Welcome to Litsy!

A somewhat muddy novel. As the title indicates, the plot involves spies, some CIA, some from corrupt US shadow organizations, in Cold War Africa. Some brilliant writing but the time shifting tropes are needlessly confusing, and although Marie‘s back story is meted out in dribs and drabs, the real story isn‘t revealed until the last pages, leaving us wanting more, but not interested in going back to understand earlier plot lines. Disappointing.

And that's a wrap for #ReadingAfrica2022. Still some good books from other countries left, but not this year! A really interesting challenge, especially as my adolescent career goal was to spend my life somewhere in Africa teaching English. (I'm into my 50s and that worked out to be one week of tourism in Uganda.) A good mix of NF current politics and ancient history, award-winning literature, speculative short stories, a mystery, and a thriller.

This works for 2 challenges, since we can start the Americas early! Thrillers aren‘t my first choice, but this caught my attention because it emphasizes the politics of Burkina Faso, and the CIA‘s attempt to control the the Global South, including a main character who was a historical socialist leader and reformer. Also great balance between “spy” and personal life in 3 countries.
#ReadingAfrica2022 #BurkinaFaso
#ReadingAmericas2023 #Martinique

Last #Bookspin for 2022:
1. We Measure the Earth
2. Undala Trees
3. Seeing Ghosts
4. Mother Tree
5. New Jim Crow
6. The Tears of a Man
7. Wayward Lives
8. How Much of these Hills
9. The Savage Detectives
10. Sahara was Green
11. Dangerous Pursuits
12. Follow Those Zebras
13. Harnessed the Wind
14. Jade and Shadow
15. We Wish to Inform You
16. You are your best thing
17. Moonless Starless Sky
18. Rememberings
19. Grandmother‘s Hands
20. Matrix

This was an excellent book. I loved all the details weaved into the story. I live in Senegal and little things like drinking water from plastic bags just added life to the story. She transported you to New York and Burkina Faso. She also painted a vivid picture of being a black women in the 80‘s in the FBI. You see how she must be on guard, always. I wish I knew how the lives of the characters continued after the book. I didn‘t want it to end.

4. 75 🌟

#burkinafaso #ReadingAfrica2022 @Librarybelle @BarbaraBB

#characterleadingdoublelife #pop22 @Cortg @Cinfhen @4thhouseontheleft @Kalalalatja @Laughterhp @Megabooks @RaeLovesToRead @squirrelbrain

I‘m not sorry I read this book, but it wasn‘t what I was expecting. It‘s not a fast paced “thriller” by any means. It‘s more about US policy, politics and bad governance. I enjoyed Bahni Turpin‘s narration. 3 stars #ReadingAfrica22 #BurkinaFaso

#thoughtfulthursday @MoonWitch94

📚 Jane Austen at Home - really enjoying this buddy read with the Pemberlittens - I'm enjoying all the comments - a high 4 🌟!
📱 Tagged - only just started for #burkinafaso but think it will be at least 4.
🎧 This Much is True by Miriam Margolyes. Hilarious so far but it's a bit strange hearing an 81 year old calling her parents 'mummy & daddy' 😂 I'm guessing 5 🌟

Physical and kindle, yes - audio no

Current Listen ♥️🎧 loving Bahni 🥰 #ReadingAfrica22 #BurkinaFaso

Marie becomes a spy to follow her sister‘s dream, leading her to infiltrate the highest levels of #BurkinaFaso government. I enjoyed the story, the tidbits about espionage, the romance, the two little boys, etc. Readers get a significant dose of detail about the small African country, although it seems to take forever before we get to it. My only regret is that it ended on a cliffhanger and there‘s no indication there will be another book. ⬇️

I‘m learning lots about #BurkinaFaso from the tagged book for #readingafrica2022 so I googled it to learn more.

