Welcome to Litsy!

2-28 July 25
I loved this book about the terribly dysfunctional Lambert family coming to grips with the already irascible father‘s dementia. Each family member - Chip, Denise, Gary, Enid and especially Alfred - was quite unlikeable and made terrible choices and yet I found them compelling and continued to hope for a better outcome than they no doubt deserved.
Franzen writes the type of book I love. I am amazed at how many negative reviews he gets.

Though Chip awaits edits on his script, chef Denise perfects sauerkraut, Gary makes his living on waiting for markets‘ upward trends, and their Dad seeks a mind-altering drug for his Parkinson‘s, it‘s clear by the book‘s final page that the most satisfying change for all is to delete some darlings and begin again.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Realistic portrayal of an American family. Functional and dysfunctional. This story centers on a mom hellbent on gathering her adult kids, who‘ve gone on to make their own questionable choices, home for Christmas as their father‘s health declines. Tragically funny and relatable. The plays on the term “correction” are brilliantly timed and placed. Finally, my first Franzen! Def reading more.

🥲

#Movie2BookRecs @Klou
Mpvie: Meet the Fockers

#HumbleHarvest You say #Family I say dysfunctional !
😄

I was a little hung up on the title but loved it… Heading for Crossroads next.

#ShitThatMakesMeFeelOld Cannot believe the publication date was September 1 ,2001. Love it or hate it , a significant tome in its time.I actually liked it but haven‘t ever read another Franzen. Maybe someday!

“Elective ignorance was a great survival skill, perhaps the greatest.”

😳

Nothing like reading a tale about a dysfunctional suburban family during the holidays.

A novel about the trials and tribulations of the American family. Comic, tragic and deeply moving

It's that time again for me to purge my shelves and pass on books to my fellow Littens with some #PayItForward GiveAways. 🎉

Used hardcover edition of The Corrections.

If you'd like to have this book simply comment below and let me know. US only please since we still have shipping restrictions here.

Enjoy! 😁

I finished my #bookspin for the month. 😁 @TheAromaofBooks This leaves 17 books to finish out #BookSpinBonanza.

I know some people love this book, and it's won tons of awards, but I just couldn't get into it. It felt like majority of the book I was just trapped at a family reunion full of those annoying family members that no one likes.

I am happy though to finally take it off my TBR. 👍

I've updated and replaced books I read for this month and I'm excited to see how many books I can read for #BookSpinBonanza @TheAromaofBooks

My updated choices for March #Bookspin and #DoubleSpin

@TheAromaofBooks

This is a weird book, surprisingly dark in a lot of places, and brutally honest throughout. It describes the lives and mental states of each person in a family of 5 as the father‘s Parkinson‘s progresses. The perspectives weave together and show different facets of shared experiences, as well as their unique choices and insecurities. A great read.

• CORRECTION: I forgot to add 2 books to my Goodreads 2019 challenge. That makes 26, not 24!! Strangely, I feel better Lol 🤦‍♀️ •

This is my favorite book of all time. Mandatory reading if you grew up in the American Midwest, as far as I'm concerned. Read it more than once -- the similarities between children and parents are the emotional backbone of the book and they get more and more pronounced on each reading.

#AugustABC @Eggs
#Obnoxious

A lot of people loved this book but it is on my obnoxious list. It was a DNF for me!

If you are looking for a moral lesson from a novel, maybe The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen isn‘t where you should start.

However, if you want a dismal reflection on how happiness and joy are fleeting experiences, and the more unhappy someone gets, the more they cling to anything that might possibly hopefully give them a sense of positivity in a very negative reality, then Franzen does not disappoint.

Stopped by the thrift shop today and I picked these up for only $0.50!

The first three from the left were all like new.

1. Just did not get it at all
2. Eat at home
3. White girl ‘fro in 1980, not a good look.
4. Ocean breeze
5. Aqua Sunset
#friyayintro @howjessreads

I‘ve never read Franzen. (embarrassing, yes 🙈)

I‘ve heard both referred to as the great modern American novel.

Which do you recommend I read first?

#thecorrections or #freedom ???

#helpmechose #whichfranzenfirst #literaryfiction

Finally finished this sucker after three months and, while certainly more accessible than Freedom was, I still preferred Freedom over this. That said, still a tremendous book.

