Welcome to Litsy!

This was waaay too relatable at times: not the domestic squalor, nor the accidentally getting a job in a church, I mean, but the stuff that goes through Gilda's mind. Severe anxiety, depression, and intrusive thoughts are to the fore throughout but I found it affirming rather than triggering. The dark humour made me snort my tea and cackle (not at the same time)!

If there is such a thing as an anti-villain, I nominate toxically positive Giuseppe.

And just like that the author knocks all the air out of my lungs.

Gilda has anxiety and depression, and this book is from her point of view. She finds a flyer about a therapy group and goes to a church to get more info, and accidentally accepts a job there as a receptionist/ office staffer. And then finds out the previous woman in her position died mysteriously.

This is funny even though it gets dark. It doesn‘t shy away from the dirty gritty things depression can put one through. But it‘s also hopeful. *CWs!

I have a newly found book ick. The plastic sleeve is literally filled with sand. 🤢 who would return a library book like this?!

Received this from @HeatherBookNerd during our #NashvilleLittens swap and the reading is going quickly! Such quirky characters…will mittens be found- this is my current question!

Book #89
4/5
This book is...strange and unique. Suffice it to say that, as the title hints, there is a lot of talk about death. The protagonist is a quirky hypochondriac, with extreme anxiety and mental health issues. A little bit of Plath's The Bell Jar, and a little bit murder mystery. I liked it, but if you suffer from extreme anxiety about death, this book may be a trigger.

I‘ve enjoyed listening to this one over the last couple of days. Lesbian, atheist, hypochondriac Gilda lands a job as a secretary at a Roman Catholic Church. Most of this book is spent in Gilda‘s anxiety ridden head. Funny parts around a kinda sad story.

I glance at Barney and at the people surrounding me for cues regarding what we should be doing right now,

Jeff makes the sign of the cross, and then says loudly: "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." To my horror, the crowd surrounding me replies in unison
"Amen."
Startled by this, I put a hand to my chest.
We have lines?

Loved it. Depression, death and a possible murder. If you‘re not into stream of consciousness regarding the mundane of life you‘ll not like this book as it‘s less about the plot and more about the character. A lot of dark humor that actually had me laughing out loud.

This is a novel with a death-obsessed, lesbian, atheist main character who mistakenly gets hired as the new receptionist at a local Catholic Church and must now pretend to be a single, straight, religious person. The novel mostly meanders through Gilda's anxiety and inner unhappiness without much of a plot to it. Full review at https://booknaround.blogspot.com/2023/05/review-everyone-in-this-room-will.html

I absolutely loved this one! Gilda is suffering from anxiety and depression. She loses her job, and then finds a newspaper ad for therapy. As she visits the address listed she soon discovers it‘s a Catholic Church. The priest mistakes her for someone interested in the administrative assistant job. This novel had me grinning so much! Deadpan sense of humor with big life questions. very relatable as a person who has had severe anxiety- loved it 🥹

https://youtu.be/qaqo9n8D3R4

#pridemonth2023

Intro

Weekly Highlights

Isobel and Emile by Alan Reed

Swimmers in Winter by Faye Guenther

More on the “bailing on four-star books“ pronouncement

Seven Nights at the Flamingo Hotel by Drew Gummerson

After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz

This was an interesting read. It was all over the place and really made you feel like you were inside Gilda's mind. I was pleasantly surprised by the ending.

5/2023

I‘ve gotten very little reading done this week because we traveled up to watch our daughter‘s hooding ceremony for her M.Arch. I‘m starting the tagged book tonight and hope I get some reading done this week (I‘m spending another week in Cincinnati with her as we pack her up to move for her first grown up job as a fledgling architect).

4.5/5 🌟

Funny and relatable.

I asked myself, “Is there anything I want right now?” and then answered “fries.” I therefore decided to buy the fries instead of killing myself because that seemed logical. You shouldn't kill yourself when you still want to eat.

Gilda as a narrator was so relatable. Most of this was just a string of intrusive thoughts and sarcasm and I was here for all of it. This was simultaneously macabrely funny and heartwarming ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Would you believe I picked this up without knowing there was a rabbit connection? It‘s true! Despite that, I initially worried I‘d made a mistake; I‘d just finished reading about one protagonist struggling with her mental health only to launch myself right into reading about another. That gorgeous ending, though, banished all doubts from my mind! Read the quirky synopsis to see if this could be for you. TW: depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation.

