Welcome to Litsy!

As soon as I started this I remembered why I have zero memory of A Visit From The Goon Squad--I had no idea what the hell I had read. After 70 pages of an incoherent jumble of story elements I decided to #HailTheBail

My second DNF of the month and it's only the 3rd 😆 But that also means two more TBRs off the shelf so Yay!

72/80

#DoubleSpin
#ReadingMyTBR #Reading2025

October #DoubleSpin

"I have this craving."

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

2/5⭐️ Really didn‘t like this book; really wished that my library book club hadn‘t picked this one. Felt that the topic, while timely, felt a bit esoteric at times and it didn‘t help that the storyline that jumped around a lot; not a fan of Ms. Evan‘s writing style. #bookclub #contemporary #2025 #fiction #scifi

Read the tagged book during #hyggehourreadathon this week

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Similar style of interwoven vignettes with many characters from A Visit from the Goon Squad, loosely centered around the existence of technology that allows you to upload your memories to a shared consciousness in exchange for being able to access the memories of others who opt in. A lot to keep track of, and some stories were more compelling than others, but once I decided to just let it wash over me and catch what I could, I enjoyed it.

#WickedWhispers #Candy

This one drew me way in. Started reading in oaxaca and literally barely put it down on the six hour flight home. Incredible characters, so original and each so fascinating. Loved how they wove together, but certain I missed some of the connections by the last part of the book. V enjoyable. Cool probing into weird futuristic memory sharing sci fi and philosophy and stuff. Def gonna read her first now.

Somewhere between a so-so and a pick, mainly because it wasn't what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be a relatively chronological novel about the creation of an app and its unexpected social ramifications. It was more of a fragmented novel that switched perspectives, time, and styles. I just never felt connected enough to any of it to truly get into it, but I can see how other people would really love it.

Interconnected lives grapple with the invention of a new app that uploads memories.

Authenticity ✨ Isolation vs Connectivity ✨ Vignettes

A huge story, tons of characters, spanning decades, lots of themes explored. Did not realize until today when talking with my sister that this continues the stories of characters in Goon Squad. I feel like I need to reread both.

Obvs felt like I missed a lot, but was engaged throughout.

As much a collection of interconnected short stories as a novel. I did enjoy the variation in style from section to section. Spy manual/log format and 'See Below' email correspondence sections I found to be particularly captivating. I'll admit the teenage inner monologue section was a tough read, just pacing wise. I feel like this book took a lot more effort to read than I was expecting, maybe just personal timing? 1/?

Here's hoping the current, and later, generations, are feeling free to change what they're doing, even in their fifties.

Loving my new @ReadingGlasses tee!

This is a pick with an addendum. Read A Visit From The Goon Squad first. Otherwise you may be a bit confused. I can understand why this is part of #TimeMagazineTop100Readsof2022. It‘s got depth and great interconnection between the various storylines but may not be for everyone. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ read for me. #bookspin @TheAromaofBooks

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - this was fantastic…loved the layers and convergence…the commentary on shared experiences through social media.

#12Booksof2022 This is going to be more like a..50 books or something,no way I can keep it at a book a month!These are among my favourite books of the year,of January,reviews below
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4553938663
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4466792690
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4464256654

This book, hard to describe is a series of inter-connected stories set in the present and the future about the impact of technology. It starts off with a character called Bix who comes up with a social media platform where you can upload your thoughts to be shared with friends. The book has an unusual structure and a plethora of characters, some I couldn't keep track of but I enjoyed her writing which is very clever, creative, and fun.

#OminousOctober
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Eggs

#Spice

#OminousOctober @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Eggs
#Candy

#Scarathlon2022 @StayCurious
#TeamMonsterMash

#OminousOctober
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Eggs

#Candy

I didn‘t know I wanted a sequel to visit from the goon squad, but this was great. Interlocking stories in a techno-dystopian future.

25-30 Aug 22 (audiobook)
Egan tells a somewhat convoluted narrative of technology and spyware and family dynamics through a multitude of voices over several decades. I may not have realised all the connections or have always followed the greater narrative arc but (like Goon Squad) I enjoyed it. Some chapters succeeded more than others but most were interesting.
The audiobook with each character/chapter voiced by a different actor was fantastic.

This book. THIS BOOK! Chapters told from alternating narrators. Some so good, others less engaging but overall this was a fantastic story. Longing, loss, love, connection.

I didn‘t know what this was about before starting but it‘s an intriguing start.

Not sure this would make any sense without the previous book. And it's good. But possibly unnecessary to my life. Read this for my secondary IRL book club. Probably not even attending the meeting but whatever.

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

An excellent successor to A Visit From the Goon Squad. Storylines and characters are revisited from the first novel, and a new generation of characters caught in the same web are introduced. The future hinted at at the end of Goon Squad has now come to pass. The technologies are not much different from what is seen in the dystopian Black Mirror, but there‘s an optimism in this novel that is rarely explored on the tv show.

