Welcome to Litsy!

Persephone fails to see why this is a problem. 😹 She crawled onto the book after I picked up my phone to look up a poet the author mentioned. Silly cat. #CatsOfLitsy

Moving one-sitting read. I liked it, but not nearly as much as the other two #WomensPrize titles I‘ve read (Ordinary Human Failings and Brotherless Night).

Was this a victim of overhype? Should I have read a print copy rather than listening to the audiobook? I‘m not sure but I feel like whatever the multiple nominating committees of various prizes found in this I missed. I appreciated the way squash takes center stage but otherwise was disconnected from the characters.

The description and cover suggest this short novel is all about squash and, while it is, it‘s also about grief, connections, and trying to find your way after major loss. Gopi is 11 when her mother dies, and she and her father cling to the game they both know, steeping themselves in it, as they try to cope with going forward without her. I really liked this and, frankly, didn‘t expect to.

A well crafted story about grief and a family left behind. While I found it interesting that squash was at the center of this - and I learned a lot about the sport from the book and much googling - the characters where a bit basic, and overall the story a bit bland. Unfortunatly this is not a book that is going to stick with me. It was a quick an easy to get through read.

Read for the Women's Prize for Fiction Long List 2024
3⭐

This is the second time I've been surprised to realize Maynard is more than 10 years older than me, because her depictions of life during the time I was growing up are so authentic. This is a suspense story, loosely based on real murders in Marin county, but also a vivid and fascinating look at unsupervised adolescence. The family relationships are loving, flawed and sometimes deeply sad.

#BacklistReadathon

We broke 80 degrees for the first time ever for February today. Seems like a good day to start a book about the climate.

reading and knitting

Main character Alice keeps traveling back and forth from her 40th birthday to her 16th birthday with the focus on her relationship with her father.

The love between father and daughter is heartwarming.

Of course, she tweaks different things on each trip to the past, but nothing can change the inevitability of death.

The author's note at the end really added to the beauty of the story.

*Photo is the Umpqua River a few years after a fire