Welcome to Litsy!

June‘s #bookspin and #doublespin picks! Thank you for hosting, @TheAromaofBooks
Looking forward to a great reading month!

#bookspinbingo

A very very late post but I‘m trying to close 2024 with books I read but didn‘t post🤷🏽‍♀️

Read last August and I loved it. Pure family drama as this author does so well. Penelope‘s life story just captivated me. Her relationship with her daughters and son, her marriage, lover, her golden years. How much she transcended in her life. That ending…I didn‘t bother de 500 pages, not all. But I confess, I like family drama😂4/4.5⭐️

I read this on my kindle. I love so many of the covers for this book.
This was a warm and fuzzy read. Penelope is a wonderful protagonist but can‘t kids be such shit heads sometimes! Loved it!
🐚🐚🐚🐚

I decided to read one book from each year entered onto my GR “to read” list and delete (mostly 🙄) all the others from each year. In 2016, I put 23 books on that list, and this is the one that made the cut. I‘m so very happy that I finally read this! Beautiful. I started in print, switched to e-reader, and finished the last 40ish% as audio, which was narration perfection.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

#WondrousWednesday @Eggs

🍁Shell Seekers was my favorite August book.

🍂I prefer paper books but I often use paper books simultaneously with the audiobook. If the narrator is good, it‘s like watching a play or movie. I can appreciate the accents, can understand how names and places sound. But I need the physical book.

🍁Thrillers, mystery

Thank you @TheSpineView 🥰

🍁☕️🍂 #WondrousWdenesday 🍂☕️🍁

☕️Family and when I accomplish goals established for myself, trying to understand what I have to learn everyday, trying to live in a meaningful way
☕️Silence, I really need a little time with myself, in solitude. Reading, buying books😜, 🏃🏽‍♀️ 🏊🏽‍♀️ a good coffee in a quite place, when I can appreciate nature. Those moments are for myself but I also enjoy moments with family
☕️Tagged

Thank you @Eggs 🥰

#summersouls
#RollerCoaster #day28. #shells #day29
Tilt A Whirl in my TBR. The Shell Seekers I read with my mom ages ago- a reread ahead?

#summersouls #shells @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Eggs

From my favorite comfort read author 🐚(although the title is actually referring to a painting!)

Loved this book! Family, inheritance, love, children who think they know it all. Penelope looks back at her life when a slight heart attack sets her back. Just read it. An oldie but a great find!

Took me nearly a month but finally finished this beloved novel. I liked its gentleness, & how it always landed on the side of good. Reading this book overlapped with Moon Tiger Stylistically, very! different & yet, the similarities are striking. Both published in 1987 and they feature older women protagonists, strained relationships with adult children, memories of a wartime romance & a reckoning with the past. Both excellent in their own way.

Funny where mood reading can take you.

HI! My 83-year-old Mom recently moved into a senior's home and has found reading to be her main activity to keep her interested in life! PLEASE help with any suggestions for books! She loved Shell Seekers as her favorite book of all time and is now nearly finished with Oysterville Sewing Circle.

What would you suggest next?

Blessings and Deep Gratitude!
Colin

.... continued.

6) The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher
7) Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
8) Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout
9) A Place to Hang the Moon by by Kate Albus
10) The Rose Code by Kate Quinn

Runners Up: Lessons in Chemistry, Remarkably Bright Creatures, 24/6, Annihilation, and A World of Curiosities

I‘d love to hear your favorites!

#bookmoods #600+pages @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Eggs
672 pages phew!!!

When I heard this was one of my grandma‘s favorite books I assumed it would be dated. Instead I found a wonderful novel about the complicated relationship between mothers & their kids. It‘s a story that spans WWII, an artist‘s life in Cornwall, & a life-altering trip to Ibiza. There were so many lines I loved & the characters of Penelope & Olivia will stay w/me.

“Like a vessel that has been empty for too long, she felt herself filled with peace.”

🧡

Haley Atwell's Narration is perfection! And of all the covers of various editions of The Shell Seekers, this Audible one is my favorite. It captures the description of painting Title takes its name from.

While this is probably the most famous of RP's Novels I hadn't ever read it. It has everything you expect: Spunky Women of a Certain Age, Family Sagas, & Cozy Settings. In a few places It's a bit dated.⬇️

#RosamundePilcherForEverySeason

“The taxi, an old Rover smelling of old cigarette smoke, trundled along the empty country road at an unhurried pace.”

I am loving this book the second time around as much as the first. I love her descriptions of marvelous meals, cozy places and wonderful people.
#FirstLineFridays

Slow going this month. I‘m only halfway through The Shell Seekers, it should count as two! I‘ll have a few days at the beach next week so maybe I‘ll pick up the pace. #summerreading #TBR #BookSpinBingo

1. Not sure if it‘s considered an “event”, but I remember where I was when I heard that Elvis Presley had died. I was 11 at the time and remember my mom running out into our front yard to tell me. Graceland was only about 1.5 hours away from where we lived.

2. Unfortunately Amazon for ebooks

3. Tagged ❤️

#wondrouswednesday

I can‘t explain the thrill I get when I thrift an older book then love it‘s story. This was one of those times. I loved reading Penelope‘s story and all the less-than-perfect people and events filling her world.

