Welcome to Litsy!

Single mom Karen is diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer. As she goes through treatment she is trying to work and raise her 6 year old son Jake. Her time is short, maybe 4 or 5 years, so she starts writing everything down for Jake to read when he is 18. Family history, advice, what is going on right now, what she hopes his future will hold and what the plan is for when she‘s gone. I needed a few tissues and thought the end was a bit abrupt. 4🌟

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

“When I was a kid I was certain I‘d grow up to be a writer.”

I stack a lot of books based on all the wonderful Litsy reviews. Occasionally I scroll to the bottom of my TBR to reacquaint myself with what I overlooked. Found this one and it was available on Libby, so far so good.

Kate Neulander is a 41 year old political consultant and single mother to 6 year old Jacob. She has Stage 4 ovarian cancer and this is her “letter” to her son for after she is gone. If you need a good body cleansing sob/breakdown, this one‘s for you. 4 🌟and 4 boxes of tissues.

This was the absolute prefect book to start the new year with. Yes, it was deeply sad and I cried many tears, but it was also told with such authenticity that I‘m left all the better for it. So this year I will laugh more, play more and snuggle more with my little humans...and I will also tell as many fart jokes as possible with my Mr6, just so I can see his cheeky grin ❤️

Thankyou @Cinfhen @Reggie @TrishB for putting this book on my radar

💔💜 amazing read. It‘s funny, real and sad. Such understanding of human emotions. Could understand all points of view.

Wow!!! Trust me, this book is more than one BIG heartache. It was actually funny and endearing even though your heart is being pulled out of your skin and stomped upon. I cried, I laughed, I cried some more. It‘s really a book about family and love and AWESOME moms and FABULOUS sisters and a sweet 6 year old. Thank you @Reggie for giving me the encouragement needed❣️❣️❣️❣️Once I really started, I couldn‘t stop reading.

I think these might be my final two books for 2018 along with an ARC or two...I‘ve stocked up on tissues and I‘m ready to tackle Our Short History 😭😭 @Reggie has offered to lend emotional support if the pages become too difficult🙏🏻#AllTheTearsBuddyRead

#WinterWonderland #FireandIce

(1/2) Happy Mother‘s Day, Littens!!!!!

2/2 Some motherly advice Karen writes down for her son when he turns 18 and is given her journal after she has been dead from cancer for a long time.

This was a very human and touching book. Nothing was romanticized. Instead, there is a lot of angst, paranoia and tantrums. Karen‘s reaction to Jake‘s bio dad entering the picture was so understandable as was Jake‘s reaction and thrill to having a father when he‘s close to losing his mother. The borderline second person writing style took a bit to get used to since Mom is writing the book TO her son but stylistically, it worked here.

Holy. Guacamole. I knew this was going to be a heartwrencher, but I‘m pretty sure the audio made it that much more intense. My emotions were all over the place as I listened, and I mean *all* over the place. It was devastating, but uplifting. I can‘t say much else without spoiling the whole thing for you, but I walked away from this story with a little bird of hope in my chest, despite also feeling sadness. It was the ending I needed.

#NuYear “It was so funny to see Reggie cry so much as he read about #mylastday(s). You see, I have Stage IV ovarian cancer and was told I had, at best, 4 years left. This book is for my 6yo son, Jake, who I love with all my heart, who I want to be able to know all about his mother, her complicated relationship with the father he just met, his Aunt Allie and everyone else in our family. I‘m glad Reggie laughed at the times I was being a jerk 👇🏼

4.5! I loved this book, but wasn't quite happy with the ending. That's all I'll say. :)

Loving this book! Random library find. I usually don't like when people swear in books because it just seems so unnatural, but I love it in here! It seems fitting. Only half way in, but already recommend it!

Not a bad book but I never felt connected with the main character. It should be a heart wrenching story but it wasn't to me.

Love that last part of the sentence...we fell asleep pondering the condition of being mothers, which was of course, the condition of helping the people you love most in the world leave you.

Sure that hit me today because we just took our youngest to college and the house is so quiet.

I wanted more from this book. To be fair, I read it right after I finished a memoir with the exact same plot line, so the memoir won it for me. It's not a terrible book, but it left me wanting more.

