Welcome to Litsy!

This is a bail for me, simply because of her voice; I pretty much only do audiobooks, and O'Connor's reading voice is just too much of a grating drone. I'm disappointed, because she's someone I've admired for a long time, and the book deals with key issues re Christianity (I was in university when she tore up the Pope's picture on SNL) and family abuse, mental health/trauma, abuse, and religious conversion.
#Nonfiction2024 #MexicanDaughter

November #Bookspin
1. Saving Time
2. Cerulean Sea
3. The covenant of water
4. The Bandit Queens
5. An Immense World
6. Saving Time
7. Swimming in the Dark
8. The Prophets
9. It‘s not about the Burqa
10. The Argonauts
11. How Much of These Hills
12. Matriarch
13. Greenwood
14. Swimming in the Dark
15. It Could Happen Here
16. You or Someone You Love
17. All Boys Aren‘t Blue
18. Freedom Is a Constant Struggle
19. Ordinary Notes
20. Big Men Fear Me

Went to Ollie‘s today to get some things for the new baby we adopted from the humane society and had to pick these up. I‘m blaming her because I did not need any more books 🤣

A short read chronicling the life of Sinead who had the most appalling upbringing as a child in Ireland. Fascinating to read and learn her story but as much as I love her and her music, the book was a disappointment. It ended up feeling more like a dumping place for journal notes and acknowledgments of those that did and didn‘t help her along the way and was a grind to finish. However I will add that the tale about Prince was rather wild!

Written as she remembered it - she draws you in and you re-live her life with each turn of the page. I hope you are at peace Sinead - some of us got what you were trying to say. RIP.

Listening to Sinead tell her story was both a pleasure and a sadness.

She wasn't perfect, but she was honest. Her talent was undeniable.

The parts of the audiobook where she chuckled at herself were my favorite.

This was really interesting! What a fierce woman. Sinead was brutally honest about her life, including her flaws. I listened to it and it was fantastic to hear Sinead read her story. So sad how it all ended up for her. Another beautiful voice gone too soon!

Sinead‘s music has shared all the important moments of my adult life. I cannot express what her songs mean to me. Her memoir is fearless and brave just like her. Such a voice! 😈

This is a brilliant, unflinching memoir. Sinead O'Connor describes her turbulent childhood, her passion for music and her difficult relationship with the music industry, her mental health struggles, motherhood and her spiritual journey. For all her troubles, it's really striking how funny and down to earth she was. It's incredibly poignant reading this knowing that both she and her son have since passed away. Rest in power, Sinead.

This was a disappointment.

I decided to move this book to the top of my TBR following the death of Sinead O‘Connor. I love reading biographies and memoirs, as I‘m intrigued by people‘s intimate lives. I was curious to know more about the woman and her music that I listened to on the radio back in the early 1990‘s. I enjoyed listening to her stories, especially when I could hear laughter in her voice.

Full review and video at https://abookandadog.com

Wow. I don‘t even have words. I‘ll just be listening to her music now, and thinking about some of the things she shared.

This week‘s square looks remarkably like last week‘s, but Sinead‘s voice has been so all consuming… listening to her for just a few hours has filled my head all week. I‘m excited to listen to the rest of her memoir this coming week. #bookreport #weeklyforecast @Cinfhen

It‘s Christmas and we‘re at my paternal grandma‘s house, the one that usually smells of cabbage (the house not her). #FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

Rest in power.

This month seemed like the time to pluck this off my TBR and actually read it â�¤ï¸�💔#celebmemoir #bookbinge @Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

This was tough and resonant, much like the artist. Her upbringing was difficult, little parenting, no stability, and her mother abused her and then passed away while she was a teen, leaving her alone and feeling guilty. Fascinating to hear about her writing/performing process. Though prickly, she was also kind, brilliant, talented, and fought for those who couldn‘t fight for themselves. The SNL controversy? She was right all along. Great on #audio

RIP

https://youtu.be/tqt3YZ6gG2w

This is a couple days late. I just wanted to post the above video. It‘s from 1997. It‘s eerily relevant considering the recent suicide of her beloved son Shane.

I bailed. Her childhood was so sad, I couldn‘t keep on going.

This breaks my heart. Gone too soon.

Thank you for the music that spoke to me in so many ways. Be at peace.

