Welcome to Litsy!

Some beautiful and fascinating character studies. Love how each chapter dives into one character's little world, and then ties them all together throughout but especially at the end. Keeping with the theme of seeing into the lives of people who I would never have the chance to know in real life. What an interesting slice of humanity, this secluded russian peninsula.

Such a great book to reread! I forgot this was centered around a mystery of missing girls because what I took away from it was the vibrant portrait of life on the Kamchatka Peninsula. The tension among villages and cities and nomads or between indigenous folks and ethnic Russians. This reads more like a novel-in-stories with each chapter revolving around different people whose lives intersect in the final chapter. So good! #Bookspin Art info ⬇️

Little late but here‘s my #bookspin and #doublespin plus a look at my up-next shelf! Disappearing is a reread and Favorites is a new @AardvarkBookClub pick. So many books to look forward to!

Finally finished this book I started months ago😅 The story is really interesting- but at times I wished for more! There are many snippet‘s of people‘s lives and I was invested in so many and was hoping to learn more about each of the characters, but we never dove deeper into one of their stories. They were mentioned and entangled in other stories but I wanted more! I do recommend it nonetheless! 4/5 ⭐️ (Kirby is excited about it too😂)

Accidentally twinning with my book😁

A good start to 2023. Foster is my first 5 🌟 read but loved both the tagged book and The Diamond Eye. I‘m a little underwhelmed by most of my current reads except the buddy reads Godmothers and Middlemarch. Not sure which #TOB23 book will be next after Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance.

#BookReport #WeeklyForecast

Book #2 of 2023 but first book off my #AuldLangSpine list from @Amiable

A book of connecting stories that explore the lives of a community in response to an event. I listened to this one and some stories might not have been as strong as others but it all held my attention. It‘s been on my radar for a long time and am grateful for the push to read it. #52Books #Everyonesreadit

#firstlast

It is unlikely that I will finish any of my recent starts before the end of 2022. I‘m hooked on them all so far.

Thanks for the opportunity, Kristen!

Here‘s my #JumpStart2023 plan. I am really excited for my #AuldLangSpine books and my three January buddy reads. I feel like I failed at committing to less challenges, etc but the excitement to read All The Books is palpable.

Here‘s to another great year of reading with you all!

This book felt like a collection of short stories rather than a novel about two missing girls. The book could have just been the 1st chapter and the last two and it would have been perfect.

I enjoyed this unique book from start to finish-each story pulls you in and keeps your attention until the chapter ends. I do wish the main characters interacted with each other more, but I realize the author intentionally kept their connections loose. Overall a great read.

Strange and beautiful, this mystery immerses you in the Siberian peninsula in Soviet Russia and, like the location, is unusual and starkly lovely. I listened on #audio but want to read it agin in print to follow all the separate stories that somehow perfectly wind together in the end. Wow, quite a debut! #BookspinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

“You believe that you keep yourself safe, she thought. You lock up your mind and guard your reactions so nobody, not an interrogator or a parent or a friend, will break in.”

This was so good! Not a typical who-done-it, but so engrossing! I ended up having to write down everyone‘s names and how they were related in context of the book to keep it all straight, but I loved it.
⭐️: 4/5

A small (less than 300 pages) book that packs a big punch. It starts with the disappearance of two young girls in the first chapter. The rest of the book unspools with various stories about how that event impacted seemingly unrelated people around them until it all comes together at the end, which manages to be both satisfying and bleak at the same time. Definitely recommend.

This was not what I was expecting, but I loved it! Not your typical mystery, this gives us a glimpse into the lives of many different characters residing in the Kamchatka peninsula. It reads like a short story collection, with the mystery of the missing girls looming in the background. This was very atmospheric with a strong sense of place, but likely won‘t be for everyone if you are wanting more of a traditional mystery.

This was not at all what I expected, and so much better for it! I think my book group is going to love it! More than a mystery around the disappearance of two girls in remote Eastern Russia, this is more like interconnected stories from viewpoints of people affected by the crime - and another similar one with a Native girl years earlier. I love how it came together at the end…. But that ending!! Thumbs up to the audio too.

I loved reading about this culture. I really don‘t know much about Russia or it‘s culture. A lot of it seemed more like short stories than a cohesive novel, but I liked it anyway!

