Welcome to Litsy!

Two American military wives forge a friendship within the military community in Jordan. They take precautions, as they are unfamiliar with the language and culture. The more adventurous and less-cautious of the two goes missing. Clues left behind in her journal reveal what led to her disappearance. The book switches between the past (journal) and the present, which works. The descriptions of historical sites like Petra leave me wishing to visit!

2019 was a great reading year. Of the 243 books I read, 42 were rated 5-stars by me.

The oldest selection on my TBR list - Originally added April 17, 2017.

This is a very touching story about the friendship of two women. Both of their husbands are in the military and have been stationed at the embassy in Jordan. The woman could not be any different about how they handle living in an area that could become volatile at the drop of a hat. I really enjoyed her first book, You Know When the Men are Gone. Consider me a fan.

Kept trying to read the library print version last summer & finally got 'er done with the e-book version. A pick for the writing & detailed glimpse of military wives & expats in Jordan & a story that kept me intrigued & reading despite an intense dislike for one of the MC.s. Skillfully told through the thoughts of one character reading the journal of the other & ruminating on their shared experiences. Still not sure how I feel about the ending.

I was undecided between avocado toast & eggs caprese this morning & so I split the difference & had them put avocado on top of my eggs. 😋Enjoying the view & breakfast at my happy place before my errands & before it gets hot & humid. I started this book once in print from the library & didn't finish so I am hoping borrowing the e-book will help since my Kindle is always with me for dribs & drabs of reading time. Happy Saturday! ☀️

This audiobook paired really well with the book about military dogs in the Middle East that I‘m reading now—it showed another side of that story and broke my heart in totally different ways.

Is it weird to truly enjoy a book, but dislike all of the main characters??? That‘s how I felt about this book. It led for some great discussions at book club!
#Book3of2019

Right from the start I was put off by the somewhat simplistic writing style for one of the main characters. I didn‘t find any of the characters that likable - Hassan, the guard, probably more than anyone. I mostly enjoyed the smaller details that were included that rang extremely true from having had similar travel or military spouse related experiences. On a tangible note, I loved the size of the hardcover edition I checked out from the library!

Fallon wrote a fantastic book and I‘m glad we get to hear the point of view from both women. As a military spouse, I identified with pieces of this story but hope never to befriend someone like Cassie. She was not what I call a true or good friend, but a judgmental b*tch who wants everyone around her to be as miserable as she is.

#TBRtemptation post 1! Set within the US expat community in the Middle East during the Arab Spring. Cassie and Margaret's solder husbands are stationed at Jordan's US embassy. When Margaret goes to the local police station for a fender-bender, Cassie agrees to each her toddler son. As the hours pass with no word from Margaret, Cassie gets fearful & snoops, questioning her friend and her own role in the accident. #blameLitsy #blameMrBook 😎

Jumping into my next book club read....

My library haul today. Three of the four are due in two weeks. We'll see how fast I can read. 😁

I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about this book but I suddenly found myself invested in where the novel was going. The characters are fully realized and the plot read believable. I enjoyed learning about Jordan and "visiting" the ancient sites with Margaret. The military aspect is really only a reason for being in the country, the main focus is the relationships in the book, in all their messy glory.

When you get surprise #BookMail and realize it was a Goodreads #giveaway you had no idea you won! 😱 I‘m debating whether or not to read this one next. 🤔

Check out today‘s episode of @unabridgedpod about Siobhan Fallon‘s #confusionoflanguages ! Read the book? I‘d love to know what you think. You can find us on unabridgedpod.com.
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And don‘t forget to enter our giveaway for #theastonishingcolorofafter (find details at @unabridgedpod on Instagram).

Join us @unabridgedpod tomorrow for our discussion of Confusion of Languages. Lots of great back and forth about this novel!
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And don‘t forget our #giveaway of #astonishingcolorofafter by #emilyxrpan—head over to @unabridgedpod on Instagram for details.

