Welcome to Litsy!

Bookclub. Soft pick. One of the most harrowing books I‘ve read. It‘s definitely a pick but it‘s a strange one as I could have quite easily have closed it at anytime and not picked it up again. Because of the material not because of it being badly written etc. I‘m still trying to process what I think and I may come back later and add to this review but I just wanted to get it done as life is hectic at the moment and my time on Litsy has suffered.

My last #botm came, and it included my prize for this year, which I cut the cord off of and gave to Molly. She‘s not super destructive, so I expect it to last a bit. Looking forward to Unsettled and Betty plus having the other two in my permanent library. #ByeByeBlueBox

This is a really dense and difficult book to get through. It was extremely well written. It focused on a girl and her growing up with her family amongst racism toward Native Americans and people of color and the things she went through with her family as a child. It‘s a tough book to read and a bit slow in some places but I thought the story was compelling and well composed.

Cashing in my free BotM book since it's my birthday month. 🎉

Here's my referral link if you want to join: https://www.mybotm.com/qivod2fo7pq?show_box=true

🥰

📚Tagged
🖋Lilian Beckwith
🎞 Back to the Future
🎸 Billy Joel
🎼 Badlands
#ManicMonday
#LetterB
@CBee

This book ripped my heart out, put it back together, ripped it out again. Beautiful writing that draws from the author‘s own Cherokee heritage. Not a light read, and you‘ll feel like your heart might burst or that you need to step away to remember to breath. It‘s that good, and that powerful.
This was my #bookspin for May.
@TheAromaofBooks

Started reading and swapped to audio 1/3 in. While not full cast, the narrator's ability to give unique voices to this family of 10 deserves to be appreciated!

If you are seeking a light read, this is not it. A story with so much heart, these fictitious characters will last a very long time in my memory due to the emotions experienced while absorbing this coming-of-age story of Betty Carpenter, who seemed to have inherited the best from both...

Oh goodness. I read half of this book, returned it to the library, placed and hold and d read the rest. I would recommend this approach. This is capital Heavy. I don‘t know if I loved it but I liked it very much. I‘m not sure what to say about the plot, but it‘s inspired by the author‘s mother‘s childhood (I believe). It‘s heartbreaking with some really touching elements. A confrontation at the end had me teared up. Time well spent reading.

This is so very sad, tragic and maddening, I wept and felt all the feels on almost every page. A stunning novel that is at once poetic and grounded, beautiful and harrowing. Betty‘s Dads stories and ways of explaining the world are profoundly moving and all this set against the most vivid of landscapes. It was a true MasterClass in storytelling !
Note: trigger warnings for lots of things!

Oh jeez Betty, you‘ve broken my heart 💔
What a beautiful written, melancholy, sad book.
I lasted a long time until a tear.

The writing is stunning - but it‘s wrecking my heart 😢😢😢😢

#newyearwhodis

Just starting this today - from @Chelsea.Poole #newyearwhodis list. I have a ritual before starting every new book - hunting for the perfect bookmark !

Love that new book feeling-anticipation and excitement for what‘s to come and who we‘ll be meeting, predicting the tears and joy to be found within. My next #newyearwhodis book and I‘ve heard nothing but fabulous things. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

By finishing Betty, I have completed my Goodreads/Storygraph goal, #booked2021 (#appalachiannoir) and #52Booksin52Weeks.

@Cinfhen @4thhouseontheleft @BarbaraTheBibliophage @BarbaraBB

4.75 ⭐

299pts #wintergames #Mistletoemaniacs @Clwojick

#12Booksof2021 March is Betty.

Halfway exactly! Was up really early so treated myself to some beautiful and tragic reading. Making steady progress of this, not too quick because I need time to process. Hoping to finish up this week though!

