Welcome to Litsy!

“Two things have always ruptured up and through hegemony: art and bodies. That is how art has preserved its toe-hold in our universe. Where there was poverty, there was also a painting someone stared at until it filled them with grateful tears. Where there was genocide, there was a song that refused to quiet. Where a planet was forsaken, there was someone telling a story with their last breath, and someone else carrying it like DNA, or star junk.“

There are ways to write feminist sc-fi without graphic gratuitous violence and stomach-turning body horror. (Just throwing "Bitch Planet" out there, although I know comics are not novels...) I found this novel just plain gross. (I do think a future Joan of Arc retelling is an intriguing concept.)

I drove up to Georgetown TX a few days ago after a really slow work day to check out this cute new bookstore! It‘s got a good selection of currently popular books and classics, as well as some fun gifts. There‘s a sweet little cafe too. I picked up the tagged book, as well as a couple little birthday gifts.

Thanks for making me aware of Lark & Owl @Julsmarshall and @SW-T !

#wondrouswednesday @Eggs

1. Bookstore- especially if there‘s a cafe nearby ☕️
2. Friday night sleepovers w/ @samjmitchell
3. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver 🌍
4. MaddAdam #3 by Margaret Atwood (way overrated!)

Hello new friends @CindyRene @hannah-leeloo @BooksandStitches

I thought this one was pretty good, although I‘ve struggled a lot lately with post-apocalyptic and post-human SFF. It takes nothing away from a book like this to admit that I want more to be comforted by fiction than to be broadened by it. What I liked about this one was how joyfully profane it was, how much it reveled in the body. And I think it reached toward something divine, while rejecting divinity.

Next

That was maybe the weirdest fucken book I've finished in a long time.

Strange, confusing, beautiful, disturbing.

Needs a warning for some gruesome torture/experimentation.

How about this one? An hour in, and it's good so far! I haven't read her before.

A really strange book, but I love anything with Joan of Arc!

So after pushing myself onwards to keep reading it, there was actually some aspects of the book I was starting to enjoy. Out of the three parts, the second was the 'best' written. It's just a shame the first and third ones were not that good. The descriptions of character actions were not always clear. The ending was a bit strange to understand (still not 100% sure what happened). I feel the writing let this book down.

So far this book has made me fall asleep on three occasions today. Not sure if it's to do with two being while in the car and the other lying on the sofa. Nonetheless it's something that hasn't happened to me before. The premise sounds great but so far the writing and the plot are messy.

Started reading this now. However, after having just added it to my currently reading on Litsy, it's not got too many good reviews. Hmm.

Edit: Not so good reviews on Goodreads either.

Blimey. This was punchy. A bleak, futuristic dystopia where humanity seems unsalvagable. I love the concept but the execution seemed overwrought and overblown from beginning to end.

Cover looks good with my cushions though 😂

1. Well, Deadpool 2 was pretty hilarious. Not as great as the first one, still. New Avengers was good too.
2. We don't go to sit down restaurants much anymore. I like doing that.
3. 47
4. I'll have to check my list here and edit it. Most recent one tagged.
5. I'll try 😊

#friyayintro @jesshowbooks

Picked this up for a reading challenge my local library is doing to complete the local authors prompt. Going to have to find something else because I couldn't get through this. Not even to my typical 50 page point. It just felt like it was trying too hard to be bleak & risque.

Baby-free day! Little dude is spending some quality time with his Grandma and I‘m planning to spend some quality time with this book among other activities. 😎📖🍹

My first trip to the library in probably a month. Went for my hold on Black Panther and grabbed something else. Anyone read the tagged book? I picked it up to fulfill one of the books for Multnomah library's Read4Life summer thing. Looks good to me. Doing the library reading thing and Powell's challenge with the kiddo this summer, too.

Doing any sort of summer reading challenges (with or without kids)?

Author didn‘t develop the characters enough as the story progressed. Almost as if the book needs a prequel to comprehend the current state of affairs.

I...did not love this one. It had made a lot of best of lists from 2017 so maybe I had high expectations. In this dystopian futuristic retelling of Joan of Arc, the remains of humanity live in space and can no longer reproduce, and Joan is something special that no one really understands. It was both too much and not enough.

Had a brief return to this book this morning c/o naptime. #goawayimreading

(It‘s taking me so long to read this one, I had to return the library book and order my own copy. I‘m learning this is a normal thing when one has an infant. 👶🏻📚)

#getmovin #justlikefire
Since Joan's end was by fire, pretty good so far !

Goddess bless! Look at this amazing panel! Charlie Jane Anderson, Meg Ellison, Maggie Shen King, Lidia Yuknavitch, and Asa Avdic!! Next level thinkers. #baybookfest

Read about 100 pages in this one today. Not too long ago, that would have been a paltry reading day for me but now, in my post-baby world, it‘s good progress!

I like the concept & the author‘s style very much. I‘ll admit I only know the basics about Joan of Arc (my strongest recollection being related to my Plants & Humanity prof telling us how J‘s visions may well have been the result of moldy rye), but so far the lack isn‘t a hinderance here.

