“No postcards from the Alhambra.” In Germany and did not expect this shout out to a landmark for the #BackpackEurope challenge!

Just back from Culebra, off the coast of Puerto Rico. It was hit hard by Maria, but is still a beautiful island that‘s rebuilding, and going there means going off the grid a bit.

But in my mind I was also on the Côte d‘Azur with Sybille Bedford, who was German born and begins the story in Germany. This is the third book I‘ve read by her and the best one so far.

And Culebra has Cigar City beer, which the coolest FL ppl drink. #backpackEurope

Belgian chocolate chip cookies and a Belgian novel/memoir make for a slightly odd combination for a flight to Puerto Rico, but hey, it‘s vacation, go wild.

And what a great book! It reminded me of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn with a strong but flawed Catholic family and a kid coming of age in the early 20th century — even if I still love A Tree Grows in Brooklyn more. #backpackEurope

“Unfortunately I don‘t have enough money for a regular supper. But how about a glass of rose and a slice of pizza? Come, sit with me.”

This was a great read — and so important now to read, about the day to day life of someone just trying to get by and move on to a new country to escape death and make a better life.

And it made me seriously crave rose and pizza. #backpackEurope

“And what if some of these poor souls, still bleeding physically and spiritually, had fled to this house, what harm could it do to a giant nation if a few of these saved souls, worthy, half-worthy, or unworthy, were to join them in their country — how could it possibly harm such a big country?”

Thoughts from 1940 Marseille over cider in 2018 DC. #backpackEurope

Been working a lot from the couch, which means I can put on tv, but work needing to be done kind of interferes with being able to watch subtitles. So I put on a wish fulfillment movie set in the south of France instead—“To Catch a Thief.” It probably wouldn‘t make Avignon, but I can dream. #backpackEurope

Fell ill and lost my passport (phone) this past week, so I stayed in England longer than expected. But I‘ve reached the coast at Brighton, where I took this pic 13 years ago of Brighton Pavilion, built by George IV.

Speaking of egoists and the 19th century, this book isn‘t my first choice for a 19c novel—it meandered and the end was meh. But it had amazing quotes. Wish I could work “It was a naughty Court” into my legal briefs! #backpackEurope

“[Y]oung women are trained to cowardice. For them to front an evil with plain speech is to be guilty of effrontery and forfeit the waxen polish of purity, and therewith their commanding place in the market. They are trained to please men‘s taste, for which purpose they soon learn to live out of themselves, and look on themselves, almost as little disturbed as he by the undiscovered.”

Meredith=feminist? All I know is I love no-work Sunday reading.

My husband makes us St. Germain‘s with the watermelon we bought from the local truck stand off Rhode Island NE last night. Lucky me, indeed.

I have no idea whether Tolkien ever went to the Henley Regatta, but I‘ll drink enough Pimm‘s to pretend he did. #backpackEurope

“[L]ove is an affair of two, and is only for two that can be as quick, as constant in intercommunication as are sun and earth, through the cloud or face to face. They take their breath of life from one another in signs of affection, proofs of faithfulness, incentives to admiration.”

Loving this book, and an English ale (the World Cup Special) at the Public Option. If you‘re in DC, please check this bar out. #backpackEurope

“Strange eclipse, when the hue of truth comes shadowing over our bright ideal planet. It will not seem the planet‘s fault, but truth‘s. Reality is the offender; delusion our treasure that we are robbed of. Then begins with us the term of wilful delusion, and its necessary accompaniment of the disgust of reality; exhausting the heart much more than patient endurance of starvation.”

7/4 in DC=heat+delusion. Good to be in England? #backpackEurope

And the best travel companions keep on coming. Anthony Bourdain is here with “The Layover” in London. #backpackEurope

“Summer in the large American cities is an evil thing. It is negative, relentless and dead . . . . In spirit and in fact, in architecture and habits, the eastern seaboard of the United States remains harshly northern, a cold country scourged by heat.”

Nevertheless, we persisted, and protested.

