Welcome to Litsy!

#WhereAreYouMonday

Today I am in Micronesia. In Yanagihara‘s book it‘s the 1950s and a young doctor signs on with an anthropologist for an expedition to the remote Micronesian island in search of a rumored lost tribe. I joined them 😉

Unpleasant. That's all I'll say.
I liked the anthropology involved and the science around the island but not the relationships formed.

Clever memoir style with incredible detail and footnote! Very impressive but just not what I'd wanted to read about.

#Readingoceania2024. #Micronesian This novel is one disturbing read that not only challenges the myth of tropical paradises but shows a glaring light on western scientific greed. There are two narrators, the main character and his editor who writes in the footnotes. Both are unreliable and morally suspect. Although a slow read, and chilling, it is worth the effort.

5/5 ⭐
Affascinante e raccapricciante al tempo stesso. Leggerlo e stato come osservare la mente di un mostro che si crede un eroe.

Norton Perina, a medical researcher who won the Nobel prize for medicine for work which offers the chance of physical immortality, is writing his memoirs in prison where he is serving a sentence for sexual assault.

Perina is an unpleasant character, full of whining self-justification. The book is very slow with occasional bursts of movement to shift the plot forward. It does give the reader much to ponder but it was a struggle to get through.

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

#coffeeandabook

A crew goes to a small island in Micronesia in search of a small tribe of natives with extremely long lives. Beautifully written with a stunning ending, and I mean stunning.

This was an interesting story of a professor going on a research journey to visit a tribe. It was a little distracting with the footnotes. I really love the descriptions of the tribe and actions and sounds. I felt like I was there.

What a weird, dark, unsettling, sinister novel but I liked it. this is Yanagihara‘s debut but you can already see the style, complexity and themes of her 2 later books.

There is an intricate structure; this time, the book is like a scientific article, with footnotes by someone else and there are the themes of power, sex and control.

I‘m going to say something scandalous… I think I liked this more than To Paradise! 😱

Very strong TW though ⬇️

Could have moved along a little quicker in spots

Oh my god!! Like WTF??!! This book was EPIC!

This book has to be one of the most inventive books I‘ve ever read. Even if you think you know what‘s happened, you‘ll always find yourself surprised by the way the story has been written, by the way people are represented and by the way truth and lie intertwine in a hypnotic dance.

Absolute loved this book. Very well written and narration was fabulous too. I highly recommend this work to everyone!

mad about it tbh

Starting this eBook - I used to be a better multiple book reader but lately, I am one-book-at-a-time. This one scares me. Hoping I can fall into it and it won‘t let me go. For the last of 8 I need to read for the goodreads TOB group Favorites. #ToBFavorites
#DogsofLitsy #EstherAssisting #whpg #Griff4Short (I must have caught her in a blink!)

This is both beautifully written and equally unsettling. Roughly based on a similar case irl this book will stay wih you. Themes of power and abuse - the whole book has you quietly anticipating something you know is coming but hope it doesn't.. Yanagihara immerses you into a vivid new world in large chunks of the book and shows you how important perspective is in any recounting.

My brain is fried from everything involved with packing/moving/setting up the new house, so settling in for a reread of this masterpiece since I can't handle new info right now.

Happy holiday reading everyone!

Whoa, this book is so dark and devastating and covers very tough subject matter. It made me sad on so many levels, how humans treat each other and our world so badly. The main character is so unlikable but the book is so compelling and beautifully written. Yanagihara is a brilliant story teller, she has a gift.
#LitsyAtoZ letter Y

Here's my #DecemberTBR
4 of the books are to finish my #LitsyAtoZ challenge for 2019
I start holidays on the 14th so I think it's achievable 🤞
Thanks for the inspiration @Carolynm

#Hollyjollyreading
@OriginalCyn620
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Sunday morning reading in bed and we‘ve got a theme 💁🏼‍♀️

Hello, Friday....
Hope everyone is having a good one!

If you pick this up expecting it to be like A Little Life... Well, it's not. Let's say I get why A Little Life is the book that made Yanagihara famous and not this one. The first 30% of the book seemed to drag forever and then I ended up enjoying it. It does have strong messages and the writing is beautiful.

#Yanagihara is such a brilliant, brilliant writer! Norton, a gifted scientist, discovers a turtle that might hold the secret to eternal life - he wins the Nobel for that, but the consequences for the turtle's habitat in Micronesia are devastating: Companies exploit nature, the indigenous culture dies. Then Norton goes to prison for sexually abusing native children. How could all of that happen? A thought-provoking read, highly recommended.

This is the story of a medical research doctor attached to an anthropological trip to study the people on a small island in the South Pacific...

On so many levels, the theme seems to be that things may look beautiful on the outside but contain ugliness on the inside.

This was a tough book for me to muscle through and I had to keep reminding myself that it‘s fiction; but it‘s a well-crafted story even though the protagonist is unlikable.

