Elements of the supernatural combine with the liberal arts novel as the story follows Samantha, an MFA student whose nemeses are a clique of fellow MFA students dubbed the Bunnies for their childish ways.

However she can‘t say no when she gets invited to what she thinks will be a casual night of reading saucy poetry. That may sounds tame, but the novel gets weirder and more supernatural from there, and discovering that is part of the fun.

It‘s been a long, long time since I had a book haul!! Makes me so happy!

Pictured are:
💰 Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
💀 All‘s Well by Mona Awad
🦇 The Southern Book Club‘s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

Sally Rooney‘s new novel lives up to the hype, an amazing, but understated (in typical Rooney fashion) story about four friends in their early 30s.

The most interesting parts were the emails written between two main characters of the novel, Alice and Eileen. It has me wishing for a non-fiction essay collection written by Rooney.

Read this if you are someone who values human connection!

Also pictured, handmade bookmark from a good friend.

An entertaining thriller about a game of wits between an old and young faculty member at a private school for boys.

What motivates the young teacher? Is it ambition, jealousy or something else?

This book had an amazing plot twist I did not see coming! I‘m excited to one day read the sequel.

Recommended for fans of campus novels and literary thrillers.

Leigh Bardugo was one of those authors I hadn‘t stopped hearing about since I joined Litsy, but I never had a chance to read.

That all changed when I heard about her campus/magic novel based on the secret societies of Yale. This book was much better than I expected, with some parallels to Harry Potter. Highly recommended!

Best way to spend a holiday Monday in Canada!

Latest Book Outlet haul! Pictured books are:
1. Gentleman and Players by Joanne Harris
2. Dark Archives: A Librarian‘s Investigation Into The Science And History Of Books Bound In Human Skin by Megan Rosenbloom
3. Madame Fourcade‘s Secret War: The Daring Young Woman Who Led France‘s Largest Spy Network Against Hitler by Lynne Olson

Went to the bookstore for the first time in ages yesterday! This book was on my radar after reading about it in the TLS and The New Yorker. Despite reading two reviews about it, I‘m still not sure whether to expect real ghosts or not! #SundayRead #CurrentRead

Current vibe

Read this as an eBook and decided to try something different for the book pic! I hope it turned out.

I came to this first book in the Waterdeep series in the greater Forgotten Realms fantasy series based on the world of Dungeons & Dragons after a large chunk of time I spent last year playing a board game called The Lords of Waterdeep with a group of friends.

If you have read any Forgotten Realms in the past you know exactly what you get.

As you might have picked up from the discussion on other posts, Later was so so close to being a fun pulpy King novel. However, he made one big plot decision at the end which was unnecessarily heavy and didn‘t really fit with the presentation of the involved characters earlier in the novel.

Otherwise it was a fun read about a boy who can see dead people.

Cafe Europe Revisited was a great series of essays about the ways that Eastern Europe has integrated (or not) into the EU after the 30 years since the fall of communism. These essays were quite enlightening and gave me much food for thought!

Recommended!

Going to be catching up on reviews so be prepared for a flurry of posts in the next hour!

Let Me Tell You What I Mean was my first Joan Didion book. It was a decent starting point to understand the legend that is Didion! At the same time I left the book feeling like I need to read her more iconic works to fully get what she is all about.

Recommended!

One of the biggest books of the moment was only a “meh” read for me. I found the ending predictable and guessed it midway through the novel.

The idea about living other lives to see what you are missing is a resonant one, which is my guess as to why this book is doing so well on the bestsellers list. However, the story itself ends up being overly sentimental and cliche.

I‘m sure many people could have written the exact same book.

Obama‘s amazingly well written memoir was my first read of 2021. The writing is so good you‘ll swear it‘s worthy of a well established literary author.

Not only does this book walk through the major achievements and issues faced by Obama prior to and into his presidency midway through 2011, you get to see a touching and human side to him as well.

I absolutely cannot wait for part II!

Short and to the point, this book examines the prominence of chess throughout history, especially in medieval times. Interestingly, the pieces and the moves ascribed to them have undergone a myriad of changes throughout history. I think this book will appeal to fans of 2020's breakout TV hit “The Queen's Gambit“.

Can anyone recommend any other good chess books?

Happy New Year!

#NewYear #Chess #QueensGambit #QueenMe

Let me take you back to the year 2000, I just got my first real computer and I am playing one of my first PC games on that computer. The game is Civilization II, an extremely fun turn based strategy game where you control armies, develop technology and build world wonders in an attempt to win the game. I was hooked.

If you wonder what goes into designing such a game, this memoir will be a treat. It‘s a wild fast ride through game design!

As far as mystery/thriller novels go, this one was decent. It doesn‘t fall into the trap of too obviously and frustratingly withholding information (I‘m looking at you Woman In The Window). That said, the characters and settings are still relatively one dimensional.

