A frank look at life right after WWII in an English village as returning forces and civilian population adjust to life after wartime. Some manage the transition better than others.

It reminded me a little of South Riding by Winifred Holtby (though much shorter) in its intimate look at a large cast of characters ranging across class in a specific location, in this case the village of Kirton.

#FurrowedMiddlebrowClub

#WondrousWednesday

Thanks for the tag @Klou ! 😊

βœ… Favorite Season: Spring
βœ… Favorite Reading Snack: Anything provided the book is conducive to snacking (ie not gross)
βœ… Favorite Color: Red
βœ… Favorite Flower: Hydrangea
βœ… Favorite Book Setting: An English Village where a murder took place
βœ… Favorite Beverage: Coffee
βœ… Favorite Game: Trivial Pursuit
βœ… Current Read: Wine of Honor for #FurrowedMiddlebrowClub

A little #Litsyhumor from today‘s Bizzaro comic. 🀣

I think this is from you @Avanders !?!? For your 100k give away? Thank you so much! 😊 This was such a happy surprise on my porch this afternoon! πŸ˜ƒ I‘m looking forward to starting this series. I‘ve heard awesome things.

This is roughly my order of preference for the #ToB2023 shortlist. Tomorrow it could change… The McCarthy utterly surprised me as did Manhunter. Maali Almeida annoyed me actively while reading but has grown in my memory. Most disappointing was the Mara because I loved the Tsar of Love and Techno so much.

🀯What did I just read? This is (I think) simultaneously four alternate version of what happens after a volcano bizarrely appears in Central Park NYC. I know I didn‘t keep it all straight. But I enjoyed the journey. The back of the book says β€œpart parable, myth, science fiction, and eco-horror”. Yes, yes, yes. And more.

And with that I am an official #ToB2023 completist! πŸ₯³

From what I gleaned prior to reading this debut about a Black teen in Oakland who resorts to sex work in order to survive, I had a hunch it wouldn‘t be for me & I was right!The writing was too belabored for my tastes & comprehension;the plotting too thick with trauma after trauma. No doubt the author has a stellar career ahead of her, but I doubt I‘d even love a more mature effort…but never say never! I‘ve been surprised before. πŸ˜ƒ
#ToB2023

Hey #FurrowedMiddlebrowClub reading friends! It‘s time to read our bimonthly pick for March 2023. As per usual, read and post as you go and we‘ll aim to be finished by the middle of the month, but no worries if you take longer. 😊

All are welcome to join in! If you want to be tagged, let us know. πŸ˜„

#MarchMadness I have two #ToB2023 books left, one #GoldenAgeCrimeClub and one #FurrowedMiddlebrowClub planned reads. I can‘t remember why I wanted to read the C. S. Lewis, but here goes…

@Megabooks was right. At about 50% it got compelling. It‘s bookish Stockholm Syndrome. So I am giving it a pick, even though it has no plot, the tangents are indulgent (Kennedy assassination, Vietnam war, math and physics blah blah blah) and Bobby is a Gary Stu paragon of wounded masculinity, ascetically brooding over the lost love of his life, his dead sister. But it was so well written, even though I have no clue what it means. 🀯
#ToB2023

Heartbreakingly sad but exquisitely written. Samuel has been the lighthouse-keeper on an island off the coast of an unnamed African country for decades. His only contact with the mainland is a bi-weekly supply boat. When a strange man washes up on the island one day, Samuel‘s self-enforced solitude is upended, with tragic consequences. Meanwhile, we get Samuel‘s backstory and what brought him to his isolation.
#ToB2023

1. I‘m going to say Murder at the Vicarage. And to cure the hangover, I applied a little hair of the dog and read two more Agatha Christie novels in quick succession! πŸ˜†

2. I go by feeling. I‘m not particularly methodical or analytical about them. πŸ™ƒ

3. No. I could when younger, but now I prefer quiet when reading (or concentrating on anything really-how did I ever do homework as a teen?) πŸ˜‚

#WondrousWednesday Thanks for the tag @Eggs 😊

I really liked this story of an intense friendship between two girls in France just after WWII. Their relationship is almost symbiotic. However, when circumstances do separate them, they can never be friends again as they once were. The spell is broken, which happens to many young people as they move from adolescence to adulthood. I understand the comparison to My Brilliant Friend, but think this is actually quite different. #ToB2023

I enjoyed this summary of what a modern time traveler might expect if visiting the UK during the Regency period. It reminded me a little of those old Let‘s Go travel guides I used in the 1980s in its tone and structure. It‘ll come in handy not only when re-reading Austen, but also as I read the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O‘Brian.

