A widowed mother takes her adult children on a cruise. The 4 are not friends & seem to barely know each other. If you are a parent you will recognize the innocent and unintentional rudeness of the adult child. That will carry certain readers a far way, but it‘s not enough. The story is easy to follow with moments of interest, and sometimes even literary reach, but I cannot say it is worth the time unless you are young & have loads of it.

I‘d like to swap books Anyone want to swap Foster by Claire Keegan or Vintage Contemporaries by Dan Kois What can you offer? Would like House on the Cerulean Sea or any books shown in the pictures but am open to others.

This is an absolute joy if you like: journey novels, gentle humour, English history, PG Wodehouse, & can withstand discussions about whether it‘s smart to bring cheese & tallow on a close boat trip & if you have ever wondered whether the maze at Hampton Court is worth the effort. There‘s no plot, but many extended anecdotes. This book wanders like a drunken tourist. It‘s a book about nothing. A Seinfeldian journey up the Thames and through time.

A young girl from a financially challenged family is dropped off with richer relatives for a stay of unknown duration. This is the way 10 year olds experience life. You are simply swept along in the happening. Her birth parents have made poor choices. Her foster parents have experienced hardships about which they had no choice. This heartbreaking and heartwarming book is about knowing when you have to accept versus when you have to act.

Wow.
“I never heard the Stock Exchange bell ring.”
I wish I could tell you why that is such a powerful statement in this book about power. The problem with writing a review about this book is that it would be a spoiler to talk about its structure, which is the real star of the show. Let me just summarize by saying it is a masterpiece. It is a writer‘s novel. Pick.Pick.Pick.

My Antonia is one of the “best loved” American novels. I hate it, which is shorthand for saying that the book did not speak to me & I am jealous that it speaks to others. I decided to give her another read. I did this with Steinbeck last year and while I still hate The Grapes of Wrath, I happily found The Red Pony to be a marvel. I chose Cather‘s My Mortal Enemy. And it is a revelation. The characters & situation are drawn with care & pain.

This had some interesting observations. One long scenario anout no one providing him water was particularly well done. Overall though after the first 8 chapters I grew bored. It seemed to fall into the socio- babble of every thing that‘s wrong in America can be fixed by having front porches. I love a deep porch, but…I am grateful though for the tip that the field in which Frederick Douglas fought for his freedom is still a field we can visit.

A couple rushes to marry & then make the most to set up house with little money and a lot of paint and hope. The course of their marriage, though unknown to them, is written when the jeweler refuses to give them the traditional silver spoons upon their engagement. Disappointment follows. Their love fails; lovers and babies come and go. The wife never gives up her hopes and dreams despite some dreary circumstances. A great read.

This reads like a story whose moments are strung like sparse lights between the poles of gay cultural events & movements of the end of the 20th Century. Like real life, this semi- autobiographical novel has no plot. Structural issues aside, this is a cotton candy of a book. Colorful, but thin, characters dash through the narrative doing their colorful things, in clever sentences. Short on story, long on style, nice cover. Maybe that‘s enough.

It‘s fantastic. I now know there‘s library in the Met & NY that the New Society Library ( set in an opulent brownstone) is open to the public. It also includes a few author homes & bars. But mostly it covers stores of every type in every boroug. There‘s a very interesting one devoted to old cookbooks that I want to see even though I hate to cook. Clearly aimed at book-obsessed people ( guilty), the book itself is gorgeous.

The author reports that she wrote 3 failed novels. If a novel is a book, then having finished this one, I say she can now clock 4. The entire book, as each of the three novels was, is about trees and how everything in life is either birthed, mediated, or made meaningful by trees. In fairness, she‘s won mutliple poetry awards. I generally don‘t get poets - apparently even when they masquerade as essayists. So, maybe don‘t listen to me on this one.

This is a failed book. No plot no enlightenment no value seemingly no purpose. Someone can prove me wrong.

I thought Ms Parker was a happy, witty day drinker. But this oeuvre to suicide says that was not so. She attempted suicide three times then finally her broken heart gave up. The poems are excellent, but not so worthy that you should read this if the topic frightens you because I also found that it was not enlightening in any way.

This is part bio /part history lesson. Sometimes it gets a bit personal and sounds like an “I was there” brag. I read this to learn how a privileged person becomes an activist against her upbringing and her family. She doesn‘t explain it. It‘s clear that she felt the sting of injustice against females, and was able to see it in other scenarios. But I don‘t know what made her act. Maybe it‘s as simple as a deep seated desire to set things right.

A young couple with no means tries to move into a higher class in broad daylight. Lesson: If you have a taste for the upper class, you better have the stomach for it too.
https://www.facebook.com/1082882538/posts/pfbid094Sne8jcNVAde6Yu3vckrW3GDMhWQZcQ...

