Welcome to Litsy!

A family holidaying in Norfolk have the lies they tell themselves stripped away by the arrival of a random person on their doorstep.

I normally love Ali Smith books so I was surprised to not love this one. It was still funny, and angry and all the things I like in her writing but…

2 🌟 some compelling writing but the story did not hold up for me.

A reread for me.

This is such a summery read for me. Set during the summer vacation of the Smart family. Everyone in the family have their own struggles, when suddenly a stranger, a woman, is among them and shakes things up.

I love this novel. It‘s so Ali Smith.

#Alphabetgame
Thanks for the tag @vivastory
My pick is for the first Ali Smith book I read. It just blew me away! It is such a strange story, and the prose just crackled. It felt like she was experimenting with the form of novel, and I found that exciting. Must reread!
Consider this a tag for anyone who wants to play!
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

she told him how the killer hornets, which are ten times the length of the bees somewhere in South America, send their scouts out ahead to track down beehives then report back. Then hornets mob the hive, kill the bees and eat the honey. But then some bees got clever and worked out that these hornets die at a certain temperature, 116 degrees. But bees also die at a certain temperature. 118 degrees. So the next time a hornet scout was spotted by the

#BookReport

As expected not much reading done this week. I came back from Lucca late last night.

I‘ve finished Excellent Women #PemberLittens #excellentwomenandboiledpotatos and Culture Warlords #SheSaid

I‘m currently reading The Accidental

There is nothing else to do here. The village is a dump. Post office, vandalized Indian restaurant, chip shop, little shop place that‘s never open, place for ducks to cross the road. Ducks actually have their own roadsign! There is a sofa warehouse called Sofa So Good. It is dismal. There is a church. The church has its own roadsign too. Nothing happens here except a church and some ducks, and this is an ultimate dump.

I like a clever book and multiple narratives often captivate me, however this just felt like a bad case of repeated deja vu. The character of Amber is instantly unlikeable and her cocky arrogance is really irritating! The other characters do little to ingratiate themselves to you, although I did find Magnus‘ narrative more honest than the others. I‘m sure there are many who loved this book but for me it tries to be clever and just falls flat.

Got my haircut today and of course had to stop by the used bookstore nearby! Their sales benefit our local senior center, so I shouldn‘t feel guilty right 😊? $20 for this fill-a-bag deal. Pleased to find the Ali Smith book (tagged). Picked up the SK and Blood of Abraham by Jimmy Carter for my Global Politics major son — bonus is that the Jimmy Carter is autographed! When I texted my son, he responded “Holy Moly” 😊

Here are my selections for #round8 #lmpbc. These have all been on my TBR for quite a while. Let me know what you guys would like to read. I can always come up with more options too. 💙💙

As good on a re-read as it was the first time. Although this is clearly earlier, less refined writing from Smith, I really think she can do no wrong. Each of Smith‘s novel is a perfect capture of a moment in time. Her examinations of human existence are pitch perfect. Her writing is sharp and original. I love it. #indiebuddyreads

THIS BOOK!! It was every bit as good reading it this time around. Maybe better. We believe what we want to be true about other people, and about ourselves. Ali Smith is 🔥.

Re-Reading and old fave for #indiebuddyreads

Reading Girl, Woman, Other made me think of Ali Smith‘s writing style a little bit, and I‘ve been wanting to reread this gem for awhile. No time like the present.

Like all of Ali Smith‘s books, I‘m sure I‘ve missed some references or other, but I loved this.

The Smart family has rented a summer house for the summer vacation. Mother Eve, her kids Astrid and Magnus, and her husband Michael. They are all dealing with different things when we meet them, and are not spending much time together. One day a woman knocks on their door, Amber. And what happens then?

So these are my #bookspin, #doublespin and #triplespin books.

I‘m looking forward to reading all of these

This is such a great idea

Another collage of covers for the novel that made me fall in love with Ali Smith. A family of four is on vacation when the #beautifulstranger Amber shows up. Who she is, no one knows but her brief stay has immense impact on each member of the family.
Love, love, love this book! It's bizarre and brilliant and the language is so vivid, it crackles!
@Cinfhen #MOvember

Up next! #amreading #tbr

Thanks so much for the tagged book, @Jas16 - what a nice #jb surprise! And thanks for the Christmas card, @Marmie7 🙏😊

@Bklover This time the #whodunitbymail book came quickly! Thanks for sending! I‘ve got reading to do ❤️

Over the course of a summer holiday in Norfolk five self-centred, obnoxious people have a transformative life experience. Despite this, they remain self-centred and obnoxious and largely untransformed. I won't say more to avoid spoilers.