So this is going to be my January reading pile. Thank you SO much @Chelsea.Poole for giving me so much to choose from. Patrick Radden Keene was on my list last year and his new one looks fab, I listened to The Stacks interview Amanda Montell and she sounds very fab and Betty I know nothing about! Amazing list thank you Chelsea #newyearwhodis2022

This feels very much like that moment in The Office where they have the fire drill. 🚨 it‘s happening! It‘s happening 🚨

So far so good but with ominous undertones and despite my best efforts I saw a comparison to Bastard Out of Carolina which is like a combo of these emojis😭🤩 and filling me with a lot of dread.

This was excellent. It's been a while since I've enjoyed a novel through and through. I highly recommend this one! 👏

#bookspin #bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

Thanks Emma @Oryx I bought this one for @TrishB for her birthday but don't have it myself so a great choice, many thanks!!! 😀

Book 124

I listened to Betty by Tiffany McDaniel. This book is a fictionalized-version of the author's life growing up in the 1960s with a Cherokee father and an Appalachian mother. I'm not a sensitive reader, but I had to take some breaks from the explicitly-written, depressing stories
Betty is a beautiful writer and all her family members are rich and compelling/abhorrent characters. The voice acting was notable. Well-done! A must-read author.

There is such great beauty in this book.

The stories told by a Cherokee father are his way of saying, "I love you," to his kids.

The children listening and holding those stories in their hearts are them saying, "I love you, too."

There is such great sadness and evil in this book.

Child molestation, rape, incest, animal cruelty, suicide.

I would warn you not to get attached to any of the characters, but you won't be able to help it.

I love book mail!

I picked this book because it is set in southern Ohio. This is a very hard book to read. There is 1 scene with kittens that was so horrible I almost stopped reading. So much sadness that happened with this family.

Do I need more books? No.
Am I going to take advantage of Buy One Get One Half Price? Yes!

This is beautifully written but really heavy stuff here. If you are looking for a happy/light read, this isn't it.

Only words I have to describe this book: Beautiful and heartbreaking.

March: 19
YTD: 63

Top row were all ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️, Betty being my overall favorite. Honorable mention goes to A Good Girl‘s Guide to Murder (books 1 & 2). It was a pretty fantastic month!

#marchreads #marchwrapup

All the stars for Betty. I loved this novel set in Appalachia, southern Ohio to be exact — which is exactly where I am. Betty is a young girl who “comes of age against the knife” suffering racism, trauma (often secondary but no less horrific), and learning how to fit into her world alongside her family. Betty‘s father is her sun, and the source of hope for her. Sections featuring her father feel like magical realism but actually aren‘t. Cont ⬇️

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Oh, Betty girl, you‘ve had such a sorrow-filled existence. This is more than a coming of age, it‘s the character study of a poverty-stricken Appalachian family. McDaniels renders life to these bodies with lush, poetic, truly beautiful writing. You experience every single line. You feel this family‘s suffering; HER family‘s suffering. But there‘s deep, abiding love, too. Easily one of my top reads of the year. Chills.

🎧🧩 Just wrapped up this super fun 90s puzzle! Totally bought it for Beavis and Butthead. Lots of faces + nonstandard pieces made this much tougher than I originally expected. 😅

Enjoying the tagged book so far, but damn, is it sad.

#audiopuzzling

I‘m on Chapter 19 ... my current Audible walking book
And I do love the connection to nature & Betty‘s Dad‘s wisdom... but something isn‘t clicking for me with this one. The narrator isn‘t helping , but it‘s more than that , I‘m not connecting with the characters .... I‘m calling it a day #unpopularopinion ... I do wish Betty all the best in the future & I‘m a little curious about how her life pans out , but not enough to read on.

Sometimes it can take me WEEKS to read a print book. Audiobooks so perfectly fit into my busy work and home life that I always end up neglecting REAL books. Makes me sad, but I do try to carve out time on the weekends to dedicate to reading print titles. Lemon muffins with black tea and Betty ☕️♥️🍋🌞

Failed miserably at the #buddyread timeline; so many forces working against me! But I‘ve finally found some quiet time to get with Betty, alongside sourdough biscuits with honey, lemon drop tea and the snow falling outside. ♥️❄️🍯🍞🍋 ☕️

I‘m pretty sure this book broke me. I feel emotionally wrung out. I need to look up some interviews with the author now, a la @Cinfhen , to see how much is rooted in fact. Betty feels absolutely real to me, which seems to be McDaniel‘s intent with the tribute to her mother in the beginning of the book.

