Welcome to Litsy!

A really fascinating book about queerness, identity, and family, asking the question 'What changes us?' Pregnancy is a topic I usually struggle with in media, but Maggie tells it so directly 'this happens, this is how it felt' it's easier to navigate.

Some of these I absolutely loved, some I didn‘t like and two I DNFed (Fun Home and Pachinko)

There‘s also 14 that I want to read, mostly previously read authors

And as I saw somewhere say, with a no 1 like that, how can you take this list seriously? I read no 1 years ago and gave it a so-so rating, and anyone who has followed me for awhile have probably noticed that I hardly ever gives a book a so-so rating

The best part of these type of lists is getting excited all over again for the books you have but haven't read yet.

This is a raw memoir about love, family and gender. I really like what Nelson had to say and the experiences she shared. Parts of it were like being in her head. She would be sharing one story, and another would pop up and she‘d veer course and come back around with the original thought. Overall it was pretty good. #Pop23 ~a book with just text on the cover #ReadHarder23 ~a nonfiction book about queer history #Booked23 ~about reproductive rights

It‘s a weird thing to review a memoir, as I obviously have no comment on Nelson‘s experiences, it‘s always a gift to the world to have someone share their lives, emotions, and thoughts. I did however struggle through the pacing and writing style. I much enjoyed her collection Bluets which was another memoir style but poetic and shorter - which is what sold me to read more from Nelson. This does have important critiques on heterosexuality & women!

New month, new list! Looking forward to many of this month‘s #bookspin #aam #roll100 and #camplitsy picks 🥰

I found the tagged book on a list of books about fertility struggles, and found it extremely moving. So much so that I was surprised to read mixed reviews about it on goodreads, honestly! Haha 🫣 If anyone has any book recommendations on the topic for me to add to my list, I‘d love to hear them 📚

Just not feeling this. Have tried reading it twice now and, while it may have been groundbreaking in 2015, now it seems dated and tedious. I may not have given it enough time but for now, I‘m not interested in finishing. #BookspinBingo #DNF

I don‘t know, man… This came highly recommended by women in a writing workshop, but was not for me. Went back and forth between being overly academic (she must have used “teleological” 20 times) and oversharing details of her sex life in a way that was jarring (maybe because the rest of the tone was stuffy academic?). I don‘t know who the audience was supposed to be. It felt like she wrote it for herself.

I was late to the party on this one, but I never liked parties anyway. 😉

We can‘t expect every writer to write for every audience, but this isn‘t marketed as an academic text. If it had been, I would have gone in with a different set of expectations and perhaps not been disappointed or confused. Still, assuming you are part of Nelson‘s (perhaps subconsciously) intended audience, you‘ll find The Argonauts a poignant and resonant read. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/the-argonauts-maggie-nelson/

Perfectly realized, like most of Nelson‘s work. This is a heartfelt and deeply affecting “memoir” about an unconventional family and the power of love.

After reading The Red Parts, I knew I wanted to read more from Nelson, and indeed, I loved this. I‘m not sure how to describe this. It‘s somewhere between musings and philosophy written in stream of consciousness and weaving together thoughts and experiences on gender, sexuality, birth, death, motherhood, and more. I just love how this woman‘s brain works.

Sometimes it's difficult to follow, it's written without continuity,as a collection of thoughts, each less than a page long and I think it could benefit of some footnotes explaining who certain people are;but I was hooked to this train of thoughts on gender identity, sexuality, love, family, death, motherhood and that bit of insight on her partner's experiences when transitioning. A lot condensed in such a small book.

#20in4 Readathon @Andrew65

I told you I was sick of stories in the mainstream media told by comfortably cisgendered folks-presumably "us"-expressing grief over the transition of others,presumably "them".Where does it fit into the taxonomy of life crises when one person's liberation is another's loss? [...] How does one get accross the fact that the best way to find out how people feel about their gender or their sexuality -or anything else,really-??

Not sure how I‘m feeling about this one....

It‘s rare that I finish a book and am left speechless about how to summarize it in a review, for a short read this one is intense and captivating, it demands your full attention. It‘s a memoir about love and life, relationships and children, childbirth, and loving the generation that came before and letting them go too...it‘s also about sex, gender, transformation, and learning to embrace who you are, unabashedly sharing yourself world.

The Librarian Is In Podcast pick for June 2020

I read for entertainment, but also to help me understand my fellow human beings and to be more loving and compassionate. This is one of those books that helped me to do just that.

I read this because it made several "best books of the decade" lists. My eyes were opened as I encountered passages of experiences very different from my own. In the same token, I was reminded of aspects of pregnancy, birth, and motherhood from my own experiences. This is what I find wonderful about memoirs: we connect with different experiences from our own while also seeing our own lives reflected in the words of another.
?#memoir #audiobook

#currentlyreading #nonfiction #readbytheauthor #Libby
High level listening required here... not what I would consider an easy listen, but I'm fascinated so far!

First book of the new year - this was quite an intense read, deep observation about identity and pregnancy. I've not read anything like it before.

Parts of this were captivating, and other parts just didn‘t connect for me. That‘s the nature of memoir—reading something about a life other than your own. The parts I didn‘t love were the critical theory aspects, but perhaps I just don‘t have the background to appreciate them. Or maybe I just found them pretentious. I‘d give it not quite a full Pick but more than just So-so.

