Welcome to Litsy!

Leave it to Mary Karr to write a book that is brutal yet funny .Look , you can blame your dysfunctional family, your struggles with writing, your self involved husband, but when binging occasionally turns into being an alcoholic there is a time to take stock & try to change.Mary has the quality of being brutally honest w/ the reader even when you get she‘s lying to herself.It can push buttons, if you know someone w/ these issues, still recommend

Another wild Saturday night !

Trying to do some Sunday reading but Nacho is making me sleepy #catsofLitsy #NYRBbookclub

Today is my fifth Litaversary!

I've made great reading friends and connections here but struggle to keep up these days. Please forgive and celebrate!

When I started reading this memoir, I loved it. Mary Karr has a beautiful way with words and it felt as though there was such a raw honesty in her descriptions regarding her descent into alcoholism. Unfortunately, much as I understand that religion played a large part in her recovery process, I found the lengthy musings about Catholicism jarred with me, hence the overall rating! The last third of the book just wasn‘t that engaging for me.

‘Such a small, pure object a poem could be, made of nothing but air, a tiny string of letters, maybe small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. But it could blow everybody‘s head off.‘

• Returning to Litsy with the audiobook of Mary Karr's "Lit." Always good to hear the author's voice to get the feeling. Still sad that I couldn't finish "The Liars' Club" because my library unshelved the book ? I was loving that one. This one is good so far •

I love that Grace from Grace and Frankie is a reader (and admits that she hates poetry after reading Rumi 😂). ❤️

#TheHarshestLight #NoFemmeber A work like Lit stands in stark contrast to the faces most of us present to the world where you keep the good stuff and blame others for the not so good. Karr displays many unflattering moments, poeticized but intact. 'Tell me how much truth you would like to buy,' Mackenzie Scott of TORRES sings. She cites the likes of McCarthy, Didion, Plath, and Nabokov as influences, which may explain her wisdom beyond her years.

📖 Lit (tagged)
📝 Harper Lee
🎬 A League of Their Own, La Bamba
🍴 lemon poppy seed muffins

#manicmonday #letterl

Every now and then we enter the presence of the numinous and deduce for an instant how we're formed... Usually the closest we get is when we love, or when some beloved beams back, which can galvanized you like steel and make resilient what had heretofore only been soft flesh. (Dev you gave me that.) It can start you singing as the lion pads over to you, its jaws hinging open, its hot breath on you. Even unto death.

I don't think too many people rush to grab lengthy memoirs about writers' battles with alcoholism, but I can vouch for this one. Karr's writing has an infectious, musical quality- combine that with her excellent reading style in the audio version, and her voice lingered in my head even after I'd stopped listening. She's also gifted in her ability to sensitively portray the figures in her life, herself included. Funny, sad, & thought-provoking. 👍

Holy Toledo, you guys weren't kidding! The image pictured (courtesy of Pinterest) is my brain as I listen to the first couple chapters of Lit, my first Mary Karr. I'm immediately convinced that if everyone could have Karr intoning her memoir-poetry through headphones, there would be no need for drugs or alcohol 😃😃😃😃 😃#blameitonlitsy

Can‘t seem to stop my nonfiction by audio obsession! And almost all are encouraging me to try therapy. How does one go about that? Everytime I do a search, I balk.

Day 7: #readingresolutions @Jess7 memoir Monday.

This has been on my radar for a while now after seeing it mentioned by @bookriot. I think I might make it my next audiobook

#Red #ReadingResolutions

Liars‘ Club made me love memoir, but the last time I recommended it, that friend hated it. I picked up Lit to see if I still enjoyed reading Karr. Lit reaffirms my love for memoir, so I‘m judging my friend now. She obviously reads completely wrong.

Also, Karr is coming for #TFOB, but I think she‘s only doing one session. I‘m hoping for no conflicts.

Lastly, it‘s raining in the desert!

I can‘t get enough of Mary Karr. Her memoirs are full of familiar, raw emotion. Attempting to read anyone else after 3 back to back Karr memoirs is trying, but I‘m doing my best to reset my expectations.

#BookHaul !!! 😁 Couldn't help it! Picked up Drinking with Men and decided it was finally time for more Mary Karr- and what a great themed pair this is #BooksAreMagic

❤️

"Why is it that everyone else is traffic?"

