Welcome to Litsy!

As a librarian, I ❤️ that this book is dedicated to librarians. The combination of journal & book reviews is a fun & unique writing style.
Mor is recovering from losing her twin in an epic battle against her mother & must adapt to a new school & family. She loves SF books and eventually finds other SF lovers to bond with while trying to learn the limits of her magic.
3/5 stars. Read for 1970s SF book reviews mixed with a unique story

This unusual, understated, yet potent fantasy had me spellbound and immersed. Mori is a Welsh teenager in 1979 whose fight against the dark magic of her mad witch of a mother has left her twin dead and Mori disabled and sent to an English boarding school. Through her diary, Mori recounts her days, full of both the mundane and the magical, as reads sci-fi voraciously, finds love and friendship, and explores the moral dimensions of her own magic.

A very bookish girl whose mother is a witch and she, herself, sees fairies ends up in a boarding school after her twin sister's death. A TON of Sci-Fi references. Its a coming of age, Sci-Fi, magical realism novel set in Wales. And somehow it works. Reads like literary fiction.

#ChristmasQuotes #blustery

“The weather has changed completely in the last week. Last Saturday was mild and sunny, autumn looking reluctantly back over its shoulder towards summer. Today it was wet and blustery, autumn barrelling forward impatiently into winter.”

#colormepretty #orangeandyellow

UK Littens.... Having a small clear out and I have this on Kindle too, ooops.
Anyone who wants this I'm happy to post it... First UK person to comment its yours 😘😘

#hellothursday #bookishedition @wanderinglynn
1️⃣ Of course to both.
2️⃣ Tagged, but it won't. Jo says she can't make it work. She's the boss.
3️⃣ I read exactly one mag in print, Uppercase. Everything else is online.
4️⃣ Of course.
5️⃣ 👍 @Tonya_Bross

With a very light touch of magical realism, Among Others is a love letter to classic fantasy and sci fi and a coming of age story.

#magicalrealism #comingofage #wales #booksaboutbooks

#quotsysept18 #quiet (tagged book is awesome btw)

“...because if there are books perhaps it won‘t be all that bad.”
#truth #bookclubpick #vacationreading #travelswithbooks

This book had so much potential it just didn‘t live up the expectation I had for it (and it won a Hugo). I liked many things about this book just wish there was more momentum in the story with a bigger ending. 3.5 stars.

So in my wheelhouse:
1) outcast little girl who survives with books
2) fairies
3) epistolary format

#currentlyreading

A fave ❤

I really loved this hard-to-pin-down little novel that reads as a love letter to books and reading. Part memoir-style narrative, part fantasy, part school story, with more than a dash of the fantastical, Walton's world is utterly singular. This book is artfully written and profoundly sincere, especially for lovers of books who have always found in them a way to belong and a place of safety. A beautiful novel.

Morwenna “Mori” Phelps from Among Others is definitely a #CharactersWhoLoveBooks 😍❤️📚 #AprilInBooks18 🌺📖

#BookNerd 📚💙

Seconded. ❤ libraries, and also this sweet little book--borrowed from my local library!

#weekendchat @CSeydel

❤️ Tagged. It displaced all others after I read it.
💙 Yes. Flowers in the front, vegetables in the back.
💜 It was too long ago for me to remember, unless school shindings count, which they don't.
💛 There are many. Paul Auster, Élisabeth Vonarburg, Daniel Sernine, Jean Cocteau, Arthur Conan Doyle. There is more.

Loved this book! Magic and fairies 🧚🏼‍♀️ 🧚🏼‍♂️ and a wonderful SF book club. My TBR grew exponentially with this book 🤓 #HugoAwardChallenge2018

#BookNerd 📚💙

Definitely needed some caffeine for parts of this. This one just wasn't for me.

Here is a review by Denise: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2321592204

#RtC #MtTBRchallenge

"Next to him, the other people looked as if they were in black and white while he was in color."

#lovegoggles #MtTBRchallenge #RtC

"how interesting that what comes out as doing the best he could in a man looks like neglect in a woman."

How interesting, indeed!

#RtC #MtTBRchallenge #feminist #inequality

"Interlibrary loans are a wonder of the world and a glory of civilization.

"Libraries really are wonderful. They're better than bookshops, even. I mean bookshops make a profit on selling you books, but libraries just sit there lending you books quietly out of the goodness of their hearts."

1. Theme from 80s tv sitcom "Small Wonder."
2. ?? Kind of drags but I'm hopeful it will pick up soon.
3. Not sure, but I bet Dickens wrote it.
4. @stephhammer (because # 1 was her fault)
@GarthRanzz #trivialthursday

Reading this for #RtC. I don't normally read YA, so I'm taking a bit of a risk, though the dedication page alone is winning me over.

I really liked this. The description sounded just like my kind of thing, and it was, though not exactly in the ways I expected. The magic & the conflict are a slow burn, but it‘s an intriguing build. It‘s very internal, in a way that I liked. The main character is unapologetically & deeply bookish, with a heavy SF bias, and with all the mentions of books she‘s reading, my Goodreads TBR definitely grew! This is letter W—my final #LitsyAtoZ! 🎉🙌🏼

“I did not buy a book... which has the temerity to compare itself, on the front cover, to ‘Tolkien at his best.‘ ...How dare they? And how dare the publishers? It isn‘t a comparison anyone could make... I expect Lord Foul‘s Bane...is more like Tolkien at his worst, which would be the beginning of the Silmarillion.”

