Litsy

#WeeklyForecast

Finish the tagged #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead

Hopefully finish Havanna Taxi and the butterfly book

Finish Remote Sympathy.

Read Galatea (on Libby), The Emperor‘s Babe and start on Checkout 19.

Cinfhen

Cinfhen Good luck this week 💚 12h

47 likes1 comment

quietjenn

Basic Black with Pearls | Helen Weinzweig

Today was all about avoiding the heat, delving into the current #nybrbookclub selection, and bonding with one of our new cats. 🐈‍⬛

vivastory Sounds like a wonderful day! 17h

BarbaraBB How are you enjoying the book? 17h

Ruthiella 😻😻😻 17h

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Caroline2 Ahhhh! Such a cute cat!!! 😍 17h

batsy Awww 🐈 16h

LeahBergen You have new cats??? 🥰🥰 16h

mabell Oh how sweet 💕 10h

MaureenMc 💕💕 10h

Tamra Cutie! 😻 10h

Billypar Congrats on the new cat! And you pretty much spelled out my plans for today 😸📚 9h

quietjenn @vivastory it was really quite lovely 😊 5h

quietjenn @BarbaraBB I liked it, but I'm glad that I read it a bit earlier than I usually do, so I'll have time to ruminate on it before our discussion. 5h

quietjenn @LeahBergen yes, our sweet senior kitty passed away earlier this spring, so we've been feeling a bit lonely. Took a trip to the shelter and ended up adopting two! 5h

quietjenn @Billypar Thanks! I hope you enjoy your day (and the book). 5h

BarbaraBB The more I think about it the more I like it! 5h

merelybookish New kitties are so fun! Sometime like having miniature horses galloping about. 😁 50m

50 likes16 comments

Daisey

Jane of Lantern Hill | L M Montgomery

pick

This is another L.M. Montgomery book I don‘t remember ever reading before, and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to it today. Yes, it was a bit predictable and the quick resolution at the end was a bit unsatisfactory, but it also included the humor, variety of characters, and descriptions of nature that I love about Montgomery‘s writing.

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #audiobook

44 likes

merelybookish

George & Rue | George Elliott Clarke

pick

It's a grey day on the St. John River. Fitting ambiance for this book about Black brothers convicted and hanged for killing a taxi driver in Fredericton, NB in 1949. Clarke, an acclaimed Cdn poet, uses his poetic license to re-imagine this historical event. He fleshes out the sad history of these two men and the poverty, racism, violence of their world, writng with "sympathy but not sentimentality." It is a bleak but beautifully written book. ?

merelybookish The language is gorgeous! Sentences are jam-packed with image, rhythm & soul. It may be a novel but Clarke still writes like a poet! And it shows how Canada has its own abhorrent history of anti-Blackness. Definitely an important work of Canlit! 1d

vivastory That's wonderful that you live so close to the river! 1d

merelybookish @vivastory Yes, I love it! And we are far enough away we don't have to worry about flooding. 1d

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LeahBergen You have such a lovely view! 1d

merelybookish @LeahBergen Thanks! I feel pretty lucky. 1d

Cathythoughts Beautiful place 💫 16h

batsy Oh yes, that is the best view 😍 16h

merelybookish @batsy @Cathythoughts @LeahBergen @vivastory You are welcome to come visit anytime. 😀 11h

62 likes8 comments

BarbaraJean

Jane of Lantern Hill | L M Montgomery

pick

Oh, Jane was a delight! So many classic L.M. Montgomery themes: the overbearing relatives who don‘t understand the delightful child in their care, the romantic quarrel/misunderstanding, quirky and lovable supporting characters in a rural setting, and lovely descriptions of PEI‘s natural beauty. And of course the ending was not surprising, but I loved it all the same! Looking forward to the #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead discussion next Saturday!

49 likes

Billypar

Basic Black with Pearls | Helen Weinzweig

#nyrbbookclub
I'm really enjoying this one so far! I'm not quite halfway through, but there's a scene involving this Bonnard painting in the Toronto gallery the main character visits that is pretty surreal and, without preempting our eventual discussion where we can dig into its meaning, I'm wondering if those who've read it can confirm if my reading of the basic 'what's happening' level is the same as yours. I'll summarize in the comments...

Billypar My main question is the place and time of this experience: I think it's happening in the Toronto gallery but I wasn't 100% sure at times. It begins right after a memory she had at the Frick gallery, but it shifts to the present tense. And I can't find any indication that the Bonnard painting was ever at the AGO, but the prior Marchesa Casati painting is. Still, an inconsistency like that isn't a problem in fiction. But there's another detail... 1d

Billypar On page 59 of the NYRB edition, the paragraph "In Paris, I was so caught up with waiting each day for Coenraad's arrival..." refers to a possible memory dated in 1967, but in it she describes forgetting a promise made to the girl in the painting she's currently looking at in the late 1970s so there's a time paradox going on if the painting fantasy is happening in the present... 1d