I think if you are a fan of the genre you will probably be satisfied with this book.

I had never heard of Alice Marble, who was the best women‘s tennis player in the pre-Open era (~1930s and 1940s) until reading this excellently written biography.

The book encompasses her origins in tennis, her development and success a tennis player, and follows her through to her old age. It even touches on the many mysteries surrounding her involvement as an allied spy in WWII.

A fun tidbit was that she regularly visited Hearst Castle.

As I show you two of my current reads, I want to tell you about my brainwave to get me using Litsy more.

If you check my bio, I have the page or percentage counts listed for my reading progress. Hopefully, this will get me using the app more.

And if you‘re ever up for some book related chat, I‘ve also added my Discord ID to my profile bio.

I hope everyone is staying healthy this September and I can‘t wait to see what everyone is reading!

Hey Litsy! It‘s been a while since I posted, but I‘m back and more ready then ever to keep telling you all about my awesome reads!

This Friday evening finds me continuing The Witcher novel series with book 4! It continues to be a pleasing series. Bonus points if you can guess what I‘m drinking while reading! (Hint it is unfortunately a very topical tropical beverage)

In other news, I‘m now a resident of Vancouver! Where my fellow BC littens at?

Well, I‘ve just finished Becoming Leonardo: An Exploded View of the Life of Leonardo Da Vinci by Mike Lankford. It was a great overview of Da Vinici‘s life, with some creative leaps to fill in the blanks (e.g what he could have been feeling at a certain time, etc.). It‘s an amazing book because it reads at a fast pace and dispels many of the myths we have as a society about Leonardo! Highly recommended!

This is the second novel by Wolitzer that I have read. When I purchased this book from a local used bookstore in pre-pandemic times, I had no idea that it was a young adult novel!

It is about a teenage girl who goes to a boarding school in Vermont for “fragile” youths where she takes a life changing class called “Special Topics in English” which, along with her fellow classmates, is life changing.

I will definitely be reading more Wolitzer!

I don‘t know who else is keeping on during the pandemic by playing Scrabble GO, my latest addiction, but if you are looking for more games feel free to start one with me! https://s.scope.ly/_gNMtw

I‘m so thrilled to read that a previously unpublished Simone de Beauvoir novel titled “The Inseparables” will be printed in French later this year and published in English in North America by fall 2021. It‘s based on an influential friendship she had as a child. Anyone else excited for what‘s sure to be a literary event? https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/books/coming-soon-new-fiction-from-simone-de-...

I'm happy to see US indie bookstores stay strong during the pandemic by boosting their online sales! As for myself, I bought a copy of Conversations With Friends by Sally Rooney from the Canadian chain Indigo. It was seamless with the book shipping from my local store. More on indie sales in the US here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/24/little-book-sellers-that-coul...

I just finished the work of art that is this literary fiction novel.

It follows 41 year old Toby Fleishman who is recently separated from his wife Rachel and is learning his way around contemporary dating apps while trying to raise his two kids abandoned by Rachel at his apartment. Rachel disappears and Toby must hold his life together. Expect many pithy observations on life.

Reminiscent of Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff. Must read!

“She always thought divorce would come from hate, but her anger was never based in hate. It was based in disappointment that someone she loved misunderstood her so deeply.”

Hey all! Just realized I‘m at 20,000 Litfluence!

Thank you so much for making this community amazing! I‘ve learned about so many great books from all of you. Here‘s to the next 10,000 🍻

Well, I‘ve been convinced to hop on The Witcher bandwagon. While I‘ve only seen about 15 minutes of the first episode on Netflix and I‘m not interested in committing to watch more of the TV series, I am somehow already on book 3 of the novel series.

Has anyone else made their start of 2020 all about The Witcher? I know Yennefer was a fan favourite in the TV show, she‘s one of my favourites in the novels 🔥. Also, the books are well translated!

Hey, Litsy! My first post of 2020 and I‘m already on my 3rd book. I came across the very relatable quote above while reading “Blood of Elves”, the first full novel of “The Witcher” series!

I can definitely relate to this quote from 1Q84. Do you ever think about something so much that you get to a point where you can‘t bear the thought of talking about it with someone else?

I‘m resuming my marathon read of 1Q84. Like the other novels I‘ve read by Murakami, there are many common themes including a dreamlike atmosphere and discussion on reality vs. dreams themselves.

I‘m about 350 pages in, only about 700 more pages to go!

Wow, Saturday is off to a great start! I‘ve ended my book-finishing drought (I‘m in the middle of about four books) with Margaret Atwood‘s new novel, The Testaments.

Full disclosure, it has been over ten years since I‘ve read The Handmaid‘s Tale, but I am a huge fan of the TV series.

This book picks up many years after the events of the first book and gives satisfying insight into the struggle to takedown Gilead.