How about that for a blurb on the cover of the Silmarillion: “Tolkien at his worst.” 😂What do you think, #LOTRchapteraday friends?!

Enjoying some late-afternoon reading on the balcony. I‘m really enjoying this book—my last letter for #LitsyAtoZ 2017! It‘s deliciously bookish, as the main character keeps name-dropping all the books she‘s reading. They sound awesome, and then I have to go look them up on Goodreads. 😊📚👍🏼

Libraries really are wonderful. They‘re better than bookshops, even. I mean, bookshops make a profit on selling you books, but libraries just sit there lending you books quietly out of the goodness of their hearts.

...With eight books weighing me down & rain slashing in my face, I considered going straight back to school... But I wanted to check the bookshop, and 8 books sounds (and feels!) like a lot, but it isn‘t as if they‘ll last me all week.

Starting my last letter for #LitsyAtoZ 2017! This is not one of the ones I‘d picked out for letter W—but I just wasn‘t feeling it with any of those, so I pulled another option off the shelf. I will still read White Teeth and Brideshead Revisited and We Need New Names... but right now I need one a bit shorter, that I‘m in the mood for!

Day 11 of #allthebooksof2017 is a book you finally read this year! I had both of these on so many tbr stacks before I finally got to them 😂 Among Others ended up being one of my favorites of the year.

#booklove 💞📚🎠

September reading wrap-up! I read 9 books in September and (with a few exceptions) really enjoyed what I was reading. I like that I had a nice mix of SFF, nonfiction, and thriller-y reads. My favorite this month was Among Others by Jo Walton, 5⭐️
#fallintobooks #bestofseptember @RealLifeReading

I just finished reading Among Others by Jo Walton and absolutely fell in love. It's about a Welsh teenager obsessed with SFF literature who finds herself in a British boarding school after a family tragedy. Oh, and she can communicate with fairies. It's a quietly powerful book about reading and growing up and finding your place in the world; I think it's a perfect book for SFF fans of all ages. 5⭐️

I wish I wasn't at work right now bc all I want to do is read this book. It's wonderful so far. #currentlyreading

I highlighted a ton of quotes in this book. But this one is so me. ?
"I‘ll grow and change and be myself. I‘ll belong to libraries wherever I go."

Wow. I absolutely adored this book. Hard to describe.
Part classic coming of age story, complete with English boarding school, part Welsh fantasy with fairies and magic. Just give it a try. It grabs you.
Morwenna is 15 years old in 1979 and is usually to be found in library. It's her escape from crazy family. I can definitely identify with that. Love that she saves herself.

How can I not have known this word?
“Bibliotropic,” Hugh said. “Like sunflowers are heliotropic, they naturally turn towards the sun. We naturally turn towards the bookshop.” 🌻📚🤓

My favorite librarian recommended this one. It's hard to describe but I'm enjoying.
It's interesting diary of Morwenna who has lost her twin Morgana. She's left Wales to attend boarding school in England, she loves science fiction and communes with fairies. See what I mean? #siblings #awesomeautumnbooks @Jess7

It's a quiet holiday weekend. Time to get caught up on all the library books I have checked out. 📚
#ssh #imrreading #happylaborday

"Why would you have a library that shuts at noon on Saturdays? That‘s just so English, honestly."
My favorite librarian recommended this one. She knows me so well. I'm only a few pages in and loving it. ?

Ouch! I wonder if Donaldson read this and took offense?

This was lovely just lovely. It made me wish I was more of a sci-fi reader.

Thank you so much for everything! I haven't read any of these and I almost ordered Among Others yesterday on #bookoutlet lol I enjoyed the notes you had with each book too. So cool! @Lacythebookworm #summersantagoespostal

Day 10: Biggest Letdown - It was well written, but the story was NOTHING like I thought it was going to be. I found 90% to be boring and the main character not engaging. The ending was actually interesting but if it wasn't for my book club, I would have DNF'd this hard. #SplashIntoSummerReads @Tiffy_Reads

Great premise, was excited at start...then even if it had been amazing (it wasn't) I went right off it when MC dissed Stephen Donaldson, pooh-poohed Star Wars and called Thomas Hardy boring! 🤔 Nowt much happened, almost as if the author forgot these things need a plot, the mysteries that were initially intriguing were strung out too long, got boring & came to nowt, characters were unlikable and underdeveloped, a nasty scene with the father was ..

Reread.

This book is a very well-aimed arrow at ALL MY FEELINGS and I was afraid it wouldn't be the same on a reread. But of course Jo Walton, the queen of rereading, can write for the re-reader.

Mori is so immensely frustrating in such perfectly teenage ways and I love her so much.

(Picture from the beginning of my reread on Saturday--the first bits of this book go surprisingly well with TALLAHASSEE.)

A greeting card I bought at the local used bookstore today. I'm not sure if I'll ever give it to anyone, but I liked it!

I think I'm going to like this book!