Welcome to Litsy!

Cindy sent me this book. Forty stories about people who were attacked by Hamas on October 7 2023.
Some survived, some not or have been taken captive. Their stories are told by their family.
It‘s horrible what happened on that day, it‘s very hard to read. People dancing on a festival one minute and entering a nightmare the next one. The stories do feel a bit too propaganda for me though.⬇️

#ReadTheWorld2025 book 19 #Israel

Wonderfully written novel that reads like a coming of age memoir.

#ReadtheWorld2025 #spain

I liked Zelu‘s story much more than the book-in-the-book, the SF novel. And I didn‘t get the ending of that SF novel. But it doesn‘t matter, this book is quite an experience and a perfect book to discuss around the fire during #CampLitsy25 in July!

#ReadTheWorld2025 book 18 #Nigeria

Short book of essays focusing on Dangarembga‘s life experiences, race, and feminism in Zimbabwe and a little in England. I know little to nothing about Zimbabwe, so this was an interesting and enlightening first look.

#ReadtheWorld2025 #Zimbabwe

A nanny kidnaps the little girl she takes care of. It takes a while before their disappearance is noticed because the girl‘s mother has a career and much going on. In this story the intertwined stories of mother and nanny highlight the societal expectations placed on women and the consequences. A very surprising read! Thanks for the rec @Lesliereadsalot

#ReadTheWorld2025 book 17 #Brazil

? Last pic from the weekend in San Sebastián, Spain

As with all short story compilations, I enjoyed some more than others, but each one was unique. Each took place 100 years after the US and British invasion and it was eye-opening and thought-provoking to see how each author processed this and chose to represent the future — some shining light on the after effects of the war through speculative fiction while others leaned heavily into science fiction.

3⭐️

#Iraq #ReadtheWorld2025

Just after @Graywacke ‘s review that should encourage me to continue, I do bail on this one. It reads like a fever dream, these memoirs of a Surinam-Dutch woman but I can‘t make head nor tail of it. #bookerinternational #ReadTheWorld2025 book 16 #Suriname

I‘ve had this for years on my Kindle, bought during a sale, but don‘t remember why as it‘s not the type of book I‘d typically go for (novella, stream of conscious, literary fiction). However, I was swept away into the musings and confession of Father Sebastian Urrutia Lacroix and found this to be a fevered yet calculated novella that while I in no way fully understood, did fully enjoy.

#ReadtheWorld2025 #Chile

This is a hard book to read, especially considering what‘s happening now in Israel and Gaza and that it was written in 2014.
It‘s so complicated, Arabs and Jews living in and fighting for the land they feel it‘s theirs. What if all Palestinians vanished from Israel one day?
Ibtisam Azem tries to write from various pov‘s and that just shows how complicated it all is.
A poignant #InternationalBooker book.