Welcome to Litsy!

#Top10Summer2023 @cinfen
Thanks for the tag, @batsy 😊

These were my 5⭐ reads for June-August - some of my 4.5 ⭐ books would comfortably sit here, too, but the judges scores are in, so my hands are tied!

I was at turns charmed, then saddened, then amused by grandmother and Sophia‘s adventures on their quaint island. Sophia‘s papa is around but absent…I don‘t remember a single thing he said in the book. The action is largely between the young (6) Sophia and the elderly grandmother who carve, explore caves, picnic and through it all discuss minute details of life on the island but have much deeper meaning. #NaturaLitsy readers would appreciate!

Next summer activity: baseball for my oldest! Love watching him play. Still slowly making some progress on this slim novel which I‘m finding both sweet and melancholic.

I‘m very much enjoying summer and soaking it all in with my family. We‘ve been camping this weekend with friends. The weather was perfect! Bonus: I snuck a few pages in while others unsuccessfully fished.
I‘m sorely behind on reviews but hope to catch up today! I‘ve missed you all!
Ps — The Summer Book is a perfect read for camping!

#StoryGraph: fiction classics literary lighthearted reflective relaxing scandinavian translated-works
165 pages • first pub 1972 • 4.5 Stars

Sophia and Grandma live together on a Scandinavian Island for the summer. This book is translated from the Swedish, is character driven and I would classify it as contemplative literary fiction. The story of these two endearing characters is told via small vignettes about their life and relationship.

This was a lovely book with which to start the summer. A collection of short stories of a family‘s time spent at a summer cottage in Finland. The relationship between Sophia and her grandmother was rendered with grace and love. The author really captured the essence of both characters, likely because they were the image of their real life counterparts. I can see myself rereading this yearly as I ease into the warmer season. 5/5⭐️
(July 7, 2023)

The story of 6 yo Sophia and her grandmother as they spend the summer on a tiny unspoiled island in the Gulf of Finland. They are quirky but solid companions, who find delight in their conversations, play, and building together. “On an island,” thinks the grandmother, “everything is complete.”

#Pantone2023 @Clwojick

A girl and her grandmother spend their summer on an island.

I was fascinated by the absences. The lost mother is only mentioned once. Papa comes and goes, and works, but never gets a line of speech. I recognised my own mother when she was old in the Grandmother.

Loan from husband

#Midsummersolace

Photo challenge - Day 1 -Summer

I chose this as I'm off to the Lake District tomorrow for a restful long weekend. I chose Tove Jansson's The Summer Book as I adore her work and fancied something different to Moomins.

What would you choose?

📷 Picollage stock photo

Enjoying some wine, dessert, and an almost summer read of The Summer Book.

#TitlesAndTunes #IslandVibes @Cinfhen @BarbaraBB
Revisiting a favourite island in Tove Jansson's fictionalised childhood memoir of the close bond that develops between a grandmother & granddaughter during summer holidays on a tiny island in the Gulf of Finland.
Song choice is "That Summer Feeling" from a favourite album, Jonathan Richman's "Jonathan Sings!" It's a record packed with whimsically yearning songs of love, nostalgia and joy. ?️??

Makes me want summer. Soon. Right?

Since I‘m on track with my #clarissa March letters, I‘m doing a reread of one of my favorites to get myself a #bookspinbingo. This is my first month really participating in this challenge and I‘m really enjoying it! @TheAromaofBooks

Read this on the plane yesterday. Parts of it made me laugh out loud. No plot, just incidents from summers on an island off the coast of Finland featuring a girl and her grandmother, both outspoken.

#WomeninTranslation as well as the Baltic Sea challenge on LT.

#summer # booked2023 suggestions so far-
Afrofuturism- My Soul to Keep
Neighbours- A Good Neighbourhood
Trans/non-binary- George
Three generations- Marrying the Ketchups
Will be thinking a bit more about weird reviews/books and sunshine noir 🤔

A meditative, sweet examination of life, death, and nature via the relationship of a young girl and her grandmother on coastal island of Finland one summer. A classic reprint from the New Review of Books.

I loved this book so much that I can see myself rereading it every summer. It felt like a little gem. I settled into it, not expecting it to go anywhere, but just to meander along for a while, and it was the perfect book for me. #Reading1001

#1001books
Book 30/1001

This is a wonderful book, I love it.

With summer ending I thought it might be time to try this, the adventures of Sophia and her grandmother as they spend one or many summers secluded on an island. Sometimes sweet, sometimes melancholy, something in the timelessness or detachment from society gave me sense of foreboding that I can‘t quite decipher. 6/10

#ArtfulAugust Day 13: Nary a #Rain this summer. Sunny throughout in California. Taken last week when we rented a lakehouse with family and did some kayaking. 🏝 Preparing a few posts in advance since I will be traveling in the coming days.

I‘m so glad to have read this as my summer break is winding down and I prepare to go back to school. It was the perfect timing for these vignettes of a grandmother and granddaughter together on an island in summer. I also thoroughly enjoyed the illustrations.

#ReadTheWorld #ReadingTheWorld #Finland #translated #1001books
#Reading1001 #TBRTakedown August 2022

A great quote for both Jansson's birthday & National Book Lover's Day ! 📚📚

#ArtfulAugust Day 4: We have a #Boat of sorts in this lakehouse we are renting for the next three days. I found the perfect reading corner close to the boat and the lake. I think I brought the perfect book(s) with me.

