Welcome to Litsy!

Oh, was this a journey — I feel like I traveled the 1500 miles (in the wrong direction) with Emmett and Billy. And I‘m now in an absolute tangled mess over the final act — feeling every which way about where characters ended up and the choices they made.

All this to say, it was as engrossing and affecting as I always hope a novel will be.

Having a hard time deciding who my favorite character was. For now I‘ll go to bed mulling over this amazing road trip story.

#DaysDevotedTo @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Eggs
#Go4ARide

This story has amazing characters. I even liked the sociopath. The pacing was plodding, the atmosphere lacking, and the ending crap. My heart belongs to A Gentleman in Moscow.

Another great Towles novel. A Gentleman had a MC tied to one place, but The Highway takes us on a road trip. Emmett & his younger brother, Billy are on their own and ready to drive The Lincoln Highway to California to start a new life. But, first they have to deal with two workhouse runaways with other plans. At turns, funny & heartbreaking, this novel will take you on an epic journey worthy of 4+ ⭐️. Amazing narration elevates Towles‘ prose.

Bracket Two of 2024 - already different with the layout. Should be interesting.

Bracket One for 2024

An epic story about 4 boys making a fresh start for themselves. Alternating perspectives mostly from 3 of the boys. Shows the complexity of human behavior and you truly get invested in each of the characters. While it could have been shorter; I enjoyed the perspectives of the ancillary characters. It‘s just under 600 pages but is a surprisingly quick read.

Amor Towles became one of my favorite authors with "A Gentleman in Moscow" so I knew that this book would capture my heart in the same way. The strength of Towles writing is simply the power of character. He creates characters that you feel like you have known your entire life, filled with heart, depth, emotion and flaws that very few writers today can create this well. The Lincoln Highway is a love letter to youth and the joys of adventure.

My April #roll100! I‘ve already started Good Blood, and I‘d like to get to The Lincoln Highway even though I‘ve bailed on his other books.

Unfortunately, our aide for Dad canceled this morning, and I‘m backup going on 2 hours of sleep. ☹️ I‘m not sure how much longer this is sustainable.

On his release from a reform school after the death of his father Emmett decides to leave Nebraska for California with his little brother Billy to find their mother. First, however, they have to help two absconders from the reform school, Duchess and Woolly, get to New York, where they are hoping to claim and divide Woolly's inheritance. ⬇

the most dangerous addiction of all

June 12, 1954 -- The drive from Salina to Morgen was three hours, and for much of it, Emmett hadn't said a word.

----

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

Great prompt for #threelistthursday @dabbe 📚

1. The Lincoln Highway
2. Harry Potter series
3. Eragon series

#coffeeandabook

Good writing and good story telling come together in this novel because Towles writes with porpoise. The plot is very good, but the structure, style, care and craft of his storytelling is beautiful. I wonder what the middle of my story is.

“The point is, Billy, that Duchess is full of energy and enthusiasm and good intentions too. But sometimes, his energy and enthusiasm get in the way of his good intentions, and when that happens the consequences often fall on someone else.”
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

If it wasn‘t for trying to get a bingo (I finally got a bingo!) I might have put off the tagged book. So glad I didn‘t! 5⭐️s
#Bookspin ✅
#DoubleSpin✅
BINGO!✅
Tackle the #BOTM TBR✅✅✅
5⭐️✅
4+⭐️✅✅✅✅✅
Excellent reading month✅
#JanuaryRecap #monthlyrecap

How I have loved both Amor‘s novels I have read to this point. This is just as enjoyable as ‘A Gentleman in Moscow‘. I found myself wanting to read it all over again. Highly recommend.

1. Yes, but I haven‘t had much practice!
2. Tagged book is by a favorite author!

#two4tuesday
@TheSpineView

1. My first car was a stick shift. My father thought it was a good deal and pushed me to buy it even though I didn't know how to drive it.

2. The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

#Two4Tuesday @TheSpineView

#two4tuesday @TheSpineView

1. My dad tried to teach me when I was 15 and didn‘t go well… haven‘t tried since!
2. Tagged book

@BethM @peaKnit @JenReadsAlot

Released from a work farm where Emmett served for a year on manslaughter charges, he has a plan to start a new life for him & his brother. His friends Duchess & Wooly have different plans for them.

Not what I expected, & I think I would have liked this better in print. It meandered, with some unnecessary extra POVs, & didn‘t follow through on the initial story push I was interested in. Towles is very skilled at characters though. 🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑

Such a good book.

#NewYearNewBooks #Highwaycvr

@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
@Eggs

#NewYearNewBooks @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Eggs
#HighwayCover

1. The Lincoln Highway
2. Mommy Dearest
3. Visiting my youngest son in Los Angeles.
4. No Boxing Day in America and no mall shopping.
5. Green Christmas. Not disappointed. Snow for Christmas is very unusual for us. The last time was 1988.