#ReadingResolutions #library 📚I had to return two books to the library today & pick up my hold (Le Bernardin Cookbook) & that's all I was going to do BUT the tagged book looked really good & jumped in my hands & Picnic in Provence was 50 cents at the library bookstore & I read & enjoyed her first book Lunch in Paris...& well...you know how it is. (Also blue chicken rarely gets the love of his 3 orange 🐔siblings so I threw him in the pic!) 🤣💙🐔

As a once military wife the intensity and challenges of the two protagonists experiences and relationships were really impactful. I also loved the relationship both had with Jordan and how their life views changed their experiences of the place and it‘s ‘foreignness‘ to them. A great start to my reading year. (Do I have to go back to work😂)

I read this in 26 hours. May not seem like a major deal, but I‘ve two young boys to look after. Everyone always asks me “how do you read so much?” Well, I don‘t watch much tv and I‘m not even someone who reads as much as others. Anyways, loved the writing and the story. Ending was a little less adventurous than I thought it would be. Also, love the cover.

When your bath tray doubles as a bed tray! Boom! Loving this book. I really enjoy the writing. It‘s one of those books that transport you to another land. What is reading for if not to transport you to a different culture you‘ll never experience or allow you to become someone you aren‘t ?

#humpday post @MinDea 1. A small selection of bookish gifts 2. Chilled couple of days on the coast 3. Maltese‘s teasers (all gone from the celebrations box) 4. Pens, notebooks, penguins 5. 🎶 I've never seen the inside of a bar room Or listened to a Jukebox all night long

Wow! Talk about unexpected ending. Throughout this novel, you're reminded of how language and words can really get in the way of conveying what we mean. The culture clash in Jordan takes center stage of this book, and as the drama unfolds, the uneasy sense of foreboding keeps you turning pages. It takes a magnifying glass to marriages, in this case, that of two military families living abroad. So good! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #20BooksOfSummer 16/20

I've been lugging this book with me everywhere since I started it. So good! So why not to happy hour? I can see why it's compared to NOTES ON A SCANDAL. Always love a good epistolary story. #BookAndBooze

Stunning cover! I attempted to read the e-ARC of this book a few months ago, but the formatting got to me and I gave up after the third chapter. It was good though. Now I've caught up to where I last read and can tell this is going to consume me until I finish it! Let the games begin!! #CurrentlyReading

When it's your day off, you've planned a lazy morning of pjs, reading and coffee but your husband greets you with a lost pet that asked to come inside. She's adorable and huge! I think this is the 5th dog that's found their way to our house. Guess I'll be at the vet this afternoon trying to find her owner. Hoping she's chipped. For now I'm calling her Gidget!

Two very different women react to their new world. Cassie is a good army wife, follows the rules and tries to make as few waves as possible. When Margaret and her family move in to Jordan, she tries to help the young mother acclimate. Margaret, though, isn't interested in the rules. When one well meaning action turns their world upside down, how will they recover?

I actually liked The Confusion of Languages more than so-so, just not all the way pick. I enjoyed so much the cultural aspects and the play between the books two central characters, Cassie and Margaret. The one big flaw for me was Margaret's over the top disregard for the cultural norms of the country she was living in, Jordan. My full review: http://www.novelvisits.com/confusion-languages-siobhan-fallon-review/

I liked this quite a bit. The plot was a little slow-moving at first, but the setting was great and the main characters notably well-developed. As a somewhat unconventional uniformed service wife myself, I'm surely biased - it's hard not to like any well-written thing that dives into the messy psychosocial dynamics of military spousehood. This was an entertaining mix of the believable and the just-beyond believable, and I do love Fallon's writing.

Yesterday's library #bookhaul. I'm really excited to read all of these!

New books! (That I wanted to get yesterday) been looking forward to Confusion of Languages and Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue for months. Decided to swoop up Last Days of Night because it sounds so intriguing!

