Welcome to Litsy!

Avant-garde artist Evan Trentham, his wife Helena and their daughters live a bohemian life in 1930s Melbourne. They start an art colony, inviting upcoming artists to live and work with them. Narrator Lily is the bff of daughter Eva and lives there too for a while. Through her eyes the story unravels as the community and the family fall apart around her. Decades later she reconnects with this past life.
Thank you for sending me this one Karen🩷

I enjoyed this novel of deep friendship between young girls and the art world of the 1930s in Australia. I did not feel compelled to pick it up often, but when I did, I enjoyed it. 3 🌟 #52bookclub23 #setinaustralia @LauraReads @KarenUK @britt_brooke @CarolynM @Smarkies @LeeRHarry @Clwojick @BookBelle84 @jennifer80 @Librarybelle @triplem80 @AshleyHoss820 @Read4life @Bluebird @squirrelbrain @BarbaraTheBibliophage @ravenlee @Deblovestoread

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I selected this at random from my shelves and very much enjoyed it. The description says it‘s for fans of Atonement and I tend to agree. It‘s about growing up and being put into adult situations at a young age. I think the writing is very good and I loved the complexity of the relationships that also felt very real. I‘ll be watching out for anything else from this author!

I have been doing a ruthless cull of my library over the last few days and getting rid of books that I bought YEARS ago (and now have little interest in reading ... isn‘t it strange how that works?).

This one has only been waiting for 6 or 7 years 😆 and survived the cut. I‘m about 30 pages in and enjoying it.

Lily is an only child who meets Eve on her first day at a new school when she‘s 8. Eve has two sisters and her parents are avant- grade artists who want to create a Modern Art society in Melbourne. Eventually their home becomes a commune of artists. Set in the thirties, in Melbourne, you experience the strange dynamics of this group and how each influence the other. #Australia

I‘m really enjoying The Strays #AustralianAuthor. I had to display (show off) my cup and my frothed milk that has changed my Slow Jam Sundays. Mug purchased at Barnes and Noble, produced by Epic Reads. Enjoy your Sunday, Folks!❤️I paired this baby with Paradise by Sade🏝

@TheSpineView @Eggs

1. I miss going to my favorite vegan restaurant with my friend Andrea. Otherwise, I‘m ok with this bc I don‘t mind being home.
2. My reading has dropped off dramatically, but that‘s bc Im watching a lot of YT, I‘m Creative Journaling, and I‘m new to IG, which I never thought I would be on.

Thank you for the tag, @Eggs

Day 7 - #7days7covers #covercrush

#7Books7Covers #CoverCrush Day 6

Anyone else want to play? Post 7 book covers that you love over 7 days with no explanation.

When I go secondhand book shopping, I go hard and then go home 😊
Money goes to a really important cause and I get cheaper books. Win win really, except for finding space for them all on my triple stacked bookcases...
#secondhandbookhaul #lifelinebookfest

Spring has sprung in Kentucky and April is also #AussieApril month! If you‘re into Book Tube, check out the fabulous Jaclyn; native Australian living and lawyering in Houston, TX for some great Aussie recc‘s. Tune in at: Jaclyn // Six Minutes For Me. Yay spring ... yay books! 😃🦋🌸📚🇦🇺

https://wellreadneck.wordpress.com/2019/04/05/the-strays-emily-bitto/

#timbittunes #coyote
@Cinfhen @TheKidUpstairs
I LOVE Joni Mitchell madly..... and happened upon this bookriot article a few years ago, suggesting books to go along with this album.

https://bookriot.com/2016/11/25/joni-mitchells-blue-a-reading-list/
It lead me to my favorite book of 2017 (tagged)

I love the idea of matching an album to a reading list.... I‘ve seen playlists for books, but other than this one, not the other way around....💕🎧🎶📚

Emily Bitto paints a picture of #LaVieBoheme with her story of Lily, who befriends Eva and Eva‘s sisters. Eva‘s father is an Australian painter, and the whole family lives a very different life from Lily‘s unremarkable working-class life.

