Welcome to Litsy!

A politically pertinent book, written by a performative and problematic author. I found the book important in terms of discussing key Indian socio-political issues. However, some of the author‘s statements in her personal life, make this book seem superficial and hypocritical.

The author narrated this herself - not a good narration. Best get a kindle copy.

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness is such a feel good story, for trans people and for everyone. I loved every page.

#literature #fiction #india #transgender

This is not an light read but I still loved it. I had never known about the situation in Kashmir or about the incredible atrocities committed by Hindu nationalists. I had to skip one passage entirely as I can't cope with torture. But there was also so much else woven into this book, so much beauty and love. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Had a lovely day out today eating dim sum, drinking various hot beverages and dropping in for a spot of bonus book shopping 😊☺

It always makes me smile to see people reading in public. #bookcam #readers

Oooouuu. This one is a lot. It‘s hard to review this because it truly is an epic. A lot of work to get through and there were parts that i shrugged off because i knew i couldn‘t remember every detail. But wow, so much of it is so beautiful. So so beautiful. Free Kashmir.

I hate to say it but I feel like this book was a brick wall and all the momentum of June hit slammed up against it. It started out really well but then I got to the part about the baby and I stopped caring. (The Landlord and the Tenant.)

Who can know from the word ‘goodbye‘ what kind of parting is in store for us?

Must Read for people who want to understand the political climate of India and its affect on citizens.

Look what I spotted in our very own neighborhood!
So excited!

It was well stocked so after a browse I chose 3 books with intention to donate a stack back into this beautiful street library.

When I got home I had a longer look at each book and lo and behold, check out the original price on this gorgeous book! 😯

"The traffic inside her head seemed to have stopped believing in traffic lights. The result was incessant noise, a few bad crashes and eventually gridlock."

A tea break to celebrate World Book 2020 through no other better way than reading a wonderful novel

This book is beautifully written and it deals with many complex political and social issues within India. On the other hand, I felt as though there were too many characters to keep track of and I would have preferred a more focused story. I can see how others could rate this book highly but I rated it 3 stars. It wasn't a book that I could take time away from as I was lost every time I picked it back up.

#JustFinished #Fiction #India #AutumnReads

When happiness arrives in a big fat envelope.

Jen, i wish i was eloquent enough to express the joy i feel. Both of these books are super on my TBR (oh the covers! 😍) and i love the Koala bookmark. Sooo many chocolates, my dentist is definitely going to give me an earful after i gobble them up. Thanks love! 💙

@JennyM

I'm having some serious mixed feelings about this book as I read it. There are times I want to give it a standing ovation and there are times I want to put it aside forever. I'm about a quarter of the way through now and the good is currently outweighing the bad. The first bit of the book was a challenge to get through but I'm glad I powered through.

#currentread #currentlyreading #autumnreading #autumnreads #bookandbreakfast #fiction

“Trees raised their naked, mottled branches to the sky like mourners stilled in attitudes of grief.”

#QuotsySept19 | 2: #Stick

📷: Made with Typorama

I loved The God of Small things and fully expected to feel the same way about this one. I didn‘t. The writing was beautiful and there were characters that could break your heart. Perhaps because there was so much tragedy in the book that it began to feel oppressive.The ending of the book offered a hopeful conclusion that was worth waiting for - sort of.

First hour of summer vacation. #teacherlife. Glad to be back in the hammock again.

I have to pick two. The tagged book and Winter by Ali Smith.

#BestBookSoFar2019
@megnews

SUPER SALE ALERT! #KindleDeal #KindleDailyDeal

Sale! I think this book is an exemplar of the rich complexities of women‘s lives. It‘s dense, lush, political, evocative, at times disorienting to a western reader in the way that immersive foreign travel can be, & illuminating. I think the reviews have been polarized by her lack of pandering to the reader. I loved that feeling and googled so many things while I read this book to get the nuance. I hope that more may be willing to take the chance!

When my mind wanders and I have to keep reviewing chapters over and over it‘s time to bail.

4.5 ? and one I can see myself rereading many times.
At one point in this book a character thinks, "I would like to write one of those sophisticated stories in which even though nothing happens there's lots to write about ". This is exactly what Roy has written. Do not read this book if you want a structured narrative or a neat "plot". None of that exists here.?