In 1948, a black man drives away from his home late at night and is stopped by a white cop. You probably think you know what happens next. Except you probably don‘t. And that is part of the joy of this surprising book. It is in part a history, a heist, a warm family story and a gambler‘s tale - with comic & tragic notes and an intriguing ending. The title, cover & the overall of the novel are in synch so if you like them, you will like this book.

If you are tired of reading about women who take a risk on an adventure and find out that the guy they have befriended but disregarded is The One, then read this. The road to romance here is not surprising, but there are interesting markers along the way- like living in Istanbul, attending an opera in Vienna and developing a perfume business, all while also discovering an unknown personal history. A light and pleasing read.

TBH, I didn‘t like all of these essays, but when they connected they packed a wallop.

This is a failed book about interesting things: maps, magic, the NYC library. The plot has too many holes and events that are inexplicable. The main character is idealized and idolized for no reason other than she was a cute baby. I don‘t know how this got published. Please read something else.

An American Gilded Age millionaire walks into a London hotel for dinner. His daughter orders a steak & Bass Ale. The hotel doesn‘t have it. He buys the hotel then and there after a comic negotiation with the owner who warns that strange things happen at hotels. Moments later there‘s a murder, a missing prince, and a cast of hotel employees who are 1st class by day, but criminals by night. There was a too much plot, but it is a delightful read.

The composer De Bussey said that music is the space between the notes. This book is a roadmap of how to get there. A wonderful, perspective changing read. Full review here. https://www.facebook.com/1082882538/posts/pfbid02uiyopcPrYfsa4dQ8ig5GKjeNs6Vu5rz...

A middle class woman marries into an uber rich snobby family, only to learn things about her own class ideology. Reading it was like drinking a table wine: basic. It won‘t make you vomit or make you happy.

The author is a fiction editor IRL. As a result, this is clearly written. It, though, is not artistic. While it tackles Old New York class themes, it is not a modern Edith Wharton novel as some claim.

Super informative about what Fitzgerald‘s influences were when writing Gatsby. Unfortunately, of course, the story ends the same. His last check was for $13 in royalties. The price of genius, I guess.

Great Expectations
I KNOW it is on almost every best 100 novels list and I KNOW Charles Dickens is an icon and I KNOW it has been adapted for tv, film and stage countless times, but how come nobody told me this is one of the best novels that will ever be written?

Gobsmacked.

Review coming later after I catch my breath.

A good idea to cover stories in cold climes. But I expected tighter essays or imaginatively linked observation. I did learn things though.

Wanted to like this novel that was inspired by Gore Vidal‘s historical fiction masterpiece Burr. But couldn‘t.

What a grand idea to write a novel about a Mississipian displaced by the Civil War coming to NY to make his career but who, when he falls in love, runs into resistance from New England reformers about the place of women in society. Should they be wives or emancipators of women? Unfortunately, James is not up to the task of weaving this is into a story. Boring. #litsyclassics

Not really Untitled, but could not find No One Here is Like Me. A short memoir by Robert King. It asks the questions who loves you really and how much pain should you absorb to love them back. Full review https://www.facebook.com/1082882538/posts/pfbid0CqUtWQAj2t359N1sSp5cgJaQK6KJeLJc...

Two people from different backgrounds and sensibilities marry. Their rocky newlywed night plays out in a series of uncomfortable places, both mentally and physically. I like the idea of examining the paths of two people who think they have come together, but instead find themselves at a crossroads. I was with this all the way - until the bitter end. It did not say to me what the author says the take away is. McEwan wrote one book; I read another.

Ignore the backdrop of palace grounds & you can hear dreadful music that‘s familiar to many. The Spare. The Plan B. The Extra. You are not enough. You were born not enough. Play the game and know your place. For sure people have it worse than Harry, but there‘s power in the universal story of the underdog. Anyhow a B actress and a palace misfit meet and the shoe fits. We never really believed things would be happy FORever after, did we?

During what looks like the end of the world, a 70 yr old is determined to learn whether his memories were worth the lifetime of longing. Nostalgia is low on society‘s heirarchy of feelings. It sits on the border of silly and useless. But in this novel it‘s a force of nature as the character quests to actually touch his past. Faulkner told us that the past is not even the past. Olafsson adds that it is worth a visit.

https://www.facebook.com/1082882538/posts/pfbid0DBssYxHSRm2XUtTESN4pbc8crqizSXz3...

My Favorites of 2022
You‘ll Never Forget Your First https://www.facebook.com/1082882538/posts/pfbid0cxSCxHk9sjocCsYtedQt1D5kmtEYw2qx...

These two were hyperactive, prolific, highly sexual, artists who went on to become their own genre. The connection stops there. The cover art shows that this connection is not as close as Hornby would like us to believe. The guitar & hat images do not reflect back on each other, blend or look like they belong in the same space. https://www.facebook.com/1082882538/posts/pfbid0RrCeJsSphwTV6QupTwjNK8AqjreknuJi...