This was a great read - intense and interesting 👌

#MusicalNewYear

#ozfiction
This is the second book I have read this year that involved art and again I found myself searching up artworks and artists on google. I loved the story, the characters and especially the writing:
‘It was windy, and men held their hats by the brim as if greeting everyone they passed. Women clasped their flapping coats around them, pulling children behind them like fallen kites.‘
Thanks for gifting me this beautiful book @LapReader 💙

These will probably be my last 2 books of the year! I have picked these 2 as they were picked for me in book swaps.
The strays by @LapReader in the #Diwalibookswap
Relatively famous by @CarolynM in the #StuffedStockingSwap
I can‘t wait to get started!!!!!!!
💙💛🧡❤️💚💜

Friendship, art, family, I was drawn into the Trentham‘s world. Evan is a famous artist pushing against conventions in the Australian art world in the 1940s. He and his wife form an artists‘ commune and Lily, as a teen, lives with them due to her friendship with their daughter Eva. She captures the vividness and destructiveness that ensues as this chosen family reveals its faults. Art by Ande Kempnich an Australian artist and my uncle‘s partner.

Sneaky reading last night. My daughter is transitioning to a toddler bed because her brother broke the side of the crib when he climbed in it. That 50 lb wait limit is legit. He weighs 52 pounds. I‘m lying next to her in the dark waiting for her to fall asleep. #momsgottoread

#Nofemmeber #badselfportrait
Today‘s song gives me ANOTHER excuse to recommend my favorite book I read last year!
I love this story of female friendship, art and parental narcissism, set in 1930‘s Australia.
Lily is a loner until she meets the vibrant daughters of well-known artist Evan Trentham. When the Trenthams open their home as an artists commune, their daughters and Lily bear the brunt of their neglectful parenting to devastating effect.

This was the first book I thought of for #Australia. I loved this debut and will definitely read her next novel #AugustIsATrip

#deweyjuly photo challenge day 4: Best of 2018 so far. This book is a solid 5 star read that really stands out against the perfectly fine, but average books that I have read so far this year. #readathon

I loved this book. It reminded me so much of my childhood best friend and our escapades together. I struggled with the parents of Eva, Bea, and Heloise how their neglect affected their children in such detrimental ways. The story was compelling though and beautifully written. #lmpbc

@EliNeedsMoreShelves @TheWordJar @Johanna414

I will be sending this out to you this week @EliNeedsMoreShelves Great book pick!

"Can't stand" is probably too strong, but I was frustrated by this one because I thought there was a much better book in there struggling to get out. #unpopularopinion

@MrsMalaprop it came it came it came!!!!!!! After a super hard exam and three quizzes yesterday it was a long day so to have this show up was the most perfect timing ever!!!! Thank you so much!!! I can‘t wait to read this. It‘s actually going to go with me as one of my books for vacation in a few weeks! Thank you thank you thank you!!!! ❤️❤️😍😘😘Your kindness is amazing! So grateful to get to know you thru Litsy! ❤️😘

Hi @BookaholicNatty 😊. A copy of this lovely is making its way to you. #ozfictiongiveaway #winners
I hope you enjoy it. Happy reading 📚😁🙌.

Thanks @MrsMalaprop for the chance to win in your #ozfictiongiveaway! I'd love to read The Strays- it sounds like a very interesting book! Congratulations on the milestone!

Congrats on your milestone! And thank you for your #ozfictiongiveaway.

I‘d love to read the tagged book. I had picked one @LeeRHarry had suggested, but he‘s sending me an extra copy! This book has been on my tbr for a while. It‘s gotten good reviews and sounds so interesting.
@MrsMalaprop

Congrats @MrsMalaprop hitting 20K!! Such a huge milestone! Well done and well deserved! Here is to 20k more! I haven‘t read a lot Australian authors so The Strays is what I picked! It‘s looks really good! Thanks again for this giveaway! You are the best! 😘😘🌸🌺 #ozfictiongiveaway

1. Just starting The Strays for #LMPBC #GroupJ.
2. I wasn‘t read to as a child, but we lived across the street from our public library. My mom would take me over there almost every week. She always had a big stack of books. It was also the first place I could walk to on my own, so I went a lot.
3. I love night reading, but really, all-day every day.
4. Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue. I‘ll always wonder how Neni is doing.