Watching the Holiday and this is Cameron Diaz's stack of books lol

Interesting series of interviews with book critics about their views on classics, back catalogue and books with all the hype.

https://bookmarks.reviews/tajja-isen-on-the-corrections-and-bringing-care-to-the...

Watching football with the hubby and my girls while I try to finish this book #sundaynightbliss #catsoflitsy #aurora #penny

This book is great!

#abbainaugust

Yet another example of #whenikissedtheteacher In this case the middle son Chip of the Lambert family is a university professor who embarks on an ill advised affair with a student.

I really disliked most of the characters in this book, but I remember them so I guess that‘s something!

To read or not to read - I‘m entirely undecided!! 🤷🏼‍♀️
The reviews are so mixed!! I‘m in the mood for a literary read after some rather lighthearted books & this has been sitting here forever. But not in the mood for a downer, exactly!! Have bailed on too many books lately!!
Ugh, sometimes picking a new book isn‘t fun!! 😑

#bookishproblem #booknerdneurosis #itwillbeokintheend

1. These earrings are in regular rotation for me...
2. I remember buying The Corrections when it had just come out. Haven‘t read a page.
3. I think a baked potato...
4. #blameitonlitsy and #teachersoflitsy of course!
5. Jaws!!!! I am cracking up because this is SO appropriate. Shark Week is a holiday at my house! 😆

@MinDea
#humpdaypost

Long

It's extremely rare that I don't finish a book, but this is one of the worst things I have ever read. A third of the way through and I'm bailing

It‘s been my reading goal to read one Franzen per year. I read The Corrections in 2017 and golly, it‘s one heck of a novel. Though all characters are neurotic, make dreadful decisions and life choices, Franzen paints a compelling portrait of post 9/11 Americana that harkens to the zeitgeist of the time. Recommend! Recommend! #jonathanfranzen #franzen #thecorrections #americanlit

Watching “The Holiday. “Love the stack of books Amanda plans to read during her housing swap in the English cottage .

Here‘s a stack of my recent thrift store and used book shop purchases. All are #TBR except for Tom Sawyer and The Call of the Wild. I‘m #currentlyreading Timequake, but feel the need to rescue just about every #KV I see. Best score: Maus I & II for just .99 each today at Goodwill. #bookhaul

Obsessing over my new books from the library booksale. 🖤
It's one thing that always makes me happy.
#bookhaul

This is a hard one for me to get through. I keep having to start it over. I‘m reading with the audiobook.

I love the way Franzen writes, he makes me see Americans in a more "human" way. And he makes me laugh. This was not my first book by him and it won't be the last. Great reading! #Sha2016 #Yume #DogsofLitsy

A #perfectillusion of the happy American family is on full display here. But the level of dysfunction that illusion masks is pretty significant. I'm not usually a family drama fan but I liked this one- very funny throughout, even though some serious problems emerge. I know though that people have some strong feelings about the author and maybe this work in particular too so, reader beware 😐 #augustgrrrl @Cinfhen

This is just a question for everyone. Have you ever read a book you really liked but then find yourself shying off from reading anything else by that author for reasons you can't explain? I loved this book but have read nothing else by him. I loved A.S. Byatt's Possession but have read nothing else of hers. This is a phenomenon I really don't understand. Anyone have any ideas? (Just a picture of the river walk in Tuscaloosa, AL.)

My first Franzen!

Side note - my new job took over my life a couple months ago and I am slowly starting to find reading time again. Yay! I hope to get back to my regular pace soon.

Full review: https://reneereadsbooks.wordpress.com/2017/06/30/book-review-the-corrections-by-...

I stopped half way through this book. I might re visit it. I found it hard work, dull and with no real storyline if I'm honest. Perhaps I quit too soon but my kindle said I was 65% of the way through and I couldn't see that anything was really happening.

I remember the exhilaration of reading The Corrections. I didn't find it as much in Freedom (which is why Freedom isn't in the photo, as I no longer have it! 😬). #readthisnotthat #maybookflowers

#blackandwhitecovers #maybookflowers
@RealLifeReading

They are almost black and white... 😉

No I didn't actually bail on this...I real all 566 excruciatingly boring pages...I have a "start it, finish it" policy with books...but no way would I recommend it! IT'S DONE! IT'S FINALLY DONE!!!!!! ?☠️?

Wish I had my book for this beautiful backdrop!
Side note: I WILL finish this book today!!!!

If nothing else, I will have warm legs while reading :)
#catsoflitsy #littenkitten