Welcome to Litsy!

The word that describes this book for me is unsatisfying. It was far far FAR too long, a meandering story that just never turns into anything particularly interesting, not even at the end.

#lmpbc finished and being sent off tomorrow.

Michigan is getting hit with lots of snow, and we are loving every second. But it‘s throwing off my shipping schedule.
Valentines Swap will be mailed out tomorrow! I received yours yesterday ☺️ @BookwormAHN
Trying to finish my way through the #lmpbc picks for this month, and will hopefully have those shipped Monday at the latest!

Still, nice sleeve cover, also.

I think, I grabbed this book from a book thrift years ago because I found the blurb on the back interesting.

I‘m sure it took me too long to pick it up since then . I‘m pretty sure that my bookish interests have shifted in the meantime. 🤷🏽‍♀️ Sorry, not sorry.

I like the hard book cover. 😍 But I dislike the book. I scarcely made 100 pages and since I began reading, I kept asking myself if there finally will be something happening. It‘s just boring story telling for me. 🙄 (Insofar as I want to grant the book something like a plot, a story.)

I didn‘t like how disrespectful the men talked about Caroline, either, and found myself less and less interested in the characters and the plot.

So: Time to bail.

“A clever boy like you should know better" [...].
I had to listen to such remarks from adults all the time when I was a child. [...] They put me in a helpless, silent rage every time, because on the one hand I was desperate to live up to my reputation of being a clever boy, on the other hand it seemed very unfair to me that this intelligence I had never asked for was suddenly being used to reprimand me.” (page 10)

⬆️⬆️⬆️ I so much feel him.

Finished Little Stranger. I thought the beginning & end were strong, but the middle a bit of a drag. Overall, a definite pick. Won‘t say more as this is an #LMPBC book … and I‘ve sent it on to you @carlthecattt !

Started reading Leave the World Behind.. about 1/3 in and very intrigued! I see it doesn‘t have a lot of Goodreads love, so also curious about that 😁

And THANK YOU @Chrissyreadit for this very cool name display!! I love it! ♥️♥️♥️

Yay, received my #lmpbc #groupw package from @mklong - thank you! I love this cover 🤩 And can‘t wait to read it! 👏🏽👏🏽

Just released our episode on Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger. Pictured is Peter, who lost a bet with yours truly, and now has to wear a moustache for a week. I think he should keep it.

https://open.spotify.com/show/6A6hXZ7eaOG7BtHOSJpCTI

I think I received your gift Jessie and I am SO happy with it! I love Sarah Waters and I‘ve heard the best things about this specific one. Thank you so much!! ❤️❤️

Waters is just incredible. This leisurely paced gothic teases out its mystery until the end, & even then I left book club w/a totally different understanding from my own reading: SO COOL. Intricately wrapped up in this is the politics of a changing England, with preoccupations of class and upward mobility. I thought it was claustrophobic, fatalistic, and creepy. As a book club pick: A bit long to read in a month but the conversation was great.

This book did subtle menace & creepy in all the ways that hit right. Families, burdens, responsibilities, class difference, property, & what Karl Marx said: "The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living". I took as long as I did to read this because while the book is very good, it's also deeply unnerving & uncomfortable in how it brings to light the aspects of human nature that transcend the empirical.

Loved love loved it! Thanks again @Avanders for gifting this one to me. It was a great source of creepy that really fit the season!

#FallTBR
#IPromiseToRead
@AkashaVampie

I'm about a 100 pages in and there's already been a pretty unnerving scene that kind of hits you out of nowhere. There's a bit of that subtle menace underlying everything but it still made me feel 😰

Sarah Waters knows how to set a scene...

Capping off spooky season with this read, which has been on my TBR for years. Home with the kids right now, since two of them have COVID (😓). Not very serious, thank goodness, but it does mean a lot of togetherness time. This is a nice read during their rest time.

@Avanders I am started this yesterday (so far its been hard to do my school work because I don't want to put it down!) Anyway, thank you again for being so amazing!

#FallTBR
#IPromiseToRead
@AkashaVampie

What do y‘all think of these options for our winter spook fest #LMPBC round?

Looking for a creepy book to read for our October book club.

Family bookclub pick for October. I‘ve owned this book for many years so I‘m glad to finally have a push to read it.

Great atmospheric thriller/mystery/horror? Think Haunting of Hill House, or Mexican Gothic… I rly enjoyed it! I love Sarah Waters in general so there you go.

Thank you @Avanders for the lovely #CBBC package *I already ate the macaroons!!! Also, I needed some chapstick for work! So now I have a ton to choose from and the coffee smells great! I can't wait to start the #CBBC book (and eventually I will get to this lovely book you gifted me) thanks again!!!

I grabbed this audiobook on impulse when I saw that a friend had started reading it. It‘s a pretty solid ghost story that incorporates the rise of industrialization and the fall of the aristocracy, but it remains vague about the haunting itself. I prefer ghost stories where we get to see the ghost at some point, or figure out how it came to be there, but we never get that here. But of course, it‘s still very well written and well narrated ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was a great #bookspin pick for October. Waters is quickly climbing the list of my favorite authors. I love how quickly she can set a scene and draw you right into it. A family living in falling down post-war British estate is haunted by a ghost or is it all in their heads? Or is it something even more sinister? Waters keeps you guessing til the very end.

Ooofff, an excellent read that doesn't so much deliver scares but an atmosphere dripping with dread and foreboding. It takes a while to get to the 'spooky' stuff, but once it begins the book doesn't lose focus. If you prefer your ghost stories to be subtly over screams, this is for you.

Recommended for fans of Michelle Paver, M R James and Elizabeth Kostova.

