Welcome to Litsy!

My March wrap up!

#pop22 Three months down and I‘ve completed 9/40 books for the challenge. @KarenUK @Cinfhen @Kalalalatja @Megabooks @4thhouseontheleft @BarbaraBB @Laughterhp @RaeLovesToRead @jenniferw88

I love time travel books and this one did not disappoint! It‘s raw, emotional, disturbing and historically important. I placed a hold on the Graphic Novel format to read next week.
#pop22 ~ an #ownvoices SFF book

@KarenUK @Cinfhen @Kalalalatja @Megabooks @4thhouseontheleft @BarbaraBB @Laughterhp @RaeLovesToRead @jenniferw88

Why yes, I did cancel plans because it‘s snowing and I‘d rather be reading. 😅🤣 #catsoflitsy

3.5 out of 5

This is the first book that I‘ve read by #octaviabutler and it is amazing!

Having Dana as the main character and seeing what is happening through her perspective is what makes this story interesting.

#blackliterature

#blackwomenauthors

#blacksciencefictionandfantasy

My first book by Octavia Butler and wow was it good! 😵 This was a phenomenal story that used a lens of science fiction to look back on America‘s painful legacy of slavery with a very nuanced eye. Well written and with quite human characters, Kindred was fantastic! 😃 For my full thoughts, see my review here:

https://youtu.be/00sPF86lYpI

First 5 star read of the year! Complex characters, time travel, a reliable and strong narrator: what more could you ask for? I regret that I had to put it down for classes, and only just picked it up again.

You can read my full review here: https://www.rainyreader.com/single-post/kindred

#scifi #historicalfiction #cat #catsoflitsy

#AudiobookSale Librofm Just posted their sale audiobooks. Great selection. Check it out!

Read Harder Challenge #8: Read a classic by a POC author
5 stars/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was a re-read for me after 20 years. I still liked it and I was able to share the journey with my husband. We were on the edge of our seats with Dana's time travel & my heart broke every atrocity described in the book. 4.5 ⭐
#BookSpinBingo #19 @TheAromaofBooks

2 of 2 - Whew! This was quite a task! Here are my #pop22 books, subject to change based on book club choices. 28 of these are on my physical TBR bookshelves which I‘m super excited about. 4 are new to me books that I had to google and the rest are on my TBR radar. I‘ve got a few big ones, so we‘ll see. Let the games begin!

I wanted more. It was “just the facts” storytelling. I wanted descriptions and emotions. I wanted Kevin‘s story from his POV. I didn‘t really engage until mid-story, but then it was riveting. The idea of time travel has always been a fantasy of mine, but you never really think of traveling to the Hellish times in history like Dana did. She traveled from 1976 to the Antebellum South as a black woman. 3/5🧭s

This amazing book not only tells the reader about slavery, it ingeniously makes you live it by transporting you with its modern-day heroine back in time. Because she is black, she is treated as a slave. Because she, and you, are free, you feel keenly the injustice and indignity of her enslavement. Each transport back to the present reminds you what has been taken away. Octavia Butler is a genius.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Sci-fi isn‘t my favorite genre, but I‘m glad I gave this a try! Being ripped through time to experience the horrors of our history of slavery through a modern lens was emotional and effective. I would have had no idea it was written in the 70‘s; it‘s a timeless tale. 🎧

Consider time-travel. Do you view it as dangerous to the future and fear changing history, and possibly even your future? Perhaps you think about it more frivolously and want to experience a large event. Do you wish you could go back and take a different life path? Regardless of what you imagine, are you imagining the possibility of that trip being physically dangerous and life-threatening? Likely not, but that's what Butler has done here, ⬇️

There's no fluff or decoration in this novel, every character and setting has a purpose. The actual story telling is beautifully basic but so many complexities run through the entire book.
There's so much here to discuss, how's does a Black woman in '76 adapt to the slavery era? How does a white man in '76 adapt to being a white man in 1812? How do the people of 1812 understand the people of future generations.
Fantastic sci-fi, loved it.

Unpopular opinion I know, but I just can‘t seem to find a groove with this book. I tried print and am now on to audio.

Powerful and brutal. Not perfect but definitely raw and emotional. I only wish it hadn‘t ended so abruptly.

Simply beautiful 💕

Ever since I was little, the idea of being able to go back in time and experience history has always fascinated me. Narratives and stories set in the past have always called to me. But a narrative that is built on time travel and handles masterfully the heavy history and present legacy of slavery with the depth and skill only Octavia Butler could? Erm, yes?