Many thanks to @StayCurious for leading the #pemberlittens through this fascinating journey. 😊

I weirdly enjoyed this ballsy (pun intended) story of apocalypse when most humans with a penis become infected with a virus which turns them into monsters. Into the power vacuum steps the Matriarchy with a militarized subgroup of TERFs who hunt not only the monsters but also trans women. Both the sex scenes and the fight scenes are lurid and gross. But I found the story underneath engaging and I admire the author‘s fearlessness. #ToB2023

Thanks for the tag @Eggs ! #WondrousWednesday

🌹1. Martha Wells. She seems to be down to earth and I like her sense of humor.

🌹2. I just finished Manhunt by Gretchen Felder-Martin.

🌹3. Splattercore anti-TERF apocalypse.

Thanks for the tag @Bklover !

πŸ¦‹1. Agatha Christie! I‘ve read 46 of her 60 odd titles.

πŸ¦‹2. I have a comfy yet falling apart armchair with a reading light and table where I read the most/best.

πŸ¦‹3. I do participate, though I often fail in my goals. I like them because they help me keep a record on Litsy of my reading life.

#WondrousWednesday

I don‘t get it. I guess the author wanted complacent Americans to feel what might make an American abandon all they know, most of what they own and make a new start somewhere where they don‘t know the language, the culture, etc. and where their legal status is precarious or even nonexistent. Didn‘t work for me. The book was both too obvious and too vague (we‘re never told what country the protagonist is in or what happened in the US.)
#ToB2023

Millet is never going to be my favorite writer, but I found this to be a deft story with just enough undercurrent to make me dig for meaning. How difficult is it to be compassionate in our world and specifically in current American culture? Gil is rich and privileged. Even he, the top of the food chain, so to speak, is powerless in the face of modern societal and environmental challenges. How much is enough? #ToB2023

I‘m a little late in kicking off the #FabulousFebruary choose your own goals readathon. πŸ™Š

Yes, the book is a tad too long and the very end a little hokey, but I really liked it despite it being a very melancholy story about a family overwhelmed by grief due to the death of a child/sibling and a coming of age story under that cloud. Once I got past the death, I was hooked by Sally‘s monologue to her dead sister. It‘s also funny from time to time, despite the grieving. Sally has a deadpan sense of humor that jives with my own. #ToB2023

The inaugural read for the #GoldenAgeCrimeClub inspired me to reread more Christie. I really enjoyed this whodunnit. Miss Marple has to enlist the help of the remarkable Lucy Eyelesbarrow in her investigation. It all starts when Mrs. McGillicuddy witnesses a murder on a passing train.

I‘m using this for #pop23 (text only on cover) AND I thought I‘d tag along with @CBee β€˜s #TBRTarot and use this for the January promt β€œStarts with a number”.

Another soft pick. I had a hard time looking at this fantasy novel as an alternative history since it seemed to me that 90% of it was just plain history and it happened without any magic required. And as others have noted, it‘s very heavy handed in its message. The concept of translation/silver magic was neat, however. The end, while not surprising, was still quite emotionally wringing and Kuang really made me care about the characters. #ToB2023

I still like The Glass Hotel best, but this was a very smooth and satisfying experience, with some crossover to TGH. This book is about time travel, compassion, and humanity. Why humans are even here and where is β€œhere”? It‘s all a bit trippy and circular. Also fun is the portrayal of author Olive Llewellen, certainly a stand in for Mandel.

I also like the thought expressed here, β€œA life lived in a simulation is still a life”.

