Welcome to Litsy!

Andrea Morales moves to Portland in the 90s to escape the constraints of her hometown in Nebraska. In Portland, she feels free to live her life as a lesbian, and has the support of the family of friends she meets there. Then she meets Ryan Coates, the drummer of local band The Cold Shoulder, and everything changes when they have an affair.
#LitsyLoveReads
#ReadAway2024 #AwesomeApril Readathon @andrew65

Saturday morning #coffeeandabook ☕️
#BookSpin

So far, I've only got one book on my #ReadOrDonate list for April, but I'm sure there'll be more as the month goes on!
@julieclair

Thank you for the gifts Soubhi! This book looks really interesting, and I'm looking forward to reading it. And I love the stickers and the reading mouse- he is so cute!! 🐀 (Fun fact: I used to have pet mice when I was little.)
@Soubhiville

This one was just ok for me. There were bits of it I really liked and bits I didn‘t care for. The middle section where the point of view shifted threw me off, if it had stuck with Andrea‘s POV throughout I think it would have been a pick.

Started off this unofficial #24in48 weekend by finishing this audiobook while starting my laundry.

A book about a lesbian in 90s Portland who starts sleeping with a man after getting her heartbroken and ends up pregnant. Also a book about identity, community, family, and relationships. An easy and entertaining read. I wanted more depth in some areas especially before the time jump but overall really enjoyed this audiobook.

Join us for our discussion of Stray City by Chelsey Johnson today at 2pm ET. Link to join :

https://us04web.zoom.us/j/358593234

So much fun reading this book. I really was moved by the characters. Thought it was well written. Can‘t wait to discuss with @litsybookclub

I listened to this book fairly quickly, but it‘s just not one that I found relatable nor that I gained great insight from. It was not what I expected from the blurb, spending much more time on the earlier portion than the later. I found aspects of the story interesting, but I also felt things came together a little too quickly and easily after the story skipped 10 years into the future.

#LitsyBookClub #audiobook

My library haul today. Plus the August @BookPage .

I love my new Kindle's #BookBuddy from #MelvisMakes on Etsy! #Kindle #KindlePaperwhite

I started the #readathon with an evening #audiowalk while listening to this month‘s #LitsyBookClub selection. I don‘t plan to get many hours of reading in this time, but I am going to enjoy at least a few.

#DeweysReadathon #ReverseReadathon #audiobook

New month, new book. We hope that you will join us in reading Stray City this month. Questions? Ask @Bookworm83 or @Graciouswarriorprincess .

Such a good librar #bookhaul today - why do I have to go back to work instead of spending the rest of the day reading?!?? I also just saw summer reading for adults is happening at my library, and while I‘m late I hope to catch up on logging some books pretty quickly.

This feeling of #sweetdisposition is one I always wanted #8daysaweek but was lucky enough to have experienced a couple of times in my 20‘s. P.s. this book is wonderful! #BeatleMaynia #MayMovieMagic

I really liked this book. It felt very honest and authentic about queer community/belonging (90s lesbian Portland), good and bad. Andrea is a 24-year-old lesbian reeling from a breakup. She ends up in this kind of relationship w/ a guy, who she likes but isn't really attracted to. It's more an easy connection and validation. Things get complicated when she gets accidentally pregnant. Smart writing and insights that felt so true to my experiences.

"I realized I'd traded one small town for another. It seemed in our urgency to redefine ourselves against the norm we'd formed a church of our own as doctrinaire as any and we too abhored a heretic."

Oof this section where her lesbian friends find out she's slept with a guy hit me really hard. The biphobia, the judgement, the fundamentalism, and just the plain cruelty. It hits all the more hard because I know how true to life it is. #QueerBooks

"Gay stories were the ones that traditionally ended in death and tragedy but for me heterosexual love seemed far more doomed."

"'You don't have to be good at it Andi.' said Vivian as I groped stiffly at the neck of a borrowed base. 'Just do it. Expertise is a weapon of the patriarchy.'"

#QueerBooks #AwesomeAudiobooks

"Open relationship: it had sounded like a blue sky, a vast field, a sunny lake. It was more like the door kicked in on a basement. It had turned out the only person my former girlfriend of three years didn't want to have sex with, or, share sex with as she called it, was me." Hahaha too real ?

Checked this one out on a recommendation from Autostraddle ... couldn‘t finish it. I thought it was going to be about queer culture and it was... to an extent ... though about a third is about the main characters relationship with a man and getting kicked out of the “lesbian mafia” ... probably would‘ve liked more with different expectations, but wouldn‘t recommend

After facing the painful rejection of coming out to her family, Andy creates her own family among a group of other lesbians in Portland in the late ‘90s. When she becomes unexpectedly pregnant following a clandestine fling with a male drummer named Ryan, her life does a complete 180. Queer identity and belonging are the central themes of this debut. At 400+ pages, it‘s a novel for readers who relish the opportunity to really sit with a character.

This book is my favorite of the year. Andy Morales is my spirit lesbian. Homegrown in Nebraska she breaks out into Portland and becomes herself. After a hard breakup with her “I want an open relationship” ex-gf Flynn, and seeing her first ex-gf, Vivian hookup with Flynn, Andy wants something for herself and gets involved with drummer guy, Ryan. They have the sweetest romance you know is going nowhere and she ends up pregnant. This book made 👇🏼

"A pang of homesickness hit me. It didn't happen often but when it did it hit hard, dug deep. That smell of old decades. I even missed the ones I hadn't been alive for."