And then I found air conditioning and read an amazing book about America-Mexico travels, sans walls, by a woman who immigrated here to escape fascism.

Catching a redeye from DC, the city with the most and worst egoists, to Heathrow with “The Egoist.” Hectic schedule between work and just getting back from an amazing journey to Mexico with Sybille Bedford. I may run into her again while I‘m in Europe, though. #backpackEurope

And I‘m taking the couch with me. It‘s way more comfortable than coach.

I own a poster for the Jimmy Stewart film The FBI Story, which gets a shout out in this book. The film‘s mostly FBI propaganda, but anyone who struggled with following this book should watch it. Nothing like a Jimmy Stewart voiceover to help you remember names!

I‘m so glad this book exists. As nonfiction goes, the writing is decent, and it showed me there was so much more tragedy to the story of the Osage murders than what I‘d seen in the film.

Okay, nobody freak out, but this is from a scene where the protagonist is sitting inside Notre Dame. Which means I‘m pretty sure Henry James inspired that song “God Help the Outcasts” in the Disney version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Just like I‘m also pretty sure that spending my Saturday morning posting this is a sign I need to get out more.

Taken from a ferry from Europe (Eceabat) to Asia (Canakkale)

Wine, halloumi, and a good book on the last (rainy) day in Istanbul.

Reading and coffee at Massolit Cafe in Budapest.

“A book is a lovely thing, a garden stocked with beautiful flowers, a magic carpet on which to fly away to unknown climes.”

Henry James was awesome. He wrote The Portrait of a Lady, which is one of my favorite books. He possessed an amazing vocabulary, and fun fact, also dropped out of Harvard Law School. And I didn‘t think I was capable of loving him more until I read this sentence.

Recuperating from the cold from hell with Drake cuddles and 19th century tales of a melancholy middle-aged American dude in Paris. #catsoflitsy

“Oh we‘re not loved. We‘re not even hated. We‘re only just sweetly ignored.”

I get super emo when I‘m sick. I like to think Henry James would approve.

Another weekend of work. :-/ But for people spending theirs making lists for their reading challenges, all of these look fantastic. Via the amazing ladies at Go Fug Yourself: https://electricliterature.com/46-books-by-women-of-color-to-read-in-2018-70a0bf....

Ever have a day or event where it feels like this describes most conversations you had with people?

"But he didn't, it happened, know the Munsters well enough to give the case much of a lift; so that they were left together as if over the mere laid table of conversation. Her qualification of the mentioned connexion had rather removed than placed a dish, and there seemed nothing else to serve."

And my last review for 2017: The Wolves of Willoughby Chase was one of my favorite books as a kid. I had no idea this one existed until I found it in a used bookstore. There's even a character from "Wolves" who makes a reappearance! It's cheesy but a fun read. See everyone in 2018. #litsyatoz

Yes, I KNOW this book is about World War I, even though I have juxtaposed it with a scene from a movie about Nazis. Don't we all go crazy on New Year's Eve? #litsyatoz

Russian novels are best served when it's 20 degrees and cloudy outside and your cat's keeping you company.

For how much ink Conrad spills in this novel dismissing feminism as an intellectual movement, it's weird that his female characters are at least as interesting as his male protagonist, if not more so. Which I'm not sure is saying much, because Razumov's kind of tiring, but still. #litsyatoz #catsoflitsy

This is the second Megan Abbott novel I've read after Fever. They're both like watching Lifetime movies, which is to say, they're awesome to read. But question: Is the culprit ALWAYS the teenage girl? Because I'm still down to read her books; they're just going to be awfully predictable. #litsyatoz

If I couldn't with deliberately mangled English in "Clockwork Orange," there was no way I was going to find it appealing here. But I wanted to read more novels about immigrants...and ok, fine, also to get an "X" for the #litsyatoz challenge. It was December and there was no time to find another one, ok?!

That said, I rolled my eyes at the overwrought prose, but it's a debut novel, and she tackles tough stuff. Want to read more from this author.