I wish I could do justice to books with my reviews, but I am not good with words. Suffice to say this book has everything I love in novels; it is atmospheric, the writing pristine, and has an ending that almost left me breathless.

5 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

#BookHaul from my three favourite secondhand stores. I already own a couple of these, but will be swapping them out for the nicer editions that I found! Not pictured are the books my mom and sister wanted to read 😂

It is so nice to be able to browse in stores again. Ontario is slowly re-opening with limited store capacity. I have my second vaccine appointment this weekend, which is great considering it was originally scheduled for September!

This book took me to a place I never read about before: the distant peninsula of Kamchatka. The story loosely follows the events unfolding after the kidnapping of two young girls and deals with many different aspects of life on the peninsula: the tension between Russians and indigenous people, the conversion to a new way of life after the collapse of the USSR, or the difficulty of leaving the peninsula and restarting life elsewhere. 👇🏻

I think reading, rather than listening, to this book may have made a bigger impact. The sequence of the chapters and how that moves the story along was lost on me in the audio. By the end, I didn‘t even get it. Will have to revisit with a hard copy.

One for me and one for work.

AMAZING. I loved the narrative form and some, actually most, of the sections had me riveted. I literally read it in a day (albeit one where I had a lot of time). I couldn‘t put it down, yet every section ends in a way that makes it easy to put down if you don‘t have a whole day to read like I did.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ • Not your usual mystery/crime novel & won‘t be for everyone. As u read u might think there r pacing problems but then u get to the end & BAM it all makes sense. From the author: “I wrote Disappearing Earth to run the range of violence in contemporary womanhood, because I‘m fascinated by how those hurts echo each other, overlap, and connect us.” Recommend if intrigued by the quote, but not to those looking to read a mystery/crime novel.

The best part of this book was that I learnt a lot about an area of the old Soviet Union that I knew nothing about. I was thankful for the list of main characters at the beginning of the book as each chapter was about different ones.
My kind of ending too. Lots of research must have gone into this story. An interesting read.
#joysbooks2021
@MrsMalaprop

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
I‘d say this is a light pick. I probably would have liked it more if I‘d had a better idea of what to expect going in. Each chapter is its own vignette from the POV of a different woman in the region, and most are only loosely related to the kidnapping that opens the book. I found that odd at first, but I grew to appreciate it. I enjoyed the writing and liked some of the vignettes, but others were more of a slog and I often had trouble⬇️

This wasn‘t the right book for me right now but when it‘s your book club book, there‘s not much you can do. It definitely reads more as connected short stories but most of the chapters end without real resolution. The writing is beautiful, Phillips is clearly talented - I hope to revisit her when I‘m in the right frame of mind.

Some beautiful and fascinating character studies. Love how each chapter dives into one character's little world, and then ties them all together throughout but especially at the end. Keeping with the theme of seeing into the lives of people who I would never have the chance to know in real life. What an interesting slice of humanity, this secluded russian peninsula.

In this novel, two sisters go missing on the Kamchatka peninsula in northeastern Russia. Through the year that follows, Julia Phillips gives voice to different members of the community connected by this tragedy.
In each chapter, we get to know a new voice, which adds perspective and matter to the story. I love the slow pace, because it's what makes it realistic: the waiting, the unanswered questions... And it's beautifully written.

Trying to cure those Sunday night blues with everything I‘ve got and not think about work tomorrow. 😭 Starting my #bookspin pick tonight and my second read from @monalyisha‘s #NewYearWhoDis list.

All set for #BookSpinBingo for this month! I‘m excited to finally read Disappearing Earth as it‘s been on my TBR list for quite some time and now it‘s this month‘s #BookSpin AND on my #NewYearWhoDis reading list. It‘s like it‘s meant to be finally.

The story depicts scenes from the lives of several Kamchatkan women in the wake of the disappearance of two young girls. Ultimately I was disappointed in how tenuous the connections to the crime some of the stories were, even if they were compelling in their own right. The beginning and end feel like traditional crime story passages while the bulk of the book focuses on what would otherwise be peripheral characters in the investigation.

This was a book recommended by someone on here! Excellent! Set in the northeast of Russia, two sisters are kidnapped and each chapter seems to be a different glimpse of a life in this rural little area. I loved how the story is woven.

Understated novel, engrossing and well-told.

