Welcome to Litsy!

No way on earth I could review it in a little blurb here. Longest audiobook I have ever listened to. Hope it is worth it to read my complete review (and not because I'm trying to get blog traffic) -- it is just that an 800 page book requires some thought...: https://readingrantsandraves.blogspot.com/2025/10/2025-44-love-songs-of-web-du-b...

Oh Ailey ….An American story

This one is a chunkster at 816 pages. Big books don't usually put me off, but I restarted this a couple of times and couldn't get into it. I decided to try an audio book for the first time, with a plan to alternate reading from the book and listening. Takeaways: 1) I have a hard time listening to someone read in various voices for characters. It really pulls me out of the story. 2) I can't stand listening at a slower speed than 1.75 😬. ⬇�

I‘m torn between rating this one pick for the chapters called song & the historical storyline,which to be honest broke me in parts I could have put it down & just cried at human nature & why oh why do some people do these wicked things,so-so on the modern story far toolong as others have said, should have been edited downto 500/600pages.audio was superb 👌best cast , so partly read & partly listened on audio which I highly recommend #bookspinbingo

Lotsof mixed reviews about this whoopa of a novel it takes a lot to dedicate your precious time to nearly 900pages, like other reviewers the chapters called “songâ€� & the historical story is of more interest to me, whilst Ailey‘s story in parts feels slightly over written it could have been edited down. I‘m preferring listening to this on audio which is unusual for me,the cast is superb.narration makes or kills a good book.still 25hours left 😲

24-9 Jun 24 (audiobook)
The size of this novel had been overwhelming me for years, so tackling the audiobook seemed an easier option. And it worked well. It is a sprawling epic tracing a family from their roots in Africa to close to present day. There are numerous accounts of sexual abuse, including against children, some of which were difficult to deal with and many characters are flawed. But it certainly held my interest and raised questions.

Very intense.

Finally got caught up on my #LitsyLove. I'll be sending them out tomorrow. I've also developed quite the post card collection, so I'm sending some out to random members or people I haven't spoken to in awhile. Where did they all come from? How did I get so many?

I also started this audiobook. Not sure if I'll like it or not. It's not my usual thing.

This novel sweeps generations and I think I would choose to read a print copy if I had it to do over, if only because I spent a whole section of the audio book thinking I was listening to one character when it was someone else.

#readingbracket2023 #fiction

#WithASong In my Audible queue #TemptingTitles @Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

#blackhistorymonth recommendations

#2 fiction

Loved this doorstopper! I try to recommend book around or under 300 pages during this month, so they are less intimidating but this 800 pager is worth all the hype. A multi generational story that is beautifully written and which draws you in and honestly leaves you wanting more. And that cover! Gorgeous.
If you have thought about trying this now is a great time to pick it up

#12books2022 May
The things about best of books is every one brings back the feels you had when you read it. I know a lot of people said this was too long, but I loved it and love big sweeping books. Yes it was also dark, sad and uncomfortable at some points. But I learned a lot and read a lot around some of the historical story and people. Can‘t ask for much more can you!?

I finally decided to start this one as part of my #chunkster challenge and it took me the better part of a month to get through because I had to deal with the inconvenience of working to support said book habit 🙄. With that said this is without a doubt one of the most lyrically written family saga I‘ve ever read. I truly feel it should be required reading for high school students. So much to learn and understand. â­�ï¸�â­�ï¸�â­�ï¸�â­�ï¸�â­�ï¸�

Also finished this beast. For book club. Not sure what crazy person picked this as our secondary read (it was definitely me) but glad I read it. So glad I read it. Also really glad to be finished. Seriously. All of the love for this. It's just really long.

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

Choices, choices for the weekend! I‘ve got a few door stoppers on my TBR, including tagged book, The Books of Jacob, and To Paradise. Help, can‘t decide which to read first!

5 out of 5!! Sooo good.

I want to give this a 5 star rating but it was a sweeping saga with several simultaneous story lines but only one caught my attention. It is incredibly well researched to enhance the ficticios story to be as real as possible. Although dense, confusing, & uncomfortable to read at times, it is well worth sustaining until the end of the main storyline. If it is ever pared down to a YA version, the book would be required reading for Middle Schoolers

I need to read the first 400 pages of this by Thursday. Good thing I have a silly tote to carry it around.

If 300 people have already told you to read this book, allow me to be the 301st. Rich with history, intergenerational loves and hurts that will feel familiar to you no matter who you are or where you come from, and characters you‘ll miss when they‘re gone.

