Welcome to Litsy!

Gaunt hears Ellwood quoting poetry to a boy in his room. The boy does not even know what the words are from.
"He [Gaunt] knew the lines Ellwood had quoted. They were from Shakespeare's Sonnet 20. Ellwood had written them in pencil on the wall above Gaunt's bed, and Gaunt had hoped they meant something."

40 pages in and I can tell this book is going to destroy me.

Gaunt and Elwood meet at boarding school. Gaunt taciturn, a boxer. Elwood beautiful, a poet. They adore each other but will not say it. Then the First World War happens and their lives split and collide. Did I need another book about WWI? I did not. Do I like First World War poetry? I do not. Did I love this book anyway? I did indeed. The most beautiful story of hidden love, friendship, privilege and class.

I enjoyed this curiosity, found it wonderfully done, found the writing, which focuses so much on the sound, always interesting and terrific, with its own rhythm and life. And I say this even I didn't really get it. (I missed a lot, as I discovered afterwards reading online reviews) This maybe should have won the Booker (and I loved the winner, Prophet Song)

4.5⭐️/5⭐️

Finished the books in the top row.

Currently reading:
~read of 56% of Some Of Us Are Looking -#readyourkindle #serieslove2024
~Past Lying ch. 35/49 #karenpairie #audible #serieslove2024
~Zorrie- starting section due tomorrow #sundaybuddyread #literaryfiction
~A Stolen Child- p.86/339 #librarybook #maggiedarcymystery #Dublin #serieslove2024
~Call Us What We carry- #amandagorman #poetry- choosing one poem per day.

Springtime and a good book. This is happiness. 😀

A beautifully written book about a young woman who sublimates her own scientific ambitions in order to accompany her older “scientific genius” husband working in Los Alamos in the 1940s. There is some lovely nature writing in here as she continues to spend time watching birds in New Mexico. For all that this sounds like my kind of quiet thoughtful book, i struggled to connect with the protagonist and her timidity. Probably me and not the book!

Think of that classic Seinfeld conversation where George pitches Jerry a show about nothing. Now picture the novel-length version of that conversation and you have an idea of the humor in Dr. No. I know that sounds terrible. But Everett rightly calculates that making a bad joke multiple times isn't funny unless it's multiple times in every page. It's baked into a weird send-up of Bond films with a heroic neuroatypical math professor in the lead 👇

#ShadowGiller2024 @Lindy

This one is not my favorite of “Tookies short perfect novels” that I have read so far, but I do see why it‘s on the list. The end did quite literally take my breath away.