Brilliant. The first 100 pages were a bit of a drag but once we got to Ivu‘ivu it really picked up. Ms. Yanagihara does a wonderful job with Norton as a character and creating the culture of Ivu‘ivu.

This is a story where the protagonist is unlikable. Norton is full of himself and self centered. He‘s done some apprehensible things. But that makes the story so much better.

There is description of killing mice and sexual abuse

#wow

Eager to start this #library #science

This debut from Yanagihara is about an anthropological expedition led by a scientist, Norton Perina, to a remote Micronesian island in search of a lost tribe. Not only was it a success, a ‘secret of eternal youth‘ was also discovered. But things went downhill when the scientist was imprisoned on the charge of abusing some of the fifty-odd children he has adopted from the Micronesian islands!
#tbr #hopintospring #trees

I'm not one that normally plans out my TBR, but these two are both near the top of my list!

Thanks for the #swishandwin #giveaway opportunity @swishandflick!

I can almost feel the humidity and smell the ocean from these 2 tropical reads as I huddle under the blankets on my couch. Moloka‘i has been in a #TBR stack of mine since 2008. I didn‘t realize the tagged book is set in Micronesia until I started it. Of course that is clearly stated on the back cover, but once I know I want to read something, I just grab & go without looking! Keeps things exciting.

I don‘t know how I feel after reading this. Definitely a difficult book. Unlikeable, unreliable narrator. Trigger warnings for disturbing content. However, it was memorable. Love the cover pictured here, unfortunately it was not the cover I had. This book was very different than A Little Life by the same author.

Quiet time reading. Compelling but difficult so far and I think it is going to get more so.

Starting my itinerary for my #LitsyPassport and decided to start with the only one I already owned! Micronesia here I come!

I seriously feel like I may have to work through the stages of grief after reading this book. Wrecked somehow doesn't adequately sum up my feelings. And yet I still love this book. Does that make me a complete masochist? Trigger warnings definitely apply for several things. Blanket statement - just avoid if the worst of human nature is going to trigger in any way. #heavyshit #humanscanbesuchassholes

Continuing my journey with the Dreamers ... certainly not an easy read, but I'm a sucker for novels that will wreck me and leave me a sniveling fool for days/weeks after I finish them.

Trigger warnings for this one - if you even read the headline of the preface, you'll know what subject matter is bound to come up later on.

Don't know if Hygge works when you're reading disturbing novels, but reading by candlelight certainly is making me feel it right now #hygge #livecozy

What to do when temp is to be -30 C overnight? Curl up under a blanket and read about a tropical island/forest. Although my dislike of the narrator is intense, it is somehow still absolutely fascinating to read. And yes, I know it will take a very dark turn, but I'm down for some heavy stuff this week. #bestcoverartever #bringontheuglycrying

"Of all the emotions to describe in retrospect, happiness is perhaps the most dull, but awe is the most difficult."

On a scale of one to total annihilation of the heart, where does this one fall? I'm assuming (as the debut novel from the author of A Little Life) it must fall closer to the latter.

E-book currently on sale for $4.99! #ebookdeals

Hanya Yanagihara creates the most complex characters and supports them with the most intricately beautiful sentences. I love her work.

This novel. Whew. What a detailed tale of how disastrous and monstrous human beings can be.

Half-Way Status Update: I'm 48% of the way through my e-book copy and just getting my sea legs on the prose! There is a tension created by describing the characters, the settings, and ideas with a push-pull duality: Firstly in glowing, nearly idyllic terms; but then secondly with a *dark* limning that gradually increases in its weight to counter the first assessment.

#HumpDayPost

🍁Picture of Fall: The leaves are finally turning!
🍁Next book: ‘The People of the Trees‘ (by Hanya Yanagihara)
🍁Milk, Dark or White chocolate?: Dark!
🍁Allergies: Pollen, Dog & Cat dandruff, caffeine, squid/octopus ink
🍁Closest yellow thing: A Radio Shack multimeter (volt meter)

This beautiful fiction novel I bought awhile ago, but still is one of my favourite covers! 😍

Do many of you buy from book depository? I sometimes do, but this morning I bought a book, put in all my details and when I clicked submit just took me back to the homepage but had taken money out of my account, with no email confirmation. I emailed them (so hopefully they get back to me) but has this ever happened to anyone?!
#fiction #bookdepository

Gorgeous cover, brand new, $6.99, purchased with a bonus coupon so I paid $0, on my TBR = #bookscore 😃

🤢🤢🤢

Oh god. Page 167.... just... 👎🏼

Starting to pick up now that we're on the island

First reading adventure out of the house after eye surgery! Complete with a #coffee and new #sunglasses I love #summerbreak

Next up for my new book club, I loved "A Little Life" but don't have a great feeling about this one so far... trying to keep an open mind! This cover too!!! ?