Welcome to Litsy!

I am posting one book per day from my extensive to-be-read collection. No description and providing no reason for wanting to read it, I just do. Some will be old, some will be new. Don‘t judge me - I have a lot of books. Join in if you want!

#ABookADay2023

Got the fire on already this morning as it‘s still minus temperatures outside at 11am - brrr! 🥶

This book was perfect for this time of year, and perfect for how I‘m feeling right now. I love books where nothing much happens, where you look at the minutiae of people‘s lives, but there‘s a much bigger message there too.

This was a sad book but ultimately uplifting - aaah, just perfect!

Thank you so much for sending it to me Kate @kathedron 😘

A short holiday #InTheBleakMidwinter reveals the cracks in a retired couple‘s relationship in this emotionally vivid novel

#DecemberSong @Eggs

I loved this gentle yet moving story of Stella and gerry, an irish couple who after 40 yrs of marriage clearly fit together like a glove. They love and know each other tenderly yet as they visit Amsterdam their marriage appears to be falling apart with an unresolved issue from the 1970's slowly creating a fissure which may not be breached. Beautifully written i was aware of the craft and immersed in their lives. And bonus #ReadingEurope #Holland

This book is a feast. I tend to rd based on plot rather than savouring prose so sometimes worry that i miss a lot that i should otherwise appreciate however occasionally a book is so wonderful that you can see the care + craft in every sentence. With 50 pages to go i can't think where this bk will go but this sentence gave me pause. It's a long time since i rd Grace Notes so plan to reread that as the author has written little since + love this.

I need to read this one, it‘s been on my TBR for ages! #WintryCover #AuldLangReads @OriginalCyn620 @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Thank you Barbara for the kind words in your card and for such a splendid gift😘 I know what I will be reading for The Netherlands in the #ReadingEurope challenge 🙂 and the Gaugin notebook is beautiful.

I keep forgetting so have this on my TBR! Now would be a perfect time to read it. I shall have to put it on the January TBR. A retired couple‘s trip to Amsterdam reveals cracks in their relationship.

#SettingInEurope #DearDecember @Eggs

One from the #TBR mountain, with a #WinterTheme. I‘m reliably informed that it‘s worth a read. I really must tackle some of those books that have been on the TBR mountain for forever🙄

#NamasteNovember @Eggs

Gorgeous, gorgeous book!
Gerry and Stella are taking a long weekend together in Amsterdam. Except that Gerry is spending much of his in the bottom of a whiskey glass and goodness knows where Stella is sneaking off to! They are good, ordinary, people who think the world of each other... but more than 40 years of shared personal history now demands a reckoning.
It's a wonderful, quiet, humane book. I loved it.

I loved and devoured this book, could not put it down. A married couple, Gerry and Stella, travel to Amsterdam for a long weekend. We accompany them on this journey that takes us to Amsterdam, but also into each character's inner life, memories, dreams / hopes. We learn about their life together, their love for one another. A wonderful book and the writing is excellent. I LOVED it.

I'm still recovering from the sadness in the last book that I read. These two do not sound like 'happy' books either, but I was drawn to both, am looking forward to reading them and exploring Amsterdam in Midwinter Break through the eyes of the protagonists ...

Wow! I really enjoyed this. I found the way in which we learnt about both of their individual lives whilst also hearing of their shared life, both oast and current, very well written and described.
I also felt the narrative about their holiday was full of description and detail. I'm looking forward to visiting Amsterdam in a few weeks!

I'm off to Amsterdam next month and this is set there. The reviews appealed hugely so am quite keen.

Reading a wintery book on the sunniest of days 😂

Gerry and Stella are a middle-aged couple, married for years. They are Irish, living in Scotland. With time on their side they take a midwinter break to Amsterdam. They seem so at ease with eachother, you‘d almost envy them, but nothing is as it seems. They are both looking for other things in life: for her it is religion and spirituality, for him it‘s the whiskey. This book describes what they both do and how they feel. Painfully honest.

At the Art Gallery on the Mound a young lad pressed his feet against two fluted columns, then inched himself up the building – twenty or thirty feet above the heads of the crowd where he juggled with flaming torches. And as he did so everybody realised that there was no way he could get down....eventually he jigged his way down to applause – a stuttering descent, like a toy woodpecker sliding down a vertical wire.

‘Why do I take the notion more often when we‘re away?‘ said Stella. ‘Can you guess?‘‘No.‘‘Because I don‘t have to think of dinners. The dinner. On a daily basis. It‘s the bane of my life. Remember Mister and Missus Sheep?‘‘No?‘‘Mister Sheep says I‘m fed up eating the same grass, day in, day out. ‘‘And?‘‘And Missus Sheep says At least I don‘t have to cook it.‘

#TBRtemptation post 3! Recently released. Retired couple Gerry and Stella Gilmore fly from Scotland to Amsterdam for vacation. Over the next 4 days, we'll see the hidden uncertainties in their marriage. Gerry's now forgetful and obstinate, Stella's frustrated and angry. Memories of their native Ireland don't help matters. Will their marriage survive? #blameLitsy #blameMrBook 😎