Full review http://www.TheBibliophage.com
#thebibliophage2020

This is a bit late, but I'm finally home after various Christmas visits so have only just put together my book haul presents! I'm really happy with these - they're all very thoughtful and I can't wait to get through them. Maggie Nelson is currently blowing me away with The Argonauts. Has anyone read any of the others? 😊

I‘m nearly at the end of a busy holiday entertaining schedule. I feel like I‘ve barely been here, Littens. But ... soon life will slow down and return to “normal.” These are “baked eggs with feta and spinach.” I spend about an hour creating them, and my family polishes them off in about ten minutes! I picked a short book to accompany my day. #audiocooking #theargonauts #thoughtprovoking #essays #memoir

I had a feeling I was going to devour this. Maggie Nelson journeys into the depths of self-awareness, and more importantly, self-examination to explore the limits of language and desire, the unconscious, deep-spread binaries we abide by, and the joys and fears about motherhood, family-making and queer identities. From Sedgwick and Winnicott to Preciado and Lacan, she uses the work of philosophers and artists to complete her personal reflections.

This text is giving me so much.

Next up in the world of master's theses: The Argonauts/ Die Argonauten.
[Currently listening to: Heart-Shaped Box by Nirvana]

I rarely stop reading a book, but had to with this one. I found the writing to be a jumble of thoughts that jumped around, which made it annoying to read. Perhaps if this had been organized in a timeline I would have been able to continue.

Woo-hoo! Treated myself again. I'm really looking forward to immersing myself in this...

#Pippin #BostonTerriersofLitsy #DogsofLitsy
I started the audiobook of this from my library (read by the author) but switched to the library ebook and I'm enjoying it more. I think it works better in print.

So true, and connecting so many lines of truth from different circles in my life right now.
Do what you love.
Fight the power.
Change the system.
ENJOY your life. That‘s what the f@$&kers hate the most.

I really loved parts of this book. It was beautifully written, but so many references were made to writers, poets and artists that I had never heard of that I felt like many parts went right over my head. #audiobook #nonfiction

Identity. Even though we change and morph we are still us. We have to go through the changes to become us.
This is an interesting book. It comes across as a letter to her son about how he came to be through the changes and challenges his parents went through to become who they are and have him. It is read by the author.
It was at times hard to follow, but still not all bad.

I didn‘t wanna like this book bc of the hype but I cried in Jewel during the hospital scene anyway. Beautiful, honest, intimate. I‘m a sucker for that nerdy Gen-X queer academic type. For whatever reason this book felt refreshing, almost old-fashioned, in its style and courage. Maybe I wouldn‘t like it as much on second read, but it packed an emotional first punch.

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

1. Maggie Nelson (for intellectual writing that‘s also personal and beautiful)
2. Jane Austen (for her power as a observer and her way of making everyday life fascinating)
3. Tressie McMillan Cottom (esp. THICK, which is intellectual, brilliant and personal, like Maggie Nelson)
4. Nicholson Baker (esp. THE MEZZANINE, which taught me what strange things novels can do).
5. Sayaka Murata (esp. THE CONVENIENCE STORE WOMAN: novels in translation!)

⭐️ This has been touted as “genre-bending” NF, but honestly, it just felt like a lengthy college essay that had no idea what it wanted to be. I found it incredibly inaccessible. The first paragraph was so pretentious that I almost bailed 10 second in. I didn‘t like the writing nor style, which tremendously hindered my ability to reap any connection with Nelson. Though, I doubt she cares as she peers down from her esoteric high horse.

▶️🎧

@kgriffith I borrowed this after seeing your recent posts. I know you weren‘t keen on it being nonfiction, so I‘m curious how you ended up liking it?

Dinner and a movie? Nah... queer book club and game store! Loved the book, look forward to playing the game!

Trying to get through the last ~30p before book club. #24in48 #readathon #queerbooks #readinginbed

With one exception re: her stepfather, every passage I‘ve been able to relate to has been in her observation of Harry, or very specific aspects of their relationship. #queerbooks #bookclub #24in48 #readathon

Content note: discussion of sexual violence in the full paragraph.
“I don‘t even want to talk about ‘female sexuality‘ until there is a control group. And there never will be.” #24in48 #readathon #queerbooks

It took me a bit to get into this as it veers into some inaccesible philosophical writing that can sometimes seem to put up an emotional barrier to the meat of it. But in the end I felt deeply connected and actually appreciative of the intellectual context the references provide. It weaves together several strands of Nelson‘s relationship, pregnancy, early motherhood, death of her partner‘s mother, identity and thought processes.

The passage from When the Moon Was Ours reminded me of this part of The Argonauts I read earlier today and while I‘m not saying I like the book yet I can‘t deny that it‘s had moments that resonate so very deeply.

Further remnants of my games gathering. tagged book is the one I‘m really struggling to tell anyone, anything about how it feels to read it, because feeling stupid isn‘t my jam.

I think I‘ll be an n of one, at my book group, or elsewhere, in saying that I actually enjoyed this book. It may be that my intersectionality and life experience, that I am the niche she writes to. I enjoyed the experience, even in my disagreements with critique or generalized commentary, or shifting context.

The headlamp, I use one to read in bed. Yes, I‘ll get a lamp, I said three years ago.

I also have a complicated relationship with my stepfather, and came to terms with my parents‘ ages relative to my own not having much meaning some time ago. It helped me find compassion where before there had been primarily resentment, anger, shame.

This book is making me :angry:
She has these really lovely and stark and profound sentences here and there but they‘re surrounded by inaccessible doublespeak and shit like this, where I can‘t tell if she‘s being facetious or not, but in context, I think probably not.
More than one very intelligent person I know has rage-quit reading this, which I find myself feeling the need to say because I don‘t want to look stupid, and THAT makes me angry.

“What if where I am is what I need? . . . I never imagined it might apply to joy, too.”

Yeah I‘d say I never really been a baby/ animal/ houseplant/ garden... self care person either 🤷‍♂️ my kid and cats and garden and plants seem to do fairly well besides, though I‘m still working on the self care department. I expect I should keep finding time for more books 📚!