Welcome to Litsy!

Oof guys. This genre is a rough one for me, especially when my brain is struggling with focus! But I‘ve been pushing through and, just past the halfway mark, I think I might actually finish in time for #RealLifeBookGroup next weekend! 🤞ðŸ�½

Also, it *has* improved as a read for me with progress… it helped that one of my friends put so eloquently why she felt Nora‘s story was such a page turner: will she ever get a drink of water?! 💦🤭

“Every day we would go on is home.�
Haunting story, full of talks with the “other living�, thirst, longing and waiting. And yes, camels and canteens containing rivers and memories.

Really slow start, I nearly bailed a few times.. but glad I stuck it out. The imagery is wonderful! Ghosts, camels, grave robbing, a mostly catatonic random granny.. it's defo a very different take on the American western theme...

Arizona Territory 1893. Missing family members. Drought. Outlaws. Journey. Ghosts. Camels. Those words should be enough to pick up Inland, especially if you've read Obreht's debut The Tiger's Wife. And if you haven't, you definitely should. I went in expecting to be disappointed as you do when you read an author's next book after one you love. But Inland landed pretty close: it's a magician trick of a novel that seems to hold more than its size.

I'm not sure what I expected from my first Western, but am fairly confident a camel train wasn't it! ?
This tells the (alternating) stories of homesteader Nora and outlaw Lurie, the connection between them being that they are both aware of the spirits of "the other living". I found Nora's story the more interesting of the two. Would I have liked more made of the supernatural theme? Possibly. It's a good book but it never quite takes off.

Promising intro and likeable premise but I couldn‘t get into the style of writing and had a hard time resonating with the characters. not for my taste

This is historical fiction at its absolute best - such immersive and magical writing. I took my time with it to savor all the details. Obreht makes you feel the stifling Arizona heat and how desperate the characters and the land are for water. Am surprised this has such a low rating here, it‘s wonderful. It happens to be pouring buckets in NYC today, incongruously!

Would like to read my book, but guess that‘s not happening! TV it is 😹 #catsoflitsy #KAL #sullivancat

I'm posting one book per day from the ever growing unread stacks in my personal library. No description or explanation, just books I own and plan to read. #tbr

Day 18

I will be thinking about this one for awhile. A reimagined Western, turned on its head.

I'm joining in a day late. Only was able to read a chapter of Mansfield yesterday. My goal this week-end is to make major dents in 2 books I'm reading for book clubs. Loving the tagged book--I am sucked into the story 80 pages in. LIstening to The Honey Bus and enjoying that. Hoping to get 5 hours of reading/audio in. @Eggbeater @MidnightBookGirl @kimmypete1

Diving into this one for a book club and am intrigued.

It takes a bit for this book to grab you, but when it does you‘ll want to gulp the rest of it down as if you were Nora and had gone days with no water, and this was the Platte. Be prepared- Obreht‘s writing is vivid enough to make you feel the drought. Believable magical realism, a bit of history you probably never knew (cavalry camels?) and a cast of mostly unlikable characters combine to make a very unusual western. #doublespin

#firstlinefridays @ShyBookOwl

Here‘s my #bookspin for August. @TheAromaofBooks

#pastelCover Although it looks darker in this photo than it does in person. 🤷ðŸ�»â€�♀ï¸� #bloomingbibliophiles @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @OriginalCyn620

This was my first read by Téa Obreht. This‘d revised western with camels and ghosts never managed to pull me in. Had some interesting themes are puns women‘s rights but as a whole it was a bit of a slog to read.

The writing in this book is beautiful, but if had not been a book picked for my book club, I would have never finished it. I enjoyed the ending, but it took forever to get there...the book meandered all over the place and there is a ghost/supernatural element that made it difficult to know what was real and what was not. Inland was just not for me. ����

Our book club‘s pick for the month. I probably never would have picked this up on my own. The cover is so pretty!

Do you remember in history class about the time the US army thought camels were a great idea for battle in the United States? Yeah, me either but there is an episode about it on the Stuff You Missed in History podcast, so it must have happened. Long story short - it wasn't a good idea.
This book started out interesting and strong, but became a drag for the last 1/3.
#arrcreads #stuffyoumissedinhistory

To be fair, I hate westerns. But that was one of the categories in this year's reading challenge. The writing was good but it took me 5 weeks to read because I wasn't really that interested in the story or most of the characters. Did I mention I don't like westerns??

So far liking the book, loving the cover #coverlove

I read three #OneWordTitle books this month, but I'm going to pick this one for #ReadWithMrBook! I didn't know anything about it before I started, other than that it was on the #TOB2020 long list, and I loved it! The narration was excellent, the stories, characters, and settings were absorbing, and it made me extra-eager to go #audiorun to spend more time in it. The writing was lovely. 😊 @MrBook

Hmmm....nervous to bring this book on a weekend trip because it did not get good reviews. You never know until you try it for yourself though, right? I‘ll bring another book 📚 (or two or three) for backup, just in case LOL 😂

I was somehow unaware that this book was a Western. I liked the parts about Nora, the frontierswoman, and even the cowboy and his camel was ok. But I was underwhelmed by the way the stories came together.

I'm at 8 hours for the #24b42020 #readathon. 😊 Got in an #audiorun this morning + #audiobook time during weights after my run and the drive to the YMCA and back. Read The Water Dancer and Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way during the afternoon/evening and finished up The Bullet Journal Method on my phone. Now I'm ending my #audioknitting for the night with my hat almost done! Will make the pom-pom and sew the hat together tomorrow or Monday. 😊

Starting #24b42020 (the extended version of the#24b4Monday #readathon) with some #audioknitting!

