Welcome to Litsy!

Would not have read this except my irl book club picked it so here we are. I get why critics like it (this is exactly the type of book that shows up on the NYT bestsellers list) & it has some interesting things to say about sisterhood, our relationship to the environment/nature, the cost of living, caring for parents, dreams & reality, BUT I didn‘t like the characters (they don‘t grow) & the end is…not good.

“A third of their household had dropped away; so many of the tiny beloved disruptions that Sam had come to rely on…were absent.”

I think Julia Phillips is a phenom. I loved Disappearing Earth and I loved Bear. I understand why others might feel differently. It‘s a difficult read. Two sisters, Sam & Elena, are beaten down by their circumstances: poverty, childhood abuse, and acting as caretaker for their terminally ill mother — but they‘ve always had each other. When a bear shows up on the Pacific Northwest island where they live…👇🏻

“When Sam and Elena were children their mother used to take them on temperate evenings to play by the fairgrounds. She sat at a picnic table while they occupied themselves on the swings. She wore sunglasses. She could‘ve been their big sister. If they asked, she‘d push them, her hands firm and flat against their backs. She made them more powerful every time she touched them.”

August wrap up from StoryGraph, best one for me was Bear 🐻 (tagged).

Keeping up a good pace, I‘ve already met my reading goal for the year (oops). So I doubled it. Let‘s see if I can hit 52!

#camplitsy24

Well, here it is….! Your final winning book of this year‘s camp is BEAR! 🐻

No huge surprise there, I don‘t think, but we did have some votes for The Alternatives too - Bear won by 27 votes to 6.

Look out for Barbara posting the final vote shortly… I‘m excited to see what we choose for our overall winner of #camplitsy24!

Snow White & Red Rose was supposedly written with this theory and our book was based on this fairytale. Something to go hmmm about #camplitsy24 #camplitsy I forgot to post this yesterday!

#ReadAway2024

Read for #CampLitsy24 I was caught up by the atmospheric San Juan Islands setting & this story (part allegory/fairytale about watching what you wish for) about 2 sisters with lots of baggage. The end was a punch & it‘s not a fun book but I enjoyed it & the discussions & I‘m sad camp is over. Thanks to our incredible counselors @squirrelbrain @Megabooks & @BarbaraBB for the camp fun & getting me to read books I might not normally.⬇️

An interesting read in light of the recent question, “would you rather meet a bear or a man in the woods?” In this story, neither. I was sad this book turned from magical to bleak for me, and sad that Sam couldn‘t escape her trauma. Glad to have carried this book with me for this optimal photo while on Mackinac Island 🧸
#camplitsy24
Thanks so much to the hosts! It was a great summer at camp!

Fantastic read. I loved it! Thanks @squirrelbrain @Megabooks and @BarbaraBB for another fun camp! I read 3 out of 6 and they were all great. #camplitsy24

And our last question of #camplitsy24 for this year…. Let‘s talk about the ending of the book - what did you think?

Tomorrow we‘ll vote between Bear and The Alternatives and then Barbara will post shortly asking you for your #camplitsy24 favourite.

We hope you‘ve enjoyed August‘s books - thank you all for your valuable and insightful contributions! ❤️

#camplitsy24

This part of the discussion is all about the 🐻.

We looked at fairy tale elements last week, but do you think that the bear is ‘just‘ a bear or is it an allegory for something else or a particular message to the reader?

Do you think the events surrounding the bear would have actually played out like this in real life? (note that we'll discuss that ending in Q3)

#camplitsy24

Well, here we are in our last week of camp! 😢 Time to think about rolling up your sleeping bag, and exchanging friendship bracelets before we leave.

But not before we have a few more questions about Bear.

A few of us touched on this one last week - we only saw Sam‘s perspective throughout the book. Did you wish you could have seen Elena‘s POV too- and how would it have differed?

I thought the beginning of this book was much stronger than the end. Still it must have had some effect on me because I finished around 10 tonight and went to pick up my son at a friend‘s. A big, beautiful fox crossed the road in front of me and just for a second I thought “He could be my friend.” Anyway looking forward to discussing this weekend @squirrelbrain @Megabooks @BarbaraBB

After a tough therapy session, my therapist asked me what I was going to do the rest of the day. She asked what 7-year-old Jamie would do. Some parts of me haven‘t changed. 7-year old Jamie would take a book to the woods. So that‘s what I did, and it was lovely.