“Everyone wants a pop star but I was a protest singer, I had no desire for fame. It was never my dream, but nobody asked what my dream was.�

Sinead O‘Conner had a rough, traumatic childhood and it‘s clear those abuses have effected her adult life. This is not an easy, light listen. It‘s painful & disturbing but you can‘t help marveling at the drive, beauty & creativity that flows from SOC. She‘s the definition of a survivor 🙌ðŸ�»â™¥ï¸�

In the last 48 hours this memoir came across my feed twice, so I took it as a sign to start listening 🎧 Wow!! This one is bizarre and really heartbreaking 💔 Sinead O‘Connor did not have an easy childhood and like @Deblovestoread said, early childhood trauma seeps into the rest of your life- rooting itself, growing and planting seeds. Not an easy listen😢

Just finished this audio book and I‘m so glad I listened to it. I could hear her sadness. I believe when you experience trauma, especially childhood trauma, it is a player in every decision you make. But I think in spite of her trauma and mental health issues she has tried to be true to herself and retain her vision in a world that wanted her to be something else. I‘m a long time fan. 4.5 🌟 #NonfictionNovember #BookSpin

I am almost 100% sure the tagged book will be next after Matthew Perry‘s and am pretty sure about the rest.

November is set. #BookSpinBingo

June #readingwrapup 🥰📚

One way I know it‘s a great reading month is that I‘m choosing to keep most of the books I read. I‘ll be passing Warlight and Remains of the Day into my LFL, and I‘ll probably send Good Eggs to my mom because I think she‘d love it too.

Favorites? Really I‘d be listing almost all of them. All 3 from the #CampToB #CampLitsy list were excellent.

I loved “Nothing Compares 2 Uâ€� so much when it came out, it was among my favorite songs at the time. I remember the SNL pope photo incident, but wasn‘t entirely clear at the time what that was about.

So when I saw that Sinead had written a memoir, I was excited to read it. Although the writing isn‘t great, I loved learning more about her life and why she sort of disappeared from popular music.

TWs- if you don‘t know her childhood was rough.

I‘ve rewritten a review 3 times already. What‘s important to know is that you won‘t remember it for the writing, but mostly for how brave, how contradictory, how traumatized, & how beautiful she & her voice are. I had to listen to all her music as I read the book because you can feel how she continues to evolve over time. I‘m glad she spent the time to try to explain her thoughts and actions and I feel a great deal of compassion for her.

Tim Rice, who wrote the lyrics to Don‘t Cry for Me Argentina, wrote to Sinead and told her that Sinead‘s version was the best he had ever heard, hands down. I‘d never heard it before and now I find I can‘t stop listening to it.

https://youtu.be/lwS66Xq811o

(Photo of yesterday‘s snowstorm)

Sitting on a window seat under a blanket, second story apartment, snow falling, people walking by who have no clue I‘m up above watching them, (people never look up to the second story when they walk!) reading Sinead‘s book. Only 30 pages in and even I am terrified of her mother. It‘s a quiet Saturday.

#RememberSharon We shared a name and a love of reading. Rest In Peace.

A memorial for @sharreads is being organized by @alwaysbeenaloverofbooks Please see her page for details. The event will be shared with Sharon‘s sister and church family.

4â­�/5â­�

I think this is especially interesting if you are a Sinead O‘Connor fan or if you want to get the POV of a woman with mental health issues who has been bullied by the press (a la Britney Spears). I love Sinead and admire her courage in writing about her struggles. It was a reminder to me of what at great songwriter and performer she is. https://cannonballread.com/2021/08/rememberings-scenes-from-my-complicated-life-...

Interesting memoir as told by herself. However, it is a scattering of her memories that never get to the root of Sinead O'Connor herself. She does reveal though her troubled childhood, poltical activism, her toxic relationships, her take on religion, and the SNL scandal that brought down her career. This coming from a tortured artist that has difficulty defining her message and her art.

I visited Book People today with my birthday gift card from my husband and came home with these beauties! I was a big Sinead O‘Connor fan as a teen, and I‘m looking forward to reading about her life. I‘ve also always been interested in urban decay and the way nature returns when we get out of its way, so Islands of Abandonment grabbed my attention. I need to finish my Bookspin book, then I‘ll decide what to pick up next. What would you choose?