Welcome to Litsy!

Trying to clear the backlog for #NetGalleyNovember.

This was... disturbing!

Silvie accompanies her parents on an experimental archaeology field trip. With her abusive father, it was never going to be an easy week, but things become progressively darker.

I‘ve loved several of Sarah Moss‘s longer novels so approached this with high expectations. Although initially unsure, I was drawn in and it will haunt me for a long while.

I thought the story was excellent... but something about the writing of it left me feeling cold. #unpopularopinion. Maybe I need to try another by Sarah Moss...

#ghosttown Ghost Wall? Close enough. Picked this up at the recent book sale and I love the cover 😍
#movember

#ghosttown #movember
Some ghosts on my kindle 😁

#MOvember #GhostTown That‘s my copy of Ghost Wall on the right from the library ... still not read .... way overdue 😬😳... I may not make a good library member

1. I read a few for the #Scarathlon that was going on, but the most disconcertingly scary was the tagged book Ghost Wall. If you like the scares of reads like The Lottery or Lord of the Flies where things slowly shift from normal to terrifying, all while being a bit too easy to imagine a group of humans going along with dark ideas...it‘s the read for you.

2. Probably my favorite was The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

#TwoForTuesday

♥️ Knoxville TN
🧡57
💛 Recruiter by day, Reader by night
💚 Married
💙 Ms.
💜 Email preface

The tagged book is one of my favorite reads of 2019.

Creepy and spooky! What starts out as a summer school trip in living archeology, as students, their professor, and a nature enthusiast live like the Iron Age people of ancient Britian quickly turns eerie as long hidden abuse becomes pronounced, and the lessons of the past become all too real again.

Humans are truly the worst monsters, and what people will allow/condone in groups/mobs scarier yet.

#Scararhlon
#TeamStoker

Hello, @jenniferw88 and @jhod ! Here are four possibilities for #lmpbc . I‘ve not read any of them. Do you have a preference? Have either of you selected your book yet?

If any Littens would like to give their views on these books it would be most welcome.

https://wellreadneck.wordpress.com/2019/10/21/ghost-wall-sarah-moss/

There‘s no other word for it. This book was haunting. Moss handily connects the past to our present while tacitly shining light on human nature and centuries of sexism. I highly recommend this powerful novella.

Here‘s a dive into some creepy queer lit a day or so late for coming out day. Solid novella,brought the emotions I had growing up in a rural Appalachian community, knowing I‘m gay but knowing I was trapped. The emotions were the only parallel I had with the main character because she suffered some gnarly trauma. Until every cage is empty! (Literal, figurative)

01. Ghost Wall; The Minimalist Home (audio); The Turn of the Screw (Serial)
02. Two
03. Let it be. Slumps happen, and then slumps go away.

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

#Ghost #ScreamathonPhotoChallenge @4thhouseontheleft

Ghost Wall is unsettling, claustrophobic, pitch perfect. It is about what motivates our interest in the past; a commentary on how we lay ourselves, our values and our own concerns over the top of what we know. It was at its heart, a story of social class; of different people, who lived different lives, and how hard it can be to bridge that gap and what it‘s like to live under the crushing weight of someone else‘s unhappiness and unrealised dreams.

“I do not know what my father thought I might want to do in those days but he devoted considerable attention to making sure I couldn‘t do it.”

After a long period of not reading, I‘ve determined that I haven‘t forgotten how to read and now I‘m back.

:(

I enjoyed this a lot though perhaps I felt a bit let down by the enormous hype around it. I studied bog bodies and bog body poetry a fair bit at uni so maybe my expectations were too high. I loved the atmosphere and setting, I‘d have lived a bit longer in the world to develop Silvie more, though some of the other characters were a little one dimensional. I rly need to read books early and not let the hype become unmanageable

Silvie and her parents join an experimental archeology trip to Northumberland organised by a Professor with his three students. They live in tents and huts, trying to ‘relive‘ an authentic Iron Age life in manners of hunting and looking for food. Things turn out quite differently from an ordinary archeology #camping trip.

#LetsTravelAugust

A summer's re-enactment of Iron Age life, my stomach was clenched from start to finish. The women forage, cook, and wash clothes while (Molly aside) condoning (from fear and habit) the physical and emotional violence meted out to them. The men are too busy indulging macho fantasies and sparring for dominance to contribute much of use before bonding when the "experiment" goes full-on Lord of the Flies. It's not really about the Iron Age, is it?

Experiential archaeology student Molly is talking to teenager Silvie about her professor (Jim) and about Silvie's dad. They're living as the ancient Britons did, or in accordance with Silvie's dad's notions of what that was which (surprise, surprise!) involves curtailing the women's freedoms, spouting off about racial purity, sulking whenever the professor contradicts him and taking it out on the women. How very contemporary!

I went in with high expectations. A man wants to live like ‘folks‘ did in prehistoric times and brings his family with him. They are submitting to his wishes even though they don‘t want to relive ancient times themselves. I liked the premise of this novella but wasn‘t that impressed in the end.