#ToB2023

Congratulations on reaching 20,000 @BennettBookworm and thank you so much for this opportunity #20kGiveaway !

The closest store to me is a Barnes and Noble, but probably the coolest store nearish to me that I‘ve visited a few times is the pictured The Last Bookstore located in downtown Los Angeles in the Spring Arts Tower at 5th & Spring. It‘s 20k sq ft of new and used books. Be sure to go to the top floor for the $1 bargains!

I think it could have been 3 or 4 moons instead of 7 and none the worse. Maali is a supposedly apolitical photographer in late 20th century Sri Lanka who narrates the story from the afterlife. He documented some of the worst atrocities of the civil war. Is that what got him killed? Maybe I, like Maali, became numbed by endless brutality presented, but I found this Booker winner too long, too repetitive and occasionally ponderous. #ToB2023

This is my rather shabby copy of the Christie classic that I‘m reading for the January pick of the #GoldenAgeCrimeClub hosted by @Mitch at the end of this month. I‘m also listening to it on Hoopla when possible, as read by Richard E. Grant, who is an excellent narrator!

A soft pick. I can see why people love it. The first half was great, but I felt a little impatient during the second half. I agree with others that one doesn‘t need to be familiar with gaming to enjoy it.

Sadie and Sam bond over Donkey Kong as children and go on to develop their own games later, to great success as business partners but at the risk of ruining their friendship.

#ToB2023 #JoyousJanuary

Only one day and then the week long #JoyousJanuary readathon starts! My goals are to finish my current #ToB2023 book, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and this month‘s #GoldenAgeCrimeClub pick, Murder at the Vicarage AND start (and possibly also finish) Sea of Tranquility, also for the TOB. Looking forward to ticking these off the TBR and seeing what everyone else is reading! πŸ˜€

Thanks for the tag @Bklover ! 😊

1. My favorite band in high school was definitely The Who, even though their heyday was behind them at that point. My favorite solo artist was Kate Bush.

2. Preppie dress was popular in the early‘80s. I had a pair of loafers. I couldn‘t afford Lacoste so I wore a Britannica polo shirt.

#WondrousWednesday

Thanks for the tag @TheSpineView ! πŸ‘

1. I don‘t know if I have a favorite female literary character, but Pippi Longstocking came to mind. She can do anything!

2. Apparently Stieg Larsson imagined Lisbeth Salander as a modern, grown up Pippi. I‘d like to transport Pippi into Villette as Lucy Snowe‘s childhood friend. She‘d certainly change the trajectory of that novel. πŸ˜‚

#Two4Tuesday

For your consideration voting members of the #FurrowedMiddlebrowClub :

πŸ“šI figure we might be ready for more fairy tale romance ten months from now from Streatfeild and I love anything set in a department store!

πŸ“š However, I‘m also a sucker for bringing a house back to life story and the Italian seaside might be lovely for those readers approaching the winter season.

The choice is yours! 😊 Voting is open till next week Friday.

This was a sweet fairy tale of a story set in the world of of 1930s English fashion; a world which the author knew something about, having been a model herself.

I would love to read a sequel featuring Lorna and her years at Mallory Towers! πŸ˜‚ I know she was pretty awful, but I was also a mouthy, bad attitude kid (minus the shoplifting) and I have a soft spot for her and her ilk.

#FurrowedMiddlebrowClub

A very soft pick for me. Clearly this was well researched, but it never felt real; rather factoids strung together to make an overstuffed novel. OTOH, it felt like a labor of love and that love for each character and their story shone in virtually every sentence. Also, my expectations were very high, maybe too high. Set in Italy and Hollywood during WWII, the book can be summarized by quoting Hamilton, β€œImmigrants (we get the job done!)” #Tob2023

I think I will become a Whitehead completist. I don‘t think there‘s any genre he can‘t write. This was a melancholy and nostalgic coming of age story from a perspective not well represented in novels on my experience: the Black middle class. At 15, Benji is finally one of the cool kids in the NY community where his family has been vacationing for generations. This was beautifully evocative of the awkward transition of adolescence.

