Welcome to Litsy!

Bad badger or something else? This is a story of discovering oneself and friendship. It is a slow, sweet story. Reminiscent to “Wind in the Willows” in regards to pacing and characters.

I loved the first third of this NBA longlister for Fiction in Translation.

Then it got VERY repetitive and long-winded.

The final third was more interesting but I‘d already guessed what was going to happen, although not the ultimate ending, so that lessened the impact a bit. That, and the fact that i5 was all rather depressing, kept this as a so-so..

I mean, it's Sarah Moss so of course it's good!
There were storylines, though, that I would happily have read whole books about and so (unreasonably) feel a little short-changed.

I. Did. It. #finishwhatyoustarted #nonfictionnovember #allergictochunksters 11 years ago my brother in law gifted this to me, it was an absolute favourite of his and it makes sense to me how it resonated with him. As a woman, I feel the lack of female representation in this gigantic tome of a book appalling. It starts with son and ends with father which is a beautiful full circle for him as a gay man but leaves out 50% of the population

Low pick, pick w/a caution
This was entirely too long. I think it would be just as impactful and would reach a larger audience if it was half the length.
With that I am impressed with Solomon's research. I also think he is a study on how to slip yourself into a book. When he spoke of his own story it never felt intrusive and always was there to relate to a point.
While the book itself is too dense, his writing at the sentence level is not and 👇

"I am reminded of a friend who said that when she found out her husband couldn't fill her needs, she changed her needs." - No examples.

WTF. I am struggling with this book. There is a thread of misogyny in it that is really grating on me. I have noticed that in most cases he is introducing couples telling what the husband does but not the wife. And then the wife becomes a SAHM. SAH moms are great but let's give them more identity.

I finished the chapter on Autism last night. This book was published in 2012 and it reflects the issue I often have with nonfiction, it is out of date when I get to it. Here it is okay, the past is still relevant and I am glad he was firm on vaccines. I have forgotten how brutal severe Autism can be. These days it feels like half the people I know are getting diagnosed and they are all "normal" with a small hyper fixation.
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A little Korean girl immigrated and found her name too hard to pronounce for her new country. She begins a name jar. What will she pick? Will she find that her name is best?
#ISpyBingoOct @TheAromaofBooks

I am committed to finishing this, hopefully in November but absolutely in 2025. I started it in 2014, it was a gift. My plan then was to read a chapter a month. It is so full of information and real life stories, it can be overwhelming and break your heart. Today I read schizophrenia; “autism is characterized by an over abundance of synaptic connectivity, schizophrenia is marked by a dearth of it.” #nonfictionnovember #finishwhatyoustarted