Gonna need another new bookshelf soon.
Sorry for the rushed picture. I'm off to take a bubble bath 🛁

Woohoo I finished my Goodreads goal of 150 books, crazy. As for the book, it could have been so much better. It just did nothing for me.

Another read off the MMD summer reading guide. So far she has been pretty spot on.

Siobhan Fallon's debut novel, THE CONFUSION OF LANGUAGES is out tomorrow! Shelf Awareness called it "Cerebral but still taut with suspense as Cassie unravels her friend's fate, this novel's sophisticated pacing and emotional core set it apart from the pack."

Oh, and this is my new puppy, Gus!

Whoa. OK just finished a combo audio/print read. Couldn't pull myself away. You might not like the characters, but I bet you'll be caught up in their lives. Two women who seem to have nothing more in common than their military husbands & their current station at a Jordanian embassy. A lot to think about: friendship, marriage, parenthood, Americans overseas, politics, religion. Very worth the read.

Siobhan Fallon starts her book tour on 6/27 in Chicago! Love this novel! #debut

I read mixed reviews on this one, so I wasn't sure what to think when I started, but I really enjoyed this. I read it in one sitting and although sometimes the characters made me want to scream in frustration, I think the author did a great job portraying these two flawed individuals and their friendship.

Loved her short stories really looking forward to reading this one also Good me Bad me chilling great cover thanks @flatironbooks .No Apparent Distress an inside look by a medical student about the realities of our health care system so important relevant for today's world.Norton books 💕📚fantastic day of book mail.

I can't wait for the release of this little book on June 27th! I received an egalley last month but the formatting issues took away from my reading experience, so I decided to wait for my library to get a copy. Already on the list and first in line! Loved Fallon's short story collection, which I read in May. #JuneMostAnticipated #JuneBookBugs

Loved "You Know When The Men Are Gone" so, of course, this one is a must read!

Received my Goodreads book from the contest. I forgot about it. I love it when that happens. 😁😁😁

I was so excited to get to read this book from Penguin First to Read. I grew up an army brat (though my dad's a doc, More Colonel Potter than Crick), but the characters felt a bit familiar. (And my dad had me watch the security training whenever I went overseas). The story is set in Amman, Jordan & focuses on 2 women and how they adapt to that new environment. I liked how it goes between their perspectives, so you got the whole story of events.

Fairly solid but I wouldn't say that I loved it. What's good: the nuanced characterization and the depiction of life in a foreign country. She does a good job describing the culture of Jordan and its role in the story without bogging it down with unnecessary details. But the actual plot left me feeling a bit underwhelmed.

This book quickly sucked me in & held there. A story of jealousies, misunderstandings, & the fragility of language is told through the fragile friendship of two mismatched soldiers' wives. It shows how easy it is to say one thing & have another thing heard, to think you know something & have that rug of understanding ripped away, & to realize the pain of coming to grips with your own role in a tragedy even when you thought you were trying to help.

Just received an e-galley of THE CONFUSION OF LANGUAGES! A fitting way to end my staycation. I heard about Fallon on the "What Should I Read Next" podcast, and blew through her book of short stories YOU KNOW WHEN THE MEN ARE GONE (a stellar read, FYI). #CurrentlyReading #dogsoflitsy #dottie

I decided I need to prioritize my NetGalley books and ARCs, especially since some of these have already been published. Oops. I have some non-fiction on NetGalley too but that will take longer to get through. *hangs head in shame*

Have any of you ever found a note and have no recollection of writing it or what the heck you were doing/trying to say?!
I found this gem on a random page of my journal and I can't make any sense of it lol. Jason is my boyfriend. Anyone want to take a stab at an interpretation? Lol

Another amazing novel on Putnam's summer 2017 list! Siobhan is one of my favorite authors to work with, her 2011 short story collection, YOU KNOW WHEN THE MEN ARE GONE, holds a very special place in my heart!