Welcome to Litsy!

Not as strong as Where You Come From, but also an extremely well written book. Tiny hints of great humor, at some points I had to laugh out loud while listening to the audio version read by the author himself. Connections between the past, the now and the people that live in the spaces between. Life on the country side where everything takes its time. Critics say there's no plot. They're right. But there's feeling, there's comfort. There's home.

Bk16 of #Scarathlon2020 #Screamathon2020 #Pageathon #Sbooktober #SpooksAndTea #GothicReadathon #BookishBingo #Supernaturalathon #AnUnfortunateReadathon #Strangeathon #Ghostathon #CocoTurns50 #ReadYourWayReadathon #FraterfestRAT #FortnightFrightsBingo #RIPReadathon #BooathonBingo is done! Fits the prompts #HangOutWithThePets #AutumnalVibes #TranslatedBook #DogDeanAfternoon #AuntJosephine #GhostStory #ByEuropean #Orange 3,236pts #TeamSlaughter

Got in a few more chapters of Bk15 of #Scarathlon2020 #Screamathon2020 #Pageathon #CocoTurns50 etc etc & Bk9 of #OutstandingOctober which has now finished for me(next post will be a wrap up)before switching to Bk16 of the many ‘thons, one that‘s been on my #MountTBRShelvesOfDoom for a few years now. Based on Baltic mythology, it involves a feast, a fox & a dead ferryman. Sounds strange & a lot of fun. 1pt for #TeamSlaughter

Day 3 of #7Days7Covers

Tagging @minkyb 🤗 7 of your favorite covers each day for a week, no explanation needed. Tag a Litten each day to join in

I should really try to read more contemporary German literature. Good stuff 🦊👍

I was being so good about not raiding the library book sale, but when bag day corresponds with my day off, all willpower goes out the window. Two bags for $12! #bookhaul #booksale #litsyloveslibrary

This was weird. I like weird, sometimes. This was weird in a boring way. Bailed at the 22% mark. Fantastic cover, though.

Apparently I‘m into foxy Baltic fiction...Who knew?

I mean, seems logical...

Ah Venice. Been a while...

You had me at hello, cover art...

Loved it. Weird and dreamy. Some beautiful writing (albeit in translation). A lot of magical realism elements throughout. I enjoy loose ends and question marks, so, if you don't, best steer clear.

I‘m not sure what I thought of this, I really struggled to finish it and was confused most of the way through. Maybe it‘s the translation, or maybe I spent too long before picking it up again and totally forgot who the characters were. The writing isn‘t bad, but didn‘t grip me.

New currently reading. Look at this cover! 😍

Our #littenkitten in the background. #catsoflitsy

Thank you soooo much @JPeterson because this package is PERFECT! The books are amazon, and you sent one I‘ve never heard of but sounds made for me (the tagged book)! And I might have squealed when I got the pig ornament out because it is the cutest!! I don‘t know where you found the little pop up book thing, but that is crazy cool too. I love it all!!
#secretsantagoespostal #wintersolsticebookexchange @MrBook @BookBabe @Avanders

Bringing this into work to start reading on my breaks. Or, maybe I'll just stare at this gorgeous cover all day. 😻

Mini June book haul! I'm doing pretty darn well on reading my own books but I could NOT pass up the most incredible cover ever. 😍The story looks great too! 👍🏻

This is a weird and charming little book about a small German village. Folk tales and history come to life and influence the preparations for the village feast. It was a really charming and totally relatable description of life in small German villages. 😄

What a weird little book! I did enjoy it but am still confused...dreamlike, fantastical, real, and charming. Folk tales come to life and interrupt festivity celebrations. A fox steals eggs... I really don't know what happened...

It's Fox Day! (Related: The fox emoji is wildly disappointing: 🐺)

Small but mighty! Small presses are key to the success of small bookstores like us. Come celebrate these publishing warriors with us during Small Press Month!

Found this at The Last Word bookstore in Fort Worth, Texas. A little magical realism in bed should make for a worthy good night story. Sweet dreams!

I completely blame fellow Litsians for the first book, which I definitely bought for the cover.

I don't know that this is my #favoritecover but it's certainly gorgeous and the main reason why I picked up this book. I haven't read it yet, but I want to get to it this year. #riotgrams

A strange dreamlike book populated by odd characters that drift in and out of the narrative. There's very little plot, it's really more a set of linked vignettes than a novel and the mannered, repetitive prose is almost free verse poetry. It sounds like I didn't like it but I did; I love this style, it's deliberate but affective and is what draws me to European translated literature again and again. #TacklingTheTBR

This is easily one of the greatest covers I own.