I‘m glad #camplitsy chose this one. I loved Disappearing Earth, so I expected good things.

Julia Phillips really brings across her characters‘ emotions, the prevailing ones for me were dread and the claustrophobic feeling of being financially stuck or trapped. The relationships between the mother and daughters and sisters and the fact that you never truly know another‘s mind, all so real.

I could never in my wildest dreams imagined the ending of this beautifully written novel. What a punch!
#Camplitsy24 #porchlife

At the end of my street 2 MS aged young ladies are selling lemonade & bracelets. Of course I supported them & bought 3 of their beaded bracelets.They gave me 3 stickers with my purchase! 🩵

I'm giving it a pick because I loved the first half, found it super engaging and I deeply cared for these girls. But the second half felt like falling into a bleak pit of despair. Beautifully, engagingly written, but where the sadness and melancholy in the first half is balanced with some hope and love, the second half turns out those lights.

I'm definitely looking forward to this weekend's #CampLitsy24 discussions!

I….. just didn‘t connect with this one. I don‘t even know what to say. The sense of impending doom was definitely not the vibe I‘m wanting right now. I don‘t know the story of Snow White and Rose Red which probably would have helped. #camplitsy24

A #camplitsy24 pick, Bear is a book about two sisters caring for their mother on an island in the Pacific Northwest. They are young adults and should be out enjoying themselves but are bound to their home due to isolating circumstances: caregiving, constantly working trying to make ends meet, all without help. Then, the titular character shows up! Bears don‘t live on their island. What does this mean for the sisters? Fine, but I had higher hopes.

This book. Just beautiful.
#Camplitsy24

Hiking today around Anacortes (the city you can see marked on the map as the mainland city) when Elena walks through the woods to work I picture something a bit less intense than this trail, but the same woody scenery.
#CampLitsy24

#CampLitsy24
Here is what the concession areas look like on the Ferries! They are typically in the center of the ship in a windowless room. I feel for Sam it is not a very cheery place to work.

#CampLitsy24
The ferry! The first ferry I take is called the Kennewick and it can take 64 cars of people plus it also can hold a few dozen extra people who get on without a car
As Sam says in the book summer time is much busier and there are ferries running all day all around the San Juans.

#CampLitsy24 this book is set where I vacation often! I thought I would show people what the ferry life is like - as a user not a worker.
This year I am spending a week on Whidbey which is a different island then Sam's Shaw
Right now we are lined up waiting for the ferry, my reservation leaves in 2 hours so I park my car in the line up, and then I walk to a cute little town to get a coffee and something to eat while I read this book and wait!

Good morning. Still raining here. Enjoying my coffee & started this book- behind on #Camplitsy24 read. #whereareyouMonday. I am on the ferry in the Dan Juan Islands.
Where are you? @TheBookHippie @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Lynnsoprano

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Really liked this #CampLitsy24 pick! The descriptions of the island and ferry were beautiful in a sad kind of way; the sisters‘ trauma and poverty is palpable.

Not much happens in their lives until the bear comes to the island, you could feel the monotony of their day to day, trying to get by. The sisters respond differently to the bear and their world changes.

Thought provoking - I‘d recommend this one to fans of literary fiction.

Since I currently have a life allowing me to rapidly consume books I‘m accustomed to not letting ubiquitous tropes negatively impact that experience. But every few books I find myself inside a story that follows its own format and my mind just lets go to unchartered paths. I had no idea how this book with two sisters and a grizzly bear would middle or end - and I liked it. …It does remind me The Revenent sits patiently unread on my shelves.

I actually have loads to say. But I‘ll wait.
I do think not knowing the fairytale isn‘t helpful here. It happens to be one of my favorites that I‘ve actually studied in depth, so may have helped me a bit? That being said this is loosely I mean loosely related to the story. I also think if you have not survived severe childhood trauma some of the underlining themes you may miss or not understand. Having read this with another survivor, we felt seen

Bookly says it took me just under 4 hours to read this. I want those 4 hours back. I want the sadness and misery of this book to be wiped from my memory. I don‘t even know how to rate it. I would never recommend it to another living souls, but it‘s well written. It does all the things a book is supposed to do, so I can‘t pan it. I just wish it hadn‘t done any of those things. #camplitsy24

#camplitsy24

‘They made magic. They were the girls at the center of a fairy tale, and they, along with their mother, would live in such bliss all their days‘

It‘s often said that this book is a fairy-tale retelling. Did you see that in this first half of the book? What elements from fairy tales were included?

