Welcome to Litsy!

No big deal I'll just be thinking about this book for the rest of my life

While not an easy read, this book stretched my mind and my emotions. Worth the effort- it will leave you more thoughtful and aware of things you‘ve probably never considered.

Incredibly written, a troubled boy discovers his passed mother through her brain imprint, and his father struggles with how to work through it. Beautifully written and skillet plotted.

Received this today in the mail from the wonderful @Lauram Thank you so much- perfect timing! It was lovely to receive a book right at Christmas time! ❤️❤️❤️
Oh, and Max says hey. I just got home from a week at my daughter‘s and he‘s keeping an eye on me to make sure I don‘t leave again!

If Aly and I had been in charge, the luckiest thing in my life — the thing that kept me going when all the luck in the world went cold — would never have existed, not even in my wildest models.

A heartbreaker of a book. The writing is gorgeous, the subject intricate and fascinating, the characters broken and beautiful. What does the impact of climate change and our human reluctance to acknowledge or address it do to our kids? Our future? I‘ll be thinking about this one for a long time. #BookspinBingo @TheAromaofBooks #Roll100 @PuddleJumper

Tagged book was a 4 star for me & my last read for October. The ending didnt land for me & not a perfect novel, but the themes resonated. What does it mean to be mentally healthy? If facing the unraveling of ecosystems sends you into crushing depression or anger is that a healthy response to the world? Or is it more healthy to be able to ignore all of it and just go along? As a professional conservationist I‘ve struggled with thls question.

I won a Facebook contest sponsored by my library- 10 signed copies of Power‘s latest novel! I have enough for my book club and will have 2 copies to share with my favorite reading community. For a chance to win (open internationally), suggest a book for my group to read the next time I host. Winners to be selected on Friday (11/4). Good luck!

Meteoric and intense, I read this book bracing for impact and annihilation…but my, what a beautiful ride.

Book 120

Bewilderment is a great book for a book club discussion. Well-written, it's an almost-realistic, sci-fi/apocalyptic story about autism and medication culture. There aren't easy answers but the book is a great impetus to asking valid questions. Beautiful characters and relationships. Not for everyone, but worth the read.

My laundry room needs new flooring ( the paint on the cement thing isn‘t working) and the walls need painting. What I wouldn‘t give for a fancy laundry room 🙏🏻 Today I reorganized, cleaned, purged and finished this book. Now I‘m filthy and tired but the room looks better. This is a fantastic book, heartbreaking and thought provoking. A lot of the science is beyond me so I appreciated that often it was being explained to a 9 yr old

Driving around to appointments ( highlighter yellow pedicure) and errands is so much more enjoyable with audio books. I look forward to them, invent more errands to do when the book is good

Check out Meredith‘s Book Review on Book Interrupted‘s Manuscript Mondays. https://www.bookinterrupted.com/post/manuscript-monday-bewilderment

Terrific. Lots of space, but in an accessible way much like trees were in the Overstory. Sad ending but what else was going to happen? Loved it.

I‘m fully engaged in this story of a young widow who is left with an emotionally-disturbed soon-to-be nine-years-old son. I would love to read other works by this author in the future.

This is the second novel by Richard Powers I've read, and probably the last. What he is trying to accomplish with his fiction is noble, to write urgent stories of climate crisis that operate on both the individual and planetary level. What he writes is heartbreaking, horrifying & beautiful. But his tone bugs me. It feels self-important & the characters feel idealized.
I understand why people love this book. Truly a case of just not right for me

I'm about halfway through this and . . . Something about it is bothering me, but I can't quite say what. Something about how the boy is written? Or the tone? I don't know. Anyone else struggle with this one?

Bewilderment is a good word for my general mindset.

Powers latest, on last year‘s Booker longlist, gets mixed responses. Starts out with tropy extremes - overwhelmed single widower father, extra-intelligent difficult son, a questionable new psycho-therapy. But he caught me. My anxiety peaked as I rushed through. We‘re all doomed, our planet is doomed and humanity is pathetically helpless. Now calming my anxiety with denial again.

There's also this work of art which was my April #BookSpinBingo board. I read a lot and didn't get even 1 bingo.

@TheAromaofBooks

May already?! Well, I always enjoy making a list of books. 📚 #BookSpinBINGO

“… ninety-eight percent by weight of animals left on earth were either Homo sapiens or their industrially harvested food.” - !! Really?

And a second book I just started, this time for the 2021 Book Longlist - I‘m still working my way through. No clue what to expect but the first 30 pages went by quick.

This book was beautiful but the Flowers for Algernon vibes were a bit overdone. Still gave it 5 🌟

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

The writing is nice and I agree with the environmental message, but honestly mad about the ending so I had to deduct some (metaphorical) points.0

I enjoyed Powers‘ previous novel The Overstory but that felt very complex. It‘s nice to read a story on a smaller scale with a lot of heart about a dad trying to help his son who appears to be on the spectrum.

“But we might never find them?”

#firstlinefridays
#currentlyreading

@ShyBookOwl

Well. That gutted me. Such a beautiful book!!

