Welcome to Litsy!

Lacey writes sentences that make me stop and digest the idea. This story is bonkers and infuriating (read the book summary). It also has nuggets of information and concepts that are relayed to us in a way that excite me. Much like Pew, her most recent book, I was delighted by her writing. This book will not be for everyone, but it sure was for me. I can‘t wait to read Nobody Is Ever Missing.

Cat-sitting Dandelion and really enjoying this book. Written by the author of Pew, I was almost put off reading it because of its low rating on Litsy.

This book was wild! While it‘s #GoodNotGreat, I‘m still pumped it was a library sale find.

Mary is broke and chronically ill. To pay for the very unorthodox healer she‘s found, she takes a job being the Emotional Girlfriend in an experiment being run by a movie star. Other girls do other facets, such as Anger and Maternal. What‘s interesting is that Mary‘s emotions are buried so deep, she‘s a blank slate for the movie star to project onto. 🍌👖

Library sale haul!! It was so busy, but I managed to find these 8!

The Answers and The Antiques are going on my #BookspinBingo board 👍🏻📚

“I got used to it, in a way, being this sack of skin full of problems, because having a body doesn‘t give you the right to have one that works correctly.”

Somewhere between a pick and a so-so. I was mildly annoyed by the first half of the story, but got much more interested in the second half. An interesting take on human relationships and what love is, exactly, or what it is motivated by.

Sometimes a book comes to you at just the right time. Started this earlier in the month and while I liked it, I just couldn‘t stick with it. After a tough emotional day yesterday (teenagers!) I decided to try again for the sake of #bookspin. This time I couldn‘t put it down. It all came together for me and in the end I found it brilliant, beautiful, and profound—essentially a 291 page zen koan on letting go of longing and just what I needed.

🦃Reading the tagged plus four others - I might have too many books on the go, lol
🦃Even though I miss them, I‘m grateful my extended family are staying safe and staying put for the holidays and giving each other the gift of good health.
🦃It rained!! I have missed that beautiful sound and smell so much! 🌧☔️💕
Want to play @vivastory @Reggie @Clare-Dragonfly @batsy @Cathythoughts ?
#thoughtfulthursday

My #BookSpin and #DoublesSpin !!

So, I read 4 from this piles already? Any favourite and comments about any of these books? Let me know! #fifireadsfiction

She did not miss his voice, which, in the end, carried so much abuse, and she did not miss his body, which had a few times been used against her, and she did not miss the history or the rituals they had created together, the mythology all lovers write, but she did miss the comfort of his life drifting besides hers. She missed his nothing. It had felt like something.

#UglyCovers #BoringCovers #PuttingYouOffCovers

How about you? Care to join? Post covers of books that are ugly, boring, or just putting you off from reading the book. Don‘t forget to tag me so I can see your covers!

@Andrew65 @julesG @gradcat @Librarybelle

Hmm... It is an interesting concept, trying to engineer an ideal relationship, but the Girlfriend Experiment collapses in on itself, not least of all because the egocentric dude who has come up with the idea makes a shambles of it. The MC, Mary, is an interesting study, and it was a readable story (except for the parts where egodude Kurt was the primary focus). But I found the resolution very unsatisfying, seeming to just drift off into vapor.

About 45% of the way through The Answers. Kurt is insufferable. Please send help.

"Maybe it was just my life, my strange and always stranger life, taking all the life out of me."

Loved the beginning of this book. It's was intense, but interesting enough to keep me going. Things started to get weird around the 60% mark and I didn't really care for the ending. Has anyone read this? If so, did you enjoy it?

I loved Lacey's writing, very thought provoking. The novel follows a woman who joins the Girlfriend Experiment, working as the Emotional GF for a celebrity trying a sociological experiment to farm out various aspects of a relationship. I loved the ideas Lacey explored. Like many think-y books, the premise dissolved a bit towards the end and I would've loved more about Ashley, the Anger GF, but this is one where you can't expect a tidy ending.

Princess Polly has been my reading buddy on and off this morning. Flash makes her look kinda mad but she's not.
Still on my first book but close to finishing. Took a break for lunch with the hubs and got an iced coffee to perk me up going into the afternoon.
#deweysreadathon #catsoflitsy

Good morning Littens! I'm starting off my #readathon with The Answers, which I'm absolutely loving so far. I want to post a quote from this about every 3 pages. I'm not sure how well I'll meet my goals today; I got a horrible migraine last night that is still holding on a little bit. But I'll spend as much time reading as I can! #deweys24hourreadathon @DeweysReadathon

Anybody else planning to participate in #deweys24hourreadathon this weekend? I'm hoping to read Sabrina and the Frankenstein manga, and then these are some of my likely suspects after that (of my physical books anyway). I don't try to stay up for 24 hours cause I love sleeping but I like the readathon since I feel like I can really clear my day and just read as much as I want for the "event."

I 🧡❤️💛 Catherine Lacey!

https://wellreadneck.wordpress.com/2019/02/04/1264/

“What a danger it is to love, how it warps a person from the inside, changes all the locks and loses all the keys.”

This I am loving.

I read this in one sitting on a long travel day and desperately wanted to fall into the world of this interesting concept of The Girlfriend Experiment. But I just couldn‘t connect with any characters. I will be thinking about the plot for a while, but the characters left me cold.