I listened to this on #audio read flawlessly by the author. Something about it coming directly from her mouth, her Texas drawl still slightly present, really enveloped me. Her writing is raw. The descriptions, lovely. She is rough, bold, and smart. I like her.

#Toxic #AugustGrrrl

PS. It's said that Granada House was the model for IJ's Ennet House. #MaryKarr #Lit #DavidFosterWallace #DFW #InfiniteJest

After all the #audio questions yesterday, I ended up going with something completely different. 🤷🏼‍♀️😁 I love Karr's writing. She's rough around the edges, and maybe a little in the middle, too. I like her. #overdrive

I picked up a new (old) bookcase at the Brimfield Antique Show yesterday & am working on putting it together. Miss Moo's consulting & lending her general expertise. #shawwalker #barristerbookcase #wip

This poster is 🔥

I just became aware of its (seemingly limited) existence & am attempting to acquire a copy. Cross fingers. (Or do spells or send vibes or something. 🤞🏻🔮)

I love "The Liars Club". Karr's talent for language and metaphor is as unique as the life she's lived. "Lit" chronicles her struggle with alcoholism, her divorce, her career insecurities, & her battle with motherhood. While the haphazard timeline and self deprecation work well to bolster these themes, they didn't make for very exciting reading, nor do her obvious success and superior intellect make her relatable through these trials. ☹️??

Today's book mail 🤗 Now, if only I had the time to read🤔📚📖

#17booklove #Redbooks @jess.how

When you‘re in my place, you‘re gonna pick up some kid‘s check. The idea that Walt was deranged enough to envision me in the position to buy somebody lunch was maybe a bigger vote of confidence than the adoption offer.

my newest olive edition. I like my editions to match but I also don't care about pristine conditions. #oliveedition

Todays new bookmarks😊#Bookstorehappy#readeverydayeverywhere

The 2nd Mary Karr of the day

Two great ones here but my favorite I recently lent out so it's not pictured: Son of a Gun by Justin st. Germaine.
#booktober #memorablememoirs

Oh my god, this book is so good so far! Have you read it?! She writes so beautifully, and her words are so raw. I am only 34 pages in but that's enough for me to already be intrigued. It goes back to the library tomorrow cuz it's already overdue but I'll be back for it soon! 🤓😀

If you lie to your husband - even about something so banal as how much you drink - each lie is a brick in a wall going up between you, and when he tells you he loves you, it's deflected away.

I'm loving this #somethingforsept photo challenge. It's made me view the lit on my shelves in a whole new light. Every prompt causes me to think about these texts, their covers, content, and authorship. Today's #womenwriters was especially good. I was immediately impressed by the overlap between my female and POC authors. There are so many strong women writers that it was hard to narrow it down even to this stack!

"My head spends much of its day pumping out reasons for not doing what I should the way a magician draws long strings of scarves from a sleeve."

"The image of my blond three years‘ son this morning, sobbing and holding out his arms to me while Warren strapped him into the child seat, is a hot stove I can‘t stop touching."

Kathryn: "I'm on my way to my book club and am trying to refresh my memory. One of the things I loved about it is that it's a beautifully written memoir, but it also gives insight into the creative process of a writer. I'm a designer and can relate to it. The highs and lows especially. What I like is that she takes her life experiences and uses them to inspire her work. I think that's what successful artists do."

"I stand at the bar, its tiered bottles like a shiny choir about to burst into song. With only five or six dollars in tips, how much trouble can I get in?" This book is proving to be a sobering account of Karr's struggles with alcohol. The author has a knack for vivid imagery and unforgettable turns of phrase, and the book is challenging and devastating in the best way. I'm humbled by her experiences and her command of language.

Oh my effing God this woman is amazing.

"But humming through me like a third rail was poetry, the myth that if I could shuffle the right words into the right order, I could get my story straight, write myself into an existence that included the company of sacred misfit poets whose pages had kept me company as a kid." ?

Wow. This resonates.

I've had this on my bookshelf for a while now. Always intrigued by the secret lives of others and how they came to be the way they are.

Picked this one up today. Never read any Mary Karr, and I guess starting with a tough story to read. What did you guys think?

Karr is a dazzling raconteur. An intoxicating read.