I‘m really digging this book. This is the MC, Andy Morales, having an interaction with her ex-girlfriend. And pages later I feel confused because after all this “I‘m a lesbian, I‘m in the lesbian mafia, I love women,” somehow the author has me rooting for her and her on the down low, scrabble loving, heterosexual dalliance with a grunge rock guy that we all know isn‘t gonna work out. Lol, that‘s life right?

Autumnal afternoon reading view.

(Not a spoiler, says it in description)
I‘m having a difficult time understanding why most of the lesbians are so upset with her and can‘t imagine her having the baby. All of my lesbian friends have babies (through fertility treatment, not secret boyfriends).
Maybe because it‘s set in the 90s, and the Lesbian Mafia is such an in-group, but it seems like today people are much more accepting of everyone‘s choices as long as they aren‘t hateful.

There were a lot of things I liked about this one. Andy Morales is a lesbian finding her way in Portland during the grunge scene in the 1990s. That setting in and of itself was fantastic.

Andy finds herself in a secret fling with a man and ends up pregnant. She is shunned by the LBGTQ community and struggles to find herself.

There was so much going on here. I felt the author could have gone deeper into some issues. Then again, it was too long.

Andrea Morales grows up in a conservative Midwest family but escapes to Portland, OR at age 24 and is able to finally embrace her true self in the "lesbian underground." But even as she is finally able to come out as gay, she continues a heterosexual relationship and is shocked to find herself #pregnant. This book is the anti-romantic comedy and addresses what it means to find and build your own family, however unconventional.
#septemberdanes

Layered look at character development and gender fluidity amid the lesbian scene in Portland during the late 1990‘s, and what it‘s like to grow and develop among the expectations of friends and family who have you placed in a very specific box. The reactions of Andrea‘s friends and family after finding out about her pregnancy are well done, as is her own growth as a mom and independent woman.

#lgbqt #lgbq #genderfluid

Perfect Readathon weather
#24in48 @24in48

6 and half hours down.
#24in48 @24in48

I started this today & just finished. This book is about finding yourself and dealing with choices based on what life hands you. Andy‘s journey was a good one - I really liked this. #booked2018 #LGBTQIA+ MC

Just realized I forgot to post about the #LGBTQ book I read last month. I really enjoyed this one. It‘s very much an anti-romance. It‘s about family, community, sexuality/sexual fluidity, and to top it off, Portland in the 90s! While there were certainly some underdeveloped characters and it ended rather abruptly, it was a fun, lighthearted read for #pride. 4/5 ✨

#ownvoices

I was drawn to this book by my own similarities to the main character - we are the same age, grew up in the same part of the country, and moved to similar towns to attend college. I liked the insight into the LGBTQ+ issues of the time and place and how having a child in that environment fit in. Loved the inclusion of 2 animals as supporting characters.

An enjoyable read.

This was a great debut! Thanks to the @bookriot All the Books podcast for the recommendation. I really liked the character development of Andrea as well as the shifting perspectives. It‘s complex with beautiful description and prose. Yet, it‘s still accessible and not overly flowery. Overall, it‘s fast-moving but does not compromise character development.

This was a great debut! Thanks to the @bookriot All the Books podcast for the recommendation. I really liked the character development of Andrea as welll as the shifting perspectives. It‘s complex with beautiful description and prose. Yet, it‘s still accessible and not overly flowery. Overall, it‘s fast-moving but does not compromise character development.

Finished Stray City which was excellent. To the right is my TBR pile. Which one should be next? 🤔 📚 #summerreading #tbr

This week‘s #LGBTQ audiobook is Stray City. I‘ve been loving the first half, and am looking forward to finishing it.

❤️🧡💛💙💚💜

#pridereads #ownvoices

I really really enjoyed this debut novel about a gay woman living in Portland in the late 90s, who starts sleeping with a man after a bad breakup, and ends up pregnant. The story was captivating and I loved the main character. I also loved the descriptions of Portland, and now I really want to visit! #pridemonth

#Bookhaul from #halfpricebooks tonight. Shhhhh, no one tell my husband! 🤐 🤷‍♀️🙈 I think the tagged book might be up next for a pride month read 🌈

Hey all... check out this great giveaway hosted by @mrozzz !! Littens are just the best!!! #iwinyouwingiveaway

Check out @mrozzz page for more info on the #iwinyouwingiveaway

Thanks, @mrozzz for hosting the #iwinyouwingiveaway what a great selection of books!

Thanks @mrozzz for the giveaway! #iwinyouwingiveaway.

👋🏻 Littens! I‘ve won so many ARCs this last month, I‘m itching to give back! 😄 Open to ALL until 11:59pm June 1.

For 1 entry, comment on this post (below)

For 2 entries, re-post this to your page, include #iwinyouwingiveaway & tag me

For 4 entries, make a new post of a much anticipated book you can‘t wait to get or of an ARC you have on your TBR. Tag me & don‘t forget to include #iwinyouwingiveaway!

GOOD LUCK 🍀

A quick read about Portland in the late 1990s (and 2009) focusing on what happens when Andrea, active member of the Lesbian Mafia, gets pregnant.

This is a really different book. The fact that it is set in the 90s is a really fun part of the book because I found it very relatable. The characters make a statement and this is really a book labels. It‘s about being who you are and not fitting into a box that someone else created for you. There‘s also a lot of heart in this book and a lot of strong messages. I definitely recommend it!

THIS BOOK. It was such a choice read while I was having a stressful weekend. It was lighthearted, yet still brought up important issues related to romance and parenting in the queer community. Plus, there‘s a cat named Edith Head. What more could you need, right? #straycity #portland #cats #love

Loving this one so far #Sundayreading