In fairness, trying to read this during a period when I was on work trips from 6am - midnight and working every weekend was not the best timing. But I generally love a good long novel with a large cast of characters, and yet for the life of me I couldn't follow or care about any of the characters. #litsyatoz Maybe I'll reread it one day in a better frame of mind.

Mason's pick for the year. I didn't love any of the characters, but it was fun to read as a political satire. I'd definitely recommend the NYRB version with the introduction. If you're like me and don't remember what was going on in Russia at the time from high school world history, the intro does a fantastic job of putting it in context and explaining how prescient Turgenev was in writing this. #litsyatoz #catsoflitsy

Adventure and horror in scary foreign lands all around! This was gloriously melodramatic. You know the books the March sisters playact and the stories Jo writes in Little Women? This had to have been one of the books Alcott had in mind (I said, with zero authority to back that up). #litsyatoz

One of my favorite books that I read all year, and also one of the hardest to read. Reading it's like listening to your Trump voting relatives, except instead the characters are Germans in the 1930s. I would take this novel as a depiction of humanity's capacity to rationalize evil over any dystopian novel I've ever read. #litsyatoz

It's no Austen, Eliot, or Gaskell novel, but it's still really funny. Lucilla Marjoribanks is large, bossy, and loves to be the center of attention....much like Mason here. We are both big fans. #litsyatoz #catsoflitsy

This was the perfect read right after The Four Feathers, which included great sentences like "Women were given to a hinting modesty of speech, at all events the best of them." I was surprised that parts of it reminded me of the late Florence King. King was conservative, but her best work heaped scorn on the Right's anti-sex panic and misogyny and was frank about her own active sex life. Drinks with both West and King would be amazing. #litsyatoz

Snapped in Carpe Librum, an independent bookstore at 17th and L NW that closed last week because a new building is going up. Hoping it can reopen elsewhere in DC!

I want to watch the movie because I suspect it works well as a period piece. But as a book I couldn't get into it. Sentences like this didn't help: "Women were given to a hinting modesty of speech, at all events the best of them."

.......

I'll risk some immodesty, then, and just say: This book alternated between being annoying and downright painful to read. #litsyatoz.

(Read it on my phone, so am just tagging the cats instead! #catsoflitsy)

The last half of 2017: bench trial, depositions, investigations, hearing prep, first appellate oral argument, not much time for social media. Thankful for an amazing first year at a new firm AND for time in December to finish the #LitsyAtoZ challenge. (And Mason and I are both thankful for a new couch for the reading nook!)

After a busy summer, I was thrilled to get a weekend poolside with a book, at my parents' house in St. Louis, with my 5 siblings. Don't worry -- it only looks like the sibs are drowning.

I struggled to finish this one, but glad I finished. There were "yikes, I'm pretty sure that's textbook Orientalism" passages. And other parts where Kipling actually seems to be openly mocking British colonialism more than I'd expected. And still other stretches where I was honestly just falling asleep. It's just the risk you run with some late 19th/early 20th century novels. Not my favorite but glad I stuck it out. #litsyatoz #bookishmarginalia

The books are coming for me and that's awesome. #IstanbulModern

Still recovering from jet lag and need coffee. Fortunately, I'm in Istanbul.

#LawyerofLitsy

"Jesus cried out help to God but God gave no help. There was a man crying out in anguish in the dark, but God was on the other side of the mountain...What was there to hear that he hadn't heard before?...The fixer wiped his eyes. Afterwards he thought if that's how it happened and it's part of the Christian religion, and they believe it, how can they keep me in prison, knowing I am innocent?"

"There are no wrong books. What's wrong is the fear of them."

I was 90 percent sure "the United States of Spinning" was never a real thing. But Drake and I did have to Google it, just to be safe.

And the eye rolls continue: "In New York, you could live years without running into someone you knew, but DC was different. It was smaller...Sometimes it didn't feel like a real city at all." The author is just plagiarizing YouTube videos at this point (45 second mark): https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FuPwy77scvw.