Welcome to Litsy!

Early each morning I went for a walk. It was my chief pleasure in a dearth of pleasures, observing day by day the arrival of a new season: the magnolias putting out their petals and so poignantly soon, as it seemed to me every year, but never more so than the spring of 2020- shedding their petals. The cherry blossoms, even lovelier-loveliest, agreed but likewise short-lived.

An older woman ends up caring for a parrot and living with a younger man she does not know during COVID isolation. That is the brief synopsis but this book takes us through all of her tangential thoughts on aging, writing, loneliness, Joan Didion and so forth and so on. I enjoyed this short audiobook but there wasn‘t enough heft to the story or her ruminations to make this stick with me. A light pick. #fourfoursin24 #garrotparrot

This book was perfect for me at this moment in time.

Hubby detested the stream of consciousness authors voice when we were trying a read aloud, but I am finding the mood oddly comforting. The view and Texas sun is providing nice counterbalance. I am sure this will be a high pick in general. Maybe not my favorite pandemic novel, only time will tell as The sentence is the only other novel set in 2020 I have read and I doubt much can beat that. Also, I may not move from this spot all day.

Winter Beach reading.

^^ 227 Is there a place for fiction? Why are you making things up?

7 “You‘re a vulnerable, she said. And you need to act like one.”

3 “Now I know the truth: what matters is what you experience while reading, the states of feeling that the story evokes, the questions that rise to your mind, rather than the fictional events described. They should teach you this in school, but they don‘t. Always instead, the emphasis is on what you remembered.”

Pandemic novel, meditative. Direct & familiar. Independence, aging, memory, safety, rules, animals, indoor/outdoor. Vulnerability. Sly humor. Gossipy. Meta. Poetic & reflexive.2023

226 “It grew tiresome, hearing so many quote Brecht: ‘In the dark times / Will there also be singing?/There will also be singing. / Of the dark times.‘ The irony being that I‘ve now gone and done it myself.”

201 “If you could ask a dog one question, what would it be?”

I really enjoyed this story about a single female writer who seems to be in her mid-60s during the early days of the pandemic. It is a pandemic novel without being a pandemic novel and perfectly captured the feeling of those early days, particularly in a large city (it is set in NYC). It touches on the topics of loneliness and writers block and unexpected connections. It also ponders the meaning of writing and what an over is. Lovely.

What a gorgeous book for my first read of 2024! Sigrid spends the early days of the pandemic house sitting a parrot and living with a stranger. Some gorgeous passages and the writing felt true to how quarantine felt to me - both its privileges and its effects on our thoughts.

Sigrid Nunez pandemic book throws together unlikely apartment mates and a parrot to explore what being alive in such a strange reality means and how togetherness affects everything.

I think Nunez is brilliant and one of the best writers out there, but this one kind of lost me. Maybe I‘m not ready for full pandemic lit just yet. Maybe I just care more about dogs than parrots because I really loved The Friend. Regardless, it was a quick read and I appreciate the connections Nunez makes throughout the book (like all of the flower names). Worth a read, but not one that I‘ll remember forever.

Trust me when I say that I ask my dogs many, many questions everyday. “Why are you barking?” “Do you need to go outside?” “What is your deal?!” “How did you get to be such a cutie-patootie?!” “Aren‘t you just the best boy ever?!” “You want to go take a nap?” “Why can‘t the bird be in the yard?!” “Will you ever be okay with the neighbors being in their yard?” “Are you always surprised when a truck drives by?!” “Could you be any cuter?!” 🤗🐾❤️🐾🤗

I hate it when my bookmark is ready to stop reading before I am. 😑🐾🐶😁

I didn‘t love this as much as other Littens, I don‘t think. It felt a bit too much like it skimmed across the surface of thoughts and feelings.

Thinking about it, it‘s the sort of book that would work better on audio for me, being a bit meandering.

I didn‘t dislike it, I just didn‘t feel a deep connection to the characters, the place or the storyline. Still a pick though and I would definitely try more by this author.

#netgalley out 25th Jan

I enjoyed everything about this warm, funny, conversational novel about a writer who spends the first part of the Covid pandemic quarantining in someone else‘s New York apartment with a much younger stranger. Hooray for great books from the viewpoint of older women! The audiobook is narrated by Hillary Huber.

Only when I was young did I believe it was important to remember what happened in every novel I read. Now I know the truth: what matters is what you experience while reading. The states of feeling that the story evokes. The questions that rise to your mind, rather than the fictional events described.

Never write ‘I don‘t remember,‘ Editor says. ‘It undermines your authority.‘ But write as if you remember everything and Reader will smell a rat.
I like the student in my graduate fiction writing class who said, ‘I read your novels, and there‘s one thing I have to ask: Do you make some of that stuff up?‘

Can it be accidental that the names for flowers are also always beautiful words? Rose. Violet. Lily. Names so appealing that people choose them for their baby girls. Jasmine. Camellia. Of course there must be an exception. There are always exceptions. But, though I‘m not so keen about phlox, I can‘t come up with a single really ugly flower name. You?

Friday Reads Dec 15: Yukon trip; creative nonfiction in verse; graphic novels; comforting audiobooks
https://youtu.be/LvL4pC4Fdx0

Thanksging TBR list, part 2❣️

Pleasant, meandering first person account of the craziness that was the beginning of the pandemic- but through a daily, humorous take that spun it in a enjoyable way. Writing about writing was great, literary connections and just a very enjoyable book.

I discovered Nunez with The Friend, which I really liked, and I liked her next book as well. This book follows those two with a similar voice, now of a woman in the city as the pandemic hits. She is bird sitting for friends who have left for the duration and ends up getting to know a college age boy along the way. Meandering in a way that really worked for me.

I really appreciate the way Nunez writes around a story yet brings in emotion and hope as well. She tackles difficult topics here, but It‘s one of the few pandemic books I‘ve actually felt good after reading!

The possibly(??) autofictional author in the book gives up her NYC apartment to a pulmonologist that has come to treat Covid patients. She moves to a friend‘s apartment to bird sit and is later joined by a misunderstood college student.