Welcome to Litsy!

A poignant story about a man and a woman, relationships and cancer. This is kind of a quintessential love and loss story.
I was at times confused and upset by the characters, as if their emotions weren‘t truly a big deal. I wanted to feel a bit more emotion from our narrator, I mean she‘s going through two of life‘s toughest situations: divorce and cancer at the same time. The book was well written and a quick read for a more light-hearted story.

Short and written in small paragraphs, reminiscent in style (but definitely not content) to Nobody is Talking About This.
It offers glimpses into her mind, her thoughts and musings, as she works through her divorce and cancer diagnosis.
I appreciated the lack of back filling, that it was only used as necessary. I also felt so warm towards her friendship. Really heartwarming.

This has a stream of conscious style narrative that I enjoyed. The highlights are the Chinese myth bedtime stories the narrator tells her kids. Her best friend and her dog add some levity to the situation.

Just finished this one on my lunch break. This took to me way too long to read for a 194 page book. I do have to say this would be a good palette cleanser as it is a witty sometimes playful read. I wasn‘t rushing to pick it up because it wasn‘t a story where you have to know what happens next. It‘s written from the thoughts and conversations of a nameless narrator. And the thoughts are all over the place and jump around.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

I loved the fragmented writing structure of this book - the vignettes offer space to slow down and sit with each moment, and some lines stopped me in my tracks. Rather than leaning into the big feelings you might expect from a novel about heavy topics like divorce and cancer, the narrative voice is witty, introspective, and quietly resilient. Somehow, by the end, it still made me want to cry…

Starting this one today.

Another book that really underwhelmed me. I swear I still read books I like!! This is written in a similar vein as Jenny Offill or Rachel Cusk. The narrator explores the one-two punch of the end of her marriage and a breast cancer diagnosis. In a book where the MC experiences such terrible things, I would expect to feel sympathy, but she reads so detached from her own feelings and situation, I felt nothing. That was disappointing.

An interesting take on the divorce novel. Here, a woman learns her husband has been having an affair (and is leaving her) immediately before learning she has breast cancer. So, she names her tumor after the other woman, as you do. It‘s threaded with humor and abounding with metaphors. I liked but didn‘t love it.

This style of writing didn‘t quite work for me. The nameless MC goes through a lot but seemed emotionally detached from the experiences she recounts- blindsided by infidelity, cancer. Thank god for best friends🥰 …My sincere wish for anyone facing divorce is they are no longer in love with their spouse.

I read this book in one sitting and absolutely loved it. About a marriage falling apart and a cancer diagnosis. Sounds like too much, but this story is told with tenderness and humor. It will stay with me for a long time.

I‘m not sure if I was in a weird headspace (again) whilst reading this. I liked it, but it‘s very much an “inside the main character‘s head” book and luckily, I liked the main character a lot (we never learn her name). I enjoyed the interspersed stories from Chinese myth and would‘ve liked more of that. I just felt a bit removed from it - again, weird headspace 🤪🤦‍♀️

ARC pub date July 22

Our MC is having a rough time. Her husband has been having an affair, and has left her for the mistress a woman named Maggie. And now the MC gets diagnosed with breast cancer, and she decides to name her tumor after her husband's mistress
This is not really humorous (even from a dark humor POV) but it is very human. I really love how the MC starts to reevaluate everything, to start to see herself and her husband in new ways👇

My #botm choices! I thought about skipping, but the comparisons to Offill sold me on Maggie. The Compound looks fun, and I thought I‘d give Paradise a shot, too.

Starting this ARC with a US release date of 22 July

A woman goes to dinner with her husband, and finds out he is having an affair. Soon after she is told she has a tumor. She names the tumor Maggie - her husband's mistress' name.

From GR: "she embarks on a journey of grief, healing, and reclamation."

It is supposed to have a lot of Chinese mythology (told by narrator to the narrators children)