Welcome to Litsy!

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I finished my first Sally Rooney book and it definitely won‘t be my last! I ended up devouring this one. It was beautifully written and the dialogue felt so natural. I don‘t always need pleasant, likable characters in the novels I read. If you do, you might not enjoy this as much as I did.

This also helped with a couple of the challenges I signed up for this year.
#booked2020 #millenialauthor
#mmdchallenge #debutnovel

I felt like an armchair traveler this week, visiting London, Dublin, Borneo, and Rwanda!

It also seemed to be the week of bright and vibrant colors. Overall, an excellent start to the New Year.

#bookreport

What an outstanding debut novel! This may be an #unpopularopinion, but I liked this one even more than Normal People. It‘s an absorbing psychological study of a young woman grappling with emotional turmoil and self-destructive behaviors, all while silently coping with chronic pain and a troubled family history.

Probably not for everyone if you need likable characters, but it certainly rings true.

In my 40 years of life, this is the first time I have EVER read a novel that features a character with endometriosis. Endo in fiction! 🙌🏽

Wow, do I wish that my 21 year old self could have read this book. It might have sped up my awareness of what was really going on by 10 years or so. 😢 Frances‘s symptoms so closely mirror what mine were at that age.

That alone gives this book 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
#EndoWarrior

Boring, slow

My over ambitious #jantbr! Not pictured: the first Estranged volume (ebook) and Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat (too lazy to haul it upstairs for the photo 😂), plus a few holds not in from the library yet.

Educated, Boy Snow Bird, and Estranged are from @MeganAnn ‘s #newyearwhodis list. Still waiting on Burial Rites, and Red White and Royal Blue from the library.

#myyearinbooks
I‘m such a nerd, I love these stats! Fun to see them.

Not really a surprise that this #starslut has a 4.2 average rating!
One thing that really surprised me... I hadn‘t realized that my favorite fiction read of the year, was also my first read of the year! (tagged) It makes it sound like it was all downhill from there, but it really didn‘t feel like it!
And I definitely have #pagecountphobia so my longest read was not super long.

I‘m calling it! #19in2019
I‘m only going to finish 1 more this yr, and it‘s not going to make the cut.
I read a lot of 20thC ‘classics‘ this year, and lots made my list (thank you @britt_brooke for putting Franny & Zooey on my radar😘)
I also have 3 non-fic which is definitely not how it usually goes for me!
My MVP was definitely Sally Rooney. Never thought I‘d have 2 books by the same author on my list, but her writing really speaks to me..💕

Frances makes a lot of poor choices and is terribly unaware of how people perceive her and she is cut off from herself but she felt honest and I could understand her. I thought the book was going to end very badly for her and while her problems only increase throughout the book, the book is somehow hopeful.

With the end of the year approaching, I thought it‘s about time to start up the hashtag #19in2019 again, a few years ago introduced by @Cinfhen of course 💜.

These are my 19 favorite reads this year. It was hard to narrow it down, I‘ve read so many good ones in 2019. Thanks to the challenges and this great community! 💕

Just started. Lately I haven‘t liked a lot of novels about young detached 20 somethings - there was that book about a rich girl in Manhattan trying to exist on prescription meds for a year - but this narrator seems honest and messed up and somehow relatable despite her questionable decisions. And the friendship between Bobbi and Frances feels real.

#LMPBC Round 7 - #GroupL
@suvata @sprainedbrain @Chili @thebluestocking

Saving my review for the group book ... If you're lucky enough to be a member, you can read it there.

#Friyayintro @4thhouseontheleft @howjessreads
- My favorite fiction read this year... I loved both novels by Sally Rooney...💕
- Not much ‘cozy‘ reading here in SoFlo but I love to read in the yard, with my old dog playing at my feet 😍🐶
- B&N retail craziness (I don‘t think customers realize how it feels when you help them find the perfect book/ gift and then they say this, right to your face!)
- Yoda I guess🤷‍♀️

I know why people don‘t like this book (unlikeable characters, so many poor decisions, no quotation marks, etc.) but I loved the honesty of it and felt like I deeply understood these characters, even though they are very different from me.

I have a grumpy two year old who doesn‘t want to nap. Afternoon reading made possible by Daniel Tiger‘s Neighborhood 👍

"Do you ever feel like you don't know what you're doing with your life? I said."

Litsy Markup Postal Book Club

#LMPBC Round 7 - #GroupL
@suvata @sprainedbrain @Chili @thebluestocking

I received this along with some charming bookmarks. Will pass it on by the end of the month.

Sally Rooney has a way of exploring character deeply. The characters in this book are not essentially unlikable or likable but rather human. Very human. I love Rooney‘s sparse but poetic writing. And I liked the exploration of the different conversations we have and what affect those have on our relationships and lives.

This book is headed your way today, @suvata! I ended up quite liking it.