Just as incredible and sophisticated as I remember. I loved revisiting it in #audiobook format. Kim Staunton did a wonderful job. It was especially great to hear the Southern accents. What I find remarkable about this book is Butler's talent for creating such complex characters and situations and her restraint at not explaining or simplifying anything. Dana's journey into enslavement is so psychologically complicated and compelling. #BlackBooks

Last month, someone on Litsy said this was the best book they‘d ever read, so it went right on my list! I‘m Buddy-reading it with two of my book club friends in May. #bookspinbingo

I plan to sit here and read an entire book.

What a wonderful book. I put it down exhausted from a compelling narrative but incredibly sad about the cruelty of slavery. Written in 1976, bicentennial (a commemorative coin appears) Dana ,a black woman is married to Kevin a white man to both families disgust. She is repeatedly transported to 1816 maryland creating a story of horror + compassion. Brilliant writing.
#AntiRacismBook #booked2021 @4thhouseontheleft @Cinfhen @BarbaraTheBibliophage

After a massive slump in March & Feb, April has been a great reading month! I enjoyed all of these! 😀
The Enchanted April : ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
When she woke: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The girl with the louding voice: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Kindred: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
#aprilwrapup

I didn‘t love this quite as much as most readers seem to have, but I did like it, and the slave conditions were truly appalling and eye-opening. I hope the upcoming pilot from FX does this book justice. Seems as though this has the potential to be great on the big (or small) screen.

Halfway to my year's reading goal! Such a difference from last year, which was such a struggle to concentrate and find books I wanted to read.
Favorite book, so far, tagged.

#SundayFunday @ozma.of.oz
1. Kindred by Octavia Butler
2. No, the time travel doesn‘t have to make sense.
3. No preference.

One of the best books I have ever read. Dana time travels from the 1970s back to her ancestors on a plantation in 1815 and immediately gets sucked into a world of slavery and suffering. Beautiful writing that never let up and it kept me guessing right to the end. A perfect book.

A young African-American women called Dana is somehow taken from 1976 LA to pre-Civil War Maryland planatation. It usually happens when a white boy Rufus is in life-threatening situation. It seems he will be one of her ancestors. Each time she goes back seems and and she must be very careful to make sure she survives slavery to return to her own time. This is a really great book. Very compelling as you hope Dana is able to survive! #books

Holy wow is this an amazing book. Hauntingly relevant to today's world.
An African Americans woman in the 70's begins to travel back in time.
This was was my first Butler book and I can not wait to pick up the next one. Her writing is so smooth you simply fall right into her world.

A intriguing story. Read as part of the #PopSugarReadingChallenge2021. 4/5

Finished up this book on a beautiful spring Saturday. What a good book. Dana, a black woman living in 1976, is taken back and forth through time to an ante bellum south plantation of her ancestors in the 1800s.

#sundayfunday
1.Tagged book,among so many great books I read last year.
2.Francis Spufford,Octavia Butler, Eugene Rogan,Zora Neale Hurston
3.I've joined #NetGalley this year and I'm astonished by the access to great books it affords!
@ozma.of.oz great prompt! Have a good week!

Butler never disappoints! It's easy to see why Kindred has been printed so many times and adapted many ways (play, graphic novel, upcoming FX series, etc). This book featuring a 1976 Black woman, Dana, time traveling back and forth to slavery's South is hauntingly unforgettable.

Butler's book is both straightforward and complex; her characters are deep; Dana's narrative and difficult choices compel the book forward. Unputdownable!

I loved that this story didn't dwell on the why's but focused more on what's next. The story never said why the events occurred. Instead it proceeded with the events in such vivid detail.

Such a great book. I‘ll watch it!

https://lithub.com/were-finally-getting-a-kindred-adaptation/

Hi, hello, yes, I am freaking out! 😱

https://thegrapevine.theroot.com/fx-orders-pilot-for-series-adapted-from-octavia...

#BookAdaptations

Looking forward to this!
If you haven‘t read it, you should definitely add to your TBR!

I finished this a couple of weeks ago. It was very good. Historical fiction lightly disguised as science fiction. Written in the 70's but doesn't really feel dated.

Interesting concept with time travel and race and also women‘s rights.

February reads! #FebruaryWrapUp

#integrateyourshelf

I can already tell this is going to be one of those books I can‘t believe I didn‘t read earlier.

Such a great podcast episode 👍🏼

https://www.npr.org/2021/02/16/968498810/how-octavia-butlers-sci-fi-dystopia-bec...