What‘s a girl to do? 🤷🏼‍♀️

1. A Little Life, so that I can have a proper re-read of it.
2. Jude
3. Having recently reread Of Mice and Men, Curley‘s wife.
4. Geek that I am, I‘d take a dictionary. Plenty to read and learn and I can test myself on my spellings! 😁😜
5. Why not have a go @Oryx @RachelO ?

My beautiful little girl died this evening. Nothing was wrong with her; she was a young 3 years old; she just dropped and the vet pronounced her DOA. This year keeps hitting me blow after blow. Rest In Peace PeanutButter ❤️❤️ you are loved #CatsOfListy #Sad

My darling FatMan has taken to my brother like a fish to warer😂😍 He has never been that comfortable with anyone before #CatsOfListy #PetsOfListy

We went to the thrift store to break a $20, and look what followed us home. 🤷🏻‍♀️ #bookhaul

1. Yes. Being retired I‘m starting to do them. I went to London by myself last October.
2. Yes!
3. Yes.
4. A Little Life

#helloThursday

For #bestbookfriendship I nominate the four main characters of this novel, JB, Jude, Malcom, and Willem. They are each complex and thus, so are their friendships, but they see each other through so many excruciating things over a lifetime in NYC. I loved this heartbreaker and I love this cover- I loathe the other cover art with a wincing Jude. #literaryluck

March TBR! I really want to finally tackle A Little Life this month; I‘m just so curious to read the book that so many people love so much (and a few people hate). I‘ve gotten to the point where I‘m starting to feel very left out for not having read it yet! The other two books I‘ve already started, and I‘m not quite sure how I feel about either one yet. #tbr

Book number 14 of my year 🤓📚

1. Hated this book so much, I‘m still mad about it.
2. At home, I‘m a stay at home mom
3. I was about 12 or 13 when I asked someone when their baby was due- she‘d already had it! Lesson learned
4. Street vendor waffles in Brussels or cedar white spruce woods Lake Superior
5. Black Summer

#friyaintro
@howjessreads

For squeezing every last emotional response from you, relentlessly.
Buy, just not together enough in the mornings to pack.
Recent one - did a presentation at Senate in work, went really well. Came out pleased with myself, looked down and had a massive hole and ladder in my tights.....
Bread, fav perfumes...
Black Warning (I like that!)
#friyayintro

My eyeballs hurt from crying. In this book is all the triumph and tragedy of life, the trauma and the tenderness. There‘s a line late in A Little Life: “What he knew, he knew from books, and books lied, they made things prettier.” This is a definite exception. There‘s nothing pretty about A Little Life—only a beauty that will tenderize your heart like a meat mallet.

Last night I finished his book and then just held it in my lap for a while, trying to sort through my feelings. I can't rate this anything less than five stars. The writing is too exquisite, the characters too finely drawn and memorable, the story too compelling. This is a novel that stays with you.

However...⬇️

I‘m bailing on this one for now. Just not what I‘m in the mood for at the moment.

My first big book of 2019 at a whopping 816 pages. I am so ready for this one, though. I‘m about 30 pages in and already sucked in.

So I started listening to this one. It really hasn‘t interested me. I‘m switching to another one. I haven‘t decided if I‘m bailing on this.

Reason 56472910474829 why I love the used bookstore. Next to new books at a dollar or less. $0.15 for a hardcover!

Not a bad average length for 70+ books 😎 who doesn't love GoodReads stats?

Now one of my all time favourite books.

My first post in 2019 #MusicalNewYear Rent is a rock musical that tells the story of a group of impoverished young artists struggling to survive and create a life in New York City's East Village under the shadow of HIV/AIDS. ALL also tells the story of 4 friends in New York City from college through to middle-age. #SeasonsOfLove is my favorite song from the musical and captures the feelings of the novel. Image from Google

I wanted to finish this today so I could start fresh with a new book for 2019, but now this will officially be my first of the new year. I‘d feel like I was cheating if I didn‘t still have 300+ pages to go, so honestly I‘m not mad this will be listed as my first. 💔

I didn‘t read as many books in 2018 as the previous year, but it was a quality year - I had a hard time narrowing down to these favorites! I also love this time of year for all the most anticipated lists for the new year. What‘s on your most anticipated list for 2019?? I think mine is My Favorite Thing is Monsters, Vol. 2.

I‘m so exhausted. So exhausted from cry reading the last hour of this book. I realize now I had the dumbest thought before reading this book. That afterwards I could buy that cool shirt with the 4 names on it. And now, I don‘t know how I will keep away the sadness of seeing those names. Such a great book about friendship that also happens to be one of the most tragic novels I‘ve ever read.

Epic

This is not a book that you read. It's a book that you stagger and lurch through. This book is emotionally exhausting. And at many points you'll ask why are you doing this to yourself? WHY?? Because. It's honest and brutal and real and bleak and hopeful and unsettling and lovely, all at once. It's a powerful and incredible piece of work. I can't say I enjoyed it. And I felt a huge sense of relief when I finished. But I'm glad I experienced it.

I think I love Jude St. Francis more than any other literary character. 😭

It‘s nice to know that even after everything that has happened so far, I can still laugh.

Only pg. 84 and it is dense and a little too close to home about what we sometimes fail to say in friendships and the whys.

Because I like pain, I‘m currently REREADING this book now. 😭😭😭 I picked up the copy on the right when I was in Scotland in 2016 and while it‘s A LOT more attractive than the US version, the book isn‘t that comfortable to hold. And at 700 pages, I need an easier book to hold. So orgasmic man it is! Now excuse me while I go cry ALL OF THE TEARS.

#boozeandbooks