(Pic: ‘Our‘ California Zephyr train at Denver Station, Colorado)

I am travelling by train from Salt Lake City to Chicago. 36 hours through the scenery of Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois. 36 hours to eat and sleep, read and listen to podcasts. Living the dream 😍😍

This novella is a haunting portrayal of abuse and really gets under your skin. It is a slow burn but a loping, tingling one at that. Those are the weirdest adjectives to use, but there it is. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The no-dialogue punctuation takes a bit of getting used to, but Moss writing is beautiful and immersive. Great characters, great sense of place, and much tension that builds with every page. A great read and I love it!
(Background pic of Northumbrian moors from google).

I love Sarah Moss‘ writing, despite the lack of quotation marks. I love how she takes hard subjects (physical abuse in this one) and blends them with history, and with a great dash of feminism. In just 150 pages, she build tension, made my heart crawl to my throat and kept me hooked. 👌

Sparse and tense.

This was a book I really wanted to like but it read like a tense narrative about domestic abuse combined with filler. It just doesn‘t deliver.

Oh my goodness, this book!! I‘m struggling with The day of the jackal, so snuck this short story in and wow, what a story!! You can feel the build up building the whole time and still be gobsmacked when it actually comes!! Definitely worth a read.

Oh my goodness, this book!! I‘m struggling with The day of the jackal, so snuck this short story in and wow, what a story!! You can feel the build up building the whole time and still be gobsmacked when it actually comes!! Definitely worth a read.

And on the day I mail a letter to her, the lovely package from @Mitch comes in the mail for me. Like minds! Thank you so much, my friend. Hugs and kisses to you across the pond. 😘

1. Lilies, preferably white;

2. The tagged book, Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss;

3. Morse/Lewis/Endeavour ❤️

4. I‘m not really a poetry fan.

#HappyHumpDay

@DebbieGrillo @MinDea

This was such a disappointment. I didn‘t buy into storyline and characters were flat. The plot that originally held promise couldn‘t rise above the dead weight.

Quite underwhelming. Sure, I liked the journey, I was thrilled at an Experiential Archaeology course, I loved the topic on bog bodies as I study mummies myself, and I did appreciate the sexuality and authority issues, but the characterization seemed a bit flat and the 'crescendo' (literally and figuratively) sounded disjointed and empty. A novella to pass the time. Rating: 💀💀½/5

Audio version. A short, but disturbing tale about an abusive father/dysfunctional family and an archaeological reenactment that goes too far.

@Clwojick sorry to hear you‘re having a bad day. Here‘s a picture of two of my three tortoiseshells, Merlot and Rioja (can you spot a theme?), in identical poses on my sofa!

The tagged book is one that had me mesmerised both in print and on audio recently. Less than 4 hours‘ listening but packs quite a punch in my opinion.

So.... when it‘s been raining for 7 hours straight and you can‘t potter in the garden, read in the sun or swim open air (all my favourite June activities!) - the best thing to do is eat chocolate mousse and give your local Indie patronage!

A short (160 pages) but perfectly formed novella, touching on themes of domestic violence, gender inequality, and race/border issues (Sarah Moss is very much anti-Brexit). The MC‘s father harks back to a time when British blood was “pure”, not understanding that there was never such a thing. The story gets darker and darker, towards a chilling end.

A recommended read.

Right, I‘ve had two days back at work but I still don‘t feel settled into a routine yet. For a start, I can‘t settle on my next #BookFitnessChallenge read; I‘ve started all three of these!

I‘ve got my steps back on point but just had a bit of a chocolate binge. My stomach still thinks it‘s on an all-inclusive holiday🙄😂😂

Quiet and powerful at the same time. The opening chapter, an imagining of a Neolithic ritual, had me worried because I dislike having my emotions manipulated. Fortunately, everything settles down after that, and it becomes a compact story about a dysfunctional family, a queer girl‘s coming of age, and human connections to nature. Feminist themes are at the forefront. I loved it.

Dad and I find ash, I said, up on the moortops at home, people say they want to be scattered there as if scattering is making something go away entirely and then we sit down with our sandwiches and realize we‘re in the middle of someone‘s granny, of course they always choose the places you‘d stop for lunch, somewhere on the top of a ridge with a nice view.

I ducked under the flap in the doorway and waited a moment—I could, after all, be going into the wood to pee, or getting a drink of water. Without a house, it occurred to me, it is much harder to restrict a person‘s movement. Harder for a man to restrain a woman.

… a human face, a face last seen two thousand years ago by the neighbours who led their friend naked across the moor, who bound him hand and foot.
(Internet photo)

Boy, so much familial dysfunction this weekend! And all different! There are SO many ways to mess a kid up.

Beautiful little book with a beautiful little cover.

1) Blue 💙
2) Literary fiction, fantasy 🦄
3) Besides reading? Theatre going, baseball spectating and traveling ✈️
4) Salty/sweet, fruity candy, dark chocolate 🍫
5) Buffy, Bob‘s Burgers 👨🏻
6) Oh wow. Hard to pick just one. Probably Jane Eyre.

#GettingToKnowYou #GraphicNovelsAndMangaSwap

This suffered a bit at first from all the hype. However, as it went on, I began to appreciate the power and atmosphere that Moss was achieving with very few words. The condensed narrative lends itself to the oppressed and claustrophobic atmosphere even as the characters are in wide open space. The themes here are nothing new, but even though the ground is well covered, Moss does enough to make it worth revisiting.

Wow.