#12BooksOf2022

This was my third Discworld novel and it cemented my love for Pratchett. This one works well as a stand alone. In it, con man Moist von Lipwig is saved from hanging by Lord Ventenari and subjected to an even worse punishment: he is tasked with bringing the moribund Ankh-Morpork post office back to life. Throw in Golem‘s rights, a little romance, and a lot of humor and voila! Pratchett deftly skewers corporate greed and much more.

#12Booksof2022

Thanks for the tag @Bklover ! ☺️

1. I don‘t decorate for the holidays, but I do decorate for my parents and we are quite conservative: Christmas decorations may be up up only after Thanksgiving and must be down by New Year‘s. 🧐

2. I would prefer rain. Something about listening to the patter of raindrops is soothing.

#Two4Tuesday

My first Toews novel but for sure not the last. I read this in two days. Swiv is nine years old and has been suspended for fighting. The book is framed as a letter to Swiv‘s absent father but it‘s really a funny and moving account of Swiv‘s relationships with her crazy yet full of life grandma and her confrontational, pregnant mother. Can‘t wait to read more from this author!

#12Booksof2022

I very much enjoyed this first mystery featuring the private detective Kosuke Kindaichi and which was only recently translated into English. The solution was fine, but what I particularly liked was the set up of the characters and intricate plot and learning a little bit about historical and post WWII Japan. A locked room mystery, newlyweds are found murdered the morning after their wedding. Suicide? But why and how?

#12Booksof2022

Happy birthday month @wanderinglynn and congratulations on reaching 300k Litfluence! πŸ₯³πŸ₯³πŸ₯³ Thanks for this generous giveaway opportunity. πŸ™ I‘ve tagged a book from the never ending TBR that I‘d love to receive.

#300KBirthdayGiveaway

Happy New Year #FurrowedMiddlebrowClub ! Our first bi-monthly read for 2023 is Clothes Pegs by Susan Scarlett aka Noel Streatfeild. I hope you all will join in and post your thoughts as you go, with the goal of finishing by mid month.

Any other Littens interested in reading along in the future, please let me know. All are welcome. πŸ˜ƒ And if anyone wants to opt out this time β€˜round, that‘s no problem. We‘ll catch you again in March. πŸ‘

This was an impressive debut novel. Creepy and just the right amount of head scratching WTF moments. This is a book where the past and present collide In Vietnam when a young Vietnamese American woman moves to Saigon and stirs up some ghosts.

#12Booksof2022

This was a re-read for me in July 2022 with the #PemberLittens and I fell in love with Pym and her subtle wit all over again. I do believe this book is actually perfect. 😍

#12Booksof2022

Completed this bookish puzzle while listening to podcasts and the tagged book. I sure wish I didn‘t have to go back to work next week! 😬

This second book in the Aubrey-Maturin series was a favorite in June 2022. They are great action/adventure that I didn‘t initially think I‘d enjoy, but it turns out I do! πŸ˜…

I need to add the third book to my #SeriesLove2023 list!

#12Booksof2022

I may end up changing my mind since there‘s a few other series I am working my way through and I also might start a few new ones next year! πŸ˜‚ However, these six are the first which came to mind for the #SeriesRead2023

One of the best books I read in May 2022 and an excellent reminder to read more nonfiction! This account of the IRA and the conflict in Northern Ireland and its delicate peace process was interesting and educational.

12Bookof2022

I suspect the thriller The Wife between Us will be the last book I complete in 2022 and for my first book of 2023 I‘m picking the #tob2023 shortlisted title Mercury Pictures Presents. Many thanks Kristen for this opportunity! πŸ™

#LastFirst

Thanks for the tag @MoonWitch94 ! πŸ˜ƒ

1. This is a picture of a stack of books I bought yesterday with a visiting friend. We went used books shopping. πŸ“š

2. No plans for New Year‘s Eve or day other than relaxing and reading (and freaking out about having to go back to work 😭).

Definitely one of my favorites from the books I read in April 2022. I was really pleased with this re-entry into the Realm of the Elderlings and hope definitely to continue in 2023 as part of the #SeriesLove2023.

#12BooksofChristmas