Welcome to Litsy!

"what a lot of traveling you have done in your day, Aunt Augusta."

"I haven't reached nightfall yet," she said. "If I had a companion I would be off tomorrow, but I can no longer lift a heavy suitcase, and there is a distressing lack of porters nowadays."

Unlike Aunt Augusta I do not wait for a companion, but I agree with her it is hard with a heavy suitcase.

I met my Aunt Augusta for the first time in more than half a century at my mother's funeral.

#firstlinefriday
@ShyBookOwl

Travel writing for travel times - Currently in Vienna

My #Bookspin list for March. The tagged is my #Bookspin, and my #Doublespin, It Can‘t Happen Here, may be too much right now.

Yay!!! I have received it! Can‘t wait to dive in!! #LMPBC17 group T

A, melancholy quote for a melancholy evening:

"I was afraid of burglars and Indian thugs and snakes and fires and Jack the Ripper, when I should have been afraid of thirty years in a bank and a take-over bid and a premature retirement and the Deuil du Roy Albert."

This was funny and absurd, and yet touching in its way. I enjoyed the ride.

I‘ve never read Graham Green. Picked this one up awhile ago at a used book sale. #CuriousCovers #Gray

17-20 Apr 2021 (audiobook)
I had read this previously and cannot remember whether the end reveal was a surprise at all the first time - I think not. Nevertheless I quite like Greene‘s humorous characters and the ethos of this book, which I take to be that you are never too old to lead a life of passion and adventure. Not so sure about the last few lines regarding Henry‘s upcoming nuptials though!

This ebook is on sale today. Can anyone who‘s read it identify what European countries they travel through? Wondering if this could work for some countries for #readingeurope2020

An unexpected read from Graham Greene.

#Roadtrip #BoundtogetherJune
 @OriginalCyn620 @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

A witty account of Henry‘s travels with his Aunt Augusta, a zany 75 yr-old. ‘Boring‘ Henry, a bachelor, retired banker, is persuaded to leave home & embarks on an adventure that takes him from Paris to Istanbul & eventually Paraguay. Crazy story where Henry got mixed up with a bunch of criminals, the CIA & pot smoking! It‘s dated, stereotype-cringeworthy, full of satire, but fun. First rate writing.
#ReadYourSign ♈️
#PublishedInTheYearYouWereBorn

I went recklessly out and crossed the little garden where an American couple... were having tea. One of them was raising a little bag, like a drowned animal, from his cup at the end of a cord. At that distressing sight I felt very far away from England.

I want to meet Aunt Augusta...

Finally got this one off the TBR thanks to @TheAromaofBooks and #bookspin. I loved the first part, as eccentric Aunt Augusta startlingly reveals details of her bohemian past and Henry grapples with a world far removed from his safe suburban existence, but I was less sure about his willingness to immerse himself in lawlessness in part 2. Plenty of good jokes along the way, though.

Henry Pulling‘s life is completely changed when his Aunt Augusta (portrayed by the brilliant Maggie Smith in the 1972 film version) asks him to #accompany her on her travels.

#ReallyRandomFebruary
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @OriginalCyn620

Keeping in with Graham Greene‘s theme of English men (and women) in far flung places - South America, Turkey etc. nicely written even if a bit thin on the detail.

Just finished this one; it was sadder than I expected it to be. I enjoyed it, and it has plenty of humour, but plenty of sadness too. I was unhappy with the ending, though.

“I was sunk deep in my middle age..... ‘I have been happy,‘ I said, ‘but I have been so bored for so long.‘”

The Simplon Orient Express may well have been a #GroovyTrain with Aunt Augusta around.

#RedRoseSeptember
@Cinfhen @arlenefinnigan

I didn't realize this was a play when I chose to read this travelogue of a young man who meets his aunt for the first time and ends up traveling with her on escapades. Being a play and only narrative it felt shorter than it's 270 pgs. It was a fun read.
@NataliePatalie

Starting my very last book for #192019challenge 😢

Still on my tbr, supposed to be an enjoyable read about Hanry Pulling, a retiree who got a #TicketToRide with his Aunt Augusta who persuaded him to travel across Europe.

