Welcome to Litsy!

Great collection of short stories. One of my favorite books read this year.

Excellent book of short stories! I enjoyed each and every one of them. They had me talking to the book. Looks of shock and some “Oooohs!” Highly recommend.

I very much enjoyed this collection of stories about black middle-class characters. The stories are funny and smart and razor-sharp in their societal observations.
Definitely a pick for me! 👍 5 ⭐

Riley wore blue contact lenses and bleached his hair--which he worked with gel and a blow-dryer and a flatiron some mornings into Sonic the Hedgehog spikes so stiff you could prick your finger on them, and sometimes into a wispy side-swooped bob with long bangs--and he was black.

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

#shortstories #blitsy

FUN-ny, smart short story collection. Black identity, representation, codes, friendship, rivalry. Stories all have a twist, punchline ending—entertaining but overly reliant on this effect? Fave: opening story, fight breaks out in front of a Comic-Con. Clever, crafty narrator adds meta commentary, joke after joke but w/ a stark conclusion. “Well-read, self-aware, self-loving black man with blue contact lenses & blond hair & a periwinkle suit…” 2018

This was my local library's book club pick for June. I had never heard of it before, but I'm so glad I was pushed to read it.

As with most short story collections, I can't say I loved them all and some were stronger than others. Some made me laugh, some made me emotional, and they all made me ponder my own existence in this world and how I interact with others.

I'm excited to discuss it tomorrow at book club. 💚

I‘m surprised I didn‘t post this the first time I read it. I love this short story collection. Many of the stories have a connecting thread and focus on the experiences of a middle to upper middle class Black folks. Content Warning for a story about suicidal ideation, and a story centered around fatphobia. Second read for a book club discussion I lead! #ShortStories #HeadsOfTheColoredPeople #BookClub

Sunday reading ✨

What a book, these short stories about Black people living their lives, some healthy, some very toxic, some trauma, were beautiful in their rendering and sad in their telling. What a book. I don't even have words for all of the different stories. How some of them intertwine and brought up different characters and told the same story from different angles. Well done, I can see why the author won so many awards for this book. It deserves them.

It's Swap Season! Just bought the books for my #HHS Swap! Very exciting. :)

Fall is upon us... :)

Powerful stories: I particularly liked her direct approach to the impact of women's health conditions. Would make a good addition to any #BLM list.

Posts about television were even better: “Kerry Washington is SO gorgeous. I want that outfit … and that one. Go, Shonda!” Instant fifty-six likes. Cat videos outperformed babies, which followed closely behind, but delicate posts about family and #blessings could be tricky, because people didn‘t want to see how happy you were too often, even if you were making it all up.

Pic from mariascrivan.com

This was an outstanding collection of short stories that provided a glimpse into a series of somewhat connected characters and the turns their lives take. There was both cruelty and humour across this collection, and there were moments I was distinctly uncomfortable. However, I think that the authored wanted to challenge any notions about race the reader may bring with them to the book. For me it was an absolute 5 🌟 read!

I will buy this collection in print when I run across it because it‘s worth a reread! I liked the gambit of identity issues it covered in a contemporary context. The stories involving social media were sadly disturbing and realistic.

I love short story collections, but it's hard to find ones like these- where every story flows and works, where there's a connection to the collection that makes sense. This is definitely going on my top list for 2020 so far, because I enjoyed it so much!

Really enjoying this collection of stories, and especially the one I'm reading right now which is a collection of subtlety vicious letters between two mothers of classmates who keep using their education to snark and stab at one another.

My library hold came in! I'm about halfway through and am really liking these stories. Thompson-Spires is a real talent to watch.

Started my day with breakfast, journaling and reading. #blitsy #blacklitsy #ownvoices #readdiversebooks

Wickedly good short story collection about black American middle class life. Loosely linked so that each story spotlights different perspective; laugh out funny teetering on edge with heartbreak/anger/resignation/determination. Superb.

Powerful, witty, smart and thought-provoking short stories about black identity but also relationships, psychology and society.

"The analogy he was searching for to describe Lisbeth, Mike realized, was Little Edie twirling, or maybe Gloria in _They Shoot Horses, Don't They?_"
-"The Subject of Consumption"

Definitely an attention-grabbing way to start a story!

I love a great short story collection and this book delivered. I did find the stories a little uneven with some packing a punch of brilliance while others were quickly forgettable, but overall this was an excellent read. I look forward to what she writes next.