I‘m ready to kick off the discussion whenever everyone else is! @Squirrel @Chelsea.Poole

Daisy Johnson‘s blurb on the front of this book says she was ‘consumed‘ by it, and that‘s exactly how I felt. It is a heartbreaking tale of growing up in a broken, dysfunctional family; very difficult to read but equally as difficult to put down.

Whilst ostensibly a tale about the titular Betty, it reads as a love story to her father Landon. Spoilers below for my fellow #buddyreaders who haven‘t finished yet.

#booked2021 #appalachiannoir

If you‘re looking for an action packed book/ skip this one. But, if family drama, magnificent prose and heartache is your thing, this book DELIVERS. I haven‘t read McDaniel‘s debut The Summer That Melted Everything but I have a feeling it‘s loosely connected to this story. Either way, I can‘t wait to find out. Thanks for the mini #BuddyRead @Reviewsbylola @squirrelbrain @Chelsea.Poole tag me when you‘re done reading, so we can DISCUSS 💔💔💔

Pg 345 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭reading through tears 💔 this book is sadder than Shuggie Bain
I wasn‘t expecting such a tear-jerker @Reviewsbylola @squirrelbrain @Chelsea.Poole

Finally getting a chance to sit down with Betty with breakfast this morning! I‘ve only made it to chapter two, but so far I‘m finding it lyrical and very familiar. I‘m from southern Ohio, where this is set 🌳 ♥️

Between Shuggie, Betty and Phuc Tran I‘m beginning to wonder how so many kids can endure family traumas??!! My heart hurts💔 😿😿😿

I‘ve already been down the Google rabbit hole @Reviewsbylola @Chelsea.Poole @squirrelbrain I needed to know more about this family. This reads more like a memoir than a novel. I‘m hooked and I‘m only on page 70.

OK, you convinced me Cindy @Cinfhen .... I‘m going in! Didn‘t take much persuading did I?

I love the cover of this book, but had forgotten I snagged a signed copy, so thought I‘d show that instead!

Great dedication 🥰and notice the #BookishCoincidence ( the date Feb 12) I think im gonna like this book @squirrelbrain @Reviewsbylola

I‘m thinking of starting this one later tonight/ feel like joining me @Reviewsbylola ???
#Booked21 #AppalachianNoir

In spite of the fact it needs trigger warnings for basically everything, the horrifying things that happen in this novel never felt gratuitous, dramatic, or sensationalised. It‘s a story of complex and broken families, and the cruelties of human existence. McDaniel‘s skill is in the strong evocation of place, and her interrogation of the ripples left by trauma by exploring the worst experiences in the the same thoughtful manner as the everyday.

‘A girl comes of age against the knife‘ is this book in a nutshell. There are a lot of trigger warnings for this one but Betty and her resilience and love for her family pulls you through. The last chunk or so broke my heart in so many pieces. A tough but worth it read for me. I gave this one 5 stars

Hands down, Betty is the most beautiful, devastating book I have ever read. It literally broke my heart. And yet, the ending was so graceful and poignant. This one won't be easy to let go of as it follows the main character Betty through her coming-of-age in applachian Ohio. As much about family and identity as it is about the violence women are born into and often unable to escape. There are a lot of TW, so take heart when reading ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

#bookmail! Last year I bought hardly any new books, and I hardly ever buy hardbacks so I‘m inordinately excited by today‘s parcel. ** happy dance ** The top and bottom books are signed copies too!

These are definitely all #blameitonlitsy purchases, or maybe I should blame certain specific Littens..... you know who you are... @Oryx @TrishB 😁

But now I have the dilemma of where to start.....