Welcome to Litsy!

“You never know what can break you. What you can fix, what you can stand up to. You never know what time will do, what will defeat or surprise you. You never know.”

#Hope #25Alive 🍁🌿🍂

@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

My last grid of the year. I tagged my favorite!

5* = Loved It, want to shout out loud about this book! I do/will own/keep a physical copy. A+
4*= I liked it, would love to discuss. Solid B
3*=Meh, no need to discuss. Avg C
2*=Nope D
1*=DNF F

Note: To equate quarter ratings to A-F scores, 3.5 and 3.25 both garner a C+, but 3.5 represents my quandary when I can‘t decide between a pick or a so-so!

So many characters in this short book about a small town, but I sure thought it worked. I can‘t even tell you the MC of this story because the author made every character named worthy of a backstory. …For years traveling to my in-laws included winding through state and county roads. I would see many homes in tiny communities and imagine their story. This book made me think of that.

#Trees

#HumbleHarvest

@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

I was ready to not like this one because I hate when a bunch of short stories get together, throw on a trench-coat, and pretend to be a novel. Luckily, these interconnected stories of people who are weathering life‘s struggles and tragedies but finding that bit of sweetness on the other side started getting to my heart in the last half. It‘s a little too on the nose at times, but both reads easily and captures the essence of being human. #bookspin

Thank you Cyd!! Can‘t wait to read this one! I‘m enjoying A Quiet Life 📚❤️

Love the card! 🦋
“Let the rays of your heart shine on all who pass by.” Terri Guillemets

#LitsyLove ❤️📚❤️📚❤️📚

Plenty of #reconciliation in this novel - reconciling with one‘s circumstances, with loss, with family, with hope…

#IndelibleMoments @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

I really enjoyed reading this. The characters were just real people with real problems. I found the experiences the characters were going through very relatable. #BOTM

The lives of several families and individuals in the same area of Connecticut are intertwined, told in various points of view. In each chapter, the emotional pendulum would swing between despair and hope. At times, it felt like too much, but it was carefully paced to drop all the pieces together by the end.

What a beautiful and heartbreaking sentiment.

I listened to this entire book today and I feel sorry of wrecked over it. It takes place in a small town, over the course of one year. There is no central narrator and the chapters jump around between a dozen different people. It's beautifully written, painful at times, but ultimately hopeful and lovely. A five star read.

I'll add a spoiler comment with some trigger warnings.

It IS a book of hope. We get a glimpse of a small part of life in a community and how their hurts and joys tie into one another. Nothing terribly exciting in the “I‘m holding my breath” way, but just an awakening to the sweetness of life no matter where your feet are currently walking and that brings hope in itself.

This one wasn‘t my favorite. There were so many interconnected storylines that could have worked but it was just so much going on. There was so much tragedy in this book and I do feel like it was a good connector, but at the same time, I felt like it was hard to follow in parts and keep straight because some of the stories were similar. For me, it was a lot of characters and would have been better if it was focused on fewer stories.

This book did not land on my radar until few days ago after hearing it on MomAdvice podcast (Thanks Amy). I thought I‘ll give it a try and glad I did. Hugely readable, A Little Hope by Ethan Joella is so rich in themes, characters are so intimately real, imbued with a fullness of human spirit as well as a celebration of the limitless varieties of human experience: pain, regrets, secrets we keep, unresolved issues, well-meaning hopefulness.👇

Not totally sure if I‘m ready to hurt…

I took a chance on this, not knowing anything about it when I chose it for #BOTM. I am SO glad I did! What a lovely book about a small town, with characters who all intersect, about love and grief and how it‘s okay to move on, to have hope, to choose happiness. I loved it ♥️♥️♥️

The more I think about this book the more I love it. The character's felt incredibly real. Kay is a story I want to hear more about. I am sad this book has ended. #JoyousJanuary #52booksin52weeks @Andrew65

🤯💣

A Fri night in Jan

A lovely set of stories about people living their lives in a small community and a look into their thoughts, experiences and struggles. A bit cheesy at parts, but dealt with real and gritty topics.

A sad, short, sweet book about grief and moving on.

Another #botm win 😊

PS - anyone else watching the Hallmark Christmas movies??

November 21 #botm

This was a beautiful exploration of how the lives of a small community intersect. It is a beautiful book full of heartbreak, struggle, triumph, & well... A little hope.
The chapters are told from perspectives of different characters & braided together to allow an intimate view into the relationships & bonds that hold the community together. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

What to rate this? It depends on whether your in the mood for some fluffy moralism. The good characters are very good; there aren‘t “bad guys”, but there are hard up characters that aren‘t redeemed. Maybe I‘m a snob, but this reads unsophisticated and a bit immature, like a talented teen wrote it. However, sometimes one needs fluffy, and I did the day I started this. Definitely a book with a little hope. I‘ll go with pick. #botm

Leaves are falling on the deck, and my first #botm box got here!

November books are out! #botm

Picked my books, I leave for Germany at the end of the month so I need some books for the immensely long plane ride (I am also bring my kindle/iPad) lots of reading going to get done! #botm

#BOTM was kinda blah this month ☹ it doesn't help that I'm in such a reading funk right now, and usually spooky season is my favorite for reading. I wasn't even excited to check the picks today, ugh do I hate slumps!!!

LOVED this month on #botm!! I‘m very hopeful 😉 about these choices. Somehow I worked my way up to four accounts, so after these arrive I‘m canceling these two. Skipped on the other two. Excited to see what everyone else did!

November #BOTM picks! 📚

A special and touching debut. Ethan Joella introduces us to an unforgettable cast of characters. This novel follows a group of loosely connected characters each tenderly drawn, who reside in the town of Wharton, Connecticut. The story encapsulates one year as their lives intertwine through friendship, loss, joy, sorrow and hope. Many thanks to Simon & Schuster for gifting me this beautiful, quite novel. #SimonAndSchusterBookClubFavorites #ARC👇🏼