#WinterGames

Started this one awhile ago and gonna try to finish today! #novelnovember @Andrew65

Trying to get back to this one after setting it aside for months. You can‘t necessarily see, but all three animals are snoozing while I read here. Ozzie is closest. Gatsby is next. And the skittish and seldom seen Sammy is napping on the chair next to the couch.

Profound but not what I expected. My favorite quote "Why doesn't summer vacation last until the 21st of September? After all, the season doesn't come to its conclusion on Labor Day weekend. The season of summer lasts until this autumn equinox- just as surely as the season of spring lasts until the summer solstice... It stands to reason that if we all agreed to let summer vacation last until the equinox, the world would be a much happier place."

September book report.

Open to those who signed up for #book2book with @AllDebooks

Comment below if you‘d like to take this one home. If multiple folks are interested I‘ll draw a random number.

@CSeydel @Bookish_Gal @LiteraryinLawrence @Chrissyreadit @Clwojick @Cuilin @bcncookbookclub @Tineke @julieclair @Catsandbooks @TheAromaofBooks @BookwormAHN @Lizpixie @KateReadsYA @TheBookHippie @dabbe @dabbe

- SOY de la opinión, profesor, de que en esta vida todo lo que tiene valor hay que ganárselo. Que debería costar ganárselo. Porque quienes obtienen algo de valor sin hacer nada para ganárselo están condenados a derrocharlo. Creo que uno debe ganarse el amor de una mujer y el derecho a llamarse hombre a sí mismo. Y uno debería también ganarse el derecho a la esperanza. Hubo un tiempo en que yo tenía un manantial de esperanza, que no me había ganado

A los presuntuoso el Señor les brinda la caridad en forma de decepción.

En el Sunshine hotel, cada habitación tenía su debilidad, y cada debilidad tenía su objeto que la delataba

Ah, pensé al ver la esquina de un libro que asomaba entre los pliegues de las sábanas,....El pobre hombre padece la adicción más peligrosa que existe.

'...todos los días nos levantábamos a la misma hora y nos poníamos la misma ropa. Todos los días desayunábamos en la misma mesa con las misma personas. Y todos los días hacíamos el mismo trabajo en los mismos campos antes de acostarnos a la misma hora en la misma cama...
...hay algo realmente desconcertante en hacer todas esas cosas de manera idéntica un día tras otro, sobre todo en la versión de mil página de la propia vida.'

Pero todos con los que nos cruzaba Mos parecían satisfechos con su carencia de objetivos. Deja que el camino salga a tu encuentro, dicen los irlandeses, y eso era lo que les sucedía a los viajeros intrépidos en la autopista Lincoln. El camino salía al encuentro de todos y cada uno de ellos, tanto si iban hacia el este, hacia el oeste o en círculos.

#Movie2BookRecs @Klou
Movie: Vacation

Up next! This one is on these lists:

#14books14weeks2023
#unreadbookshelf
23 in ‘23

I loved his other two and have been putting this one off because of the page count. Hoping I love this one, too!

#bookspinbingo
@TheHeartlandBookFairy (4 of 14)

Just finished and the problem is, nothing will ever again be A Gentleman in Moscow. With that being said, there was a lot I liked about The Lincoln Highway and a whole lot I didn't. The first half of book had my eyes drooping often, and I was on the verge of DNFing, but I liked the MCs too much to abandon them.

"The drive from Salina to Morgen was three hours, and for much of it, Emmett hadn't said a word."

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

Really enjoyed this one!! Follow three boys fresh out of a reform camp on their haphazard journey to California, in hopes of starting new life‘s. The characters that came in along the way (meet smart and sweet little brother Billy, quick witted girl friend Sarah, care taking Ulysses) were fun and heart warming. Very well written book about “life”. I will read his others. Long, but worth it!!

I've got a quiet week coming up so I figure it's a good time for this

Switching gears!!

Wonderful! I loved this epic story of a group of fascinating young people trying to make their way across the US to better futures while learning their backstories and cheering them on. They are each exceptional and unforgettable. Great on #audio! #BookspinBingo #chunkster @TheAromaofBooks

Well, that was fun! I haven‘t read a book like this for a long time: long but fast-paced; nostalgic but not sentimental; light and playful but grounded in painful truths; easy to read and a marvel of a story. The backbone of the plot centers on three teens and an 8 year old who embark on a road trip, each of them in search of something different and necessary, but the story diverges wildly with each mile. So good!

So-so read for me...
I just couldn't really get into it. I've read it till the end, but it was slow, I didn't get attached to any of the characters, wasn't actually much interested in the plot... It wasn't badly written, but I didn't care for the plot.