1. Tagged book, and The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison.
2. Winter by Ali Smith.
3. "No need to hurry. No need to sparkle. No need to be anybody but oneself". – Virginia Woolf

#weekendreads
@rachelsbrittain

💖💖💖💖💖
That moment when you see one of your favorite poems in a book! This was so unexpected. The original poem is by Habib Jalib, in Urdu. I can recite almost all of his poetry from memory, so it was such a happy surprise to see these lines.

Starting this tonight! Anybody else read this? Thoughts?

This is honestly the best book I've read in a long time! It's a long, dense, richly descriptive narrative of intersecting lives centred around Delhi and Kashmir in India. Roy combines wonderfully quirky characters with the complex shifting political landscape in India. Such a great read!

This book is so great!

The best and most distracting reading buddy. #catsoflitsy

Reading this in bed while I wait in an online queue to try to get tickets for Michelle Obama in Toronto. Fingers crossed - it's a perfect gift for my mom!

Next up! Been so excited about this one!

One thing I definitely like about my work is that I don't actually have to send "old" books that I'm allowed to return back. This way I can keep whatever I like ?

Fascinating characters, stunning descriptions, war, conflict, religion, race, intersex characters - this book was brimming over with interest and meaning.

It was not easy to read because there was much local context I had to work at to understand. Social issues in India and Kashmir became areas of learning.

Read this if you enjoy a beautifully written challenge with diverse settings & characters.

I love that in the Acknowledgements Roy lists “Close readers, serious-shit copy-editors and brilliant protagonists in the trans-atlantic comma wars.”

I don‘t know if I‘m more impressed with the prospect of being a Serious-Shit Copy-Editor or if I want to be a Combatant in the Trans-Atlantic Comma Wars.

At a funeral for Kashmiri victims of a massacre:

“When the sky was full of keening something ignited. Young men began to leap into the air, like flames kindled from smouldering embers. Higher and higher they jumped, as though the ground beneath their feet was sprung, a trampoline. They wore their anguish like armour, their anger slung across their bodies like ammunition belts. At that moment, perhaps because they were thus armed👇

About the conflict in Kashmir:

“They stilled the looms on which they had woven the most beautiful carpets and the finest, softest shawls the world had ever seen, and ran gnarled, wondering fingers over the smooth barrels of Kalashnikovs that the strangers who visited them allowed them to touch. They followed the new Pied Pipers up into the high meadows and alpine glades where training camps had been set up. Only after they had been given guns 👇

Liked the cover, and the writing style, but not so much the story itself. Anjun is born a hermaphrodite, and after meeting a group of transgender individuals who share a house, undergoes surgery to become the woman she‘s always felt like. Caste systems, creating family, and a sense of belonging set against political upheaval at the heart of this story.

This story has too many characters and too many story lines to be told out of sequence. It was so confusing that I was bored most of the time.
🌈 Kudos though for having a transgender main character and a strong black female main character.

Set during the bloody battle for Kashmir, this difficult, beautiful novel weaves together the stories of people on India‘s fringes who find their place living together in an abandoned graveyard.

Read August 5-19
Book 32/50

“In what language does rain fall
over tormented cities?”
—Pablo Neruda
🔦 Currently reading by book light during a monsoon storm & loving bookish serendipity.

This is indeed a shattered story, and to narrate this story Roy literally became everything. Maybe that is why the reader too is left shattered after reading this. This book is so hauntingly beautiful that it also teaches you how to settle with these fragments of your shattered soul. Maybe being whole is an illusion, maybe it isn't necessary. Maybe making yourself at home in the graveyard of these fragments is the most sensible thing left to do.

My second free book haul at the music festival yesterday 😊

Book 11: As always, Roy's prose is beautiful - dense yet breaking out into lyricism. Something that definitely helps as you wind through a not insignificant word count and a narrative that seems to almost want you to get lost. It took me a while to get into the book but after reading an interview where she described the book as her questioning 'can a novel be like a city?' everything seemed to fall into place.

Look! It‘s like a reasonable person‘s book sale haul. Just noticed that literally all the hardcovers are Knopf. #booksale #friendofthelibrary #bookhaul

'It was the only place in his world where the air made way for him. When he arrived, it seemed to shift, to slide over, like a school friend making way for him on a classroom bench.'

Sigh...

I don't know why but I just love it so much...

Really excited to start reading this

I've wanted to read this for so long and I finally managed to get it today from my school library. The cover is so much more beautiful than I expected. Do this weekend I see a "cup of coffee, rain and this book = perfect day"