Welcome to Litsy!

I read Deesha Philyaw‘s The Secret Lives of Church Ladies and have been desperately chasing that high ever since. This collection of short stories came in clutch. Absolutely phenomenal. I wanted to turn around and devour it again so I could mop up any morsel I missed. Loved it. June‘s #BookSpin

One of my favorite books of short stories 😇

Was assigned this story in a class I'm taking: https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/skinned

It imagines a society where "unclaimed" women are required to be naked. It's very good and worth reading ?? Lots to think about. It's not in Litsy, so I'm tagging her book of short stories, which I read a few years ago and highly recommend!

An uneven collection, some stories feeling like unformed snippets of gossip. But WHO WILL GREET YOU AT HOME is so confident & masterful, an allegory on childrearing & motherhood & the pressure to create the perfect child. Dark magic & desperation. Title story also strong, with “grief workers” who calculate & extract emotions from grieving citizens after catastrophic climate upheaval. Some memorable stories, some meh, but strong ones=yesyesyes.2017

★★★★★
A lovely collection. Considering the collection title symbolically—a man falling from a place of untouchable height and dominating visibility, there's this tension that rises up in every story as it focuses on women, their status and their relationship with what surrounds them. I love how each story began and how each took me to an evocative end.

“Five hundred thousand dollars, baby. That‘s my girl.”

- “Windfalls“

I listened with every atom and she animated the story with everything she had.

- “War Stories“

“If you can‘t please the gods, trick them.”

- “Glory“

Girls with fire in their bellies will be forced to drink from a well of correction till the flames die out.

- “Redemption“

#reading

And hello, Litsy! 👋🏽

I picked this up for #ReadingAfrica week (week of the 6th, I'm late) not realizing it was a collection of short stories, but mostly because I found the title interesting. Most of these stories were really strong. The title story had me wishing for a full length set in that world, but I also liked 'Who Will Greet You at Home' which was a very strange one about hair babies and emotions as currency & 'Windfalls' which was unsettling/horrifying.

Finished this beautiful collection and am now catching up on the YouTube discussion for “Read a Book with Kara”

This collection gets 5 ⭐️ because it is full of lines like this. #shortstories #africandiaspora #diversespines #virtualbookclub

Starting this book late at night and last minute for “Read a Book with Kara” over on Instagram. Was only going to read one story tonight because 😴😴😴 but the first one was so good, I might have to go for two.

Everyone should go follow Kara Brown on Twitter and Instagram because she is 💯

#nowreading #virtualbookclub

Holy crap I fell completely in love with this collection of short stories! I‘m not sure why I haven‘t always been a fan of short stories but this was beautifully written and had it all. HIGHLY RECOMMEND.

I read this as part of Kara Brown‘s new book club, if you‘d like to join along go to www.readabookwithkara.com

Phenomenal.

The stories in this collection are very unique, and at times so disturbing that I no longer wanted to read them. Quite a few of them felt like a punch to the gut, and I‘d have to take a break before diving into the next story. However, I appreciated the Afro-futurism and the portrayal of many different relationships. Lesley has a gift at weaving together new and magical worlds that kept me intrigued despite my discomfort.

absolutely loved these stories!

These stories are intensely, wildly imaginative and original. I never knew where they were headed or what would turn up. Every single story in the collection is memorable and stood out from the others in its own way. This is a must-read for fans of short stories and fabulism.

In Washington DC this weekend for the Women‘s March and staying right next to a bookstore! Had to pick up a new read for the way home. Can‘t wait to start!

Had this one on hold for a while. Loving it so far.

#RedRoseSeptember Day 21: Fats did a round up of women writers from #AllAroundTheWorld, specifically from the US, Nigeria, Switzerland, and Argentina through these five amazing novels for our #WomenReadWomen2019 theme. See more here: https://wp.me/pDlzr-jME

#BookFitnessChallenge #BFC @wanderinglynn : morning run/walk, then weight machine workout, then stretch class! Feeling better from that headache at last! 😊

Got my stitches out!! 🎉🎉 Don't have to go back until July!

Listened to this short story with my mom on the way back from the appointment and shopping while we were in the city. The book was one of my favorite reads of 2017, wonderful to revisit the title story. ❤️

This short story collection is masterful, having a LOT to say about women today. It captures the tolls that “growing up” takes on a girl, that war bleeds from a person, and that a small decision or mistake can have on a life. And it does all this in absolutely gorgeous language. The audiobook, especially, is amazing, the stories perfectly navigated by Adjoa Andoh. LOVED it.

• What It Means when a Man Falls from the Sky (2017 by Lesley Nneka Arimah

What a powerful debut collection! I'm not one for stories but collections like this make me yearn for more. Arimah explores, halfway between America and Nigeria, the lives of vivid characters, mostly women, trying to make sense of the challenging world around them and, more importantly, make way. She even throws in a fable style story and some dystopia for good measure.

