Welcome to Litsy!

When I started this story about a Nigerian couple who had promised each other that neither believed in polygamy only to face fertility issues and pressure from their families after four years of marriage I really thought i knew how it would all play out. I could not have been more wrong as I was surprised time and time again by how events unfolded. I was swept away in the emotion and drama of it all, sitting on the edge of my seat the entire time.

This book is so raw, emotional and unexpected at the same time!

Picked this up again today for a little change of pace from another current read…AAAND this book is getting intense!

I liked the alternating chapter narrative and the insight however fictional, into 1980s Nigeria.
I found it hard to relate to the characters but also compelled to discover more.

Started this one and there's a real familiar ring to it... I'm pretty sure I haven't read it before though.

A masterpiece. Touching, true and full wisdom.

Really enjoyed this story about a marriage of a Nigerian couple, told by both points of view. Learned lots about Nigerian life and rituals and every so often a surprise pops up that you don‘t see coming. This one‘s worth your time.

Very intense and emotive book. I loved the way the book was written.

Incredibly well executed, Adebayo does an amazing job showing the pain and pressure that is placed on a Nigerian couple around the topic of children.
The pain and struggles Yejide and Akin go through along with their own private struggles were drawn so well that even I - an American who has firmly never wanted children - was strongly rooting for and feeling their losses.
The pacing & extra complexities to the story keep you drawn in.

When a young wife doesn‘t get pregnant, her mother-in-law forces a second wife into the marriage. This starts the narrative in which secrets are peeled back like an onion. In a culture where women‘s sole role is to bear babies, and the young wife wants to be independent (& the only wife) sad and disastrous things can happen. This is a dark book about sex and its dysfunction. #Nigeria #readingafrica2022

I‘m reading this ebook for #Nigeria #readingafrica2022 @Librarybelle @BarbaraBB

This one startled me. I wasn‘t ready at how honestly it would turn its eyes to these well known aches in marriages and everything it sits in counsel with. I wasn‘t ready for how much of the dialogue was familiar esp in the justification of harm as norms. I wasn‘t ready for just how much it was honest about just how hard life can get, over and over and over again…

4 ⭐️ Definitely a pick for me! Boundaries, betrayal, abandonment, seeecrets- all unfolding in an increasingly politically unstable Nigeria in the 1980s. This was very well written. I wouldn‘t say there were “plot twists”…more like revelations…and I didn‘t see then coming at all! 🫣

An interesting peek into Nigerian lives, family structures, struggles, and customs (set mostly in the 1980s). It chronicles a couple as they deal with cultural and personal pressures to succeed as a family.

Ebook on sale today. #Nigeria #readingafrica2022 @Librarybelle @BarbaraBB

I don't think it's a very well written book, but yet, the story is very gripping. The basic theme is motherhood, and the author has taken this subject in a quite unique manner … with changing perspective between wife and husband, with twists, and with slowly revealing the truth hidden behind all the pain.
#ReadingAfrica2022 #Nigeria
#Booked2022 #AuthorBornInAfrica
#19822022 #2017
#BookSpin

Interrupting The Remains Of The Day to read our book club pick...I‘m behind schedule. 😬
#bookspinbingo

This was really good and incredibly heartbreaking, I had to take a couple of breaks when I was reading it. It's going to stick with me for a long while. Would love to see more from this author.

Stanna hos mig är gripande och hjärtskärande men fylld av humor och värme samt en sällsam blandning av nya och gamla traditioner.

19/100, 4☆, Very good book about family dynamics, the war between tradition and progression, and the psychological effects of the journey to parenthood. There was so much anguish and despair told in such matter of fact ways, it felt completely relatable and yet out of reach. I loved the Nigerian background, the influence of political progression and downfalls told as an aside, while the personal dramas played the center focus.

Stay with me is a story about love, loss, grief, family, tradition, societal pressures , mental health and marriage. From the moment I started reading this book I didn‘t want to put it down, was done with it in less than 12 hours 😅. Her style of narration was really captivating, I mean even the plot twist had a plot twist!!😂😩 It‘s such a worthwhile read, left me emotionally wrecked lol . She really outdid herself with this one.

Wow the twists and turns in this book were just ... shocking. Well crafted story, I guarantee you won‘t be able to put it down!

#BookReport

Finished my advent reads, The Snow Sister and the Short Story Advent Calendar. I‘ve read Stay With Me.

Still reading Girl, Woman, Other #SheSaid and Anne of the Island #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead

I‘ve started my read of The Christmasaurus.

This book. I have no words. This book had my crying more than once.

A married couple has problem getting a child. And the extended families solution is for the husband to get a second wife. But this book is about so much more than that. Mostly about love.

