Welcome to Litsy!

#54
I feel this had nothing to do with a lonely girl..there was alot of repeating on the same thing...not my favorite Josephine Cox book

From the first chapter I felt connected to our main character Nell. She is in her forties, a past full of misadventure and failed relationships and is now renting a room from Edward.
There's a lot of humor here, and compassion too. I loved her friendships with both her immediate friendship group but also her developing friendship with Cricket, a woman in her eighties, recently widowed.
There's fun, there's trauma, there's grief, there's community

#Tagyoureit @rubyslippersreads ! You posted a book with an image of trees on it, which fits this week‘s theme for the scavenger hunt! If you spot another Litten posting a book with a tree on it anytime this week, tag them to keep the game going!

What an unpleasant family! Although living cheek by jowl with all of your in-laws would probably make most people cranky. 😏 And I did want to find out what happened, in spite of the unlikeable characters.

#FurrowedMiddleBrowClub

#5JoysFriday @DebinHawaii Man the weeks are flying by
1. My grandson and my daughter stayed a few days
2. #LitsySnailMailClub has some sign ups that bring me joy
3. My garden
4. Cooler weather cause boy those hot, humid days are hard
5. I saw the neighborhood fox this week.

I never know what to expect from a Joyce Carol Oates work. I‘m left with the feeling that I‘m not sure what actually happened. In this case, I‘m not sure anything did happen. But it might have. What I do know is that we‘re left with a surprisingly happy-ish ending, I think. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

What a charmless lot these characters were! I had trouble feeling sympathy for any of them, except maybe Lavinia who seemed to be doing her best. #FurrowedMiddlebrowClub

#FurrowedMiddlebrowClub

The middle and upper class of a small English village rub along together awkwardly in this novel. The eccentric Mr. Monsoon, the pretentious Mrs. Rockaby, the loony Lady Tyce, etc. There‘s no real plot nor any character to root for really, but I enjoyed it on the whole. It‘s often funny and has maybe a subtle feminist edge to it at times, but as @Tamra noted, much longer would have been too long.

“Yes”, Mr. Swan says to himself, “the human family. Yes.”

This is an observational study about how family members can love & drive one another crazy in equal measure. 😜

I really enjoyed it, but I‘m also glad it wrapped up when it did because family bickering doesn‘t provide much in the way of narrative drive.

#FurrowedMiddlebrowClub

A novel about the “impoverished semi-gentry of a country village, consisting of cantankerous parents and frustrated adult children… Each family quarrels with itself in the same laconic and polite way”. That quote from an early review sums up the plot perfectly. It seems to have a more wry feel to it than many of our other #FurrowedMiddlebrowClub reads (and one of the best descriptions of an awkward tea party ever 😆).

I enjoyed it!