Welcome to Litsy!

Thanks to @Gaylagal2 for a delightful #litsylovefallswap #llfs package! I'm so pleased with everything you've chosen for me. Am especially excited by the Bibliophile Reader's Journal, as that's something I'd not buy for myself but it's really lovely. A great treat on a dreary Monday! @Bookgoil @rsteve388

Grabbed Townie at a book swap about a month ago. Not really sure what to expect, but I'm excited to dig in soo!

I don‘t mean to dismiss the narrative arc of this book, but the sense of place, of geography, of how lives are forged by these places just speaks to my soul. It might just be my love of New England.

I‘ve never noticed the setting of a book so intently before. I love reading books that are contemporary and set in real places. Most of the time I‘m reading, i either know a place fairly well, or I don‘t. Haverhill in the 70s had to have been very different, and I don‘t know Haverhill that well anyway. I find myself trying to imagine the places mentioned and I can just barely imagine them. #haverhill #newengland

From the first time I set foot in Haverhill (which would be when I took this photo in December 2018), I wanted to be there forever. This book definitely makes me question that impulse, but at least the Merrimack River is no longer brown.

I loved this memoir. I loved House of Sand and Fog when I read it many many years ago. And I'm REALLY excited that he has a new book out later this year!

If this is any indication of this book, I'm going to love the hell out of it...Bruuuuuuce!

Argh! I cut it too close! A few years ago, ADIII came to Blackstone Audio to record ‘Townie‘ and he was congenial, entertaining, and gracious. I really wanted to see him tonight, but already on a tight schedule, locking my keys in the car metaphorically threw a wrench into the works. Sigh 😔

This excellent memoir evokes the same feelings as Springsteen's #TheRiver. It recounts Dubus's childhood after his parents' divorce, growing up in a working class, often violent, Massachusetts crumbling mill town, while his father led a comfortable life as an academic only a short drive away. #RockinMay (image from Amazon)

I listened to this one on the advice of a friend, and I am so glad I did. It will forever change my often too-quick judgment of the people in the trying-to-revitalize New England mill town in which I live.

One of the finest memoirs I've read. Reads like a novel...heartbreaking, poignant, sometimes funny. Classic Dubus: eloquent, honest narrative.