#WeeklyForecast

In the upcoming week I plan on finish my advent calendars, The Snow Sister and the short stories, and I also hope to finish Stay with Me that I started today

I‘ll continue a chapter a day/ section of Anne of the Island and Girl, Woman, Other

If I have time I hope to start my reread of The Christmasaurus.

I also have an audio waiting for me at Libby, but it‘s due in a couple of days, and I‘m not sure I manage the stress again.

Not really the kind of book I‘d pick to read but since I already had it I decided to read it! I didn‘t hate but definitely didn‘t love it!!

This month‘s book club pick! I thought both characters were very tragic. Overall, it was well written with good characters, but I think it was just the wrong book at the wrong time for me. It felt very sad and depressing and repetitive. Just not what I was in the mood for.

*This was very well written.
*It introduced me to a culture I knew nothing about.
*It was very sad.

This was my final book for July and for #BookSpinBingo; my final count is 17 of the 25 and most of them were really good. Overall, a good reading month and I can't wait for next month's game! 😊

A beautifully written masterpiece. The telling of a tale whose main theme is something that most people don‘t speak about. Marriage is not easy, life is complicated, what is the limit to trying to solve the problems that one faces? I have so many questions still. I doubt they will ever be answered. I guess the beauty of it is that I will keep on discussing forever. Here is a book that will truly never finish saying what it has to say.

Managed to get one of my #MyTBR picks & had to order the other two. I ended up letting the kids get two books each since the big one was debating between Batman & George Takei. I figured Batman would win & I really want to read the Takei book. The little one took her books to her room before I could get a picture.

Couldn‘t put this one down; deception, desperation, love, family, and good intentions. I loved the way the story got deeper and more human as it went on, as you start to see psychology mingling with social pressures. And the ending was wonderful.

Stay With Me by Ayòbámi Adébáyò is set in Nigeria and tells the love story of a young couple who marry. It‘s modern day but Nigerian traditional practices like polygamy, ‘medicine‘ men and women are still available and used if life doesn‘t go as planned. This story flips between the husband and wife‘s perspective and as always, communication is key. Love makes us do crazy things. It‘s a beautiful, sometimes heartbreaking story

Matching my book to my snacks 🤣 Happy Mother‘s Day Littens ❤️😘

It‘s reading weather in Southern Ontario 😬

Heartbreaking! I cried three times at least. A story of motherhood and devastating miscommunication in late 80s Nigeria. I'm sorry that the book club meeting for this book is to be rescheduled due to social distancing, but I think we will have plenty to discuss when we do meet again.

this was supposed to be our #bookclub book to discuss on Monday. However, now that the library is closed, the book club meeting is indefinitely postponed. I'm still going to read it and I'm already enjoying it!

🍃🌿

Wow, so much heartbreak and sorrow in this book. Akin‘s family puts so much pressure on them to have children. It seems a different world with men having multiple wives. I could never share my husband. This book stressed me out, but I‘m glad I powered through to finish reading this.

#NewYearWhoDis #BlackHistoryMonth

From the first page I was hooked. Incredible storytelling told from both views of the wife and husband.
More times than one, I wanted to reach in and just hug Yejide.
Moving, hopeful, and utterly heartbreaking.

In between a pick and a so-so book, this book was really powerful with love and loss but difficult to read.

This is my first book of the year. It‘s taking forever because I have to keep taking emotional breaks. It‘s good, but it‘s sad. 😢

1. Audiobooks, ebooks, physical books
2. Library
3. See #1
4. See #2
5. Audio of Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo
#thursdaysurvey @laurenslibrary

Thank you @BookNAround !! The book, the chocolate, the bookmark are all perfect!! Happy #Jolabokaflod

👏

I stayed up until 1 am reading this last night, not realizing that this would make me so sleepy today that I can‘t concentrate on finishing it like I want to. Maybe a small nap... Gatsby‘s already on board with a brief snooze.

I can't even remember when a book made me feel the way this one does. By the end, you are both filled with emotion and emptied of it. I can't wait to see what this author comes up with next. I really would like to continue their story, but I don't know if we will or not. it's been a few days since I finished reading it, which I read it in one sitting by the way oh, it's that good, andI still can't get it out of my head.

Wow. I'm halfway through, and there have been at least two distinct twist that caught me completely off guard. Off guard to the point where I had to set the book down for a second and think. I can't wait for the rest!

At times heartbreaking, this story delves into so many themes: infertility, family drama, marriage drama, grief. All this is set in Nigeria, which is going through its own challenges with political instability. The title is quite as apt, as this story will definitely stay with me for a long time.

This book is about a Nigerian husband and wife navigating marriage, infertility, cultural norms, grief, and loss. It was heavy, heart-breaking, and impactful, and I learned so much about the Nigerian customs around marriage and death. I was easily pulled into the characters‘ world, and shared in their grief and sorrow throughout.