This weekend was jam packed with housecleaning, taxes, and volunteering. These are my well deserved (imho) evening plans. 😁

This is a unique collection of stories with very relatable characters. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

It‘s been a while since I‘ve done a monthly #tbr - but in an effort to make a serious dent in my #mttbr pile (and end my book buying ban sooner rather than later 😄) I‘m going to try to set aside a stack of books from my shelves each month going forward - and try to read at least 1/2 of that stack before touching library books... we‘ll see how that goes 🤣

Here‘s the February stack. Most excited about Pride and tagged book.

A solid collection of short stories, many of them focused on familial relationships. The title story was one of my favorites, simply for the fascinating/terrifying future presented (US and Europe are completely underwater, forcing white majorities to resettle in brown/black countries; a biological weapon that targets melanin; tattoos that denote class and restrict or expand where you travel), and I hope she develops them into a full-length story!

Stack reveal for @24in48!! Remember it's important to read in all formats always, but especially during the Readathon because your eyes and mind need the break. So this is my physical stack, but I will be reading digitally as well and of course changing it up with audiobooks too 😊. Sounds like this time around (my third go) I may even be doing some reading aloud with Mum. Anyone else participating in the #24IN48Readathon?!?

If you‘re up for an excellent series of intense stories with hues of Afro-futurism, fantasy, and sci-if, this collection is for you!

Just finished this collection of stories and LOVED it. Favorites include the titular story as well as “War Stories,” “Who Will Greet You at Home,” and “Glory”. It‘s tough in that so-much-of-girlhood-is-about-suffering way, but it‘s also (darkly) funny. So glad I read this and am looking forward to her next work!!

#blacklitsy

Flashback to last Saturday at the Boston Book Festival. I read this book in its entirety on a flight last year. I was honored to meet Lesley!

Day 6 of the @bookriot #Riotgrams challenge: naked covers! A few pretties! (The book on the left is Anthony Bourdain‘s book about Typhoid Mary.)❤️📚

Day 5 of the @bookriot #Riotgrams challenge: fall reads! I went with “falls” reads. Also, I‘m willing to bet these two titles aren‘t photographed together very often. 😂❤️📚

I didn't enjoy this collection of short stories. Each story felt unfinished & underwhelming & I found that I couldn't connect with anything I was reading. Like joining a conversation somewhere in the middle where you're not 100% what's going on, these stories seemed more like snippets from a wider story. I didn't hate it, some stories were good, so it's 2 stars from me.

My full review is up on my blog now! 📚

Perfect beach day. Perfect book of short stories.

Short-story gold.

"'When Enebeli Okwara sent his girl out in the world, he did not know what the world did to daughters'. The daughters, wives and mothers in Lesley Nneka Arimah's remarkable debut collection find themselves in extraordinary situations. What unites them is the toughness of the world they inhabit, a world where the future is uncertain, opportunities are scant, and fortunes change quicker than the flick of a switch."

Such an inventive & original story collection, I‘m glad I gave it a try! Love how the author varies between realistic & semi-fantastical, and her voice comes through just as well in either case. My favorite stories were Wild and Second Chances. As is almost always the case w/short stories, one or two were not quite as strong, but none that I would call misses. I hope she writes a novel one day because I‘d love to see what she‘d do with it. 4/5 ⭐️

When Enebeli Okwara sent his girl out in the world, he did not know what the world did to daughters. He did not know how quickly it would wick the dew off her, how she would be returned to him hollowed out, relieved of her better parts.

My mother was a small woman who carried her weight in her personality.

I‘m not a big short story reader, usually because I hate when the stories are of wildly varying lengths. (Also when a “story” is like 3 pages. No.) But these look reasonably close enough for the most part, LOL. Plus I‘ve heard nothing but good things about it! #nowreading

This is the first time the girl becomes aware that the world requires something other than what she is. It dampens her for a few days that worry Enebeli, and then she returns, but there is a little less light to her.

Today‘s afternoon reads with a cup of tea made possible by baby Motrin (#teething) and naptime. • #shortfiction #diversereads #currentlyreading

It took me a while to read this collection of short stories because I wasn‘t quite sure of how it made me feel. Once I got into the style of the stories and the rhythm of the story telling, it flowed easier. Each story has an unexpected, sometimes gruesome, often ambiguous, never happy ending. Not every story is a favorite, hence only ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️#24B4Monday @TheReadingMermaid

#currentlyreading

Side note: I think I may be overusing this background. It‘s a canvas my son painted, he is awaiting inspiration on what to add to it. I love it as is 😍. Ps: he is 6 😂😂😂