Welcome to Litsy!

In lieu of an actual adult beverage because I‘m at work, pharmacy settled for root beer. 🤣🤣

Hello, weekend! Time to read!

GREAT collection. These women are flawed but not broken. Miller knows how to write just enough in a story-- enough to give you a full sense of the world she's created but not so much it feels it should turn into a novel. She ends them with just enough insight that you aren't left wanting much more. Really well crafted, a great collection.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

After a very long post-Irma week, the school hosted a Happy Hour for the staff. 👍🏼🤓

I liked the premise of this collection more than I ended up enjoying most of the stories.. I felt like I was reading a different iteration of the same type of character over and over, continuing down a slope of negativity. These weren't bad stories- but I wish there had been more diversity of plot.

Solid book title- grabbing a beer and getting started on this tonight. Happy happy hour to me. 🍺

Airplane reading

🤣🤣🥂☕🍹🍵🗽 #NYC #BEA #BEA17 #WorkRoadTrip #LibrarianLife #BookExpo

Book Expo Day 2:

New York mornings😎🗽....🙊🤣

Thanks NY but um, I need my coffee, I'll join you for HH later tho!! ☕➡🥂...😁👍😉

Aw shucks, it's going to be a rainy day? Oh well, guess I'm forced to spend it inside with my books.☔️👍🏻😁📚💕

My Interpretation:

Miserable and mediocre women living lives in transition making questionable decisions and not happy with themselves or their situations. The quote that seems to sum all the stories up for me was, "It's ridiculous this waiting for something else, when this is all there is." I think these stories were a tough read because the actions, emotions, and lives of these women were not only average but entirely real life.

Mississippi literature is alive and well. Masterful collection by Mary Miller, 'Always Happy Hour.' Such flawed yet beautiful characters. Wonderful writing. Check it out.

Taking in the quiet despair of these stories might be sinking me into a place in my head that I'm terrified of.

I tried really hard to like this book but didn't. It was like reading an episode of Seinfield, or listening to someone sitting beside you at a restaurant telling a story. I just couldn't care enough to enjoy it.

A Southern Belle, a Southern book and a Southern meal = a good day ❤❤

Adult Swim is on. They aren't shows I'd have ever watched on my own but I like them now, especially the one with the mean baby and talking dog. I feel like I'm figuring something out about boys when I watch them-- something like how much they can appreciate smart when it's presented to them as stupid.

The stories are not just for me, maybe for some one 10 years younger.😉

I have a love/hate relationship with short stories. Mostly because they tend to run together into one giant weird storyline for me. I didn't love this, but I also didn't dislike it. The stories are based on a series of women who all seem to be making poor/strange life choices and their relationships with others.

There is nothing more disgusting, really, than people enjoying themselves so thoroughly when you're miserable.

It's the kind of thing hipsters tattoo on their arms - The heart is a lonely hunter, Not all who wander are lost, Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt. She's disappointed but should have caught the allusion.

Grabbed this from the library yesterday. Let's see how it goes.

Settling in with an All The Books short stories recommendation. Last night I was up all night after vampire nightmares. Thought I'd better give myself a little something lighter this evening.

Loving this book so far. Usually when I read short story collections I get frustrated with the endings, always wanting to know more about what happens. These feel like complete vignettes. The characters are real, and since it feels like most of them don't care to find out what happens next, neither do I. I mean that in the best possible way though--the stories give me the same feeling an Emmylou Harris song does.

"I'd begun to notice small things: I didn't strike up conversations with strangers as easily or smile at them; I didn't ask for things as readily at restaurants and many of the tables felt too exposed. I was beginning to be afraid again."

Loved this book so much- so relatable, a little dark, and sometimes laugh out loud funny. #litsyatoz #shortstories #readharder

January #stats

I've read plenty that I've liked so far in 2017, but nothing that I've really really liked. But I've got a massive pile of library books to get through in February, so hopefully that'll change soon!

DNFed another book. Hopefully this one will stick! I loved The Last Days of California, so I have high hopes.

"There is something wrong with my stomach, an ulcer maybe, and I know I shouldn't be drinking but I seem to be incapable of living the kind of life where I eat nutritious meals and exercise and go to bed at a decent hour, or I can only live like this for a short period of time before fucking it all up again."

📖🍸🍕🎶👍🏼🙂

Bookriot Read Harder Challenge 22: Read a collection of stories by a woman. Daniel Handler's blurb about the book says it best: "I fell into this book like it was a night of drinking. I sipped, I laughed, I had some more, I got lonely, I danced a little, I downed the rest, I wanted to cry, I stayed up late closing it out and I'm a wreck and I regret nothing."

Go read it. Seriously.
#readharder

This woman is spot on! Thank you Mary Miller

My evening read. This is my intro to Mary Miller's writing and so far I'm enjoying it.

#TBRtemptation post! This is a just-released short story collection with a humorous cover ?#. Roxane Gay gave it 4 stars on GR, calling them "strong stories". The stories are about how women perceive themselves & how they are perceived today. They all seek understanding--in a dilapidated foster home, a trailer park, an empty mansion, etc. Sounds immersive! #blameLitsy #blameMrBook ?

Don't let me down, @emilygatlin :) (Seriously, can't wait to read it!)

Book mail! So excited for this. I have loved Mary Miller's writing from the very first sentence of her's that I read.

I'm really enjoying this galley so far. It's reminding me why I love short stories, how they are snapshots of people's lives.

I'm apparently having an Oxford, Mississippi-themed reading day.

Started a new gem from Netgalley and opened to this stunning quote.

I'm in love with this cover.

Stories about modern girls and women in all their ferocity and vulnerability. I adore this cover; can't wait to see what's inside.

Mary Miller's forthcoming collection's stories are about identity, relationships, sex, and independence with deft emotional and experiential range. Miller writes vivid characters and her prose is excellent. Some stories pack a gut punch, others are lighter. All are compulsively readable. Watch for this one in 2017.