Welcome to Litsy!

I am posting one book per day from my extensive to-be-read collection. No description and providing no reason for wanting to read it, I just do. Some will be old, some will be new. Don‘t judge me - I have a lot of books. Join in if you want!

#ABookADay2023

I am posting one book per day from my extensive to-be-read collection. No description and providing no reason for wanting to read it, I just do. Some will be old, some will be new. Don‘t judge me - I have a lot of books. Join in if you want!

#ABookADay2023

Some parts I loved, some parts I skimmed. These are the notes of a girl growing up, discovering her creative self, becoming a writer. The writing is unique, I enjoyed how she writes about herself and about all those books she‘s read during her life. The stories she has written and shares in the book are less interesting. A light pick, a worthy contender of the #ToB longlist!

I always mix up these two books too!

I really love her talking about the books she read and didn‘t read. Very recognizable!

#ToB23

I finished this audiobook a couple weeks ago and looking back on it now I really wish I had gone with a physical copy.

The book interested me immensely but I kept feeling lost in the audio and having to go back. Although the narrator was great , I just feel this style didn't work for me in audio.

I'm hoping to revisit in the future.

Ugh, how to review this little book…picked from the #NYTTopTen2022 and the reporter reviewing this recommended the audiobook.
Not straightforward enough for me to listen to the audiobook, so I definitely should have read this physical copy. Some parts I really connected with while others (mostly the “writings”) didn‘t work for me. The style is so different; I found it difficult to engage. I may come back to the physical copy again later.

I‘m about 2/3 through this book and wondering why on earth I‘m still listening, as it‘s for sure not for me. I don‘t like the writing at all and just find it bizarre. So, I‘m all done. #toblonglist

Thank you SO MUCH my dear friend @Megabooks for sending me a wonderful Hanukkah gift♥️ And I have to acknowledge Meg‘s outstanding wrapping skills 🙌🏻 while I do own this book 🙊our sweet friend @BarbaraBB gifted me this book for my birthday 😂😂 I‘m still delighted that you thought of me.
#BookFriendsAreTheBestFriends

#Currentlyreading

This cast a spell on me, as it might do to anyone deeply in love with books & writing. The singular thing about it is that it blows open the genre of autofiction. It does some beautiful things with language. It seamlessly melds experience & artifice & tries to give form to the act of creation & the process of writing. The physical world is made vivid, but it soars above it into transcendent imagination. Distinctive & special. #TOB2023 #TOBlonglist

I really loved this…. It felt like stream-of-consciousness (though it‘s not) with self-reassurances and lists, but it‘s really just the story of a young woman getting to grips with her creative self. The writing is consuming, I felt completely absorbed by the account of someone‘s reading and writing life. Mostly plotless, there are stories within stories, numerous switching tenses, and just lovely writing. Can‘t wait to read this author again.

I loved this book! Claire- Louise Bennett is a brilliant contemporary writer who pushes the boundaries of what fiction can do. This book is ostensibly about the narrator's development as an artist but that makes it sound straightforward and it's not.
She may pop up again for letter P. 😄
#alphabetgame @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

My 2nd DNF this month so I‘m not sure if it‘s the books or if I‘m in some weird mood.

This started out so promising with the protagonist‘s love of reading and libraries. Then the book went on a tangent with the protagonist‘s story written at uni. Now I‘m halfway and the protagonist is just name dropping all these authors and I feel like the author is doing this to show how smart she is. It‘s not that I haven‘t heard of the authors because I have

This is a fabulous book!! There are stories within stories and such wonderful use of language. I loved it so much and am definitely going to need to read her collection of short stories now. Thanks for putting this one on my radar @Megabooks !

If Sally Rooney and Ducks Newburyport had a child that ate glue, it would probably be this book. Wonderfully imaginative, Bennett writes as if she‘s a girl growing into her writing style. My favorite chapter was a long rambly one written as a teen. And while this ISN‘T stream of consciousness, the paragraphs do get a bit lengthy, and she employs lists and flights of ideas like Ducks, while having (in later chapters) the millennial angst of Rooney.

“I fell into Checkout 19 and didn‘t want to climb back out. It is wonderful—I‘m not sure why, and that makes it all the more wonderful.” - Roddy Doyle

The above blurb exactly captures my feelings. Loved Pond (her debut) and loved this. Our narrator is a reader with a capital R and books are at the heart of this autobiographical novel. To those who enjoy innovative literary fiction, highly recommend.

“Later on we often had a book with us.”

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

#bookmail I was head over heels for Bennett‘s debut, Pond, so very excited for this one.

A portrait of the artist as a young woman. Not so much a story as a journey to understand how she became the artist she is. Reading features largely throughout. This is not a straightforward tale but one that spirals as particular books, ideas, interactions, and events are revisited. Bennett writes autofiction that is specific, intense, layered. The prose is brilliant, but you have to trust it will take shape. For me, it did. I loved it!

"I began reading more and more books by women and that didn't leave me much time anymore to read any books by men."
This ? Happened to me too.

I got bit by a dog yesterday on my morning walk (had to go to the hospital and get a tetanus shot) so my sister dropped off this cute mini poinsettia to cheer me up. Paired it with my current read. I loved Bennett's Pond and this has a similar stream-of-consciousness style, although written from a young girl's perspective. I'm into it!

I ordered some books from different places and they ALL arrived today.
📚 Claire-Louise Bennet's new novel
📚 Book 4 of the Cazalet Chronicles
📚 Bear (Canada's controversial classic 🤨)
Now where to begin?!