A very good writer, but the novel already feels dated. (Which I didn't mind, in a nostalgic way.) This was my first Ali Smith and I will definitely try another of her novels.

⭐⭐⭐

This is my stack for August for #MakeMeReadIt hosted by @TheReadingMermaid

1. The Remains of the Day
2. The Lonely City
3. The Accidental
4. The Girl who was Saturday Night
5. When I Lived in Modern Times
6. Behold the Dreamers

Vote in the comments, and I will read the one with the most votes first, and then the second and so on.

This is more than I read in a month, so I probably won't get to all of them.

This book was very quirky, and there were large parts of it that I really enjoyed... but there were also parts that just seemed totally irrelevant and confusing. I was enjoying it, and then the end happened and now I just don‘t know.

The writing is so good. The family is dysfunctional, but in the way that many are today. I think if I wasn‘t so baffled, this would have been a solid pick.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

#1001books

#readingwomenmonth set in your not quite hometown but this is set in my county of Norfolk. Still haven't read this. My city has one of the best creative writing courses in the country so anyone who graduated from it or taught at it is considered a local author by moi. This way I can claim kazuo Ishiguro and Angela Carter as my own.

Often dazzling, occasionally baffling, tale of an English family whose lives are upended by the arrival of Amber, a mysterious drifter. Won't be to all tastes but the writing is often miraculous.

My goodness these people are broken. I had a hard time liking any of them. But I think that's the point. If all our faults are laid out to bare, how many of us are really that likable?😊 I'm telling you to pick this because Smith's writing style is amazing. An unhappy family of four on holiday encounter a charming, mysterious stranger. She becomes part of their lives, but to what end? This book was a trip! 127/1,001 #1001Books

I love Ali‘s style, which reminds me so much of Virginia Woolf. What‘s more, I felt like Ali took themes from TO THE LIGHT HOUSE and rewrote them into a totally new story. I could spend hours talking about this book (I already have, actually 🙊), but I will just say here that I love Ali Smith. And while this book isn‘t my favorite of hers, it‘s def one of the most thought-provoking books I‘ve read this year.

What Ali does to me.

From anyone else this would probably be a pick but from Ali Smith it's just okay. It has many of her trademark features including her faultless internal monologues and her playful, postmodern use of language but plot and characters lacked their usual heart and soul. Perhaps it's my dislike of the "offbeat stranger changes family's lives" trope, or perhaps because a similar theme worked so much better in There But For The

Just back from Paris and off course I came home with som new books ?❤️. The Accidental was bought at the airport while the other three was bought at "Shakespeare and Company". I was in there for 40 minutes and wasn't even close at browsing all the shelves.

This is the wrap-up of my Birthday book haul! Over the weekend my boyfriend took me to two different secondhand book stores and let me pick out whatever I wanted as a Birthday present! I'm pretty excited about everything I found including a first edition of Rebecca and of a Steinbeck!

I have been listening to audiobooks for about 10 years. And here's my theory: good books are better on audio, bad books are worse.
This is one of the first audiobooks I ever listened to. It's an all-time favourite. Ali Smith's prose is gorgeous on the page but it positively crackles when read aloud. #awesomeaudiobooks #marchintoreading @RealLifeReading

Ali Smith #bookmail @saresmoore @vivastory let me know when you get your copy ❤️📚

After much deliberation, I've finally figured out my books for the #litsyAtoZ challenge. I'm killing a whole lot of birds with one stone with this one: I've opted for the title stream, they are all women authors and they are all books (except one) that are already on my shelf! Several of these books I've been meaning to read for years, including the Oryx & Crake trilogy by Margaret Atwood. Hopefully I can get through all of them!

#WWW I'm sure she's been chosen many times, but Ms. Smith is a mighty wordsmith. Her books are singular, brilliant. She chooses her words with a skill not oft encountered and reading her books is a pleasure to be savored every time. And she's got mad stacking game! Photo from The New Statesman.

New reading location: Brooklyn Botanic Gardens 😍

I'm a big Ali Smith fan, I can wait to start this one!

"A novel about the ways that seemingly chance encounters irrevocably transform our understanding of ourselves..." Looking forward to reading this over the next week or so!

I'd had the book for over a year on my shelves when I finally decided to give it a try. I loved it SO much I can't even begin to tell you about it. Smith is a genius writer and I can't wait to get my hands on smth else she wrote.

I finally read this, and it was amazing! Of course. She's always amazing.

I didn't know that Ali Smith describing A-ha's "Take On Me" video was a thing I wanted until I read it. ❤️

I finally picked a 2016 reading challenge! I am going to read a backlist title from every letter of the alphabet. I'm starting tonight, with the only Ali Smith I haven't read. Excited!