From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burkina_Faso

I found this map of Africa on the internet to start coloring the countries I‘ve read for #readingafrica2022. It‘s outdated because there is no South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo is still identified as Zaire. But it‘s working for my purposes. For books in progress, like the tagged book, I‘ve drawn vertical lines in case I end up bailing on those books.

I‘m excited to have picked my next audiobook, which will be for #readingafrica2022 #BurkinaFaso. And I‘ve ticked off another goal for #awesomeapril #readathon—to pick my next audiobook.

He‘s cute, but sometimes he makes it difficult to read.

I really liked this book about a Cold War federal agent who also happens to be an African American woman. #ReadingAfrica2022 Burkina Faso

I just chose this as my next audiobook. #BurkinaFaso #readingafrica2022 @Librarybelle @BarbaraBB

This has been on my TBR forever and I finally read it because it‘s my #DoubleSpin for January. I enjoyed this though it wasn‘t really a spy novel in the way I expected. It‘s more about a woman and the choices she makes and how they match those of her sister. The device of her writing this to her sons as she goes off on a dangerous mission means it ends without resolution.

Reginald the Carrier Pigeon finally delivered! (Really I‘m just super impatient.) Anyone read any of these? #mytbr

Though this was an interesting look at the role of a Black woman in espionage during the Cold War, I found the pacing uneven and the main character difficult to relate to. The final chapters were pretty intense, though!

Third book finished for the #SuperSeptember readathon! @EadieB @Andrew65

Marie joins the FBI because of her sister and ultimately ends up helping the CIA with an operation around the president of Burkina Faso. This tells the story she is writing to her children as she heads into danger. I didn‘t totally connect with the way she decided to tell the story, but I really liked the story itself, though the ending is unsatisfying. The characters are terrific.

A fast-moving story about a young black woman working for the FBI in New York City. She‘s consistently passed over for advancement opportunities that go to less-qualified men. So when the opportunity comes for her to take a clandestine work assignment in Africa for the CIA, she takes it...

#coworkers #conflictedworlds @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Nuclear war preoccupied my mind, my sister's mind, the minds of all of our friends. None of us expected to see adulthood. More than just being convinced we were going to die, we knew we would be annihilated, which to me meant being somehow deader than dead. I don't know if you'll be able to understand the stranglehold that cold war terror had on the psychology of my generation. We were kids who wondered what we would do if we grew up, not when.

I picked this book based solely on the cover! I hope that it delivers!

There were so many places this story could go and really explore... instead it was boring, included too much political theory & strategy, and had a blah non-ending. I think it maybe was trying for too much all at once. The narrator for the audio was fantastic- no fault of hers.

Good. Maybe a little slow but worth it overall.

This is an odd read - slow to build, not entirely convincing in many ways, and led by a mostly unlikable narrator - and yet I found myself rapt. If you love a book that makes you put it down every now and again, diving down the online bunny holes for info on what really happened, try this.

Oh my goodness, look what arrived last night from @Book_Fiend_Melissa !!! Thank you, thank you, thank you, kind friend 🧡💛🧡💛🧡 Can‘t wait to read the book, the tea looks scrumptious, and the mug, well the mug is so perfect I may be sharing it with Mr. KVanRead 😂 It was so sweet and thoughtful of you to send me something from home. 🇨🇦❤️ Can‘t thank you enough. 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

This was a good, gripping spy story. Also Obama has read it too! #books

I wanted to like this so much more than I did, especially since it was narrated by Bahni Turpin. She was amazing as usual, but for a book about a spy it was just way too boring. There was so much story that did not need lend itself to the plot and even the action was not compelling. I give it 3 stars.

Had a few packages waiting for me when I got home last night. My #BOTM books came in. And I had a package from the lovely @inthegreensandblues ! Thanks so much Christine. I can‘t wait to read those books!

This didn‘t work for me. It didn‘t feel like a spy thriller - no suspense or action (first 100 pages). It might be more literary fiction and at times I was engaged with a scene & had a sense of Marie & her relationships but those were too few & far between. Written in second person to her sons which I didn‘t like. Jumping back in time so it felt like any action was historical with no tension. Procedural writing telling us about FBI.