#ManicMonday

A story of the Australian art world in the 1930s. An Arty family living an alternative life in conservative times. A story of girlhood friendship. And what happens when it all goes wrong.

What a debut. Not surprised it won the #StellaPrize in 2015. #ozfiction

The perks of my husband going into work late ☕️📖🛏. Shame I have to get up in five to get the kids to school. Later my pretty...

Hoping to finish this quality #ozfiction today. 🇦🇺

#4NEWfavesin4days Day 1

(New to me in the last year)

I was a little intimidated going into this book, because I was afraid it was going to be artsy and high brow. Instead, it ended up being utterly brilliant and thought provoking. I felt like a fly on the wall in the Trentham household, and I couldn‘t stop myself from turning the pages to find out what was going on.

This book is an exploration of female friendship, sisterhood, growing up and love, and I fell completely in love with it ❤️

#ReadingResolutions @Jess7 #Memory #Currentlyreading #Ozfiction

Making a start on this #StellaPrize winner that‘s been waiting patiently on my #tbr shelf.

Given that the first chapter opens with,
“This is how I recall it”
I think that #memory is going to feature heavily in this debut Australian novel. 🤗📚

I‘m reading these two books at the moment, and they are complimenting each other rather nicely. I can see a lot of what O‘Toole is saying about females and feminity in the characters and relationships of The Strays 👌

#currentlyreading

@TheWordJar it‘s headed your way!
#lmpbc #GroupJ
@Rachbb3 @EliNeedsMoreShelves

@EliNeedsMoreShelves I‘m so glad you chose this book so I had to read it! It probably never would have crossed my radar otherwise and I‘m really glad to have read it. That‘s all I‘m going to say about it now - my review is in the back of the book 😊
#LMPBC #GroupJ
@TheWordJar @Rachbb3

I am within 30 pages of finishing both of these books - now if I could just get both children to sleep at the same time for just an hour... 😂

Today is Nina‘s one month birthday and my 29th birthday! We‘re celebrating with snuggles and a book while the guys take a nap.

Sneaking in a little reading time with the snuggles this afternoon. Don‘t mind the bloodshot eye where the little guy accidentally elbowed me this morning...
I‘m really enjoying this book so far! #LMPBC #GroupJ
@TheWordJar @EliNeedsMoreShelves @Rachbb3

@EliNeedsMoreShelves it‘s here!! Can‘t wait to get started, as soon as I finish Salem‘s Lot
@TheWordJar I didn‘t take a photo, but yours is in the mail. Sorry it took a little longer than I had planned to get it to you!
#LMPBC #GroupJ

this one kept crossing my path, so i finally stopped and read it. 4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Lily, now a middle-aged woman, reminisces about her childhood friendship with Eva and her infatuation with Eva‘s bohemian parents.

Lily loved being one of the strays in the Trentham‘s artist commune in Australia during the 1930s. As a child, she looked up to Eva‘s glamorous mother and desperately wished to be included in the family. Unfortunately, their creative utopia eventually soured.

The descriptive writing drew me in.

Not going to say a lot because I'm getting ready to send this off to its next #LMPBC stop, but......

Hooo, boy, this is a good one! #readingwomenchallenge

@Johanna414 this beauty is on it's way to you today!

#GroupJ @TheWordJar @Rachbb3

Reading through my lunch hour. Found an old bookmark my elementary school teacher had given me. 💛

“An artist is someone who sees the structures of order and recognizes them as arbitrary.”

“What drew Eva and me together was our shared sense of imagination. Hers was formed from rich materials, mine from poor; hers developed over endless hours in the exotic garden kingdom she inhabited with her sisters, mine over hours alone. But the end result was the same, and each recognized it in the other.”