Welcome to Litsy!

#TimBitTunes #DinnerAtEight

Don‘t forget to bring dessert and the wine 🧁🍷

I think it's high time to get my TBR temptation posts going again, you agree? ☺️

#TBRtemptation post 1! This collection of 11 short stories seems innocuous and familiar at first, but reviewers warn to expect twists and turns, some bizarre ones at that. A husband dreading a dinner party with his wife's friends; a retiree lamenting about growing old alone; a man who breaks down thinking his wife's left him. #blameLitsy #blameMrBook 😎

1. Julie Garwood
2. Julie James
3. Stephen King
4. R. L. Stine
5. Brad Meltzer
6. Roald Dahl
7. Nicholas Sparks
8. William Shakespeare
9. Ally Carter
10. Meg Cabot

#DinnerParty

After being disappointed earlier this year by Eugenides‘s story collection Fresh Complaint, I had higher hopes for this one. Ugh. It was an exercise in relentless agita. Desperate characters alienated from spouses, lovers, friends, and ultimately themselves. Some male authors seem not only misogynistic but misanthropic as well. Very disappointing. I didn‘t feel that way about To Rise Again at a Decent Hour.

@Syndelle777
1. Antonia Hodgson
2. PD James
3. Sarah Addison Allen
4. Harry Bingham
5. John Connolly
6. JK Rowling
7. Kendare Blake
8. Mark Gatiss

Meh. I loved Joshua Ferris's first two books, got along okay with his third, but didn't really enjoy any of the stories in this collection (his fourth book). Like a dinner plate left neglected in the open air, it left me feeling cold instead of nourished. 😧

Shelves just make me happy! (And anxious because I didn't want to buy anything!)

These short stories really drew me in. I liked them a lot. They all had a moment that felt unreal and made me think. The writing was sharp and interesting.

Enjoying the last few hours of #24in48 and looking at the bookshelf visible from my bed. Almost the entire thing is #TBR.

My 2nd dinner party!!! Courtesy of being tagged by @MaleficentBookDragon

1. Imbolo Mbue
2. Neil Degrasse Tyson
3. Khaled Hosseini
4. Angie Thomas
5. Colson Whitehead

So...which authors are you inviting to your dinner party @Bookwormgirl @libraryofcuriousity @mugglemagicisbooks @booksandbigideas @LibraryLadyReads
#5fordinner

Thanks for the tag @Avanders ! I would hope this would be a fun dinner with plenty of stories and adventures told by all.
1. Jimmy Buffett
2. Clive Cussler
3. Terry Pratchett
4. Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer
#5fordinner

Thanks for the tag @LouBeth ! 💕
My picks for #5fordinner are
✨Cassandra Clare
✨John Green
✨Marissa Meyer
✨J.R.R Tolkien
✨Stan Lee

Would be a very interesting dinner party !
I tag @litmuggle @GypsyKat @Fandomlyla_Pottercy @jackilynn if you haven't done it already 😊

#5fordinner
Lauren Beukes
Holly Black
Trevor Noah
Bill Bryson
Neil Gaiman

And Hope Jahren (Lab Girl) as an alternate

Thanks for tagging @Redy2trvl
I'm going to tag @LauraBrook @emily_m_tubb @brennahawleycraig @KirstieE

I'd love to have these #5fordinner, just imagine the conversation! I'd probably just let it wash over me (Sarah Moss, Helen Oyeyemi, Virginia Woolf, Sarah Perry and Ali Smith. Who would you choose @vivastory @saresmoore @Kalalalatja @simona @rohit-sawant @batsy ?

Thanks for the tag @britt_brooke My five authors I'd like to sit & shmooze with.... although I'm a little intimidated by Roxane Gay ( she's my newest literary crush💕💕) Junot Diaz,Alice Hoffman, Geraldine Brooks, Roxane Gay & James McBride 🍽🍷📚 Who would you invite @emilyhaldi @Reviewsbylola @Mdargusch @LauraBeth @shawnmooney

In each of these stories there is at least one sublime passage of beauty, humor, or naked realism

I had adult friends, childfree, who exactly this for fun

Trying out this reading while working out thing...we‘ll see...