Here‘s my review but I had to share one last quote. There are plenty more worth sharing. I loved this book so much. Definitely #NewYearWhoDis worthy. I related a lot to Gilda‘s view of the world— her anxiety and morbid curiosity. It wasn‘t really what I was expecting it to be but I loved it. #Scarathlon2022 #TeamMonsterMash #BookSpinBingo #PromptMaze #A2 124 words for #ScarathlonWordSearch #BodyCountBingo #ItsNotWhatYouThink #ForensicEvidence ⬇️

#ScarathlonDailyPrompts #Magic #Scarathlon2022 #TeamMonsterMash +6 pts

#OminousOctober #Candles #Scarathlon2022 #TeamMonsterMash +6pts

Some of the thoughts this MC has are eerily specific to how my brain works 🙃 #ScarathlonDailyPrompts #Scarathlon2022 #TeamMonsterMash #Creature

😔

So the photo isn‘t great BUT the book is! I laughed out loud more than I probably should‘ve given the subject matter but I really couldn‘t help but love this gem 💎

So far I‘m really enjoying the tagged book! The narration and main character are so witty that it‘s made me laugh out loud a few times. A book I didn‘t know I needed. I‘m also trying to read “never let me go” again. I‘ve been struggling to get through this one but I am determined! 📚

A book I didn‘t know I needed … Meet Gilda: she‘s 28, she‘s an atheist, she‘s queer, she suffers from debilitating anxiety and she works as a church secretary on the sly. Gilda is the new Eleanor Oliphant. A quirky, poignant, insightful sometimes hilarious look at one young woman‘s struggle with mental illness in a real and honest manner. Fantastic debut~ excellent narration. Definitely making my #NewYearWhoDisList 😆

And here it is @TrishB and I‘m loving it!! #SundayAudio #NewWeekNewListen #NotForecasted 😬🌈🤪

https://youtu.be/8RmnPGLcJOw

A playlist of all episodes in the Bite-sized Book Chat series: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU-61cZp1pQdBH5V0Zb9q-2ujl4PY8nhf

Chat #1: with Bill from Nairobi

Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily R. Austin

Chat #2: with Sarah-Hope from near Santa Cruz

The Stone World by Joel Agee

The title instantly intrigued me. With an awkward but relatable protagonist, this novel explores serious themes of mental health and society expectations against a humourous backdrop. It shows how people can be misinterpreted simply because they don't react, feel, or show emotions the way society expects them to. (Since it was an ebook, enjoy a cute cat picture instead of book related content.)

Pride Month: Day: Fourteen! 🌈

Today I'm featuring the tagged book, which is also the book featured in my adult book rec video for the week! This darkly humorous tale about an atheist lesbian who inadvertently lands a job in a church is one of my favorite reads of the year so far! ❤ #pridemonth #queerbooks #lgbtq

YA Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMYCLMgXo5s

Adult Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2SLW4jYOEU

While the setup for this novel is a humorous one, it captures the grim reality of a person struggling with mental illness. It will not have readers cackling on the floor. It does not offer heartwarming hope. I believe, however, some will find bits and pieces of themselves inside these pages, as I did, and I hope that others will learn from this apt illustration of two paralyzing mental illnesses.

Gilda goes to a Catholic church in response to an ad for counseling.

The priest thinks she is there for a job interview and hires her on the spot.

Gilda is not Catholic. She is an atheist and a lesbian. Let the antics ensue!

The reader soon realizes that Gilda is seriously mentally ill.

My favorite part of the book is Gilda thinking about how magical things like rhinos are and how, on another planet, they'd be considered miracles.

Book 70🎧 4.5⭐️

Loved this one! The main character is so wild yet so relatable😂

And there‘s a murder!?

Dark, comedic, insightful🖤

What happens when we die? Gilda is a lesbian who works as a secretary for Catholic Church and can‘t stop thinking about death!

22/52: Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead

As someone who has a lot of anxiety issues, I thought this book was hilarious and relatable. Gilda shares a lot of the same intrusive thoughts I have like, “These are the same hands we will have for the rest of our lives.”