This book has a pretty cover so of course I was intrigued. It's a heartbreaking story of a young woman with ovarian cancer writing a book for her 6 year old son to tell him their story. Even tho I sobbed often, I loved reading it

Happy Canada 🇨🇦 Day Littens!! The sun finally came out and I am finally done helping the teenager pack for camp so I can finally sit down to read ( an American friend brought me some Cheez Its so I am having an extremely happy Canada Day now)

And we fell asleep pondering the condition of being mothers, which was, of course, the condition of helping the people you love most in the world leave you 🚸💕

I'm prepping for an art lesson tomorrow and I just want to go to bed and read ( I'm excited about the art but I have had enough adulting for today)

Sitting down to eat and read a few pages before I head to work. Just started and will have to stop. I may start sobbing. Best save for later

So many different shades of yellow! #yellowcovers #riotgrams

#happymothersday! This one is for the moms. OUR SHORT HISTORY is told from the perspective of Karen, who has just a couple years left to live. After she's diagnosed with stage four ovarian cancer, Karen decides to write a book for her six-year-old son Jake to read when he's older. But Karen doesn't expect her estranged ex-boyfriend to want to be part of his son's life. I felt Goldstein struck a great balance between emotion and reality.

I seem to be in the minority on this one. While some describe this as a tear-jerker (fictional account of single mother dying of cancer, writing a memoir to her 6-year-old son who wants to meet his father), I found the main character too whiny, selfish, and self-absorbed to enjoy this and couldn't bring myself to feel very sympathetic. The format of the book didn't work well for me either, nor did the reader of this audio. Overall disappointing.

I have mixed feelings about this book, but this quote was spot on! 😁

Heartbreaking novel of a mother documenting her final years with her son after being diagnosed with stage IV ovarian cancer.

I kept my eyes closed. The stars were so bright and eternal I couldn't face them.

I'm almost halfway through this one, and I've teared up too many times to count. Loving it.

I was conflicted about the main character, Karen. She's dying of cancer, so she calls her son's father to let him know he has a son. When she learns he wants to be involved in their son's life, she believes he wants to steal their child from her. Her reactions to him seem based on spite. To be fair, this is first person narration -- Karen is writing this book for her son -- and she doesn't try to gloss over her behavior or make it seem noble.

Preparing to cry my eyes out. 😭

#CurrentlyReading

The mailman brought me some #bookmail!

Gosh. This book made me cry. A woman dying if cancer writing to her six year old son. I like a cathartic good cry and I could relate to worries about letting her kids Dad into her child's life.

"This was when I thought I could rewrite any script. Now I'm grown and know that very few of us get to become the people we thought we'd be when we were kids."
"It's very easy to think you know someone... when life is calm and orderly. But people become their truest selves in emergencies."

Book Mail 🙌🏼

This book takes the form of a mother--dying in a when-not-if way from ovarian cancer--writing an extended letter for her son to read as an adult. It is far funnier than I would've expected given the subject. Karen, the narrator, is spunky, snide, and sometimes spiteful. Rather than being a tearjerker, I found myself identifying with Karen's rage – at her cancer & at the man who broke her heart & gave her a son.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

#catsoflitsy #StacytheCat

I agree with this, but it's so ingrained in city life not to know your neighbors that it can be really hard to overcome.

I succumbed to an unexpected nap early this evening. So my #LitsyPartyofOne is turning into #LitsyAfterDark since I'm wide awake right now.

Hopefully the beer will help me snooze not too late. It's got 8%+ ABV.

👏🏻

Agreed completely. The happy times in my life started when I began to have more agency. I have no idea where the idea of childhood as this magical fairy land began, but it's definitely not a universal feeling. Glad someone else has verbalized this!

This #LitsyPartyofOne is LIT.... sy. 😝

#catsoflitsy #SusietheCat

Wow, that was a teary 5 stars. This just simply gorgeous. This felt so real, and you will feel sadness, anger, and you will laugh. I would recommend to any reader, but have a box of tissues.

Heat lauren read from our Short History and hear me ask het questions at jersey city word bookstore at 730! Take a Lyft🐦

Last day at the beach, going to enjoy this one.

#bookmailisthebestmail! Thanks to @AlgonquinBooks for my @24in48 door prize copy of Our Short History by Lauren Grodstein, and @DoubledayBooks for Border Child by Michel Stone - a #Goodreads win!

On two separate occasions I grew teary eyed in a restaurant, reading this as I ate. Karen, a single mother battling cancer, writes her son letters for later in life. She contacts the father he has never met and wrestles with their growing connection. I loved that Karen never glosses over anything. We get the warts and all story. She is often angry, desperate and irrational.It is a horrible scenario but the book never gets too bleak.

Started this one on the train yesterday, #traveling from Pitlochry to Glasgow. I am not very far into it but am loving it so far. #marchmadness

#BookMail from one of my favorite #getindie stores, Northshire Books.

I've been hearing great things.

Up next. Ready to have my heart broken. #signedSunday