#BookNDinner! Except we‘re with friends visiting from out of state, so we‘re not actually reading, because that would be inconsiderate! lol. Back at the Mongolian Grill for another round, cause yes it‘s that good! We offered to show our friends the local fare, nice little country pub, nice little charming historic dive bar along a creek with outstanding food…but they said Nope! We saw your Mongolian Grill dinner pic…YOU MUST TAKE US THERE! 😂👌🏻

"Like many older people who find themselves on the phone with children of unstable attention spans, Arty began to talk nonstop, flinging at his granddaughter every expression of pride and love, interspersed with questions intended not to sate a genuine curiosity but to confirm Meredith‘s continued presence on the other end of the line."

I finished this one on audio a few days ago and forgot to do a review. This collection is entertaining and frankly, one story about the ever-pervasive FEAR OF MISSING OUT made finishing the entire book worth it for me.

We are introduced to people we have all read about before, but as I kept going, Ferris surprised me with the direction he took the endings. Most of the stories worked for me, and those that didn't I have already forgotten.

MY 24 in 48 LITERARY DINNER PARTY

1. Roxane Gay
2. Bernice L. McFadden
3. John Green
4. Trevor Noah
5. Elizabeth Berg

#24in48 #readathon #literarydinnerparty

First book in #24in48 finished

Unexpected #bookmail 😃

I actually finally won a #goodreadsgiveaway - I'm still pretty amazed!

I'm adding this to my #24in48 #tbr stack!

Ferris's writing style lends itself to novels, not so much to the short story medium. The characters are a little too obvious, their desperation about time running out, the futility of reaching for something larger than their mundane lives writ large on each page. Where there should have been subtlety, there was a hammer!

I think this is the first time I have hated every single story in a collection.

Pretty good write up in the paper for this one On Sunday.. may have to pick it up!

I really enjoyed about 3 of the stories in this collection and the rest weren't bad, but fell short for me. I love how Ferris writes and even in stories I didn't like much there were great lines. Overall it's not a bad collection, but not notable either. My favorite stories were: "The Dinner Party," "The Pilot," and "More Abandon (Or Whatever Happened to Joe Pope?)"

Had Barnes&Noble coupons burning a hole in my pocket

I decided to make this weekend short story weekend and started with this one. Like most collections, there are hits and misses. I always enjoy a collection with more hits and this had more hits right from the get go. Each story seems to contain tensions- a husband and wife who's friends stand them up, a writer working on a pilot, etc. Good writing and the stories were the right length. Good stuff.

As with most short story collections, this was a mixed bag. I *loved* The Breeze, liked a lot of the others and disliked a few. Ferris tows the line between humor and heartbreak really well. His characters are always unsettlingly on the verge of becoming entirely unhinged; sometimes they crack and sometimes they don't, and it's a little stressful to watch.

Monday morning reading!

#BookNDinner! #LitsyParty edition! Accompaniment this snowy evening: corned beef, cabbage, potatoes marinated in Guinness Blonde lager; (I'm having a baked potato ☺️); smokehouse green beans; sautéed mushrooms & garlic cloves in olive oil & balsamic vinegar; and Cabernet Sauvignon. MMMmm ?! This has been presentation of: #MrBookBookBabeKitchen. Happy reads & happy eats! ???

A wry read full of short stories with characters whom range from flawed to downright despicable but always come off as above all human. Failing marriages (loss of self/me vs "we" identity), floundering muscularity, "why are we even here?" are themes that pop up through more of the selections than not. Ferris has been playing with many of these themes here since his debut Then We Came to the End&has only grown sharper in the intervening years.

It's been FOREVER since I won a Goodreads giveaway! I loved Then We Came to the End so am psyched for this one.