Welcome to Litsy!

My favorite stat every year is the number of new authors I‘ve read. So many #BlameitonLitsy choices as well as #TournamentofBooks and #WomensPrize.

Coffee out for this #weeklyforecast I cannot believe August is almost over. Life has been super busy so I have been very distracted but hopefully will get some good reading done soon.

3 library books to get through -tagged Slanting Towards the Sea and Twilight of Empire (history for my rapidly approaching trip)

Then - #camplitsy25 SA Cosby and #womensprize Elizabeth Strout

It's been a long time since a book brought this many tears to my eyes. I'm not sure I could have read it when my children were younger. But it was also a real eye opener with a lot of fascinating information about medical history and innovations. A remarkable story featuring a lot of ordinary people showing remarkable compassion.
The #WomensPrize for non-fiction list was really strong again this year, and this is a worthy winner.

#WomensPrizeNF

I love it when a book gives me really interesting information about something it had never occurred to me to think about. I am now officially a fan of hares. I really didn't think that a book about a woman's lockdown project of looking after a hare would be all that interesting, but it really was.

#WomensPrizeNF #WomensPrize
#14books14weeks book 1

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It's frustrating, because this book has such potential for greatness and so many strong insights about a whole slew of important themes, but it focuses mainly on a toxic love affair. And I am so tired of books about barely adult women in unhealthy relationships with older men.

#WomensPrize #WomensPrize25

Shortlisted for the #WomensPrize but unfortunately I didn‘t fully connect with this one. De-radicilazation, but make it rom-com? Our MC is smart and punchy, making friends at the UN rehab program for ISIS brides. And she takes this job to distract from heartbreak. I know the author has experience with this work so it reads true but I didn‘t love the office politics vibes. Did appreciate the “I‘m coming to save you, oh wait you don‘t want saved?!”

The #WomensPrize always picks one weird one that nobody likes. This year it's Crooked Seeds, and I actually did like it. In a future New South Africa water is rationed and the government is reclaiming private property. Compensation is not forthcoming because the economy has gone to shit. Deirdre is a middle aged alcoholic with a massive chip on her shoulder, and bases her whole identity around being an amputee. Something is found buried in the ⤵️

I admire the writing and the skill of this novel. I see why it has made the short list for #womensprize, but it was not a novel for me.

How did BOTH of these books make it to the #WomensPrize shortlist? Wasn't one (more than) enough?
They both feature serious broader issues that affect women, but take a tone that is supposed to be funny and have protagonists that nobody can identify with.
They're both about privileged women who implode their lives because rich people have trauma too. That's 1/3 of the #shortlist (maybe more 😵, I haven't read them all yet).
Why?

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