Now that his stroller is here & the weather is improving, #LittleDude & I are finally able to get out & do some walking! Our first long walk was to the library earlier this week to pick up this book which I‘d forgotten I put on hold because it took that long for it to come up for me. 😂

Joan of Arc in space calls for a space-themed bookmark. #irememberwhenplutowasaplanet #oldAF • #currentlyreading

Saturday morning ....

Not liking it so far but will see how I go. Quite poetic language but the content is disturbing

Airport reading #havebookswilltravel

A dueling narrative of life on earth and off before/during/after the apocalypse, this book is Weird. I enjoyed the one storyline for a bit and can see there are biblical and historical references here, but I just didn‘t enjoy it.

#marchmadnesschallenge swap-in for Beartown

I‘m out! Not in the right head space 🙄maybe I‘ll try again but for now it‘s a #DNF

Thanks, Barb 😍your lovely bookmark arrived and it matches my new read and earthy surroundings 😘

Needed to qualify for free shipping...so threw a book in the Amazon cart 😜#NoOneIsTheWiser

I'm intrigued by the premise of this book but am having a hard time getting into it - may just be in a bit of a reading slump

#marchmadnessChallenge
With 2 of the first four (pre-games) over we have our first 2 #16 seeds.

Book of Joan (Radford) beat Origin (LIU) for the #16 spot in the East

My Not so perfect life (St Bonaventure) knocked out We are Never meeting in real life (UCLA).

Remember that you may chose to sub one of the knocked out books for a book on the bracket you‘ve already read.

Tournament officially starts tomorrow! Today is last day to sign up.

Everybody hates this book and everybody loves Sing Unburied Sing. I didn‘t read either of them so I have no right to an opinion, but I dare predict that Sing will win, even with the highly surprising results so far in the #ToB!

The audio narration was great, but overall this book was just...ugh. All the UGGGHH, with the added bonus of an ending that struck me as “problematic” at best 😑 At least the cover is pretty?

I really wanted to like this and found many passages thought-provoking and beautifully, if brutally, written. But taken as a whole, I thought the book ultimately took itself too seriously, coming across as pompous and hard to connect with on anything other than an ultra-heady, superficial level. My heart felt left out which surprised and disappointed me for a book tackling topics such as bodily autonomy and the power of narrative.

“Burning is an art.”

Just started this, but I‘m in! Now I want to look up her TED talk, which inspired The Misfit‘s Manifesto.

#marchMadnessChallenge This book isn‘t fairing as well as I thought on our survey. Joan of Arc is reimagined as a freedom fighter in 2049 in this literary dystopian novel. The book gets dazzling reviews from critics (NY Times, NOR, The Guardian, etc).

Why should we be reading this one? If you haven‘t rated our books stop by to help this book move up in our rankings: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/K8WYVVS

Survey takes 10 mins

This feminist dystopian novel offers a wildly imaginative look at a group of mutants who survive in Earth‘s orbit after a cataclysmic event and a legendary woman who altered the nature of our planet. It‘s quite a ride!

Not too sure how I feel about this book. I didn‘t dislike it, but I‘m not the biggest fan of it. I liked how humans “transformed” and the grafting idea was interesting, but I wasn‘t a big fan of some of the language used. I also don‘t know how to categorize it. Dystopia? Love? Feminism? Apocalypse? #wars #space #wasteland.

Photo is from outeq on devianart

Anddddd introduction to my first blind date! Wish UNO had the actual covers because it‘s so pretty! #loveatfirstsight

A book full of interesting ideas, but I didn‘t feel like I got to know any of the characters enough to care about their fates. That may have been the point, but it was too much distance for me. #tob18

#RiotGrams--day 10-a book and a beverage. Reading for the Tournament of Books and drinking coffee in a tournament mug. #ToB18

"The Book of Joan" is a dystopian re-telling of the Joan of Arc story. The novel flashes back and forth between a wartorn Earth and its few survivors, and a safe haven floating above the planet where the rich have devolved into pale white, hairless, sexless beings.

Where it lacks in worldbuilding and plot, it somewhat makes up in poetic writing and gut-wrenching sympathy towards the characters. ToB read number 3 complete.

3.5/5 stars

So I blew through most of this on audio at my usual speed of 2x, and it was all just so many words. So I decided to start over and give it another chance at a lower speed. I‘m sorry to say it was still just so many words. I realize that there are meta-reasons for liking this — empowered female characters, social critique of gender, etc — but still: NOTHING. EVER. HAPPENS. It‘s an extended essay dressed up as a novel. Monologues galore. Yawn.

So after going into this with a bit of trepidation I really enjoyed it. I can see why it has such extremes in reviews though as it's not a book I believe everyone would enjoy. This is a retelling of the story of Joan of Arc but set in the future with a strong sci-fi spin. This was a bleak take on the future of humanity but told in a very beautiful way. I hope we do better than this.

Starting this one. A bit unsure as the reviews are very varied from one star to five with no apparent middle ground it seems. But it's a Tournament of Books pick so I'm giving it a try.

So, popped into the store and this happened! Oops!! In my defence I did have a gift card! #bookstoresarebadformybankaccount