Welcome to Litsy!

I don‘t think I‘ve ever read a book quite like this. It was interesting that the land and its old rambling yellow house were the main characters. Those that inhabited it were intertwined in throughout the novel. I found the writing intriguing and colorful. Fantastical and fascinating at the same time. I kept wondering what would come next. This story was the “stuff of dreams,” and for those who of us who try to find meaning in them will love it!

This is one of the best books I‘ve read in a long time. I love how the story is centered around one place and the many lives that have been shaped by it‘s natural beauty and lush forests. I highly recommend this novel. 5/5

Stronger at the start than the end. Interesting mash up of different genres. Wasn‘t expecting the supernatural ghost elements, but it worked. The historical fiction was better than the now. Enjoyed it overall

It was moving weekend. I started North Woods right before, but am stuck on page 15 because I have been too tired to read after hours of moving boxes and furniture. The worst - not finding everything to make some coffee 😳

Maggie O‘Farrell‘s blurb on the cover uses the word “polyphony,” which I had to look up. I‘m so glad I did! From an article in “The Millions” about this style of writing: ‘Bypassing traditional notions of character and plot, polyphonic novels create meaning at the intersection of seemingly random plot lines. Harmonies are found in the artful assemblage of disparate voices.‘
I loved this skillfully-written book, loved the many lives within. 5⭐️

6 May-4 Jun 24
I cannot recall any other book quite like North Woods, which tells the stories of a small wood in Massachusetts and its inhabitants from before European settlement until some time in the future. The stories take various forms - verse, epistolary, narrative, etc. All are beautifully written and a little strange. A love and respect for nature shines through and I found the final chapter very moving. A unique and beautiful book.

My May Wrap up. I gave 5 stars to North Woods, Nora Webster, and The Sleepwalker‘s Guide to Dancing. Really they were all good!

I loved the writing of this book, as well as the idea of it. I‘m always intrigued when the MC of the story is the place rather than the people, and this house in the woods of Western Massachusetts was intriguing. My issue was I was all in on some of the supporting characters over these several hundred years (give it up for the spinster sisters!), but found other characters lacking substance for their space in time.

I didn't care for it a whole lot. Read for a book club

I have rarely read such beautiful nature writing in a work of fiction and I don't believe I've ever before read a book in which the MC is a location. I'm not a huge fan of short stories so I occasionally struggled with the regularly changing cast of characters but some of the stories touched me deeply and I can tell this is a book I will remember. Again I'm wishing I was in a book club as I'd love to have some in depth discussions about this one.

I appreciate the uniqueness of the concept and found portions of this deeply engaging, but I didn't fall in love with it the way many readers did. I wanted to like it more than I did. Still, the more engaging parts make it a pick for me.

I'm reading this again and am seriously resenting my job for keeping me from it.
The episode with the painter (WHT) is beautifully written and utterly heartbreaking.

I started this one on e-book, continued in hardcover, then finished on audio. It's well written, but I found the recitation of one story after another a little tedious to read at times. I'm giving it a pick because it's beautiful, but I doubt I'll read it again because it's depressing to think about climate change and environmental degradation and how much we as a species have destroyed, even though it's pleasant to spend some time in old woods.

A house is being built and for the next centuries we follow the house and its inhabitants. I really liked the story about the sisters and about the painter, but after that the story just fizzled out for me, and I lost interest in it.

Did not immediately grab me, but loved the latter part of the book and it is staying withe me. Beautiful writing. Almost like a group of short stories collected around a place and a house from Puritan times to modern day. I wrote my college senior thesis on perceptions/views of wilderness in early colonized America. Synopsis: don‘t believe everything the 2nd generation Puritans wrote, and Roderick Nash got some things wrong. 👇

I loved this! @AmyG perfect pick for me. How interesting that a book that‘s about a place and not a plot can be so affecting. Does it help to have grown up in a New England setting not all that different than this remote Massachusetts orchard? Maybe.

It‘s not a book I would recommend to everyone, but for those who love nature and see lasting marks left by each settler‘s choices on a property, and to be surprised by bittersweet beauty, try this.

What gorgeous writing! This is more like short stories or vignettes with the setting as the common theme. But as we move through time, the overall story is woven more tightly together…. It‘s beautifully layered. The audio is perfect too, with a half dozen or so voices adding to the feel and atmosphere.

What did I just read? Every page I asked myself why am I reading this? It certainly has literary and artistic merit. I‘m not sure why I put it on my Libby list, it‘s not a book I would normally choose. I think it‘s a “blame it on Litsy” book. I didn‘t love it, but I didn‘t hate it. Overall it‘s good.

“They are not for cider” and don‘t you forget it! 🍎

What a brilliant book! So unique and layered (not to mention beautifully written).

Discussed with my book club last night. Everyone loved it and we had lots to talk about.

I think I‘m in the minority but I didn‘t really love this. I get what the author was aiming for and it sounded like the sort of novel I‘d enjoy but I found it too disjointing - if I got settled into a part of the story I was soon taken out of it again. There were characters I liked reading about like Robert & the twin sisters but overall a very so-so read for me.

Reading North Woods while enjoying a western wood 😊 #pikenationalforest #happyplace

White supremacy, puritan hypocrisy: It‘s the rational for colonising & wreaking havoc on an indigenous people & nature. But, as we recklessly devastate the planet over generations, there flickers ephemeral lives. Here, humans can have poignancy & pathos. Lives are brutal/beautiful. They‘re also relentlessly privileged. Yes, survival of the fittest exits in nature, but we add vulnerability & imbalance. This book is a love letter to trees & nature.