Could it be true that while you‘re talking about office seating charts your black colleague is summoning her ancestors to manage her rage over your freshest microagression? I am here to tell you “ yes”. So is Askaripour. But even a satirical novel with a message needs to be a successful novel and this one is not. https://www.facebook.com/1082882538/posts/pfbid023MF9Mcpdo1mG3D3X1WWetiNCLfLsFqH...

The prose whispers itself into poetry. A sail boat becomes a “ diversion of cloth, wind and wood”. The sunset & the flood waters that have obliterated all become “The shimmering green- gray-blue terror. Orange in the evening then gone.” Every sail boat & every waterview sunset are just those things. That‘s all the new mother can absorb so that‘s all the text there is. After the flood, everything is subtextual, subliminal, submerged. Ambitious!

Bright and breezy bio that will tell you things you didn‘t want know. Hint: his fake teeth were not made of wood.

This is about black people but is not about racism. The first half, tinged with deep memory, is really strong. The rest fails to connect events with meaning. Nevertheless, this packs an emotional wallop & will boomerang readers into their childhood. That friend who moved away, the bright cousin who inexplicably failed to launch, the long gone neighborhood hangouts; they haunt our adult lives as we wrestle with the impact, why & how of it all.

Marie Kondo says to clear clutter & improve our life by keeping only things that spark joy. But what if you are amongst those who find it hard to experience joy? This is for the clinically, chronically or temporarily depressed. Davis‘ motto is “good enough leads to a good life”. Do as much laundry as is needed. Those not dirty but not quite clean clothes you threw over the chair back? Leave them there or re- hang them in the closet! EZPZ.

It‘s the 1920s and a new Yale grad finds himself working for the rich in Newport RI over a summer. He‘s no Nick Carraway & so this book stays in the shallows. I read it while on vacation there. Fun to walk the town with the characters & learn stuff. While there I saw that Newport has a big variety of trees. For centuries the residents planted trees from around the globe. There‘s even a colonial tree walk! A pretty good book in a great setting.

Another book about an abandoned wife remaking her life with another man. I can‘t complain about the plot that I knew when I chose to read it. But I was hoping for more originality. Maybe just once we can have a woman pick the same type of man.

This could have been a short story. The ending with the “I love you” was weirdly cheesy. Not sure why I kept reading.

Not the groundbreaker that Outline was. But also not a great follow up bc all the characters have Faye‘s voice. While that may have been intentional, whatever magic Cusk wrought before was missing here, though there was the usual accumulation of sharp observations. Will probably read Kudos, but not looking forward to it. Full review https://www.facebook.com/1082882538/posts/pfbid02LNZaWxG4GoZnKrrm1ZkreQhPxaFqCGh...

A botanist who has spent her life mourning her mother‘s death & doing her job, one day realizes she‘s out of touch with friends. She embarks on a plan to spend a fortnight with a few of them in an effort to share their ordinary lives. It‘s a story that rambles gently through sensitive & alarming features of aging. I came across this novel at a time when I felt compelled to buy luggage. Sometimes you pick the novel; sometimes the novel picks you.

This book about poets Sylvia Plath & Anne Sexton was not well written & I don‘t care much for poetry. But my entry into it the examination of the struggle to be a woman & a poet in 1960/50 America. They could not be selfish artists because they had to be proper and mothers and cooks and hostesses. But the wild, absorptive heart of a poet wants what it wants. These two were no doubt mentally ill, but they were also talented & angry. A sad read.

At an old estate being headed by a cranky rich woman, a woman goes missing from a closed room with 11 people in it. How? Cupboards, sofas, priest holes and ice houses all play a part. The amateur detective is a bankrupt, bon vivant who becomes involved because he has had to take a job at the estate as a footman. This is a pleasing tangle of theft and romance and stock manipulation. See if you can solve what Agatha Christie could not.

This is my 13th Hardy novel and what a pleasure to read something that has his usual realism but also a brighter outlook.

If you‘d like “It Takes a Thief” with more sex, more twists, more feminist femmes, two handsome and dangerous heros, many more con people & a rescue dog, you‘ll like this comic romance. No character is who others think they are; no character is even who they think they are. By the end they tumble nicely into the version of themselves that fits who they want to be. Highly recommended for those who like a little literature with their romance.

Is it just me, or is it correct that Litsy has far fewer creative images than it used to? I miss them, though I am guilty too I still think we should get a chance to show appreciation for the post image separately from the review. 2 cents.

Christie leaps into the spy thriller genre. The plot involves many people - some are professional spies, some are bystanders & some are adventurous & smart women who by happenstance are brought together in Baghdad to undermine a Fifth Column - style plot to wreak worldwide chaos. I never tied her to politics, but this was written near the start of the Cold War & writers write what they think about, so. The engaging characters make it a good read.