Welcome to Litsy!

Exquisite!!
A beautiful, poetic novel about the women who loved Emily Dickinson and helped shape her legacy.

1. I have books everywhere in my house! I wish I had one room that could be a purposeful library, but I'll take shelves wherever I can get 'em! I don't have a count, but there must be over 1000.

2. Tough call. I didn't read as many books as usual this month, but I read some excellent ones. Runners up: Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips, and The Followers by Rebecca Wait.

#Two4Tuesday @TheSpineView

What a stunning, thoughtful, exquisite gem of a book. Following the death of Emily Dickinson, the women in her orbit attempt to continue their lives amidst the shadow of grief. They live, love, and find small joys while finding their own ways to honour the woman they loved and admired, and to preserve her singular voice.

cont'd in comments

#CarolSheildsPrizeforFiction #Shortlist

When she thinks of Emily, Gilbert, or her cousin Sophia, who died at age fifteen, Lavinia sees them as they were in the spring or summer of their lives, carefree as puppies. But she knows that the truth is entirely different, more marvellous still; their fragile flesh has broken down, their bones are as smooth as piano keys, their hair is like spider silk, their hearts, their lungs, the whites of their eyes...

cont'd

“Emily's poems are bolts of lightning, flashpoints on which Susan burns her hands and her eyes. She spends the morning and then the afternoon slowly reading them over, sometimes holding the same lines cupped in her palm for twenty, thirty minutes, squeezing so tight that she feels blood beating in her fingertips.
They form the short verses of a secret gospel. They are magic formulas...

cont'd

A beautifully written (and translated) love letter to Emily Dickinson and also a beautifully written exploration of grief. I do hope this beautiful piece of literary fiction is moved to the Shortlist for the Carol Shields Prize. #CanLit @Lindy