Ps. The pic i took is weird so bear with me

#litsy #litsypage #bookreccomendations #fictiob

This is such a weird, quirky book, and I really liked it. Gilda is unemployed and plagued by out of control anxiety when she stumbles into a job as a secretary for a Catholic church, where she pretends to be both Catholic and heterosexual. The older woman, Grace, who previously held her position has died, but possibly not of natural causes. Gilda also impersonates Grace in emails to one of Grace's friends in order to avoid breaking the news ⬇

Gilda is a lesbian atheist with anxiety. So naturally when she reaches out to a local church for support she ends up with a job?!? If you‘re into the premise (I was) you‘ll be into the book. I related uncomfortably hard at times. #rhinosforever

#tarottakeover @ErinSueMreads

The Nine of Swords is the card of the day; all about anxiety and uncertainty. Gilda, the protagonist of the tagged book is the epitome of anxiety. She constantly has intrusive thoughts and is held back by her anxiety. This book is fantastic - darkly humorous but also poignant and emotional. It made me feel very seen. 💕📚

@DaveGreen7777 I don't know if you've already been tagged, but would you like to join in? 💕

Finished another of @Sharread 's #TBR in her memory. This was a cute book, it was very easy to listen to while cleaning out 2 more boxes in my office! I feel like I am almost fully unpacked! But of course I say that and a bunch sill be hiding! Yay for #AudioCleaning / #AudioOgranizing

#the52bookclub2022 49. Book with that starts with the title of my first name

#sharreadathon
@CBee @AlwaysBeenALoverOfBooks @professional_book_dragon

This is my next #AudioCommute / #AudioClean / #AudioOrganize book that I grabbed off of @Sharread 's #TBR.

#sharreadathon
@CBee @AlwaysBeenALoverOfBooks @professional_book_dragon

It was an interesting read, it deals with mental health issues, family relationships and trying to find a place for yourself in the world. It was also quite funny, dark humour.

Happy Friday, littens! ❤📖❤ I hope everyone has a wonderfully relaxing and bookish weekend planned! I'm working tomorrow and Sunday but I'm off today, which means staying in bed with lots of tea, books, and kitty snuggles! It's so cold out today! ❄❄❄

My answer for this question is a tie between the tagged book and The Island Of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak! Both were phenomenal!

What was your favorite January read? 💕📚💕

This is very close to what depression feels like. It was disconcerting to read my own thoughts 💭 on page 📖. There is not a lot of plot here, but it had the perfect length and I really grew close to the main character.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

#novel

My plans for the weekend 📖 🧶.

. It's a Story of Gilda an anxious person who thinks herself and everyone around her dying. She is antisocial, lesbian who joins a catholic church as an employee. Later she falls in a mystery murder case of a former employee of the church
#everyoneinthisroomwillsomedaybedead #emilyaustin #death #lesbian #gender #anxiety #church #review

Emily is anxious as hell and full of dead vibes.

Nope, not in the mood for this right now. I gave it 50 pages, but the main character‘s existential dread and panic are not where I want to be this week. I bet it‘s good, though! 🤷🏻‍♀️

This is a wonderfully odd book, with a bleak humor that is right in my wheelhouse. Gilda is a ball of anxiety, depression, and existential angst, and yet she still won me over in no time. Austin‘s descriptions of Gilda‘s inner dialogue of lethargy and emotional dislocation are spot-on. You‘re just rooting for her every moment. Really loved this.

Definitely a pick! I found myself wanting the best for the main character, but having empathy for her and her struggles with depression and anxiety. There were multiple laugh-out-loud funny moments! It might be a little dark for some people (there is a lot of contemplating about death), but I really loved this book. And the ending is happy and redemptive, which I loved!

“There must have been an explosion.”

#currentlyreading
#firstlinefridays
@ShyBookOwl

Gilda, a twenty-something, atheist, animal-loving lesbian, cannot stop ruminating about death. Desperate for relief from her panicky mind and alienated from her repressive family, she responds to a flyer for free therapy at a local Catholic church, and finds herself being greeted by Father Jeff, who assumes she‘s there for a job interview. Too embarrassed to correct him, Gilda is abruptly hired to replace the recently deceased receptionist Grace.

An interesting read. A journey through depression & anxiety that hits hard. A bit dark & definitely depressing. The writing is good, with an internal monologue delivery & a somewhat choppy narrative of flashbacks amidst present day. Austin evokes emotional content very well. Something of a Manic Pixie Dream Girl feel, but the underlying intent was very clear, with good messages woven into the plot. Heavily impactful & a strong thinking piece.