Welcome to Litsy!

Skye is just unapologetically herself and I couldn‘t help but enjoy falling into her world. I‘ve read books/seen movies when the random sperm donor meets the person(s) he helped create so I thought this was an interesting take on a child of an egg donor searching for their biological maternal connection.

This week was “messy queer women in Philly” week for me, I guess. Skye has a metric fuck ton of baggage. How she attempts to sort through that while also navigating a relationship with the 12 year old product of her previous egg donation was warm and witty. I really liked it.

Skye‘s cranky first-person narrative is peppered with AAVE and Philly-specific vocabulary (“jawn”), her droll manner (calling someone Captain Interrupting Pants) & her general hugging-is-not-how-I-do-life attitude. She‘s a lesbian, almost 40, with a successful business… but she still hasn‘t sorted out her emotional baggage. Although the style is breezy, serious issues like found vs bio families, forgiveness, & racial profiling are tackled. #LGBTQ

“You have bourbon?”
He shakes his head. “Nah. I have some scotch, though. It‘s not too peaty.”
I agree to scotch. He goes inside and brings it out in a coffee mug. I take a drink. It‘s peaty as hell. Like licking the mossy side of a tree. Like what you‘d expect a hobbit‘s butthole to taste like, if you happened to be part of the ass-eating community of the Shire. But I have a rule that I never complain about free liquor.

“There are many levels between sex and a serious relationship, Viva. There‘s friends with benefits. Love affairs. Situationships.”
“Situationships?” She looks horrified.
“It‘s a thing,” I tell her. “Ask the millennials.”
“That sounds like some cishet nonsense.”

“I‘ve known Philip Michael for 30 years. He and his wife used to run the corner store. Folks called it the ‘Chinese store‘ back then, even though Phil and his wife, Linh, were Vietnamese.”
The corner store I frequented as a child was also run by Vietnamese people. We also called it “the Chinese store.”

[internet image of a show about a store run by Korean immigrants]

Blues sections of record stores are where I feel the most calm. There‘s something about being surrounded by old, blackity-Black music that settles my nerves.

I feel like I could create a Pantone post about these books I‘m reading concurrently. Instead, I will mention the serendipity of one being nonfiction by a Ugandan climate activist and the other a novel with this passage: “It‘s sunny and warm out, unseasonal for early April in Philly, and I say a little prayer to the global-warming gods for their generosity. I‘m kidding; I know climate change is bad.”

This uplifting delayed coming-of-age story focuses on the titular Skye. Successfully running her own travel tour business has her rarely in her hometown of Philadelphia. But she ends up extending her stay to get to know the pre-teen daughter of her camp best friend- the one she donated eggs to in her 20s. This spurs self-reflection, funny scenes & Skye building real relationships for what seems like the first time. Strong setting & characters!

Happy Friday Skye Fating lovely cover happy weekend read.

This book is fantastic. 5/5. Definitely one of the best I‘ve read this year. #queer #POC #marvellousmay #readathon 2/8 reads

Reading this while waiting to go to the library sale and then work. #marvellousmarch #readathon #weekend

I had a difficult time getting into this due to the 1st Person Present narration, which I usually hate. However, the story premise intrigued me enough to keep going. The plot did not disappoint, continuing to entice me forward. In the end, I stopped caring as much about the 1st person and enjoyed the story overall, enough to now go back and check out McKenzie's previous novel, The Summer We Got Free.

This book was really different. First off, I have to say I‘m sure I loved this book so much because I live in Philly and can visualize so much of what the author wrote about. The characters just felt so real and came to life off of the pages. I loved the story behind it and each individual story. This book played out like a movie in mind and it had a perfect ending. Highly recommend this one.

Although I can understand why she was so closed off, parts of me got frustrated with Skye for not giving people a chance. But, one relationship changes it all; who she was, who she wants to be and all the relationships that she didn‘t think meant anything, but do. I laughed, I cried, I sometimes could relate. A great book of a woman‘s journey to self discovery at a later age. Proof that it‘s never too late to love! ❤️

I hated Skye! From beginning to end I hated her. I loved Viva, Faye, Vickie, even Skye's mother, I would read a story about any of these women. These supporting roles were my sole reason for staying with this book.

This book was an impulse buy for my BOTM box. The last few books I've read were really heavy & dark so this laugh out loud funny & emotional novel was a nice change of pace. Although Skye can be obnoxiously immature, I found her to be an interesting character. The author covered a lot of personal growth experiences & it was tender to watch Skye evolve from a person detached from their feelings into someone who was comfortable expressing them. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I enjoy complicated characters. It's especially fun grow along with them.

Unlike some other readers I enjoyed this book from beginning. However, I do agree that Skye was unlikeable but as she matured, she became more enjoyable.

Listening to the book also helped; the jokes were hilarious and had me laughing me out loud. Also, I could listen to Bahni Turpin (the narrator) read chemical ingredients so I may be biased.

Look what came in the mail! Thanks @katy4peas for sending this book my way 📖🥰 April is doing her job inspecting anything new that comes into my place #catsoflitsy

Lambda award winning fiction by Mia McKenzie. Great to have some LGBT characters in a story that isn‘t about coming out.

Skye donates her eggs to a friend in need and years later is confronted by the child produced from those eggs. She reckons with her current life and decides to stay to get to know the child better.

Sweet story and a quick read, I throughly enjoyed this!

Anybody want? Let me know!
Hardback BOTM edition
#giveaway #freebook #newhome

I enjoyed this! Even though Skye was deeply flawed, I found her journey compelling and the writing sharp and funny. The BLM-ish storyline felt really forced and I felt like the ending was too abrupt, but overall it was a fun read. #BotM

Only one row of books to catalog today.😁📚

This book has all the elements of a great one: complex characters, engaging plot, developed time and place and the writing has a clear, bold voice.

After a slight mail delay it‘s finally #BOTM day and I couldn‘t be more excited! Fingers crossed this one‘s as funny as it sounds! 🎉📚🥳

I love #bookmail! But I was right to fear that joining #botm would be deleterious to my shelves!

My #botm arrived in record time this month, along with my yearly reading challenge socks!

My picks for BOTM for June. This is me taking baby steps to get out of my spicy ya fantasy hole. ACOTAR ruined me forever. #botm #miamckenzie #nicolayoon

Our #June2021 #BOTM 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Here are my June #botm picks. I was really bummed that the new Riley Sager book wasn‘t a pick this month! ☹️