Day-after-Christmas #audiorun in my parents' very hilly neighborhood (maybe I shouldn't've been avoiding the hilly parts of Berkeley all these months 😅) and #audioknitting on the project from Stitch & Story that I got for Christmas. Such a lovely project kit and such soft yarn! �

I didn't know anything about this #audiobook before starting it except that it was on the #ToB long list and available from my library, and I'm loving it! #ToB2020

I have an old friend who now lives across the continent from me, and we always send each other books at Christmas. She‘s introduced me to several good authors, so I‘m looking forward to this year‘s read. (I sent her The Women of Copper Country.)

First #audiorun since getting home! It was 34°F, which is the coldest run I've ever done, and this neighborhood is very hilly (this picture is from the only flat stretch in the whole area 😂), so it was a fun, challenging run! Loved getting to listen to more of this audiobook, I'm only a couple hours in but it's sucked me in! Glad the #ToB long list got to me pick it up! 😊

While I was reading this I wasn't sure how I felt; the writing is beautiful (you really feel the thirst of the characters in this dusty Arizona territory) but I did find myself getting lost in Lurie's story as to what was real. Nora‘s story shone. Luckily I had picked up enough of Lurie's story so that when the story lines cross, things made sense. I think for this to really shine for me I would need to read it again...but I don't want to.

Interesting construction to the story, which made it disorienting/confusing, but also a way to provoke the reader into wondering how everything comes together. While there were pockets of engaging moments, I‘d say overall it meandered too much and the mystery reveals didn‘t have a big enough payoff to be worth it.

...the Union Pacific had come through and left behind a Babylon maelstrom, a bilious, gray, seething wreck on the plains.... Nora watched the defeated shadows lurching home at dawn and felt this must be the crux of life: everybody blundering around in the full glare of ruination.

Admit I had to push my way to the end of this. While it is supposed to be based on some historical event, I‘m not sure what it is—camels in the American West?

Two stories that interact at the end. I liked one of them much more then the other. So overall about half the book was not as exciting for me.

"but first, let me take a selfie" with award-winning writer Tea Obreht! ? #mfob

Next talk: Tea Obreht (L), Sarah Blake and Julie Orringer (R - moderator is between Obhret and Blake). Fascinating conversation about history and fiction and process. Obreht: The Tiger's Wife, Inland. Blake: The Postmistress, The Guest Book. Orringer: The Invisible Bridge, The Flight Portfolio.

#morristownfestivalofbooks #mfob #mfob2019 #bookfestival #authortalk #historicalfiction

1. See above. The more I think about it, the more I like it.
2. Teal.
3. My son's baritone lesson, at which his teacher encouraged him to take up tuba or trombone in addition to baritone. I raised one eyebrow and tried to envision a tuba in the trunk of my car.
4. Yes to both (although the snap with my left hand is pretty lackluster).
5. ������

#FriyayIntro @howjessreads

I honestly don‘t know how I feel about this book. It was an odd juxtaposition of stories. I feel very unsatisfied by it. Just... why was it even written? 🤷ðŸ�»â€�♀ï¸�

Obreht‘s storytelling is at its finest in this magical and gritty tale of two unlikely heroes who inhabit entirely different worlds. Obreht moves back and forth between Nora, a frontierswoman trying to keep herself & young son alive during a drought and Lurie, an orphan, outlaw, and cameleer trying to stay a step ahead of the law.
This stands tall along with recent American West stories News of the World and Whiskey When We‘re Dry. Recommended.

Giving this a try. I couldn‘t get into her first novel but this one intrigues me.

I‘ll give this a so-so since I liked the writing and the ending. But holy cow ‘er camel and a jug of water - it was a long long winding road to get there.

“They were all moving past each other, the mother and the little girl and the old man too-and it struck me, after all these years of seeing the dead, as I stood there holding your bridle and with your breath in my hair, that I had never seen more than one at a time, and had never realized: they were unaware of each other‘s presence. Nameless and unburied, turned out suddenly into the bewildering dark, they rose to find themselves entirely alone.â€�

"The longer I live, Burke, the more I have come to understand that extraordinary people are eroded by their worries while the useless are carried ever forward by their delusions."

Oof... I had to read this for work and, truth be told, I did not finish it. I‘ve never NOT finished a ‘required‘ book before, so this was a rough day. 😅 But, it seems that the general agreement tonight was this is a tedious & confusing read through the first 3/4 of the book - if you made it to the end it was worth the trip. I am almost convinced it will be worth it to pick it up and push through. But for now I‘ve bailed. #bookswithbohemianyogini

Finally finished, which I had to since I‘m the book club leader tonight.

Téa Obreht‘s lovely sentences saved this “novelâ€� - which was comprised of two drastically different, cheaply foreshadowed, novellas that converged (finally) at the end of the book. In my opinion, she should have chosen either Nora‘s story or Lurie‘s story and developed an emotionally compelling, complete story. I found neither compelling. I would like to talk to her editor.

Alternating storylines told from close perspective of 2 main characters in 19th c America: Lurie, orphaned as a child shortly after emigrating from the Ottoman Empire, & Nora, a settler struggling with regrets in Arizona Territory. The 3rd MC is Burke, a camel. It was well worth getting to know them in a tale that gradually gains momentum. I could feel the want, “That vast & immutable want everybody, dead or alive, carried with them all the time.�

“He‘d forgive you soon enough. Boys always do.â€�
Desma espoused the kind of easy faith in children only held by people who‘d never raised any themselves. And thank God for that, for it was good to be reminded of the merits by someone who lacked the constitution to withstand many of parenthood‘s most profound rewards: the shying & the sulking & the constant ingratitude, & eruptions like the one last night, […]