1. Frostbeard candles. (Not my pic, was too lazy so stole one off Google.)
2. Nope, not a tattoo gal.
3. Pins and totes. Can‘t have too many. I could use a nice book sleeve.
4. Frostbeard again! If I get you in a swap, chances are you‘ll get one. (Ran out of room in the MALS box tho! 😩)
5. I‘ve loved all the themes I‘ve participated in. I would love to see a swap centered around the classics or feminism.

#HelloThursday @wanderinglynn

Each story was consistently good. That doesn‘t usually happen in a collection. Yet overall I thought it was a good collection- not a great one.

An excellent little collection of shorts. The first and the last stories pack a serious punch, but each one had something to say.

I couldn‘t draw the bodies while the heads talked over me, and the mosaic formed in blood, and what is a sketch but a chalk outline done in pencil or words? And what is a black network narrative but the story of one degree of separation, of sketching the same pain over and over, wading through so much flesh trying to draw new conclusions, knowing that wishing would not make them so?

Spending my night digging into this short story collection. So far, it‘s fabulous...

Hello Litsy!!! I apologize for my long absence. Holidays, work and a new side hustle I started have taken their toll. But I knew I had to post today because I just finished this amazing book of short stories. Run, don‘t walk to your bookstore and get yourself a copy. The book was at times laugh out loud funny, gut wrenching, incredibly sad and profound. I would give this book as many stars as I could.

Great compilation of sharply written short stories! Each one left me with wanting to read more about the characters and plot line. I love short stories and this book was no exception!

Just past the #24in48 halfway mark and I‘ve finished my first book! I really enjoyed this collection of loosely linked, often funny (and highly relatable for me) short stories about black middle class life, mostly set in Southern California. Favorites include The Necessary Changes Have Been Made, Not Today Marjorie, This Todd, A Conversation about Bread, and the titular story. 4/5 ⭐️

#blitsy

Wow, this collection of linked stories is unflinching, brutal and in your face. More than once, it made me exclaim aloud. 5⭐️ for sure.

Digging into this smart story collection on my way home from celebrating #MLK with my sister, and I‘m loving it!

#blitsy

PS Go see If Beale Street Could Talk!

I‘m enjoying this book of short stories on this snowy weekend.

This! Great story telling and I loved the way the characters flowed in and out of the stories.

One of the best short story collections that I have read in a while. Thompson Spires is amazing at creating believable, nuanced characters in just a few pages, and is wickedly sharp in her dialogue and use of humor, even while exploring tough subjects. Definitely worth picking up - looking forward to more from this author .

I was completely blown away by this short story collection. Loosely connected, each story focuses on the lives of middle class African-Americans. The stories are funny at times, but heartbreaking in equal measure, and there‘s not a bad one in the bunch. Amazing and highly recommended!

I‘m reading this with some friends. If the first story is any indication I‘m going to love her writing.

Such a great reading year! My top 18 picks.

I had missed this book before it was included in the Tournament of Books longlist. It is a collection of stories, often connected in small ways, conveying the ridiculous realities of the suburban middle class. My favorite was probably the mothers writing letters to one another with increasing drama, and one of those children reflecting on her life while sweating through her yoga class.

This short story collection is genius. Each story is strong, and the care with which Nafissa Thompson-Spires crafted them together—well, I just can‘t underscore its brilliance enough. This book restores my faith in short story collections. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Okay, I just finished the first story in this collection, and my mind is blown. Incredible. 💙📚💙📚

She wouldn‘t look like the Lady of Shalott with her new weave framing her face as she lay back in a boat, or even Anne of Green Gables as the Lady of Shalott or even Megan Fellows as Anne of Green Gables as the Lady of Shalott, because her natural hair wasn‘t even red, and anyway, she‘d read that when black women died it wasn‘t glamorous & people didn‘t make metonymic literary connections about them […] black women‘s bodies just died, out of frame

Thompson-Spires writes with refreshing verve, tackling troubling issues of contemporary society, unafraid of unlikeable protagonists. Her loosely interlinked short stories showcase the diversity of middle class African Americans. Whip smart, innovative and funny.

He was two shades lighter than Brian, but also believed himself two shades blacker, as far as those things can be measured.

I really hope that in addition to help for her lies and early signs of psychosis, you will get Christinia some help for her weight problem before she ends up—and I say this respectfully, so I hope you won‘t be offended in the least—like you.

This is an astonishing collection of loosely connected short stories, all focused on the realities of being black in America. It‘s at turns haunting and hilarious and always, always surprising. Fantastic recommendation from Book Riot‘s TBR!

View from my hotel room. Conference life this week!

Another solid choice from the National Book Award long list. A collection of short stories that examines middle class Black American lives. Thompson-Spires shows a wickedly dark sense of humor in many of these stories and an aching poignancy in others. The last story, especially, shattered me.