Welcome to Litsy!

I LOVED this! I'm so going to read more of her books. I really liked the way she makes her characters feel alive with their relationships with eachother and in the internal life inside a character.

I loved the writing in the first half of this book. It really felt like it was going to be a 5 star book for me, the story of Leila as she lies dying and remembering her past and meeting each of her friends. However the rapid fire nature of each episodic chapter, and the introduction and quick summation of each friend‘s back story left me wanting more. Once it got to the “Body” section of the story ⬇️

Some midsummer reading. 😎☀️

Happy midsummer to everyone!!! 🥳🌅🌞

💜

Starting a new book and looking at the sunset while travelling home by a ferry. I love when the book's color theme matches the scenery! 😁☀️

I really liked the first part, The Mind. However, around 55%, it didn‘t feel so special anymore.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️,75/5

#elifshafak #novel #kindle #bookerprize

So far, this book is harrowingly beautiful.

Happy New Year, Littens! This is my choice for the #AsianBookChallenge2022 on #LibraryThing. I‘m less than enthralled with it at the moment, although I‘m not sure why. The writing is done beautifully, but yet there is some element that makes me less than eager to keep going in this story. I‘m not sure what that is because this novel by a Turkish author (this month‘s challenge) was on the 2019 Booker Prize shortlist.

Really enjoyed it

Somethings missing from this book.

Perhaps it was not that different when it came to death. People thought you changed into a corpse the moment you exhaled your last breath. But things were not clear-cut like that. Just as there were countless shades between jet black and brilliant white, so there were multiple stages of this thing called 'eternal rest'. If a border existed between the Realm of Life and the Realm of Afterlife, Leila decided, it must be as permeable as sandstone (3)

I received this as my Literati Book Club selection several months ago and I didn‘t really know if I would enjoy it but once I started reading I could not put it down!! I read the majority of the book in one day and finished it tonight! I loved it! 🌟🌟🌟🌟!

Enjoyed this just as much as Three Daughters of Eve. 💛 Such a talented writer. Sensual novel. Tragic but mighty powerful characters.

I was very intrigued after reading the blurb of the story that I immediately got my hands on it. This is one of the books which starts off great but falls flat almost immediately. There was 0 emotional connect. At no point have i got connected to Leila. I felt sorry for her a couple of times but that's it. I don't know if author went with the fact that not everything has closure in life, but the story was so disjointed and all over the place.

My book club chose this book, and there are 900 peeps waiting for the physical copy at the library. I just checked if Overdrive had some new books for me, and there it was, available. Wow! Anyone read it?

Elif Shafak is publishing a new book this year, and I for one couldn't be more excited.

I simply adored 10 Minutes and 38 seconds in this strange world. Reading all works of her is one of my reading goals this year!

What is your favourite Shafak and are you hyped for this one as well?

Reading books by Elif Shafak always makes me really hungry! Love how she ties memories to smells or meals, it‘s definitely how my brain works! This was a really interesting way to frame a story of a young sex worker in Istanbul. Definitely need to work my way through the rest of Shafak‘s work.

Elif Shafak‘s vocabulary is really great. The concept that the subconscious can live on for a few minutes after the physical body is dead is also compelling. But! This book was so much longer than necessary, & didn‘t build any emotions for Leila or her five friends. I could feel no camaraderie or friendship between them. Filled with random bits of info that added no value, I found this book to be quite lukewarm, inconsistent and unmemorable.

#turkey #istanbul Not sure how I missed reading this 2019 Booker short listed book about the strength of friendship when one‘s family turns their backs. Although I did not love the ending, the first part of the book with the introductions to all the characters and to that messy, wonderful city of Istanbul, I thought was wonderful.

She had love.. no matter how unconventional it was to society and tradition.

...finding the familiarity of captivity more reassuring than the strange call of freedom.

They respected him the way cruel and powerful people have been respected since the dawn of time - with abundant fear and not a speck of love.