Perfect summer read- I loved it 💙 the author is the creator of the Moomins! This novella is based on her own family and the island they lived on. It is hilariously funny and simultaneously moving and sweet. Highly recommend!

I can‘t wait for my book haul to arrive! The New York Review Books summer sale was just too tempting …
#NYRB

What else to read on a train through Finland than a Tove Jansson selection? I'm nothing if not predictable.

A delight of a book. Wonderful nature writting in this Scandinavian classic. A summer on an Island with Sophie and her Grandmother. Such a joy to read.

This was a lovely thing to see in the NYT - because when my brain can‘t focus on reading a book it can still focus on articles about books.

Finally some delicious sunshine in the Prairies, and a perfect time to read this book set in #Finland.

That‘s Grandmother and Sophia. 💙☀️💙
#currentlyreading

Thanks Kate for the lovely book. ! I also love this print 😍. I hope you and yours are all doing well now , take care ♥️ Cathy X

2021 top reads- apparently a year of reading classics by women and non fiction about women. @britt_brooke

Are you trying to get through more books before the end of the year? One strategy is to read shorter ones! You can see what I have to say about some darling gems here on a video that I made for Shawn the Book Maniac's booktube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joHQDnQmVOc

The gift of a book which makes you move while also bringing a stillness to the rhythm of life, is an excellent gift, no?

I received The Summer Book as a present from the sweetest, @JennyM last year. Thank you, love! 🥰

The writing in here encompasses multiple themes – philosophy, adventure, nature descriptions in their glory as well as chaos, inspirations from Jansson‘s life experiences, humour, mystery, literature and learning. 👇🏽

I love this book. I savoured all 172 pages. It is unlike anything else I‘ve read. It celebrates the relationship between a wild young girl and her equally wild grandmother as they spend the summer on a small Finnish island. Quote: “Wise as she was, she realized that people can postpone their rebellious phases until they're eighty-five years old, and she decided to keep an eye on herself.”
― Tove Jansson, The Summer Book

This vignette-filled short novel should really only be read during summer time 🌞. The relationship between Sophia and her grandmother, on an island home in Finland, was touching— but yet not saccharine.

I‘m surprised by the low overall Litsy rating on this one, which is also a #1001Books.

Just learned that yesterday was #nationalbookloversday . But that‘s everyday for us, right 😉?

📚📚📚📚📚

The 3 large oak bookcases here were built by my dad (who would have been 82 in two days ) ❤️

Tagged book is my current read.

Read this for Mol‘s bookclub (same as Cantoras) - very Steinbeck but a little girl and Gulf of Finland. Great imagery and cherry scenes - some great humor. Curious about her comic.

Got tagged in Instagram to do #SixBooksSixCountries from my #TBRPile so thought I‘d share here too

Finland ~ The Summer Book by Tove Jasson
Sri Lanka ~ Ruins by Rajith Savanadasa
England ~ NW by Zadie Smith
Turkey ~ Three Daughters of Eve by Elif Shafak (also part set in Oxford but still counts?)
Manus Island(PNG)/ but really stateless ~ No Friend But The Mountains by Behrouz Boochani
Australia ~ Song of the Crocodile by Nardi Simpson

Hi, my love @JennyM ! Thanks for thinking of me & sending this beautiful package of love. The Summer Book sounds joyful & just apt for this time of the year. I am super excited about my intro to Australian fiction, & there are plenty to read now ( @Rissreads sent some too). 🥰 Looking forward to discussing them all with you. Litsy has been my happy place since i joined, & as you said it, we have found some wonderful friends here. Happy '21! 😘💙🎈

This little book was perfection for my mood and this place I‘m holidaying in. It really is just a series of vignettes about a girl and her grandmother on an island. It‘s almost written like a picture book - focused on the immediate, with no explanations. What is unsaid is beautiful - as you piece together for yourself why one of them is sad or scared. And they‘re not idealised characters, they‘re knotty and stormy much like the island itself. ⬇️

How‘s this for a reading spot @rockpools ? #armchairtravel as requested. I can hear the water lapping against the rocks as I read. (On the other hand I have been bitten by ants! 🥴)

Packing for a week away - most important items first 😂 I knew Littens would understand!

Just going for a summer holiday break at a friends cottage up in the Bay of Islands. I know we‘re very lucky to be able to get away from the city for a break - many of my friends and family overseas can‘t do this - and I will have them all in my heart as we go.

Arohanui to you all and hoping for 2021 to bring a huge improvement to each of you 💕

‘“An orange!” said Sophia contemptuously. “Do you think people care about oranges when they‘re talking about God and the Devil?” Grandmother poked the cow dung off her shoe with her walking stick as best she could.
“My dear child,” she said, “with the best will in the world I cannot start believing in the Devil at my age. You can believe what you like, but you must learn to be tolerant.”‘

July has been a weird reading month for me, full of weird reads!! It started off with a slump and bails but ended ok. The Summer book is the stand out but The Bookshop is a lovely comforting read. 👍 #julystats

It‘s been a really good reading week! I haven‘t had much time to read so I‘ve only just started the Kate Atkinson but I really enjoyed the other two. Great books for sunny days. 😎 #bookreport #weeklyreport

This is a quirky read. A Grandmother and her granddaughter spend a summer on a tiny, remote island off the Gulf of Finland. They get up to mischief, have lots of discussions and disagreements and generally put the world to right. I was really taken by this little book. An interesting and unique read. 👍 #Finland #ReadingEurope2020