Welcome to Litsy!

Owen Callahan, 28 & an aspiring writer, returns home to Kentucky when his luck runs out. Living with his grandfather, he takes a job as a groundskeeper at a nearby college so he can enroll in a writing class for free. He becomes involved with a visiting writer from DC, Alma, the daughter of Bosnian Muslim refugees. A thoughtful and moving look at the complex mix of emotions home and family can evoke, especially if people you love voted for Trump.

This book was very meta. Young Paducah, KY, writer takes college writing courses while working a campus job & living with grandad. Published immigrant girlfriend is pursuing a career as a writing professor. So, LOTS of conversations about writing, literature, representation, & appropriation. Plenty of local color & depictions of cultural/political/class differences. It doesn‘t try to do too much, but what it does do, it does very well ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Trying to enjoy some reading before work today, but am feeling a bit distracted.

In many ways, this is a standard boy-meets-girl coming of age tale, but Cole‘s voice and perspective kept me engaged on every page. His exploration of class differences and rural vs. urban tension in the contemporary South here were spot-on. I loved it. If you happen to be a diehard fan of Phil Morrison‘s 2005 film Junebug, run to your nearest bookstore and grab it! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

"At work that morning, you could tell right away who'd voted for who. The losing side sat at the conference table looking grim. Those on the winning side were theatrically cheery. They whistled as they poured their coffee they smiled. And, of course, they were all white and male and over the age of forty."

I remember dreading going to work the day after the 2016 election. Back then I worked at a very conservative car dealership. ?

MY 3 DAY WEEKEND STARTS TODAY! HUZZAH! ??? As much as I'm excited about this, I'm also honestly counting down the days until my birthday later this month when I'm taking a whole week off! ???? I'm excited to finally start this one today, it has a fabulous opening line: "I've always had the same predicament. When I'm home, all I want is to leave. When I'm away, I'm homesick for a place that never was."

#catsoflitsy #rumpel

My review on the storygraph:

“This is truly one of the worst books I have ever read. Navel gazing manic pixie dream girl sh!t may been original in the 00s, but it is played out. Yikes! Can pretentious bullsh!t be a content warning??”

I will add here that the Kentucky references kept me in until 34%, but even enjoying those couldn‘t keep me from actively hating this. 0⭐️

This worked for me in a big way. Relatable characters and excellent writing, plus an academia-yet-also-rural-working-class setting is catnip for me. A fave of 2022 (so far), for sure. I liked Michael Crouch‘s narration enough to poke around on Libby looking for more of him and realized I‘ve liked some of his other work, too. (Also added to my holds list a Crouch-narrated Kevin Wilson short story collection that I didn‘t know existed!)

My Barnes & Noble book haul from yesterday! I have never even heard of the YA fantasy trilogy but I couldn't resist those covers! Plus the blurbs were really interesting! The Wolf in the Whale drew me in because I love that author! She wrote a Greek Mythology urban fantasy series I really like so I thought I would try this as well! And the tagged book, well, the opening lines really hooked me so it had to come home with me too! 💕📚💕 #bookhaul

I‘ve lived most of my life in southern college towns, where professors & liberals live in tense bubbles in a sea of religious conservatism & working class anti-intellectualism. This is the backdrop of Lee Cole‘s debut novel, about a love story btwn Owen & Alma, from two very different backgrounds, & the way race & class impacts the dynamics of their relationship and their families in the age of Trump. Every character felt like someone I‘ve known.