The other half of last week‘s #libraryhaul, I‘m about to dive into this.

An impactful novel...one that I wanted to savor. The different threads of lives pulled together at the end and made for a satisfying journey.

There was a lot to process here. It took me so long to read it, I‘m afraid I‘m just ready to move on and not analyze too much. I mostly liked it. 😊

Heavy lifting here, figuratively and literally. 💔 I‘m not even sure what to say because it‘s going to take some time to digest. I didn‘t “likeâ€� all aspects of the novel, but overall it‘s an enlightening, sometimes humorous, and painful journey.

Ooofta, some seriously heavy sh*t in this tome.

I‘m also getting some serious wind burn. It‘s been the windiest spring I can recall here. If I wanted to be wind whipped I‘d live in the Dakotas. My poor flowers. 🥀

I loved this, I couldn‘t wait to pick it up every time I had to do other things. It‘s a big book with big themes. It‘s dark and has some very grim stuff in it, as you would expect. I learned a lot and got lost down the internet rabbit hole a few times.
A great read.

😳 There are some seriously good moments in this novel!

Did I need to buy books to fill my Memorial Day Weekend ? No I did not .Did I get some anyway? Yes , I did!

#quicklunchtimeread
No afternoon meetings and campus is really quiet! Time for some lunch and my book.

I need more hours in the day! Loving it so far ♥�

The more I read this book, the more I wonder where this journey will take me.

Cricket is always one for a supervisory role. �

I‘ve worked an 11 hour day today! I got a 20 min break to eat a buttie and read 20 pages. Hoping for a couple of hours tonight 🤞ðŸ�»

Started this one and it‘s going to take awhile in order to savor the writing. I‘m especially enjoying the historical storyline. Heartbreaking. 💔

What a wonderful intergenerational, black feminist novel. I picked up this book because it was recommended to me by a colleague and I am so glad I did. Beautifully written, this epic follows the history of a family and the world around them from pre-colonial America to the modern day.

Legs

Still reading this one - taking it slow but it is excellent

Scores from the little free library a while back. It is how I reward myself for walking up the hill.

This book is very good but I don‘t think it is great. It‘s not super original although exploring the lives of an intellectual middle class black family was unusual and rewarding. It‘s beautifully written but I thought dragged a bit towards the end. Nonetheless there is so much to admire and enjoy in this novel

Picked this up today because A. from the reviews I know it contains prose best lingered over in print and B. I had a gift card burning a hole in my purse. 🔥

Thank you so much Jee for the birthday surprise. I opened it first thing this morning and was excited. I have been eying it every time I am in a book store. The bookmarks are wonderful too! I so appreciate your kindness and thoughtfulness.

An audiobook for me, and I didn‘t like the main reader.

An ambitious work, an ode to black history in Georgia, a child of One Hundred Years of Solitude, with less magic. For all the praise this gets, it‘s a good, but not great book. It has problems. It has a lot of strengths too, my favorite being her undergraduate perspective on a fictional Spelman-like historically black women‘s college the early 1990‘s (my college years).

For 3 days this was the only book I allowed myself to read because I wanted to let myself get wrapped up in this multi-generational family saga.

Jeffers puts a variety of topics in this chunkster for the reader to consider, but the heart of the story revolves around identity and what it means to be black in America.

Heartbreakingly beautiful and definitely worth the read! 💚

That was my seat but a moment ago. I got the 'the look' so had to shift over.

If you love epic multigenerational family sagas, this is the book for you. If chunksters make you happy, it‘s the book for you. If you just like a good read, this is the book for you. Loved how it followed a Creek family, a white family, and a black family…and how their interconnectedness is revealed over time. While there‘s a lot of darkness in this one, there‘s also a lot of hope, joy, personal agency, and growth.

Total #blameitonlitsy

It's quite the chunkster. Look at the beautiful endpapers.

I adored this book. This was a novel set around an extended family between former slave owners and those who were enslaved. It was set jn a former plantation in the south. It followed the families pain in discrimination and their joy. I especially love Ailey was became a historian and studied her families history. It was an incredible read. 5/5

a sweeping epic following the lives of an african-american family through enslavement, the civil war, and into our modern times. ailey pearl inherits a complicated legacy of secrecy and absence, inherited from both sides of her family. as she grows up, she decides to seek out her family history, with devastating and profound results.

it's so good. it's so so good.

I am so looking forward to starting this. 800 pages! A four page family tree! Great Litsy reviews. What‘s not to enjoy?