#BeatleMaynia

Ebook's on sale. The only one of his novels I like enough to read again. It's quite funny.
#kindledeals

1. A Spool of Blue Tread - Anne Tyler
2. The Art of Getting Started - Lee Crutchley
3. Novellas of Martha Gellhorn - Martha Gellhorn
4. Travels with my Aunt - Graham Greene
5. The Christie Curse - Victoria Abbott

#sundayfunday @sebrittain

Although it involves travel, this book is much more of a character study than an adventure. The three or four main characters could not have been more different and yet they completely complement each other. This book is packed full of wit and humorous eccentricity. Deliciously dark and delightful read!

We chose a BlindDatewithaBook.com book for our Neighborhood Book Club this month.

From my TBR, though not #fromParistoBerlin , this book takes us from Paris to Istanbul on the Orient Express. 🚂
#SeptemberDanes

Opened up my first www.blinddatewithabook.com book. We decided it was perfect for book club so it will be our October pick. So fun!

Book haul from Edinburgh Oxfam shop.

Look @LeahBergen it's already here. Another bookmail today and another gorgeous #folio . 💖💖💖😍😍😍

Thank you so much, even if I told you, you don't need to. I will look for something gorgeous for you aswell.

And the Wodehouse book.. 😍💖😘 I am in love. 😍

#litsylove #foliofreaks

Day 4: Travels & Adventures—I haven't read either of these in years, but remember them as delightful travel adventures. That's just one of the bazillion benefits of being a #booklover: traveling without leaving home. [I like to travel occasionally IRL, too.] #RiotGrams #TravelsAndAdventures

The photo is of my boys with their GG (my Granny) so many years ago. Arizona was surely both boys' first air travel destination. Miss her every day.

Score!! My best used book sale book haul ever! #bookhaul #somanybookssolittletime

@Sarah83 wanted to see a bit more of this book before ordering a copy. Here you go, Sarah!

#FolioSociety

I found these lovely Folios at today‘s big charity book sale. The three on the bottom are from Wodehouse‘s Blandings Castle series and the top three? Bizarrely, they are all “Travels With...” titles. 🤔🤔

#FolioSociety

It‘s another episode of #friyayintro on Saturday! We lost power for several hours yesterday, and now that it‘s back I‘m wide awake in the middle of the night!
1. The Address
2. One
3. Ant
4. Yesterday it was potatoes gratin and hummus...but I‘ve been known to eat #carrotcake for breakfast
5. Hi! ✋🏻

#MarchMunchies

#Aunts #150PnPCoverParty ❤️

À chacun son goût

When you explain a phrase you've used and then come across it days later in a book.

This happened last summer when my OH used a phrase that sounded so archaic I said that only old men on porches would ever think to use it in everyday speech. He was gleeful when I found reference to it in a (contemporary) book I was reading.

But really, who else says "as the crow flies" to describe location?

#AprilBookShovers
#PublishedInThe1960s

This was published in 1969. A friend recommended it to me. The one friend whom I only see once a year and rarely talk books with, so I trusted her judgement and was not disappointed.

@RealLifeReading

Christmas it seems to me is a necessary festival; we require a season when we can regret all the flaws in our human relationships: it is the feast of failure, sad but consoling.

Greene for me can be hit or miss, but his best are amazing and this is a hit. A middle aged Bank Manager who has taken early retirement has his world turned upside down by the reappearance of his elderly aunt Augusta, a lady with a shady past and a passion for life. Drawn into his Aunt‘s schemes and her travels, he finds himself discarding his quiet unchanging life for one without guarantee except that he will live each day fully and with abandon.

After a week or two of readers block, I am finding myself enjoying Greene.

I was sceptical at first, when my friend drew this battered book out if a tiny lending library by the road and insisted I read it. I enjoyed the story of the middle aged Henry, travelling with his Aunt Augusta to interesting places, meeting Hippies and CIA agents, and smoking pot.

Retired banker meets red-headed aunt for the first time at his mother's funeral. He intends to go home and install his mother's ashes among his dahlias, but finds himself in Brighton, Turkey, Boulogne, Paraguay, mixed up in all kinds of unsavory business with his aunt and her friends. Uncomfortableness is the key to a long, fulfilling life.

There's just nothing better than looking up a word in the dictionary, and finding the very quote in question used as an illustration!! ? @shawnmooney Remember the same thing happened when I looked up "bitch" as a verb? And that was Graham Greene, too! ?