What a disappointment. Usually I love character studies, but this was both very boring and also very slow. The character stories mostly had no connection to each other or the story so you can just skip right towards the second to last chapter and you wouldn‘t have missed anything 🙄.

A book that short should not have taken so long to read. I had to force my way through it.

#DisappearingEarth

#unpopularopinion I really wanted to love this novel, but I was truthfully bored the whole way through and considered bailing a few times. The beginning with the kidnapping was interesting, and I kept waiting to go back to those girls to see what happened, but we don't find out until the very end. The end picked up speed again, but overall I was expecting a literary thriller, and this was all character-driven. And I didn't care about any of them.

Chilling. I actually felt cold as I raced through the end last night. Very vivid character studies and sense of geography in this book. I loved learning about Kamchatka as I knew nothing beforehand. Reminded me a little of Miss Smilla. Overall, kept my attention as I finished it in 2 days! Thank you @AmyG for my copy!

I came back from a trip and the hubby surprised me with a new book. 😍

I'm really excited to read this, I've had my eye on it for a long time!

This book vividly brought to life northern Russia and the people that inhabited the town. It starts with the story of two kidnapped girls and then continues with vignettes that eventually link back together. The story felt urgent and I read it in a day. My favorite vignette took place at a university as a young Even woman tentatively tried to find independence and possibly love while also coping with a controlling boyfriend.

Starting a new paperback book. Got this one for my birthday! My friend loved it so I have high hopes.

Lunch breaks this week have meant desperately trying to finish this book before book club meeting tomorrow - and providing support for an unrepentant constant snuggler. 😹 #catsoflitsy #bookclubreading

This book was not what I expected, but I loved it. It‘s made up of vignettes about characters whose lives intersect with each other's and with a kidnapping. Phillips deals with xenophobia, racism, homophobia, classism, and misogyny in a way that feels natural and realistic, wherein these issues are part of the fabric of these characters' lives. There is a lot of sorrow in this book, but it didn't leave me in despair; it's just deeply human. 💙

The story begins with the almost too familiar trope of the missing girls but, as Phillips lays out the characters one by one, the complacent rage one feels at first boils. Disappearing Earth is not about a singular instance of violence but about the webs of responsibility and expectation and tradition that leave women helpless. Phillips exposes the subtle ways defeat seeps into every aspect of women's lives, a violence that goes unrecognised.

"You believe that you keep yourself safe...You lock up your mind and guard your reactions so nobody, not an interrogator or a parent or a friend, will break in. You earn a graduate degree and a good position...You keep the edge of your affection sharp, a knife, so that those near you know to handle it carefully. You think you established some protection and then you discover that you endangered yourself to everyone you ever met."

So far this year, I've read 56 books. Based on the interviews and bios I've read that indicate how an author identifies, this includes books by:

1 Black author (1.8%)
3 Indigenous authors (5.3%)
9 NBPOC authors (16.1%)
7 LGBTQIA+ authors (12.5%)

And of course some authors identify as more than one category so there's some overlap there.

@ChasingOm @Emilymdxn
#integrateyourshelf

"Some people don‘t care if you‘re special. They will punish you anyway. Neighbors, for example, will report a girl, even a smart girl, with a girlfriend. The police will harm you, if they get the chance. One person up the Okhotsk coast had been burned to death for this only a couple years earlier. If you aren‘t doing what you‘re supposed to, if you let your guard down, they will come for you. If you give them the opportunity."

"Chander‘s hands hung over his bent knees. His voice was low. ‘A white guy and a dark car. They‘re everywhere,‘ he said. ‘You know what I mean.‘ She did. Chander wasn‘t insulting Ruslan. He wasn‘t even talking about his own ex-girlfriend. He was onto something else, deep common knowledge, an ache that was native."

The Kamchatka peninsula in Russia has surprisingly similar problems to the US.

White Soviets displaced the local ethnic population during communist rule, and when two white girls go missing, they receive a lot more attention than an indigenous teen that also went missing.

Told through interlocking short stories, this is a tale of ethnic and rural/city strife, based around these disappearances.

This book has one of the best opening scenes ever!

This is a crime novel of the disappearance of two young sisters set in Russia done very differently. Each chapter is a consecutive month about a different person in the community. I was invested in each character‘s story. I really liked it.