Welcome to Litsy!

With a unique magical realist premise (during thunderstorms one Toronto woman Rose had episodes where she's transported into the body of another as a kind of observer) it's surprising that this novel is as bland as it is. I just felt like it didn't do much or go anywhere. The contemporary story is offset by a narrative in Rose's youth around when her sister died in an accident. The woman that Rose visits becomes a kind of stand in sister. #CanLit

As a 34-year-old, I was feeling like the 34-year-old character felt like a very old 34 or perhaps a 34-year-old from 20 years ago or so, and then there was a detail that she saw "Being John Malkovich" 5 years ago when it came out. I googled to find out that movie came out in 1999 and was like, aha, it's like 2004! She still feels old but more believable now, as does her using a paper phone book and calling a business to get their address. #CanLit

Small but mighty Christmas haul this year! My dad picked out this awesome sounding Canadian book, a "neo-gothic psychodrama" about sisters and my sister got me Harry Potter in Spanish so I can practise my Spanish! #ChristmasHaul

I loved the concept of this book and was super excited to read it. Even more so once I discovered it was set in my neighbourhood. However, I have mixed feelings about this book. The concept was great and I did really enjoy the writing, which was well crafted. Yet I felt that there were so many unexplored plot options. I like a lot of plot in my books and it was a bit lacklustre.

This was a book club read and it was not enjoyable. I did not like it and I will be interested to see what the other girls thought(I know one of them said that they did not like it)

This book was so engrossing - electrical storms start throwing the main character into another woman's body for short periods of time and she gets drawn into her life as a result. Weird, quirky, and enjoyable. I wasn't thrilled with then ending but otherwise a great read!

Curled up in bed with my book trying to nurse some bug that's kicking my butt a bit 📚😷🤒

Starting this one!

The story involves a woman who is apparently suffering from silent migraines and enters the body of another person while doing so. It's an interesting, easy and kind of bizarre read

Wonderful afternoon at the Eden Mills Writers' Festival 😍📚

Nicest day all week and a Saturday to boot! I'm not complaining about previous days at all. I hope anyone in the path of Irma or José is safe, I can't really wrap my brain around the crazy of those storms

Every time there's a thunderstorm, Rose finds herself suddenly experiencing another woman's life, someone who reminds Rose very much of her dead sister. This imaginative premise leads us through the minefields of motherhood, sisterhood, self identity and interconnectedness. Warm, witty and insightful. #CanLit 🇨🇦

She kept to herself the reason she could watch certain films 5 & 6 times was that she didn't care much about the story. What she treasured, because they comforted her, were the domestic details, the rooms, the furniture, the clothes, especially the women's clothes & especially their footwear: pumps, heels, saddle shoes, moccasins, cowgirl boots, rain boots, slippers. Only actresses playing peasants or beachgoers ever wore flat sandals like hers.

She didn't like his house. Beyond the dim, cramped rooms, it was tainted by the seedy circumstances of its acquisition, which were that Victor's father had used money from stolen gemstones smuggled over many borders by Victor's mother in what she called "the lady part" of herself. Rose, sleepless in Victor's bed, a bit sore after sex, always thought about the gemstones, how frightened his mother must have been.

As their father told the story, they were turning into one of those couples who brag about not contributing to overpopulation, when Fiona's appendix burst. Three months after the surgery, for no known medical reason, she was pregnant with Rose. Five months after giving birth, she was pregnant with Ava. Their father called his girls "The Appendices."

Pageturner!

YAY! Have been dying to start the newest Barbara Gowdy :D

I bought this print way back in April, but I just got around to framing it and putting it up last night! I'm so happy with it!

I'm really excited to read this, but the cover creeps me out a bit...

Congratulations to Barbara Gowdy: LITTLE SISTER is a PEOPLE pick!

"In this inventive novel, a woman troubled by guilt is transported into the mind of another woman--during thunderstorms!--and experiences flashes of self-illumination." --People Magazine

Happy pub day to LITTLE SISTER by Barbara Gowdy!

"Electrifying" (Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review). "A gem" (BBC News). "A thrilling, captivating exploration of guilt, the female psyche, and the bonds of womanhood" (Publishers Weekly).

I was utterly present for every moment in this book... and then it lost me in the last 10 pages or so. Now I'm trying to figure out how else I would've wanted it to end. #mostanticipated2017

Tearing through this story of two women and the strange way one gets to know the other. Spellbound as always by Gowdy's powerful storytelling.

Little Sister is one of those books that has such a good premise and idea behind the characters but then gets really underserved by the construction. It takes so long to get to WHY Rose becomes so obsessed with Harriet and how the two of them might be connected (or not) that I was having trouble staying with the story. It should not have taken me this long to read. Fiona was a great character.

(Thanks to @Tin_House Galley Club for the ARC)

"She uses the example of a Russian matryoshka doll – a writer enters the mind of her character, and then that character enters the mind of another character, and, eventually, all the characters wind up in the mind of the reader."
https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/barbara-gowdy-wont-back-do...

A moving article about a Canadian novelist I've never gotten around to reading. And I had no idea about her health challenges.

http://www.macleans.ca/culture/books/barbara-gowdys-mantra-just-lie-on-your-back...

This is the book I'm most looking forward to reading in 2017 https://nvcltopshelf.com/2017/01/07/patricias-most-anticipated-reads-of-2017/