Oh this is soooo good. It's a long audiobook but it's worth the 20+ hours as the narration is good and it kept me interested. Each character's history is backgrounded for a good feeling of where they come from and why. I loved the main character, Penelope and hope to be as classy as she at her age. Highly recommend!

This book was a full-out family drama, with very distinctive characters and ones that you couldn‘t help but love. The flashbacks to provide background for Penelope also provided so much insight to her decisions and I loved how that was woven through the book. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this via audiobook although it did take a bit to finally get into it.

I can‘t remember when I discovered Rosamunde Pilcher, but have since wanted to read what is considered her best. It was. Lovely, real, aching, sweet, interesting, and alive. A meaty family saga. This book I will keep. 5/5

Thanks for the tag @rubyslippersreads 💕

1. When our kids were younger we‘d decorate a trailer (hay bales, coffin, fog machine, theme from “Halloween”, etc.) and trick or treat the neighborhood. We also liked to spend the day at a local pumpkin patch...those were the days! 😊

2. Tagged. My first “adult type” book. 😊 Still a top favorite! ❤️

3. Goodreads, BookBub. Not much for a written reading log. 🙁🤷🏻‍♀️

@Eggs
#wondrouswednesday

#3books #thatmademewanttotravel

A bit of a soap opera, featuring:
*ungrateful offspring
*a new gardener
*long-lost pre-Raphaelite art
*the Blitz
*a dashing lover
*unexpected munificence

Quite a fun read until the last 100 pages or so which dragged as the plot suddenly vanished and everything was tied up in a bow.

This family saga is a hesitant pick because it was, at times, too sappy for my taste. Everyone falls in love so quickly. All the characters are either “good” or “bad” (good women are always thin and beautiful). But the story is interesting, and the writing is lovely and cozy. It will make you long to be snuggled in a seaside cottage with a thick book and a mug of tea.

Awful 80s cover but fabulous story. This hits my sweet spot: multigenerational story with lovely but not flowery writing. Plus art and WWII and family drama. It has been on my TBR for years but I finally got off my duff and read it. Broke my heart a few times but in the end, I was so happy to be in this world and didn‘t want it to end.

This was lovely, even though the end felt a little too tidy for me. I had secretly been worried that it was going to put me in a reading slump, but thankfully I couldn't put it down. Totally understand why it's my mom's favorite!

Well, this was April‘s #bookspin list. May started out even worse but I think I‘ve got my groove back. I did start The Shell Seekers but hit a huge slump and read next to nothing in April. I‘m not going to change anything since I didn‘t finish anything so I‘m just going to spin again in June! #spinagain 😉

I've been trying to read the favorite books of the people in my life, and this one is my mother's. I'll be honest and say that I was not super confident about it going in, but I'm really loving it so far.

Pic is my new shirt from Riverrun Bookstore in Portsmouth. Here's an unusual recommendation- sign up for their newsletter, which is chock-full of an amazing assortment of book recs, including both new and backlist titles.

My best friend and I quite randomly decided to do a ‘buddy read‘ of this ‘80s classic and (after only a few chapters) I‘m completely hooked.

Note the “decade appropriate” bookmark. 😆

@EadieB You‘re so good with remembering what we‘ve discussed. Did we ever discuss reading her books after we‘re done with Maeve? Or has @Andrew65 read all of hers?

It's a pretty good moment for a fat, comfy book. This one is going remarkably quickly and I'm totally loving it.

I debated if I should add this to my list this month because it‘s quite long. It‘s longer than I realized at 632 pages! I added it and lo and behold this is my #bookspin. I also said I wasn‘t going to add any non-fiction but I ended up adding two I thought would be uplifting and guess what? They ended up being #doublebookspin and #triplebookspin. I have to get through this one first! Also when I can‘t read I‘m crocheting a bag.

Oh, Rosamunde Pilcher can feel so dated but in a good way, when romance was about the openness of people‘s hearts and second chances... I liked this loooong story and am glad I finally got a glimpse of #Cornwall and #WW2 and #podmoresthatch and early 20th century painting...

#keeplitsypositive #cleanromance #longreads #sunnydayreads #happyendings #everyonegoodlovesagarden

I think everyone has heard of this FABULOUS read.

I read it with a different cover.

What about you - have you read it, and did yours have a different cover?

Beautiful and engaging British family saga. I adored the main protagonist, Penelope, and her thoughtful takes on family, self, motherhood, and love. I will definitely be reading more of Pilcher!

So so wonderful!!!

I went for a browse around the Goodwill Bookstore today and came across the hardcover for The Shell Seekers. My Kobo ebook does not have these lovely printed chapters or chapter headings! I couldn't walk away from that now could I? And at $3.95 a book I also grabbed her Winter Solstice and a brand new Bryce Courtenay, Annie Proulx and a Margaret Drabble. 💖

I need this to be a 5-star experience!! Need it. A friend recently read and gave it 5-stars so 🤞 I can't imagine a better book to enjoy out here on the patio (as soon as the neighbours Quit It with the leaf blowers and hedge trimmers!!!)

#manicmonday @JoScho

📘 Tagged
📽 Ghost in the Shell
🎶 Daybreak Over the Ocean

i put this book in my cart back in February when i heard of Rosanunde Pilcher‘s passing. i was in my teens then it first came out, but remembered my mom reading it. i started it a few weeks ago as my annual throwback read and left it at the Cape. we were finally reunited this week and it felt so good. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #books #bookstagram #read #reading #amreading #throwback