Billypar And it's even more disorienting since the world of the painting is the 1930s. But maybe that's the point - once she's in the painting she's in that room's time, so she can imagine 1967 is the future and insert that broken promise into her fantasy. Is that the way you were thinking of it? Tagging those who posted reviews to see if you were also puzzling over time traveling matters 🙃 @merelybookish @sarahbarnes @BarbaraBB 1d

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BarbaraBB I wasn‘t aware of these various time frames but she is not the most reliable narrator, so maybe that can be the reason? 1d

Billypar @BarbaraBB It's a good question - like, is she faithfully recounting a 'petit mal attack' as she claims, or trying to turn her despair of waiting for Coenraad (both present day and in Paris) into an artistic construction to ward off loneliness? Or maybe somewhere in between. 1d

merelybookish I think I read it as your last suggestion - that she becomes the vulnerable girl in the painting in her imagination. It's such a disorienting shift, it took a moment to 'get' what was happening. But throughout the book, she seems to recollect a variety of stories about young girls who are violated in some way. She overhears them, reads them in the newspaper, and this one triggered by art. It's something she is very attune to 1d

Billypar @merelybookish Yeah, it was the dreamiest sequence so far in the novel, and I thought I got what was happening until she brought the Paris thing into it. But I think you're right, she has a real pattern with her responses to these stories and Weinzweig nicely dramatizes how deep in her head she is in reacting to the painting. 1d

28 likes7 comments

vivastory

Basic Black with Pearls | Helen Weinzweig

#NYRBBookClub Join me Sun. 6/5 @ 12 CST as we discuss Weinzweig's novel. Reviews have been positive so far. Looking forward to the discussion. Discussion open to all.
@BarbaraBB @catebutler @daena @arubabookwoman @emilyhaldi @quietjenn @sprainedbrain @mklong @youneverarrived @LeahBergen @Leftcoastzen @Liz_M @merelybookish @GatheringBooks @readordierachel @sarahbarnes @batsy @Billypar @Megabooks @Suet624 @DrexEdit @Sapphire @Addison_Reads

Megabooks Excited to read this next week! 1d

Leftcoastzen I‘m about half way through, enjoying it! 1d

vivastory @Megabooks I'll be diving in next week as well. Looking forward to it! 1d

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vivastory @Leftcoastzen 👏 👏 1d

sarahbarnes Looking forward to it! 1d

LeahBergen I‘ll be cracking it open next week, too 👍 1d

vivastory @LeahBergen I hope it works for you! 1d

vivastory @sarahbarnes I think it will be a good discussion! 1d

merelybookish I'll be there with pearls on! 😁 1d

vivastory @merelybookish 🍾📚 1d

47 likes10 comments

AnneCecilie

Jane of Lantern Hill | L M Montgomery

#BookReport

I continued the tagged #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead

I finished Saturday Requiem and The Secret Lives of Church Ladies.

I read Imagine Wanting Only This and Companion Piece.

I‘m currently reading the book about butterflies, Havanna Taxi and Remote Sympathy.

Cinfhen

kspenmoll Great week! 1d

Cathythoughts Great week and lovely soothing photo 💫 1d

Cinfhen How‘s

Remote Sympathy

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AnneCecilie @kspenmoll @Cathythoughts thank you 😊 1d

AnneCecilie @Cinfhen It‘s different from what I thought it would be. Not that I knew much other that it was Longlisted for the Women‘s Prize, about the WWII and different POV and the cover pulled me. 1d

Cinfhen Im looking forward to reading it!! 16h

52 likes6 comments

BarbaraBB

Basic Black with Pearls | Helen Weinzweig

pick

Shirley Kaszenbowski , a Jewish immigrant in Toronto, escapes her “basic black” life for a more exciting one: one with secret rendezvous all over the world with a mysterious lover, who is a spy for the Agency. They communicate by code an this time this leads her to her hometown.
While walking the streets of Toronto it becomes clear how unreliable our narrator is. I can‘t say too much without spoilers but it‘s quite the read!

#NYRBBookClub

vivastory

CarolynM Sounds good🙂 2d

Sapphire I really enjoyed this one 2d

merelybookish Great review! 1d

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Megabooks Excited to read this! 1d

Suet624 I had some other books I thought I‘d read next (Valerie Perrin … library books!) but fine. Your review sealed the deal. I‘ll pull this one off the shelf and read it next. 1d

BarbaraBB @Suet624 I feel the pressure! I love that you‘re reading a #NYRB but I can‘t imagine it‘s as good as the new Perrin! 1d

Suet624 Hmmm…. Very good point. 1d

vivastory Great review. Looking forward to discussing in a couple of weeks 👏 1d

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BarbaraJean

Jane of Lantern Hill | L M Montgomery

“She liked a candle better than a lamp. It went out so graciously…the thin trail of smoke… the smoldering wick, giving one wild little wink at you before it left you in the dark.”

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead

kspenmoll Happy Litsyversary!! 6 yrs! Love this quote. 1d

BarbaraJean @kspenmoll Thank you! It‘s been a great 6 years! Well, maybe not so great in the world outside, but here on Litsy anyway! 1d

36 likes2 comments

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