I loved this! The second part I didn't love as much, almost felt it would have been as good with out it, but part 1 was so good it still makes it a pick. A very clever premise, very beautifully written.

I simultaneously don't want this book to end but also want to know what happens.

Next up. Things arent sitting in my TBR pile for long at the moment, I must be making exciting choices 📚

I shoild notnwatch book group shows, I always end up buying something 🤦‍♀️

Leila is lying murdered in a dumpster and it takes 10mins 38 seconds for her body to shut down. In some ways, I loved this book. The flash books to her childhood, the religious extremism in Turkey, her friends and all their back stories. But I didn‘t want to pick the book up and keep reading. The second half is strange and long winded. This book needed serious editing!
#teamslaughter #scarathon2020 151 points #readingeurope2020 #turkey

I loved this book. There were a couple of chapters towards the end that weren‘t quite as good as the rest for me but otherwise this was close to a 5* book. October is off to a great start!

#bookspinbingo (book number 1)
#doublespin

It‘s a good day for cozying up on the couch

Loving this book so far, and the writing is fantastic!

I‘ve finished this book while waiting on Schiphol Airport for a flight to Florence, Italy (for work). It‘s spooky and dystopian, being in such an empty place that normally is so busy!

The book is way too fragmented for my taste and with too many characters who never really came to life. For me it was a disappointing and incoherent story, as unfinished as Leila‘s life.

#ReadingEurope2020 🇹🇷

#WeeklyForecast 37/20

I have the tagged book in progress for #ReadingEurope2020 as well as Misery. I am no SK fan and reading this for a challenge but I have to say I‘m really enjoying it. Also planned to start Despised and Rejected, the #Persephone the wonderful @Megabooks sent me and I have planned to read for #Booked2020‘s #BannedBook prompt. Also another Ogawa. Because I‘m a fan!

I liked the first 194 pages or so — the last 115? Not so much.

Sometimes where we feel safest is where we least belong. We move to big cities, join protests, and find new friends in the strangest of places. While Tequila Leila‘s crew seemed too unlikely to me, I appreciate the book‘s ideas about life‘s turmoil and death‘s peace. The joys here on Earth are found in the rumbling present. Crying out, after all, is the best way to let everyone know you‘re alive.

One of the more powerful books I have read this past two years.
Told in two parts we follow the life of Tequila Leila and the people she meets along the way.
This book was beautifully written, believable every step of the way and perfectly paced. It was emotional and everything that was meant to hit you in the feels succeeded in doing so.
The characters were all very fleshed out and just feel like people you would meet on the street.

I sped through this, adored her writing and found the first part absolutely brilliant. Love how she used the time to remember and introduce the friends. The descriptions and tales ate wonderful although some tinged with sadness.
The second part didn't flow as well... a little far fetched in story. Still beautifully written but almost silly.
The end parts I liked, they kept the book together.

Just pinged through from my library hold account- better get reading 😊😊😚

I really enjoy this book. Beautiful narration and amazing way how all the stories get together. Is a nice read of a tragic story

Always been a bit on the fence about this one, but....

I really enjoyed this one from Leila's reflections on memories throughout her life and of friendships formed. And the dynamic of those friendships was beautiful!

Seren is not impressed with today's reading plans. I love Elif Shafak's writing, and the premise of this book really intrigues me. So here goes...if Seren permits anyway.

Terrific book about the last 10 minutes of a prostitute‘s life, as her brain loses consciousness and she relives key encounters with the people who mattered most. Well written, engrossing characters from the underside of society. A loving homage to Turkey's beauty and blasphemy. I enjoyed it very much and found it charming to read. It was sweet and far exceeded my modest expectations.

Haunting and beautifully written, Elif Shafak dares to address the social injustices to women in Turkey. But it is also a story of hope and love and, above all, friendship.

We have all heard the adage that just before death our lives flash before our eyes. In the aftermath of her murder, Leila‘s life flashes before her, beginning at the moment of her death and for 10 minutes and 38 seconds afterward.