Welcome to Litsy!

Everyone raves about this book, but it didn‘t quite work for me. I thought the setting of Belfast and the background of the troubles was done really well, but I was never grabbed by the central storyline, which made the whole book fall flat.

“Michael pushed his plate away and thanked Crushla. He pointed vaguely at the bag from the bookshop. Is that yours? He said. Yeah. She passed it to him, regretting having drawn a rainbow of tester lipstick on the back of her hand in Boots earlier. Ah, he said, when it was out of the bag. I‘ve read this. She had bought a copy of “The Black Prince” by Iris Murdoch because it looked like hard work and might stop her obsessing about him”.

Probably the best book I‘ve read this year. The Troubles are as much a character in this book as the people in it.Chusla lives with her mother , helps out at the family‘s pub.You feel the hope that she feels, that the children she teaches live to see better times. When she meets a handsome man in the family pub, she can‘t help her interest & things will get beyond complicated. A compelling read.

I bought this book at Dublin airport and I couldn‘t put it down until I finished it. The conflict in Northern Ireland is at the heart of the story along with the personal stories of the characters who suffer inevitably from the conflict and their own struggles.

Really enjoyed this atmospheric novel set in Belfast area during The Troubles. Still, is there an Irish novel with a happy ending? Asking for a friend….

#independentbookstoreday 🥳🥳🥳🥳

An expertly narrated audiobook set in Northern Ireland during The Troubles. This is another setting that‘s been explored extensively, but what a wonderful addition to the period. Cushla is a young teacher caring for her students, alcoholic mother, and works at her family‘s bar in the evenings. She becomes romantically entangled with an older man, which is the main focus of the book. Also, that cover art 😍

V good.

https://womensprizeforfiction.co.uk/2023-prize
#WomensPrize #Shortlist #Ireland

It's late Sunday afternoon and I am going to drink some off brand Irish cream with my coffee while digging into my next #womensprizelonglist title.
Sponsored by Bailey's but drinking Costco 🤣

For the first 2/3s of the book the main and most interesting character is Northern Ireland itself. It's bleak and compelling. So I didn't mind that the plot wasn't all that. Then the final third is a rush of grief (but you already knew it wouldn't end well) and rage. There are a few characters there that I would like to bitch-slap in righteous anger, to put it mildly. I have a feeling this one will stay with me.

#WomensPrize 2023 #longlist

Jeez, I'm 87% into this book and The Cranberries turn up in my playlist rotation. Ode to My Family. I am going to be sobbing on the floor in a minute. All I need is for Zombie to play next. 😭

Fantastic. A young woman, a teacher who cares for her students & tries to support one particular family, and has to care for her mother who is often drunk. She begins an affair with a married man which her brother, who runs the family bar, warns her about. However, the main character for me was Northern Ireland. This story is the first I‘ve read in which I viscerally felt smack dab in the midst of the claustrophobia and violence of The Troubles.

This was a compulsive read where I just had to keep on reading to find out what happened next.

Set during the troubles in Northern Ireland. Cushla helps her brother out in the bar and also works as a teacher. She starts an affair with a married man. At the same time she tries to help one of her pupils.

5th read from the #WomensLongList

Well this one will break your heart. At first a quiet story of Cushla in Northern Ireland in the 1970s, surrounded by the awful reality of the Troubles. She falls for a married man, Michael, a Protestant barrister fighting for the rights of young Catholic men. I was completely gripped and couldn‘t put it down. The final third left me reeling. This is not an easy story to read, but there was a tenderness to the writing that I loved.

I enjoyed this one. A compulsive read , Louise Kennedy really tuned into the atmosphere of the time, 1970‘s Belfast. I was on tender hooks the whole time waiting for something to happen ❤️💔

Really liked the window into Northern Ireland in the 70s. Beautiful and tragic story, really liked the protagonist. She is relatable and kind and strong and insecure. Would recommend

On my short list for the #WomensPrize. The mention of a few 70‘s song really tied me into the time period when I knew little about Ireland and the troubles. I loved Cushla as she fell in love and as she did so many good things but not considered the “right” things. Never easy to read about that time.

#TBRTarot #Onewordtitle
#52weeks #samenameasauthor #Louise

Fabulous book. Recommended.
(Something in my eye though.)

#WomensPrize #Longlist

Oh no, I'm worried about what's going to happen to these characters...

This month was dedicated to slow pace, character driven with dysfunctional family novels. Most of them by Irish authors which suggest that I like that writing style. I liked this novel. One of the #Women‘s fiction prizelonglist novels. This is about Cushla and her forbidden relationship with Michael Agnew a barrister. About how much harm religious prejudices can make and how dangerous can be to defend the injustice. ⬇️

The body of a man was found off the Shore Road by a woman out walking her dog.
I wouldn‘t thank you for a dog, said Gina. You‘d be odds-on to find a corpse

It wasn't in Belfast, he said. A booby-trap bomb that was intended for a British Army foot patrol exploded prematurely, killing two boys near the border. They died instantly.

Booby trap. Incendiary device. Gelignite. Nitroglycerine. Petrol bomb. Rubber bullets. Saracen. Internment. The Special Powers Act. Vanguard. The vocabulary of a seven-year-old child now.

Hope to get to both of these in April. I have planned to read Honor every month since January but it keeps getting bumped. #AuldLangSpine I tried to listen to Trespasses on audio and it didn‘t work for me so hoping print will be better. #WomensPrize

#TBRTarot @CBee

I cannot begin to say how much I liked this book. Having read many fiction & non-fiction books & articles about the troubles in Ireland this book gives a very personal view of how tenuous life was for Catholics living in Northern Ireland during those times. After finishing I re-read the opening chapter, so glad I did as that for me was the perfect ending of this wonderful novel.