I‘m afraid to say that this book is poorly titled. There are no Answers here. Provocative questions, but no answers. Ultimately this mashup of Mad Men, The Truman Show, and any second-rate rom-com starts out promising but loses its way. It is, alas, in the book‘s own words, ‘warm bullsh!t.‘ A rare PAN for me. ⭐️⭐️

I ended up really enjoying this deeply weird novel, whose protagonist joins a "Girlfriend Experiment" in which women are assigned roles in a famous actor's life to help him research and obtain the ideal relationship. Our main character is dealing with a mysterious illness and unconfortable upbringing while having her interactions scripted and monitored. Very very strange, and well-written. 4⭐️

So far I'm finding it well-written with a healthy dash of weirdness, which is what I'm looking for in a book. Our main character Mary is suffering from a mysterious illness and can only find relief through a strange and extremely expensive form of alternative medicine. To pay for her treatments, she takes on an odd job--participating in an experiment about forming a perfect relationship by acting as part of a set of girlfriends for a famous actor.

Some reading for a slow afternoon at work. I started reading The Answers 3-4 months ago, but had to return it to the library when I was only half finished. Now I remember so little I feel compelled to start again from the beginning. 😑 #booknerdproblems

I used to miss you when you were out of town, but now I get that feeling when I look at you, when you‘re right here.

“She ran past a group of boys her age who whistled and she was angry that they didn‘t know what had happened to her, and she felt vaguely afraid of them and she felt angry that she was afraid of them and sorry for that fear, then angry again.”

So much unchallenged ableism and misogyny from the protagonist. She's actually worse than the actor, because at least the text accurately assesses *him*. It keeps telling us she's so compassionate and kind, when she literally only cares about the feelings of boring white dudes she wants to fuck. She can't go a page without witnessing the suffering of a woman she knows and telling us how much she doesn't care. In return, I stopped caring about her.

"These stories were mine, as personal as my spleen."
Today in odd similes.

"Love is a compromise for only getting to be one person."

"What a danger it is to love; how it warps a person from the inside, changes all the locks and loses all the keys."

Fuckin HELL am I sick of listening to the famous actor's thoughts. He's literally every white guy who's ever cornered me at a party to talk at me about new wave films or anarcho-capitalism. 😴😝😷

The performer speaks obnoxiously slow, but at least it does mean I can post quotes when I'm listening and not driving.

"Even the light seemed strange, as if part of the sky had gone missing."

"The way children stretch time, and the way adults forget that stretch, could be one of the saddest differences in the world."

Started this one today on the way back from class. The performer's voice is a little distracting, but I've heard much worse, and I like the story so far.

Strange premise but probably a good read for those interested in what makes relationships tick, from a wacky experiment perspective. I had a lot of unanswered questions at the end, leading to my so-so rating. My full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1869830880

#audiorunning 🏃🏻‍♀️🎧
So happy to have a chance to run outside, it‘s 38 degrees and the snow is melting!! I‘ve been in a workout slump since the beginning of February since I haven‘t been feeling well. I hope I can get back into it.

Just started this book- so far it‘s depressing with talk over and over about how sick she feels. Might not be the best book for running motivation 🙄😂

1. The Couple Next Door
2. The Tales of Beedle the Bard
3. After You
4. Pachinko
5. Macmillian & @ruthemmielang
6. Heart‘s Invisible Furies
7. Weylyn💕, Morrigan Crow & gang
8. Harry Potter & Sorcerer‘s Stone
9. Nevermoor: Trials of Morrigan Crow
10. Hearts Invisible Furies
11. All the Missing Girls
12. Undone (not final book, last I read from series this year)
13. Mystery/ Thriller
14. The Chalk Man
15. Listed/tagged, Slaughter & Final Girls

1) tough! ... My Name Lucy Barton
2) tougher! Although only read recently, but I keep thinking about it: The Bedlam Stacks
3) The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*%k
4) that would have to be Natasha Pulley

@GypsyKat #LitsyQuestions

Wow. This completely blew me away. So much experimental goodness here. I may have to make this my book club pick the next time my turn rolls around. So much I‘d like to discuss! @Reggie thanks for the push to pick this up!

This book was Jurassic Park, but instead of dinosaurs you had emotions. Mary is so sick she needs Pneuma Adaptive Kinesthesia treatments to feng shui the hurt out of her body. To pay for it she applies and gets the job as The Emotional Girlfriend. There are parts of this book that emotionally blindsided me. I felt the need to punch things while reading. I feel like I need to say sorry to all women from all men. A pick, but it doesn‘t settle well.

This is quirky so far. The top is the interviewer talking. Italics indicates talking in this book. The first person narrator is a girl rescued from being raised off the grid all grown up. Side note: When did quotations get put on the endangered punctuation mark list? My last five books did not use them. In some cases, there were no indications that a person was talking. You had to work it out. What did quotation marks do, I wonder?

I haven‘t been reading much literary fiction lately and this quirky, wonderfully written novel is a reminder that I need to change that. It‘s overly ambitious but how could it not be when it‘s dissecting the meaning of love, celebrity, the self and more? Another great pick from my Strand fiction subscription. Thanks to #SullivanCat 🐱 for modeling.

Oh man, this writing. It‘s been subtly excellent so far but Lacey is kicking it up a notch toward the halfway mark.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

1. The Martian Chronicles.
2. Lonesome Dove.
3. White Tears.
4. Rat Girl.
5. The Sorrows of Young Werther.
6. The Heart‘s Invisible Furies.

#playingfavorites

Mystery
Couch
Neither 🤢
Autumn
Fiction
Hardback
Paper bookmarks
No!!!
Superheroes in the movies, fairytales in books

@slategreyskies