Welcome to Litsy!

The opening round of the Morning News Tournament of Books ends today with the final matchup between The Confession of Copeland Cane and The Echo Wife.

This is tough because I thought both of these books were flawed, although still interesting.

I am so sad that this book has largely flown under the radar, as it is phenomenal. It is a near-future coming of age story of a young black man in Oakland as he makes his way through an increasingly authoritarian, racist US. I can‘t say enough about this book. I‘m so glad it‘s a TOB book or I would have missed it and I‘m so glad I read it.

Such a great voice but I struggled with this on audio and found it hard to follow - it was just a little all over the place. I‘ll be devastated if The Sentence doesn‘t beat this and Our Country Friends in the play in round of #tob22! Book 16 of 18 done 😊

A phenomenal book. I feel like the blurb about this one doesn‘t do it justice and I almost skipped it. It‘s a powerful, incredibly written labyrinth of a story complete with disturbing asterisks and very accurate commentary on the state of America. #ToB2022

Not only did I finish the tagged book for #TOB #TOB22 #TOB2022 and for #BookSpinBingo, I finished eBook of The Echo Wife for my #TOBCompletist22 badge! And I didn‘t care for it. I can appreciate its themes but am disappointed with the execution. #DogsofLitsy Esther assisting #WHPG

And I add 2 more bingo lines on my card! The Optimist‘s Daughter up next and am considering Olga Dies Dreaming on audio. Should I? I think so.

@TheAromaofBooks

I have mixed feelings about this one. Part of me liked hearing so much of Cope‘s story, because it‘s the small and the big that make us who we are. But the pacing on this was off, and I struggled to maintain interest, especially without knowing until the very end why he was on the run.

#CaresPieShow #PeachPie #LitPie
Cope is released from incarceration and treated to Pecan Pie - - but I decided to make Mini Peach Pies for Super Bowl tomorrow. I‘m about 50%; our narrator is now attending private school and learning how to swim in this new pond.

I am enjoying Subdivision - about 80 pages left in that. Will then focus on The Echo Wife for my last #TOB2022 book! I am going to finish by March 1 if not next week! Very exciting.

Just starting this one from #ToB2022 and really liking it so far. Thanks @BarbaraBB for the tip not to skip this one!

01. The Confession of Copeland Cane; The Book of Form and Emptiness; Enjoy the View
02. These Precious Days, by Ann Patchett
03. Edenbrooke, by Julianne Donaldson

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

When I started this I wasn't really feeling it, so I switched to the audiobook and that helped a lot with the writing style for me.

Like other books, this one deals with the pandemic and the BLM movement. The near future setting was an interesting way of presenting this and I found Copeland to be a refreshing new voice in literature.

The dialogue, wordplay, and little nuances of this story really impressed me. #ToB2022 #ToB22

This is one of those novels that I found excellent when viewed close up but disappointing when viewed from a distance. I enjoyed the wordplay, dialogue, and characters, but rather than existing on their own, they feel like they are there to serve a purpose, to impart a specific message from the author. Of course, all novels do this to one degree or another, but I like the mechanics to be more invisible. #ToB2022

01. The Confession of Copeland Cane; To All the Boys I‘ve Loved Before
02. Where the Drowned Girls Go
03. The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

I started this novel this morning, and it's interesting, but the #ToB2022 books are so dark this year. I kind of wish they'd thrown in Great Circle or something else that would lighten the mood a little bit. #morningreads

Copeland Cane is on the run and shares his confession of how he became a fugitive. He faced incarceration for a minor crime as a teen before being “discovered” by a white businessman and given a full scholarship to a private school. In the background of this near-future book is the pandemic, still disproportionately killing BIPOC people, and the BLM movement. I was fully invested in Copeland‘s story and loved the #audiobook narration! #ToBplayin

Well, I‘ve finished the #PandemicFiction #ToBplayin round, and here are my thoughts. I haven‘t written reviews of Copeland Cane or The Sentence yet, but hopefully will later today. I read Friends the week it came out in case you‘re dying to read my review. 😉😂

Just two more left for me the Ozeki and Klara! #ToBshortlist

I did an ebook/audiobook combo. The audio is very well done. But I found the content way too slow. The build up to WHY Cope is confessing bored me for the most part and the end was anticlimactic. Personally, it felt more like Norris was writing a narrative around issues he wanted to address than a integral story. Still, the voice was well done and engaging. #ToB #ToB2022

Copeland is on the run from something in post-pandemic East Oakland, where COVID has morphed into the ‘ghetto flu‘, police brutality is still rife, and where law enforcement and the media have now merged together.

I struggled with the style at the start but, 10% in, I ‘got it‘. Copeland is a great character and this is a witty book but hard-hitting; the dystopia feels real.

Not my absolute favourite of the #ToBshortlist, but near the top.