Thanks @Hufflepuffle for everything in my #litsylovefallswap - I seriously ❤ everything & can't wait to start the books! @rsteve388 @Bookgoil

481pts @Clwojick #teamslaughter #scarathlon2020

Ooo with a quote like this how could you not stack this one!?

#MonsterSheWrote , #GothicWomen #ReadingWithTBRCrew @jb72

🎧 This isn‘t your Shirley Jackson or Stephen King-like haunted house story. It‘s more like a slow burn Victorian gothic-ish creepy tale involving possible ghosts in a malevolent house. I liked it well enough to keep listening and by the last third I was on the edge of my seat! Interesting & atmospheric. This is a pick due to the last half of the book really grabbing my interest! ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/4

Early to bed with a new read.... Exciting Saturday night 😀😀🛏️📖

#currentlyreading

I, like many people I‘ve seen post lately, have had very little attention span in order to get sucked into a book. Tonight, I told myself I was going to finish this one book that I‘ve been reading for at least a month, but I forgot it‘s kind of a ghost story and whoops, now I‘m scared. 😬👻

The book was wonderfully atmospheric though, so if you‘re looking for a little gothic creepiness right now, I would recommend.

It‘s cold and rainy here, but I don‘t even care because I have a warm cat on my lap. #keeplitsypositive

Now if only I could reach my book! 😂

Finished my breakfast and finally freaking finished this book!! Way too long and the end sucked for me! I kept thinking it was going to get better but it didn‘t. 482 pages and over 3 weeks!!

We have been so busy with our new puppy, Cooper, that I have been reading but not posting. I have been reading this one for about 2 weeks. It is a decent read but extremely slow going for me.

At the heart of the story is Hundreds Hall, a decaying mansion which may or may not be haunted by evil spirits. The foreshadowing of the horror, fascinating narrative and memorable ending makes this a #haunting read. Loved it!
#NamasteNovember

For the Brit Lit Podcast's 2nd anniversary, we have a very special treat: Book Riot's Liberty Hardy talks British books, velocireading, tattoos of literary quotes, cats, and more! https://buff.ly/30KECSN

One of the challenges for #thereadingrush #readathon is to read and watch a book to movie adaptation. I finished The Little Stranger book yesterday and have already posted my review. Today I watched the movie, and now I think I actually appreciate the book even more.

Since I'm a blogger now I guess, I decided to blog about both! 😊

https://sprainedbrain.blog/2019/07/24/book-and-sort-of-film-review-the-little-st...

The book is well-written and atmospheric. I love the setting: 1940s English countryside and a decaying, historical family manor. I enjoyed the pervading sense of unease of this gothic story, but I was expecting more something twisty at the end...the revelation of the little stranger was very subtlety done.

My first book finished for #thereadingrush #readathon: this was my read & watch a book to movie adaptation for the challenge.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I‘ve been cruising through this audiobook today for #thereadingrush #readathon but now it‘s nighttime outside and all of the sudden the story is freaking me out and it might be time to switch books until tomorrow. 😳

Once I finish it, I will be watching the movie, since this is for the read the book/watch the movie challenge prompt.

I‘m guessing I will also be watching the movie during the day.

#IAmAWeenie

Had a tough time choosing my #top6reads of 2019 because I guess I haven‘t read much this year that‘s really blown me away.

Just noticed that these are at 50/50 when it comes to author gender, though, so that‘s exciting as I‘ve been really working hard to read more books by women over the last few years.

Thanks for the tag @Lucy_Anywhere !

Another amazing Sarah Waters novel. I'm trying not to inhale them all at once, but I can't seem to help myself. If you love creepy old English estates that are quite possibly haunted, love gone wrong, and ordinary people driven to madness, then you will love this book.

Has anyone seen the movie????

3.5⭐️ The extra half star for the narration, Vance is terrific!

The story had all the gothic elements to be fantastic: big crumbling house, atmospheric, ghostly unexplainable goings-on, mental illness (or is it?) but it kinda fizzled out a bit. I was expecting some kind of brilliant twist at the end.

I do admire the feminist strength of one of the MCs - resisting societal expectations.

Everything else about the writing was very good.

Once I got over expecting this to be something it‘s not, I really liked this book. A country doctor rapidly becomes entwined in the lives of a formerly wealthy family in post WWII England. Is this a haunting or is it all in their heads? The book is a slow burn almost to a fault, except that I had a hard time putting it down. Sarah Waters captures the voices of her historic setting perfectly. My first Waters but definitely not my last.

I really enjoyed this one. A little gothic horror in the spring always feels right, y‘know? Taking place in post-war England, it‘s a tale of class and change and possible ghosties. Is the house haunted or is the family insane? What are the doctor‘s real motivations? What do we do when our way of life is no longer sustainable? I love Sarah Waters and this book may not have had historical lesbians, but it was still bloody good. 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

So, instead of reading Gingerbread like I was planning, this called to me from the depths of my kindle. And I‘m loooooving it!! Sarah Waters can really tell a story. I loved The Paying Guests and I have a feeling I‘m going on a backlist binge once this one is finished!

#politicalcorrectnessgonemad

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

1️⃣ Tagged, plus Native Son and Mother‘s of Massive Resistance.
2️⃣ I feel like I‘m the only person who doesn‘t listen to audiobooks yet. I have overheard a few and I just don‘t like the rhythm of them? Have been considering trying out audio for some nonfiction though.
3️⃣ Elven Star. I‘ll be visiting my sister and I want to return it to her.

This was my first time reading Sarah Waters, and while it was a reeeally slow burn, I was completely hooked. I generally loved the characterisation even though the narrator, Dr Farraday, infuriated me at times (which I think is rather the point of his character)! What impressed me most, however, is how Waters crafts the specificity of this period, especially with respect to wealth and class within a shifting social landscape.