#lmpbc #groupl @Chili @sprainedbrain

I was entertained and kept reading, even though I couldn't always relate to the situations and characters. I finally connected with the main character, 21-year-old Frances, in the last third of the book. She finally “grew up“ due to life circumstances that were beyond her control. She had a journey from someone who didn't want to have feelings to someone who finally admitted she felt love for others in her life. That worked for me. 😊

"Everyone's always going through something, aren't they? That's life, basically. It's just more and more things to go through."

I went into this knowing it would be good, but with the assumption that it couldn't possibly be as good as Normal People. Yeah, well, I was wrong. Rooney tapped right into my heart again. ??

I know there's a lot to say about this book, but really, what's up with the lack of quotation marks for any of the conversations between characters?? Did this throw off anyone else?

"Outside the kitchen window the leaves dripped rain like squares of watered silk."

I'm gonna be really sad when I'm out of Sally Rooney to read.

I liked Normal People quite a bit, so here's hoping this one is as good.

Ok, maybe I'm being too nitpicky here. I just started this book and the top margins are so much smaller than the bottom margins. It looks so odd to me! Is this a mistake or is this intentional? Would this bother you or am I being ridiculous? People who've read this book in paperback: did your copy look like this?

On a bit of a sally Rooney kick. I liked this one a little less then normal people. It hit a lot of the same notes, but with less success. Still, a great story with interesting relationships and people.

Frances and Bobbi, 20-something poets and friends with a history, form a strange bond with a mesmerizing but unhappy older married couple.

Read September 30-October 4
Book 52/55

The Audible sale this week is sooo good! I bought these two for a total of less than Qa!

New books go on sale everyday until Saturday. ?

Pulling my best Belle impression and reading while walking 😆 This book is excellent so far (I also enjoyed Normal People).

#bfc #gobletoffitness

This "coming of age" book is full of raw vulnerability and ideas. I liked the style Rooney uses presenting Frances' constant musings and self-analysis as she grapples with her emotions and coming to terms with relationships and with life and basically tries to figure out who she is.

Seems like Im getting a short story fleshed out into a novel with this book. But I love Frances‘ musings at times and am overall enjoying the story (and even the “white people problems” characters).

This book is like an easy job somewhere you know you won‘t last long at and that won‘t ultimately matter much. You know they have issues and are run badly but you still enjoy going to work and are paid for having fun and there‘s some definite perks.

“I told no one, I had no one to tell.”

One of the only books I recognized in this bookstore in Helsinki, 🇫🇮.

#bookstore #holiday

Managed 10 books this month
3 🎧 audio
2 🖥 ebooks
5 📚physical books
Fiction: 8
Nonfiction/essays/memoirs: 2
From my shelf: 1
#monthlywrapup #auguststats

I wasn‘t planning on reading this one because i heard such split reviews: 20somethings loved it, 20+somethings found it annoying. Being in the latter camp (and even older at heart), I stayed away from this until a friend highly recommended it. Turns out, I‘m still close enough to my 20s that I really enjoyed it! It reminded me of one of my close friendships and I felt very connected to the story.

You know that party that everyone seems to be at and you‘re like, “I‘m not sure I actually want to go - it doesn‘t seem interesting.” But you finally throw on some pants and go and after entering the doorway you GET IT. You now understand why everyone is here. There‘s a sparkly unicorn in the corner. It is magical. Well I‘ve finally entered into the Sally Rooney admirers party and I wish I‘d come much sooner. We‘re saving a glittery spot for you.

Morning reading. Also - if you have never had the pleasure of being owned by an orange tabby cat - you should fix that ASAP.

I just picked this up from the library and read the first chapter. Don‘t know if I‘ll like it yet but I can already tell it will be a quick read. I admit FOMO is making me read it! 😁

There is something so intimate about Sally Rooney‘s writing. The perspective she offers to the reader has a real voyeuristic quality like you‘re seeing parts of the characters‘ lives that only they should know. I think I shall read everything she publishes.

Breakfast with friends. If there‘s one thing Sally Rooney does amazingly well its writing the awkward moments. It‘s cringe-worthy but fabulous.

Trying to make time to read more! #newbaby #noreading

I guess I like them complicated.I really like that the characters are not very likable.A great psychological portrait of all involved told from the POV of Frances , one of the younger adults .There is an arrogance of youth sometimes that you can get away with inappropriate things with no damage done.When Frances turns to the Gospels it reminds me of Franny (Franny &Zooey) repeating the Jesus Prayer.Made me think of early Rick Moody too.

Officially in love with Sally Rooney. After reading and loving Normal People, I was eager to pick up Conversations with Friends.. it didn‘t disappoint! While not as good (it‘s clear Rooney has honed her skills and upped her game), it was still devastatingly brilliant. It was such an unconventional coming of age novel (can I even call it that?), and I devoured it. Stunning debut.

“You live through certain things before you understand them.” This line sums up the floundering characters. Their behaviour reminded me uncomfortably of my own floundering in my early twenties, so much so that I nearly bailed. I‘m glad I stuck with it because in the end I appreciated the author‘s psychological insights.
Reactions to the ending at book club:
Sad ending x 2
Happy ending x 2
Neither, just relieved to be done x 2
What did you think?