I finished this several days ago: it gave me a serious book hangover! While I thought it did tip into sentimentality, RP's fusing of the emotionally involving and intellectually stimulating takes some beating. This is only the second of his novels I've read (the other was The Overstory): now I want to read everything he's written! 😊

After reading Bewilderment by Richard Powers, I thought the book is deep and masterful. My first foray into the works of Powers, I can see why he won so many awards, including the Pulitzer for his opus The Overstory. Bewilderment is ingeniously structured with a hint of literary crossing over to science fiction. I don‘t think it matters but I guess what is remarkable is the astonishing force that Powers delivers his 👇

📚 Preach! 📚

It's a Venti morning after only a few hours of sleep last night. Stopped by Target for a pillow & figured I might as well grab the tagged book and the Yanagihara. Looking forward to both. Anyone else like the starbucks sweet potato chips?

If Richard Power‘s book “The Overstory” was destined to be an award winning bestseller, this book is more like the perfectly crafted masterpiece that the artist keeps for himself to hang in a place of honor and peek at from time to time. Lovely, slightly strange story of a father and son that explores life, death, astrophysics, autism, climate change, and human connection. Marvelous, sobering, and very personal.

😘

#12Booksof2021 Remarkable read from September. A slim novel packed with meaning. Emotional & compelling.

#12Booksof2021 #August

I would have liked this to win the Booker.

"Nobody's perfect. But, man, we all fall short so beautifully." ☄️

Wow this was intense.

I have to say if I could some way experience the emotional mind of a passed loved one, I would probably do it.

This left me with mixed feelings- I loved the interactions between father and son, and watching Robin‘s evolution. I relate so strongly to his wishes to protect endangered species and share his frustrations with most people‘s ignorance and disregard for the trajectory of human impact.

Truly a bittersweet read.

Belated Christmas #bookhaul !
I hope that all who celebrate had a fabulous Christmas: I woke to a migraine so had to spend much of the morning sleeping it off (and was thus late getting the dinner under way). Mercifully I felt well enough by the afternoon to enjoy my lovely presents!

I‘m an unstoppable Waterstones beast. I‘m trying to spend Christmas money on things that‘ll help me be healthy in the new year - so as well as leggings to help me feel a little confident returning to my yoga studio in January I replaced my lost and broken coffee cup and water bottle, got Bewilderment half price which I‘ve desperately wanted since it came out.

Aaand a couple things for @moll ‘s birthday which are secret since she got Litsy 🤐

I really loved the relationship between Theo & Robin; father & son. I think any parent can relate to that sometime frustrating feeling when dealing with a sensitive, intelligent child and the need to protect them. That arc of the story felt so intimate, raw & personal. It was the scientific dystopian arc I didn‘t really care for. At times I felt Powers was speaking down to his readers, a little too sanctimonious. Good narration.

Hi Littens ❤️ celebrating my first day of Christmas vacation/maternity leave with a little relaxation and reading. My belly and baby girl are getting bigger and bigger, but I still have around 10 weeks to go. I‘m feeling great, though, and plan on using the time, until she comes, on reading, relaxing and prepping all the baby-related stuff 😅

Hopefully, I‘ll get better at checking in once in a while in the new year 🤞

Happy holidays friends!

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ “Holy Crow.” This book broke and mended my heart. I need to sit with my feelings for awhile and process what I just read. If you haven‘t yet read this book, get yourself a copy soon. Wow.

Everyone in my household is cuddled up & cozified in the living room, lulled to sleep by the wind outside…except for me because this book has me gripped in its pages.

Profoundly disturbing, yet beautiful. Anxiety levels will be up for a while, but I‘m not sorry I read it.
#ToBLonglist

Like The Overstory, I am finding it difficult to review this book. Did I love it? No. But Powers has such a way with language and presents environmental topics that are near and dear to me, so I am giving this a soft pick.

Some of the more emotional moments between Theo and Robin felt out of place to me. The story of love and grief is one I feel many people will relate to, but for me, at times everything just felt a little too precious.

There is an earnest quality to Powers‘ novels that irritates me. I agree with his message of conservation but have trouble with the medium. Single dad Theo is raising a 9 yr old son who has behavioral problems. Animal rights lawyer wife/mom died 2 years earlier. A cutting-edge neural feedback experiment may promise not only a cure for Robin but also bring his wife back to life (sorta). Meanwhile, 🌏 goes from bad to worse. #ToB22Longlist #20in4

Reading Envy Podcast Episode 233: Get Into Trouble with Ruth @Ruthiella

Jenny starts off the episode by announcing a big project for 2022! Ruth teaches her a new word and we discuss a recent Tournament of Favorites, plus as always, books we've read and liked lately.

Listen and subscribe:
https://tinyurl.com/ReadingEnvy233

I am not a grieving parent of a troubled child, so I have wrestled with my feelings on this book. But goodness did I mutter "Get that child a therapist" way too many times to enjoy this book. The core of the book is supposed to be this environmental pre-apocolypse idea, but it gets way overshadowed by Robins mental health issues and the father's parenting.
The book itself was overwritten and overall just not for me.

15 Oct-9 Nov 2021
Booker longlist 7
A novel of its time: infectious disease, a mad president refusing to concede the election, and the increasingly irreversible destruction of the environment.
Theo‘s work is to look for signs of life in the universe and parenting his son, Robbie, after the death of his activist wife. After receiving experimental neurofeedback treatment, Robbie seems to improve but the Flowers for Algernon has forbode a tragic end