Welcome to Litsy!

This was Februarys #readyourkindle book. It took me so long to read because it‘s such a worthwhile, heartfelt and powerful read but it‘s also full of grief and sadness (written very profoundly but succinctly, and repeated) so I was just reading it in small bursts. I loved it.

After a week of feeling rubbish we decided to book a last minute weekend away. So nice reading in bed while it‘s raining outside (and the kids are playing with their Nana) 🩷

I‘m making my way through this slowly but steadily - those small chapters sure pack a punch. I am loving the writing. Feels like a timely read.

I‘ve had either a stomach bug or food poisoning so I‘ve not read this month (just listened to an audiobook now & again). Still don‘t feel 100% but hoping I‘ll get to read some of the tagged book today, which is from Febs #tbrtarot & #readyourkindle

These are what came up for me this month on kindle - think I‘ll aim for just reading one (Everyone In this Room Will Someday be Dead) as I‘ve still got a chunk left of the tagged book to get through

“The German writer Goethe said that the tone of mind produced by architecture approaches the effect of music – that to look upon a thing is to hear it. Music is liquid architecture, he wrote, and architecture is frozen music.”

5⭐️ An amazing mosaic!

This novel unapologetically advocates for the end to Palestinian occupation, so this won‘t be for everyone. It is a blend of fact & fiction, which some readers haven‘t liked, but I loved. It isn‘t over dramatized rather it is humanized in intelligent and sometimes brutally realistic ways.

The apeirogon as a metaphor and structure for the novel is brilliant - so appropriate to the boundless “sides” of the conflict.

I‘m only 18% and really enjoying this timely novel. I love McCann assumes the reader is intelligent enough to pick up what he‘s putting down and isn‘t resorting to soap opera drama.

McCann narrates and I could listen to his voice all day.

This book is heavy. Heavy on the topic, heavy on the feels and loaded with different kinds of facts, all connected to the main story. Sometimes it was a lot to take in, and of course it's always difficult if a foreigner writes about something so delicate as the relationship between Israel and Palestine. But McCann did a good job, as far as I can say. Because he writes about humanity, about loss, friendship, connection, family. ⬇

And I also finally managed to put my #BookSpinBingo board together. Let's see where that one will take us 😄

@TheAromaOfBooks

I still didn't get around to write one single review, but at least I can choose books for #BookSpinBingo 😅 My #BookSpin is Apeirogon which was on my list of books recommended by our customers. And Vanessa already knew that @TheAromaOfBooks will pick Nr. 6 as #DoubleSpin and just recently gave me a book to read. Conspiracy? 😲

I guess I will make my #BookSpinBingo board tomorrow. Instead of writing reviews... 😌

Bassam and Rami lost their daughters in the Middle East conflicts. One is Palestinian and the other Israeli. Two men, united by grief, become friends. Their lives will nevee be the same. McCann has written an extraordinary texts that combines fictional and non fictional elements.

I have just finished Apeirogon and I think it will stay with me for a long time. Told using short snippets of information and related facts. Set in Israel, it touches on the relationship between Jewish and Palestinian residents. At times I had to reach for google to look up a location, or more information about a fascinating historical story. A story of love and hope, and making the most of a terrible situation💗
Next another story of love.💓✌🏼

The title alone describes the complicated multiple sides of a polygon shape as in life as a personification of the Israeli-Palenstine war which is very current today. At the forefront of this novel is the real life Bassam Aramin and Rami Elhanam, two fathers from opposite sides who lost their children in the conflict but find common ground and a friendship to find a peaceful resolution. Told with prose, this is a beautiful literary read.

Here are my July books, with the tagged book newly added to my top 5 of all time. There is a great interview with the author online from Politics and Prose. So original, heart wrenching, beautiful prose.

Apeirogon- a shape with a countably infinite number of sides.
Bassam Aramin is Palestinian. Rami Elhanan is Israeli. They have both lost young daughters as a result of the fighting between their countries. They decided to try and use their grief as a weapon for peace. This is all true. However, the book consists of fictional and nonfictional material. The structure is creative. The story is heartbreaking.
“It will not be over until we talk.”

“The hills of Jerusalem are a bath of fog.”
#firstlinefridays @ShyBookOwl

Incredible.
The choppiness of the book - numbers (chapters?) Are constant and it takes a bit to get used to. But the book is so original. Filled with history, small random seeming facts of the world, all interspersed between the stories of Bassam and Rami and their dead children.
The book is good for people with any level of knowledge on Palestinian & Isreal.
The writing is gorgeous and structurally unique.

If you haven't read Apeirogon yet I do recommend the physical book. There are many photos throughout and the formatting is really set up for a read not a listen if you are able.

And we think the myths are startling.

Curious about Colum McCann's fascination with tight ropers. This is my second of his books and both mention them, a group of people I rarely see casually mentioned in novels.

This book was recently included in a list of suggested books to learn about the struggles between Israel and Palestine. I immediately reserved it, and have just begun to read.

I am about halfway through...just finished Bassam and Rami‘s speeches and I am devastated. 💔

McCann is a master of his craft.

The book is good but different in how it jumps from topic to topic and sometimes you aren‘t sure of the relevance of the jump

I‘m in the middle of so many books but a brand new year means a brand new book, right?! I have high hopes for this one and have been saving it for Jan 1. Happy New Year everyone! 🎉🎇🎆

#20best2020
Thanks for the tag @CarolynM

As someone who reads only around 50 books a year I had to choose almost half my 2020 reads 😄. I see that quite a few of my non-fiction reads are in here. I am still reading Hamnet, but feel confident it will make my top 20.