#camplitsy24

Elena and Sam caring for their mother is a central part of the book - how has this impacted on their relationships with each other and with the wider community?

How do their caring roles differ? Who do you have the most sympathy for?

Welcome to our final book of #camplitsy24! But watch out, there‘s a 🐻 in camp!

As ever, if you‘ve read to the end please don‘t include any comments that may spoil it for others.

The book has a real sense of place on San Juan island in the Pacific Northwest - how did this influence the storyline and the sisters themselves?

I loved her debut so surprised that this is just a lukewarm pick for me. Gorgeous cover and a quick read (more enjoyable than The Alternatives), but I thought Sam was frustrating/annoying and I wasn‘t a fan of the ending. I‘ll still read whatever Phillips writes next. #CampLitsy24

#AboutABook #OneWordTitle

Need to get the first half of this read for Saturday #CampLitsy discussion.

@Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Starting this finally for #camplitsy24!

Plants in the background are my coleus plants in the outdoor planters. They‘re something new I decided to try this year, and I like them! 🌱

I bought a new game on my switch and had been playing that pretty seriously for the last 5 days so no reading at all. Just work and video games 😆

Sometimes you need a mental break.

#AboutABook Day 15: Our #CampLitsy24 pick for August is a #OneWordTitle. Looking forward to our discussion on Saturday. Paired with Greek coffee and the usual sweet that comes with it.

Once I started I couldn‘t stop. Now I am very interested what everybody else at #camplitsy thinks about it.

Saving my comments for discussion 😁
#litsycamp

#CampLitsy

If anyone hasn't snagged this new book yet, it's on sale at BOtM!

Link: https://www.bookofthemonth.com/all-hardcovers/bear-2188

Starting this one! Interested since it is set where I often vacation! (I swear I am not one of THOSE rich tourists that it sounds like we are going to encounter!)

#CampLitsy24 @dabbe @Megabooks @squirrelbrain

All of the running around for back to school and the yard work are done. I decided to close down the mom shop for the weekend and start my hygge hour early. Book is Bear by Julia Phillips and my drink is honey wine from a friend of my husband‘s. Relaxing on the porch is so much better when I can‘t see any weeds that need to be pulled.

🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

#camplitsy

This epigraph has me so curious about how this book is going to go…
#camplitsy24

This was just okay for me. #camplitsy24 @squirrelbrain @Megabooks @BarbaraBB

Tomorrow we‘re finishing our discussion on The Alternatives and then, next week we start Bear! (I‘m a bit scared of a 🐻 in #camplitsy24! 😜)

The issue with this book is there are no chapter numbers so, the break point may be a tiny spoiler, but I think we all know there might be a bear involved!

Next weekend we‘ll discuss the first half of the book, to the chapter that ends ‘A bear beside her sister, close enough to walk over to and touch‘

It was an interesting experience to read this book while in bear country this weekend. I found it hard to put this one down once I started - I was mesmerized. I‘ll leave it there for now. 😁 Looking forward to hearing everyone‘s thoughts on this one! #CampLitsy

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A haunting contemporary fairytale, multilayered with meaning, probing the nuances of class, community, sisterhood, and survival. A slow tension builds to a gut-punch of an ending. Step into the forest, face the bear, allow the story to bewitch you. 🎧

I kept thinking of this photo while reading the book. Damage from a bear in Pawlet, Vermont. I enjoyed this story of two sisters dealing with poverty, a seriously ill mother, and the delight and fear of having a bear on the island. The focus on how sisters grow together and apart and have a completely different understanding of their lot in life was very honest and accurate.

I have a hard time with books where characters are trapped by circumstances and there seems to be no way out. This one felt similarly oppressive, plus the added menace of the bear! I found it difficult to read, emotionally speaking, but also so riveting I had a hard time putting it down.

I was impressed by how Phillips utilized a close, limited third-person perspective, filtering everything through Sam‘s POV but stopping short of first person.⤵️