Creative read that consists of interconnected stories about a wide range of characters. I enjoyed this book, maybe even more than Goon Squad. 😁

I think my favorite perspective came from Lincoln. I loved seeing things through his eyes and learning how his mind worked.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I enjoyed this Goon Squad follow up book. The background theme has to do with a memory storing platform but most characters opt out of storing their memories. It‘s mostly about people in a technological advanced world. I really liked this one. I think I liked Goon Squad but I definitely recommend this is you enjoyed its predecessor.

😬 This one was just too confusing for me. Maybe another day🫤 - 23%

Not sure this held up to the hype. Many different points of view that are kinda sorta connected but not really. At first, I liked the idea of the novel but it just didn‘t pan out. This book was all over the place and the ending was just strange. Book #40 in 2022

The writing in this novel of interconnected stories is fabulous. And though I was both moved and gripped by many of the threads, I found that I didn‘t connect consistently. Some of these took my breath away, yet others I found cold, keeping me at arms length. But maybe that was the point? The speculative concept of memories and technology combined, was fascinating and unnerving. Challenging, but definitely worth it, as Eagan‘s talent just shines.

I was worried that I‘d miss a lot of references to Goon Squad since I read it so many years ago, but that wasn‘t really an issue. I know I didn‘t love it as much though - Goon Squad just felt so unique at the time, like nothing I‘d ever read. That being said, this was definitely entertaining and worth it - some sections are just stronger than others.

Bingo! This square at R3C3 completes C3 as my possibly only May2022 #BookSpinBingo. I loved this linked collection of short stories and it readies me for week 1 of #CampTOB discussions.

My mom would tell me that the friends I made in HS won‘t last. Funny how that was true. #situational #NoreenisDERANGEDbutyetawesome

“… tweezing forkfuls of turkey or PECAN PIE through a rectangular mouth slot.” #PieinLiterature #ILovePie

Jennifer Egan proves again she is a master of the cultural zeitgeist and the interconnected vignette in The Candy House. A Visit from the Goon Squad is as near to pitch perfect as a novel can get for me, and The Candy House is a worthy follow up which I loved. In it, Egan captures the cultural concerns of a generation, extrapolating them out into an imagined future. Complex, gritty, ambitious, and challenging. There is much to love here.

🎧 The publisher‘s summary of this book was so intriguing. I thought it was going to become an instant favorite.

Nope

Boring. The characters are forgettable.

It was interesting. Technically advanced near future amps up what we have with today‘s social media addiction. I enjoyed the humor. There were multiple stories & multiple narrators. Complicated. Maybe it‘s too on the nose. The last 10% improved.

I couldn‘t wait for it to end.

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

I wasn‘t a big fan of the Good Squad, but I enjoyed this one quite a bit. Intersecting characters are given a chapter that changed in time and style to keep the plot moving in an interesting clip. Some characters are better than others, but overall this is a fun read!

Brilliant. I inhaled this and remembered why I loved Visit to the Goon Squad - the sense of fun and play, while touching on serious issues like AI & our selves as a commodity. The writing is lively & propulsive, the characters leap off the page & I loved the inventiveness of the different voices & styles. Her sense of humour and the mastery of language, craft & verve in each sentence reminds me of David Foster Wallace. A great read.

The day I finished listening to the outstanding full cast audiobook, I picked up my library hold for the print edition. I‘ve been flipping through to see how some of the more unusual sections look on the page, reading bits here and there. I felt so emotional I had to stop & look outside at trees instead… oh, this world we live in… will we find a way forward through the capitalist exploitation of our personal data? This book is about consequences.

She is convinced that spyware remains within her body, citing the following symptoms as evidence:
- A tendency to think aphoristically in the second person, as required for her mission‘s Field Instructions (eg, “Reading books about babies sleeping may not result in your babies sleeping more”).

“You can‘t just cut off a label with scissors because that leaves a prickly label stub that‘s worse than the label itself. Mom snips each tiny, nearly invisible stitch that attaches the label to the shirt, using minuscule scissors that have to be special-ordered from Germany and stored in a deionized glass cylinder or they will lose their sharpness overnight.”

[Insert time for me to travel down an internet rabbit hole after reading this.]

We contemplated a nationwide billboard campaign to remind people of that eternal law, Nothing is free! Only children expect otherwise, even as myths and fairytales warn us: Rumplestiltskin, King Midas, Hansel and Gretel. Never trust a candy house!

I just realized that this is why I was so eager to sell the home our kids grew up in: I'm not in the museum business.

“His father had died two months ago, of ALS. The complaints about climate-compromised snow were over; Sunday dinners were over; the family home in Chelsea would soon be over, his mother having already declared that she planned to sell it. 'I‘m not in the museum business,' she‘d said.“

Holding my phone, looking out at twinkling Lake Michigan, I understood with sudden clarity that doing the right thing—being right—gets you nothing in this world. It‘s the sinners everyone loves: the flailers, the scramblers, the bumblers. There was nothing sexy about getting it right the first time.

Squeeee my preorders finally arrived!! 🤗🤗 I‘m so, so excited for both of these!