Lots of good books this month, but the tagged was my favorite. And look! A #bookspinbingo! Having fun with this challenge.

Gina lugged herself upright and took the tray from Cushla. She picked up a piece of toast and bit the centre, her mouth contorting in disgust as she chewed. It could do with more butter, she said.

Butter's bad for you, said Cushla.

It's so dry I'm more likely to choke to death than have a stroke...

#WomensPrizeLonglist2023

It‘s a pick but it‘s depressing. Set in Northern Ireland during the 70‘s. A time and place where who you are and where you come from matters more then your character. An evocative and compelling story of love and kindness thwarted by violent sectarianism.

A story of relationships set during the troubles of Northern Ireland. Great literary fiction- it‘s tender and I enjoyed it more than I expected to.

Now on to my choice for April bookclub, Trespasses by Louise Kennedy. 3rd Saturday of each month we meet for brunch in Sacramento CA, however now that I live in Kalamazoo MI I join via Zoom and drool over what is being served up for brunch. We solve many of the worlds issues as well as discuss books including the book for the month. How I miss those Saturdays with my friends.

Wow. This is a beautifully written book. Taking place during the Troubles, there‘s a lot of heartache, but it‘s a fantastic read.

Set in Ireland in the 1970s there is so much turmoil, so the story is not uplifting. I enjoyed the character development in this novel and especially enjoyed young Davey and Cushla's colleague and friend Gerry.

This was so much more than I was expecting. A lot of what I had read about it focused on the affair between Cushla, a Catholic, and the married Protestant Michael, but that is only one facet of her story. I think it does the book a disservice to call it the story of an affair. It is Cushla's story, her life lived during the Troubles, attempting to navigate family, friendship, live, and community. 👇

Reading in the car while my son has his piano lesson. This has started off really well! #womensprize

I was very much drawn in to the world of 1975 Ireland. Cushla is an elementary school teacher who lives with her alcoholic mother and helps out in her family‘s pub at night. The story was tragic and at times sweet as she tries to help the family of one of her students and becomes involved in an affair with a married man.

Really good. Complex and tragic. Stellar writing. I did not like Cushla with Michael at all. Decades older and married? No and no. Thankfully, this story is so much more than that. Deserving, I think, of its place on the #WomensPrize longlist.

Finishing up this audiobook today. Soooo good!

I loved this book set in the height of The Troubles in Northern Ireland. Everything about this book was perfect.

A beautiful novel set in 1970s Belfast during the Troubles. Warm & engaging despite the tense atmosphere of Belfast at the time. Real, authentic characters with a dry sense of humour. In understated prose Kennedy explores violence, the ripple effects of trauma, religion & the treatment of women, but the love story sings. Recommended.

😊

2 lovely BD surprises we‘re waiting for me when I got home from holidays. Who do I have to thank for these books from my TBR?

Heartbreaking story set during the troubles in Northern Ireland. Complicated people and situations kept my attention and I didn‘t anticipate where it was going.

I‘d like to read more of Kennedy, but it think she only has one other adult novel?

First completed book of 2023. Loved this novel set in Northern Ireland during The Troubles. Full of believable, complicated characters. Has such a strong sense of place and time. 4 🌟 Highly recommend. #52Bookclub23 Book about secrets.

#12booksofchristmas #12booksof2022 @Andrew65 December- this has been a great thread and I've enjoyed seeing everyone's choices. My final choice has to be Trespasses which I'm still thinking about. A love story from 1970's Belfast in which the troubles, family, and religion brilliantly told. And what a great cover, although not this one featured but the other cover.

A slow burn, a lived-in feel, till the urgent push of the end. Daily life of a young Catholic schoolteacher outside Belfast during the Troubles, her affair with a Protestant lawyer. Children living with sectarian violence, grief, guilt, alcoholism, responsibility, care, tenderness, kindness. Beautiful writing on the ache of love—for family, for lover. Finding joy and solace in a brutal time. 153 “She was too happy. And not about to say so.” 2022

#12booksof2022 July
4 5 star reads in July, going with this one though could have picked any of the others too and they all made my top22.
This was a very unromantic love story, sad and very realistic.

1 The Gustav Sonata
2 The Netanyahus
3 Sin Eater
4 Holding
5 We Were the Lucky Ones
6 How to Stop Time
7 The Lions of Al-Rassan
8 For the Wolf
9 Mrs Death Misses Death
10 The Master
11 The German Mujahid
12 Parable Of A Sower
13 Wide Sargasso Sea
14 Forest Walking
15 A Deadly Education
16 Our Missing Hearts
17 Hester
18 Trespasses
19 Library
20 Audio
January #bookspin #doublespin #BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

Like so many others here, I loved this book. A page turner of a story with an incredible cast of characters. Heartbreaking and funny and beautiful. ♥️

What a brilliant piece of storytelling uses a love story to frame a tale of the sad tale of how the troubles in N Ireland impact upon society including children, families, and lovers. Cushla a catholic teacher in her 20s, works in her br's pub + meets Michael, married protestant lawyer, in his 50s. The love affair carries on while she deals with an alcoholic mother + a child in her class whose family are at risk. Remarkable writing 5*

What I found so provocative about this book was how the political turbulence and violence is juxtaposed against the day to day life of people living in Northern Ireland at that time. Seeing it played out in the lives of the characters in this book really punctuated the reality of those times. Kennedy brilliantly uses conflicts between religion, class, and family to drive home this story, making it one of my favorite reads of 2022.