So far very beautiful prose in this story about a little cabin and it‘s inhabitants over the centuries (slight spoiler is that some of the earlier inhabitants come back later as ghosts) 🏡 👻

I love the storytelling style, which shifts between each chapter, and the sense of vast time—centuries pass—and the vivid sense of place in this novel about the inhabitants of a small piece of land in western Massachusetts. The inhabitants are wild animals, insects, and trees as well as humans; I love this too. It‘s a wonderful, life-affirming novel.

With regard to the beetle, the romp began, as sex romps often do, with carpentry. A female beetle, slightly smaller than a rice grain, had found herself, one summer afternoon, wandering about the logs that lay beside the off-ramp. Do not ask me how she got there; she came from another log, as did her mother before her—it is logs and beetles all the way back.

Final observation. A heron in the treetops — really, do they perch so high? I‘d always imagined them swamp- walkers. But there, above, I have my answer.
(Photo: Great Blue Herons in Beacon Hill Park, Victoria)

Good books for Good Friday — audiobooks; nature writing; literary awards
https://youtu.be/M8O36AiymKY

“They had come to the spot in the freshness of June, chased from the village by its people, following deer path through the forest, the valleys, the fern groves, and the quaking bogs.”

#FirstLineFridays

This beautifully written novel entranced me from page one. Mason writes such a unique novel, focusing on a body of land and its inhabitants over centuries. Telling the story through various mediums - prose, diary, poem, letter, song - really made this so riveting and lyrical. The tie in with everyone too, the little nuggets thrown in over the years, just added perfectly to the story. I am so glad I read this! #52BookClub24 #AtLeastFourDifferentPOV

For this week‘s #hyggehour , I read North Woods. Purely a #blameitonlitsy book. I‘m loving it. So unique & original.

#Vladimir joined me this week in my reading nook & chair, with my Candied Apple Yankee Candle scenting the air. #CatsOfLitsy

It felt good to turn off life for a bit…my mental health has not been strong this past week. This was a good reset moment, & I plan to listen to a session on the Calm app later tonight.

This was an interesting book. The main character was the land and not people. The writing style is all over the place, however the story takes place over the centuries and the writing fit the century that the story takes place in.

North Woods is my favorite kind of story; it floats liminally between ghost story & not.

As a MA native who became a devotee of apples while pursuing her Lit degree in VT, I was predisposed to like this.

It‘s a fully immersive reading experience. Mason flaunts his ability to inhabit different voices - not just gender, age, or sexual identity but era & time, even species & kingdom. Come for the gorgeous prose. Stay for the sexy dragonfly erotica.

1. Catch up on my correspondence & visit the post office; celebrate “Won‘t You Be My Neighbor” Day with kids who visit the library on the 20th! 👔🐯🚂

2. It depends on the day & my work schedule. It can range from 20 (or zero) minutes up to a few hours or even the better part of a day.

3. I think I‘d excel at writing a collection of short essays based upon a common theme. I‘d love to write a picture book but the limited text is a challenge!

Me: ok, so I can only buy one book, because they are very expensive in the US
Also me: ⬆️

The writing in this book is just beautiful. The interconnected stories range from pre-Revolutionary USA history to (possibly) far in the future and all revolve around a house in Massachusetts. I found the stories of the apple farmer and his daughters to be a bit too long. I almost quit here, but I‘m glad I didn‘t. The real power was in the later stories.

@CSeydel #ReadingBracket2024

🌟I loved every minute I spent with this love letter to a piece of land, a forest. It ticked off all the boxes for me: historical fiction, nature writing, short stories, and a bit of the gothic.

I will not be surprised if it wins the Pulitzer.

Now I‘m off onto the interwebs to find A Registry of My Passage Upon Earth.

Starting because I want to read this and it is in the house.

#EstherBester #EstherFest #DogsofLitsy #whpg

I do not want to put this down. I‘m racing through it! 😭

I had decided against this one when it first came out but then I figured I‘d try all the NYT‘s top books of 2023, and I‘m glad I did! It‘s really good! (I know, a lot of you know this already.) There were a couple spots that I felt dragged just a bit, but generally speaking it was a really satisfying story.

Hard to describe this beautifully crafted, creative novel that tells the stories of the many people who have lived in the same house deep in the Massachusetts woods. The book spans centuries and yet the author finds clever ways to link the lives of the inhabitants together. The land surrounding the house also become a sort of character itself, with stunning descriptions of the woods through the seasons and through the passing decades. Loved it.

Husband went early for a gig in Decorah, IA yesterday and had time to spare. He discovered it has 2 bookstores, lucky for me! ❤️ That is the benefit of having a small lib arts college in a town.

When I saw the first couple were runaway puritans, & the language a bit flowery, I was afraid this book might be too twee. Glad I was wrong. The generations that put everything into their little slice of the world are humbled by the fact that nature doesn‘t care. Between owners & tenants nature reclaims the place ,even the house. The writing is beautiful, most of the characters are unique & unforgettable, best book I‘ve read this year.

I can't even nail down what genre this is, let alone how to talk about it. If you'd asked me two thirds of the way through, I'd have said historical gothic, but 'sad, sometimes spooky window into the past' doesn't describe it fully, and the 'Nature as edenic/paradise lost and found=environmental concerns' seems clear only after I finished the book. 1/2

😘

2024

To think of all the decades, all the centuries bereft of the clearly defined concept of 'mansplaining'. 🙄 No doubt a sensation felt long before there was a word that could be safely spoken out loud. 😑

If the gender neutral form doesn't exist yet on a t-shirt, I think the author should market it.

1. The tagged book. It will be a top favorite of the year. But Starter Villain comes in second as it was so fun.
2. Florida - Lauren Groff for #AuthorAMonth

#Two4Tuesday @TheSpineView

After a slow start, I loved this the deeper into it that I read. Great ending! The novel reminded me of The Understory. Recommend. 3.5 🌟