Welcome to Litsy!

#BigMoon three moon titles
I saw PaperMoon at the drive in as a child and loved Tatum. Apparently its based on an obscure novel?
#falling
@eggs
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

I‘m currently reading my 7th Elizabeth Jane Howard with @shawnmooney and this one is a volume of her short stories. We‘ve been working through her books in publication order (and may even get to the start of The Cazalet Chronicles next year 😆).

Priscilla Pringle, the well-known writer of detective stories, is offered 500 pounds by a stranger on a train to collaborate on the plot for a novel. But could the stranger be intending an actual murder rather than a fictional one? Fortunately, Miss Pringle is on her way to a talk for crime writers by Sir John Appleby.

I giggled my way through this one. Priscilla Pringle is the funniest detective writer since Ariadne Oliver.

Zipped through this excellent memoir about Moss's complicated relationship with food and subsequent eating disorder. She writes so well! And finds innovative ways to work within the genre. Loved how she seamlessly wove in literary analysis as well and explores how many classics support restriction and control of female bodies. It ranks up there with In the Dream House which is high praise!

Suspended DI Declan , already under pressure as his career hangs by a thread, attends his father‘s funeral . He suspects the death wasn‘t natural. At the service, DCI Munroe from a cold case unit offers him a spot on his task force. They‘re reopening a 20-year-old murder case thought to be solved—until a lost letter suggests otherwise. Declan accepts, unaware how closely it ties to his father‘s past.🎧

This book. 💔 I love memoirs written in unique ways, and I love Sarah Moss‘ fiction; learning about her life experiences gave insights into some of the components of her novels. She so accurately captured for me the relationship between body, food and control, and how the line past which you‘ve taken it too far can be easy to cross. I loved all the discussions of works by female writers. The audio was fantastic.

Yeah... I should've DNFed that, that was dire. Brand's usually not *awful*, but this was all her most melodramatic tendencies, a stupid romance that doesn't work, and a whole bunch of incoherence. Maybe it was meant to be a parody but that doesn't make it bearable.

I can't tell if this is just *bad* or if I'm not in the mood, but wow I am not getting on with it. I'm not a huge fan of Christianna Brand, but normally I like her work better than this.

(And possibly it's meant to be parody but even that doesn't quite feel like it lands!)

I'm a bit stalled on this one. It did nicely evoke the Welsh weather, but I'm kinda meh about how... gothic it is? I think I see what's happening already, and the melodrama (and the main character getting humiliated) just isn't my jam. Brand isn't my favourite classic crime writer in any case, I've just never quite clicked with her stuff.

(I'm sorry about all the posts today! 😬 It's really catchup for most of the week, I suppose.)