pickWhy didn‘t this book make the #wpf25 shortlist?!Joseph is a young journalist just starting out in the 1920s. He thinks that he has gotten the chance of a lifetime when his favorite, notoriously reclusive, artist invites him to stay. When Joseph arrives he learns the invitation actually came from his niece and she convinces her uncle to allow him to stay. All three are passionate about art but their time together will have lasting impact. So good!
pickReviews had me prepared to dislike this #wpf25 title but instead I flirted with loving it. I couldn‘t fully commit because there was so much about her unhealthy relationship with Marlowe which didn‘t add much, just another story of an older male misusing a damaged girl. Nila‘s other relationships and what she hides from herself and others as she struggles with her identity are what made this book special. So many lines made me pause and reread.
pickThe humor didn‘t always work for me but as I reflected on it I had to admit that the darkly funny approach worked better than a more earnest one would have. My reaction to this book fluctuated throughout my reading of it but in the end it had a lot to say and did so in a pretty clever way. #wpf25
pickWow - the best fiction book I‘ve read this year (should have been on the #wpf25 list).
Rachel and Tom live a seemingly normal, average life with their two kids, until the day Tom swerves his car off the road with the intention of killing himself and them.
The story veers between ‘before‘ and ‘after‘ - should Rachel have known beforehand, and how she copes afterwards.
Difficult to read but impossible to put down.
panThis book was work for me. I wanted to bail but I also wanted to understand why it was chosen for the #wpf25 shortlist so I kept reading to see if its inclusion would suddenly make sense to me. It never did. My favorite thing about it was its cover. Just not for me.
pickThis was my last book from the #wpf25 longlist. I liked it but didn‘t love it - a fairly standard family saga for me.
It felt too long (nearly 14 hours on audio), with a lot of unnecessary detail and a tendency to over-dramatise, leading one to think something was about to happen. Eg, one of the characters is in Spain, reporting on the Civil War. He‘s in a cafe writing a letter home, when 3 people burst through the door making a lot of noise ⬇️
pick⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I liked this, although maybe a bit less than others here. Interesting story of two women, or a woman and a family in the aftermath of post-WWII Netherlands. The subject and twist were interesting and the book was well written. I found the resolution of the main relationship not believable, which left me a little less enthusiastic than I might have been otherwise. #WPF25
pick⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 I think I liked this #WPF25 short list pick better than most of the other Litsy reviewers. Definitely some self absorption, but from characters I found interesting because they and their circumstances are so different from mine. I enjoyed passively learning a bit about the Iranian revolution and the lives of characters who stayed and those who left. And I enjoyed over-the-top Shirin and her tiny steps toward growth by the end.
pick⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 This one is hard for me to rate. I struggle with Strout—I find many of her characters to be annoying and not people I would enjoy spending time with, so bringing together two characters I didn‘t care for in her previous books didn‘t endear this to me, but I did enjoy the Bob parts of the story here and that helped. Overall soft pick from the #WPF25 short list.
pick⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I enjoyed this pick from the #WPF25 short list. British Muslim academic gets a job with the UN developing a deprogramming/re-entry program for ISIS brides in Iraq, gets in over her head, and hijinks and self-discovery ensue. I liked getting to know and root for the MC before it became clear (to me) how problematic some of her behavior was, and also appreciated it mostly came from a good place and not pure self-absorption.