“It was a double execution: two men literally torn

apart by a mob of frenzied women. There was

screaming, there was kicking, there was biting, there

was blood everywhere, on the Handmaids especially:

they were covered in it.”

While I may have had the disappointing experience of needing to return a book I was reading to my university library, I am lucky to have also borrowed Margaret Atwood‘s sequel to The Handmaid‘s Tale!

I was a huge fan of the first book and the TV series, so I am very excited to see how Atwood develops the world and ideas in The Testaments!

#SaturdayReads #Libraries

A tragedy! I had to return Fashionopolis before I could finish it. Even tried self returning it and checking it out again to see if that could override the hold 😈 (unfortunately, it didn‘t work).

However, I turned right back around and placed another hold on the book, so hopefully in a week‘s time it will be mine again.

I‘m putting this here so I remember I was on page 178!

#librarywoes #holds #returns

It doesn‘t get much more university than sitting in a university lab waiting for a time point while reading Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes that you borrowed from the university library in less than a week because someone else has a hold on it...maybe if I was wearing a blazer with the university logo.

Hi Everyone! I can‘t believe it has been a month since I last posted! I need some sort of buddy system to keep me going!

I‘m reading 1Q84 by the legendary Haruki Murakami now! I started reading it on eBook from Libby, but my friends from the lab were teasing me about the joys of paper, so I capitulated and bought the trade version.

Sometimes you just miss holding a real book, you know?

Anyways, I hope I can be more active on Litsy!

Hello after two weeks, Litsy!

This collection of reflections on feminism in 2019 is near perfection. Tolentino is an extremely talented writer who takes on everything from narrowly envisioned female protagonists to the way women (and all people, really) are prescribed (by “society”/instagram) an “optimized”, free version of themselves which is anything but.

Lots to mull over in this book, so if you‘ve read it let me know!

This book on casual internet language (think abbreviations, emojis, and strange punctuation) is an interesting linguistic history by Gretchen McCulloch.

As someone who would be categorized as “Full Internet” based on her classifications in the book, I still learned a lot about how internet language developed in the past and continues to evolve today. E.g. Did you know there are widely accepted *sarcasm* punctuation marks used on Tumblr?

1. Too much abuse of power as it starts with a 50 year old prof who forces himself onto an undergrad and gets in trouble for it. I think we‘re supposed to be sympathetic with his plight? 🤢🤷‍♂️ Still, hard to believe it was Nobel worthy in 2003.
2. Bojack Horseman (and yet it‘s also so sad ☹️)
3. Toast with Peanut Butter (Mr. Peanut butter anyone? 🐶)
4. Eastern
5. Blue Stripe Internet

#FriYayIntro

What if you were obsessed with something that you were only middlingly good at?

All The Wrong moves explores Sasha Chapin‘s extreme obsession with chess and his attempts to drastically improve his game to beat a player with a rating of 2000. His journey starts in Thailand and takes him back home to Toronto, then to St. Louis, India and LA. If you like chess at all or want to read a metaphor for your ultimate hobby you will enjoy this book!

”Chess demands the sole ownership of a bunch of brain cells that the post-adolescent mind may have already devoted to the ability to navigate a grocery store lineup without screaming”

This is too relatable! Does this mean I‘ll play better chess on days when I feel like I can‘t handle being at a grocery store? 🙋‍♂️Anyone hate unnecessarily long grocery store line ups as much as me?

Double Fault by Lionel Shriver was a wild ride. A searing look into the complexities of married life in the context of pursuing one's dream career. Wilhemina (Willy) and Eric are two aspiring professional tennis players battling their way through the WTA and ATP circuits, but when Eric's innate talent well surpasses Willy's, Willy is unsure whether her marriage to Eric is to blame. I loved this novel and will read more Shriver in the future!

Ho hum...a quiet Friday night. Is it wrong that I‘m drinking coffee while reading this amazing novel so late at night?

My latest #bookhaul are books that I heard about in unusual ways. All The Wrong Moves, a chess memoir, kept showing up on my instagram ads (targeted ads McClelland & Stewart?). Someone Who Will Love You is by the creator of Bojack Horseman (why does it feel so good to watch something so existentially depressing?). I heard an author interview for Because Internet on the Book Riot main podcast (maybe I‘ll finally understand early 20-somethings).

A couple weeks ago I finished The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, which came highly recommended to me from a former classmate in my graduate program. This book has a reputation for being at the same time philosophical and pretentious. I have to say, the womanizing main character Tomas and his acquiescing wife Teresa were immensely frustrating. However, there were interesting scenes of life in communist Czechoslovakia.

Where has Jeffrey Eugenides been all my life? I just finished reading The Marriage Plot, which is much much better than the name suggests. It follows the lives of three individuals, an English major, a Religious Studies major and a Biology major after they finish undergrad at Brown. I would say the writing style is very reminiscent of Meg Wolitzer or Lauren Groff. This is the perfect type of literary fiction I was craving this summer!