Can‘t decide if this is a spy novel w/a literary fiction bent or a lit fic novel about a woman who happens to be a spy. Don‘t think the author ever decided, either. Didn‘t hate it but def had some issues. Behind-the-scenes Fed stuff was interesting but dragged a bit. Loved Marie‘s backstory, but being both multi-timeline & framing the present as a letter to her sons was a bit much. Plus what happened while she was undercover was a bit 🙄 3/5 ⭐️

“Do you know what your problem is? You‘ve internalized the lazy conventionalism of the petite bourgeoisie.”

[This is said as a joke in the book, but it‘s definitely a line I‘m gonna try to use on someone someday because it‘s so perfectly ridiculous.]

First trip back to a favourite haunt for a long time. Very glad to see the Cranford Cafe as welcoming, and the breakfasts as copious and delicious as ever. The book is great so far, too. #cranfordcafe #cranfordcafeknutsford #books #bookstagram #fiction #americanspy #laurenwilkinson #booksbooksbooks #bookish #bookphotography #coffee #caffeineaddict #booksandcoffee #coffeeandbooks #knutsford #bookcommunity #cheshire #blackcoffee #bankholidayweekend

Very few of those men understood having no choice about whether they were political or not: Unlike me, they weren‘t people who‘d had their existence politicized on their behalf.

This has a pretty low average rating on Goodreads, but it‘s also got a ton of praise and blurbs from all kinds of places. We‘ll see where I end up!

Is this another case of brain won‘t settle? I‘m at 32% and I‘m bored, just nothing seems to be happening 🤷‍♀️ does it get better?

We're having a very cozy Sunday.

I'm finding the chapters involving Marie's sons to be quite engaging. The spy chapters on the other hand are a bit dull. Too many thriller books and movies before this one, making me think spies live a high-octane life, when it turns out they're buried in paperwork avalanches and battling office politics just like the rest of us.

Happy weekend, Littens! I was out of service in the wilderness last week, hiking around a mountain. I'll share some pictures soon. I've been thinking again about how to rejoin this community in a meaningful way. I miss you. I'm not sure I have a solution yet. It can be hard to strike a balance between reading and posting about reading. Anyway... I'm here this weekend so hello, hello! What's new with you?

This adventure begins with a man trying to kill our heroine. From there, things get complicated. Filled with all of the intense thoughts and feelings you would expect from an African American woman being an FBI agent and moonlighting as a CIA undercover agent, this book kept me reading.

FBI agent Marie Mitchell is an African American woman in a workplace of the good old boys. Her new assignment is to spy on, seduce, and help overthrow the Communist leader that the US has decided needs an intervention. But this job isn‘t all she‘s been lead to believe and it will change everything.

This framing (a journal to her sons) wouldn‘t have worked for me in print. Too much tell, not enough show. Turpin‘s narration lifted this.🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑

Audiobook narrators make for a different experience when reading a book, but just as awesome and valid! 🎧

1. Both can be amazing!
2. Kobna Holdbrook-Smith and Bahni Turpin are both automatic listens for time!
3. Really enjoying this one!

#sundayfunday Have a great day, and don‘t forget to tag me!

Waterstones email told me this was Obama‘s pick for a summer read, made up when kindle told me it was 99p 😁

I recommended this to my library two years ago! And look what just came in!

*happy dance*

This novel is about a brilliant black female FBI agent who finds herself tricked into working for people with a hidden objective. The decisions she later makes cause her to fear for her safety for the rest of her life. Although this story held so much promise, it fell short for me- scenarios that didn‘t quite add up for the protagonist.The narration by Bahni Turpin was stellar, as always.I will continue to select any and every book she narrates!

This was everything I expected it to be. A page turner. I started it this morning and did not turn my tv on at all.