A view of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict through the eyes of two fathers who each lost a daughter and both work for peace. The nonfiction base story is powerful. I‘m not sure McCann‘s take adds much other than, admirably, adding a lot of exposure to their story.

“Survival, in fact, is about the connection between things.” Everything in this book is connected to the deaths of two young girls. My heart breaks for the fathers of Abir and Smadar. 💔

There is a lot to unpack and appreciate in this work. The core story is about the surprising friendship of two men that should be adversaries and their shared heartbreak and determination for peace. It is also an intricately drawn portrait of our interconnectedness to each other and the natural world. An apeirogan is a polygon with an infinite number of countable sides. This world is equally simple and complex. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“Our politicians like to scare us. We like to scare each other. We use the word security to silence others. But it‘s not about that, it‘s about occupying someone else‘s life, someone else‘s land, someone else‘s head. It‘s about control. Which is power. “-Rami

I‘m struggling with some things at the moment, which is why I‘m not around much. Listening to this book helped me a bit the last few weeks. It isn‘t perfect, and I‘m sure opinions will differ regarding the Israel/Palestine conflict (which I know too little about), but what this book did right (imo) was showing the grief and heartbreak of Rami and Bassam. It felt real (because it is) and raw, and my heart broke a thousand times over for them 💔

P74, ch 160
Bassam and Rami gradually came to understand that they would use the force of their grief as a weapon.

P380 ch154
Chaos was the fuel of Israel. It was a country built on shifting tectonic plates. Things were constantly colliding.

P190 ch 445
He couldn‘t understand it. Their sons had been radicalized while in prison, Allah protect them, but they were put in prison for slinging stones.

Migratory birds, Philippe Petit, Borges, Terezin

^^^Araab (brother of Abir) with Yigal (brother of Smadar) at the Alternative Memorial Service, speaking together against occupation, segregation, and violence, as their fathers did.

P400 (Rami & Bassam on tour) An Israeli, against the occupation. A Palestinian, studying the Holocaust. How to hold these things together. How to waken the sleep in the audience. The silence was there to be undermined. They were sure people were ready to listen.

^^^p 223, Rami going to the Parents‘ Circle meeting for the first time. These two chapters (both 500) at the core of the book, from transcripts of Rami and Bassam themselves, are maybe the best part.

P237 (Bassam) It‘s a tragedy that we need to continually prove that we are human beings. Not only to the Israelis, but also for other Arabs, our brothers and sisters, to the Americans, to the Chinese, the Europeans. Why is that? Do I not look human?

Gut-punch of a book. “Apeirogon”=shape w/ an “observably infinite number of sides,” much like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Having lost young daughters to violent acts, Bassam Aramin & Rami Elhanan join a group for bereaved parents seeking peace. Friendship & grief. 1001 short chapters, fragments like bomb shrapnel? But structure also annoying, like laying out research notecards. Sebald did it better. Rich & moving, if fractured & messy. 2020

I was surprised that an Irish author dares to write about the Israelian-Palestinian conflict. But he does a good job, mostly because the story is based on the true lifes of Rami and Bassan who both lose a daughter in the conflict. The book touched me especially because it tries to stay objective. I can‘t judge if it succeeds completely but I read it as the story of two men who have much more in common than most are willing to admit. ⬇️⬇️

I am deeply moved by this book so far. How complicated, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict 💔

I‘m barely reading these days, because it feels like all my waking moments are filled with work and apartment stuff. But when I get a moment, even for just a few minutes, I listen to this. And its short vignettes/chapters are perfect for my lack of focus. And so far, this book is like no other I have read 👌

Ok, Palestinian/Israeli contrast take forty-seven million and twelve. Well, Booker long list too. I started on audio today.

High demand library holds came in , happy but I am pretty backed up on my reading!Not the worst problem of course.🤓😂

Multiple parables layered into an extremely well curated composition. A fractured abstraction of personal tragedy and grand political dilemmas. And a timeless reminder to keep searching for the common ground instead of our devisions. This very dramatic account of human suffering touched me so deeply that i had to stop many times because listening grew to intense. I can‘t believe this didn‘t make the booker shortlist?!

I can see why this book is longlisted for the Booker Prize. There were elements of it that I really liked - the unusual format, the stream of consciousness style writing and the circular connective elements such as the birds and the water.

However, I was uncomfortable with the juxtaposition of fact, fantasy and fiction. It worried me that I might not be getting the true story of these two men. I know that a book is always, by nature, ⬇️

Just popped to my (very) local tiny library, only 10 minutes walk away. I haven‘t been for a few years but they had this book on the shelves which I wanted. #bookerlonglist2020.

It‘s an offshoot of the main public library in town. They tried to close it about 5 years ago so now it‘s volunteer-run but still part of the main system.

I saw 5 or 6 other books I‘d like to read but didn‘t want to ruin August‘s TBR so I shall definitely return soon!

An incredible blend of fact and fiction. Engrossing, unique and beautiful. And so very sad. I loved it. Hope it wins the Booker 🤞.

“Thy took a plane to Berlin, went to the last remnants of the Wall. End the preoccupation, he whispered to Bassam. They laughed quietly. At the Shalom Rollberg centre, Rami said to the audience that all walls were destined to fall, no matter what. He was not so naive, though, to believe that more would not be built. It was a world of walls. Still, it was his job to insert a crack in the one most visible to him“ (401).

Oh my goodness, absolutely loving this book ❤️😢. #currentlyreading #booker2020longlist

Adding some more to my #TBR list https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.scroll.in/article/969179/a-readers-quick-guide-...