Not a feast but a bagel with prosciutto and some romaine lettuce to go with my green tea and strange book #lunchandabook

All is quiet. The kids are sound asleep. The wind and rain have given up for the night (or at least it sounds like it). Time to settle in with my bedtime read!

Picked up 2 recent orders at Powell's, plus Made To Kill which I saw while standing in line!

Today's #BookMail is two #blameitonlitsy purchases. All the Rage is about a girl who's raped by the sherrifs son. No one wants to believe her until another girl goes missing. Before The Feast is about the evening before the feast in Furstenfelde, a mix of myth & mischief.I tried to get a hardback copy, that cover is gorgeous, but they only had the paperback. Also there's the new bookdepository.com bookmarks, designed by customers.#SmileItsBookmas

Charming story with a hint of mystery and folklore. Set is a small German village with a declining population the story feels cozy but at the same time you can feel the big modern world chipping away at this small town. The prose is truely lovely at times and the plot is interesting enough. However I was not completely in love with it. It's nice but rather forgetable. Good read but not extrordinairy. Torn between pick and so-so 🌟🌟🌟1/2

Hmmmm... Having some warm apple-blueberry pastries while reading the last bit of Before the Feast. I am not much of a baker but these are so simple and definately one of my fall/winter favourites. What do you like to eat when you read?

The song of the driven and unforgiven. Even hurt, even in a spin, we and the fox both want to win. The song is unorthodox, the song of a fox, the song of a fox who opens a box.

"He who does not venture beyond reality will never conquer truth."
One long night before a traditional celebration in a contemporary German village. Episodic. Mythic elements. Unusual viewpoints: the village, a fox, rhyming ghosts, among others. A sense of history within a place. Humane. Puzzling. Playful. Wonderful.
#setineasterneurope #translation

Strangers seldom come to us. They seldom stay.
Strangers who spend some time with us seldom stay strange.
We seldom make friends with the strangers, even if they do spend some time with us.
We're social. We're anti-social. We're open-minded. We're suspicious. Who likes being bothered? No one.

Lada says women over thirty who wear Crocs are particularly randy. Jessie is married. Married women, says Lada, are even randier. Lada says they're like war veterans who still want to prove their worth on the battlefield.

"The bar breaks like a bar breaking, and the machine falls to the ground like a machine falling to the ground. Well, there aren't many similes available; it doesn't happen very often."
I sure do love the writing style in this novel!

Be heroic and know that heroes cannot always be heroes; there are many other things to do.

She holds a mini-carrot between her fingers and concentrates on it.
I ask why she's doing that. Why does she want things to levitate?
To make people happy.
That's my Ma for you: wants to make people happy.

Noodle is helping me read. He usually evades the camera but I finaly managed to take his picture. He becomes more and more of a cuddle cat as the days get colder 😍 #catsoflitsy

My Ma weighs twice as much as my Pa. She weighs 130 kilos. In spring she puts on another 30 kilos of weighty thoughts (worries, fear, shame & general listlessness). Then my 160-kilo Ma lies down among the daffodils in the garden, because when she is lying down the dark clouds are about 160 cm farther away.

She reaches cautiously over the fence, tries to break off a sprig of wild rose. The wild rose defends itself vigorously. Anna tugs at it, pulls. The field fights back. Only in mankind does Nature open its eyes and look at itself. The field is mankind in thorns' clothing, you can't believe a word it says.

A little late for #magicalmonday because yesterday was completely exhausting. But tuesdays can be just as magical 🎇 I bought this book on my Edinburg trip because I completely fell in love with the cover. How stunning is this #magicalcover ? 😍

The few who understand that we really, really need a new ferryman don't know how to ferry a boat. Or how to console the waters of the lakes. Or they're too old. Others act as if we never had a ferryman at all. A third kind say: the ferryman is dead, long live the boat-hire business.

You don't want to get drunk in Platform One. You want to have dinner, maybe celebrate an anniversary, but try to get well tanked up while plastic flowers and tourists who come on bicycles are watching you. Now and then Veronika brings real tulips in. Try to get well tanked up while real tulips are watching.

1. This cover.
2. #setinasmalltown a German village, to be precise.
3. I've had my eye on this one for months and can't wait until I get a chance to read it. It sounds so intriguing!
4. Did I mention the cover??
#photoadaynov16

Be heroic and know that heroes cannot always be heroes; there are many other things to do

This one took me a while but not because I didn't like it, it just meanders.