Welcome to Litsy!

Well. This was just lovely. I wish it had a different cover, I think I would have picked it up sooner.
The Berry's and The Marsh's couple of years living next door to each other their lives so intertwined and yet not at all. This book is about the power of a chosen family. I loved how each POV reveals a different look at all of their lives and the slow unraveling of how everyone got to where they are. I really loved the language Elliott uses.

"He is cross-legged on the floor of the public library, deep in cookery, holding a book of old recipes, gripping it tight, his tears tapping out the code of how lost he is on its sun-bleached cover "

#FirstLineFriday

I am starting my weekend early and this is the vibe (except Saturday when I am volunteering most of the day for a city evening parade)

Books: Flamingo & Witch King
Drink water with lemon
Cat shown: Serene
Candle as always Voluspa Mokara

I often think that time shifts are used in novels that don‘t have a strong enough story to sustain them without it, but that is not the case here. The history of these characters & their interactions would have worked fine with a straightforward timeline, but allowing the relevant pieces of the past to come out as the story in the present progressed intensified my understanding & sympathy for them. I really loved this one.

#roll100 really enjoyed this poetic novel set in 1984/2018 - interesting story of friendship, family & identity

Excited for my #10BeforeTheEnd - 5 books that are longest on my bookshelves and 5 books that are newly published (Bellies is 2023, but the other 4 pub'd in 2024)

All of these are books I am excited about but I keep getting distracted from, so going to prioritize them the next 10 weeks.

Join me in picking out 10 books you want to read before the end of the year! Encouraging people to get to those books you have meant to pick up!

One beautiful summer Eve and her son, Daniel,live next door to Sherry, Leslie, and their daughters and they both find something vital in the relationships they forge. Years later while struggling Daniel seeks out the former neighbors and the time in his life that felt the most secure. A lovely story filled with complicated relationships and empathy. #24in2024

Saturday morning #coffeeandabook.
Looking forward to finishing this one today.

Saturday morning #coffeeandabook
#BookSpin pick

Gosh - this book gave so much. Wonderful complex parent / child relationships. Characters with flaws that never default to stereotypes / cliches. Despair but also hope. I really loved it. A brilliant reminder that everyone has their own story. I loved and was almost a 5 star but for annoying punctuation and a desperate desire to see and know more of Leslie who I loved. I‘m also claiming it for a #pantone2023 for #pinkcosmos

Thank you for the birthday bookmail Soubhi! I'm looking forward to reading both of these!! Thank you for thinking of me on my birthday! 💙
@Soubhiville

#12BooksOf2022

Based on its cover I‘d never had expected this book to be so dark. But it is. At times. And I loved it. My favorite read of November.

It‘s clear Elliott is a psychologist because her characters‘ reactions to their childhoods make so much sense. I really enjoyed this heartwarming novel. Ty @BarbaraBB 💜

Daniel‘s mom was on the run for most of his childhood, but he had a brief bit of stability with a great neighbor family. When Daniel is reeling from loss and ends up living on the street, he decides to pay that family a visit. Meanwhile the neighbor‘s daughter has her own issues.

#12Booksof2022 day 5

May was another amazing reading month for me, with several great reads, but I think this is my favorite.

This book took me completely by surprise in a positive way. And contrary to what the cover might suggest, this is not a fluffy read. I loved the father son relationship that formed between Daniel and the father next door.

@BarbaraBB thank you so much for the thoughtful gifts dear friend!! I waited until today because they are the only surprises I got this year and such wonderful ones. 🫶🏻 The Tokyo Express edition is gorgeous, and my mom wants to read it too. So excited for the Shamsie since I want to tackle her backlist next year, but Flamingo is up after Ocean State. Merry Christmas!! I hope you are all having a wonderful time skiing. 🎄💕⛷️

#AdventRecommends December 7th

Another book from this year‘s Woman‘s Prize for Fiction Longlist that I wouldn‘t have read of it wasn‘t for the prize.

About a troubled mother son relationship, but most importantly it‘s about the father son relationship between a young kid and his neighbor.

I LOVED this book. Although the cover isn‘t that ugly it doesn‘t do the book justice. It‘s much more than that. Those characters. All of them so lovely. I can‘t say it any other way. There‘s not much of a plot yet the interaction between those loving individuals was all I needed!

Thanks for this wonderful gift Helen! 💝

#WeeklyForecast 46/22

I immediately added one of my birthday gifts to my weekly forecast (the tagged one, thank you @squirrelbrain ❤️) and I also hope to read the Beasty Boys book, a gift by you Cindy! With that one I can finish #pop22! But first, I am in the middle of Evelyn Hardcastle and thoroughly enjoying it!

I have to confess I didn‘t think I would enjoy this book at all so I borrowed it from the library assuming it would be returned unfinished. How wrong was I?? I loved it!! I didn‘t want to put it down. I‘m so glad I picked it up. Great story and great characters. A very well written book

What a lovely, gentle, sad and funny book. I made the mistake of finishing it on the train, there were tears. We meet Daniel as a young boy, anxious and stressed by his transient life with his young mother Eve. They fall into friendship with new neighbours and they have hopes for the future, then suddenly it‘s over again, they‘re moving on. We meet Daniel again then at 40 and, well, no spoilers so I‘ll leave it there, but please read this!

#AlphabetGame #LetterF

A read that completely surprised me when I read it earlier this year.

This is the only book I‘ve managed to finish in the last while. I started off loving it‘s fun and poignancy , but it didn‘t keep my full interest. I did want to see how it ended though , and it was a quick read . I felt the characters were only beginning to be developed. I‘d say between a pick and a so-so.

This one, however, made my heart sing. A deeply affecting portrait of what constitutes a family, those we‘re born into as well as those we choose. I loved it. ❤️

#Weeklyforecast ( a day early)

I started this Flamingo last night ♥️💔 loving it to pieces. 💗

We have a one granddaughters communion today, and the other granddaughters christening next weekend. One of my daughters is home for the these occasions… so life is full on with plans and meet ups. So I‘ll be missing for a couple of weeks … Happy reading friends. Chat soon X

Hi Cindy 😘

Self care Sunday.

Honestly, I thought this book was going to be fluffy, but boy was I surprised.

A book about family and what constitutes a family, about belonging, about the importance of spending time with each other.

Every review I‘ve read/ heard seems to be focusing on the lesbian relationship between the mothers in this book, but for me that‘s a small part of this.

For me the book is about Daniel and the importance the neighboring family Marsh will have

From the bath, Daniel can hear his mum singing along to ‘Like a Virgin‘, which is a song by a woman called Madonna. He knows this song because it‘s on the radio all the time, and he also knows that a virgin is like snow that no one has walked on yet, this is what his mum told him when he asked, just think of snow, she said. So every time he hears this song he imagines boots stepping into snow, and this image makes him feel good and relaxed, so he

#ThingsInCommon #CoverCrush #ColorPalette @Clwojick
Flamingo up next 🦩💕🎧

Loved it ❤️ a happy, sad read, where you get a bit of heart ache for all the characters.
Just wanted to keep on reading it.
Not ground breaking, but an enjoyable read.

I‘m loving this so far ♥️ just so tired after long day can hardly keep my eyes open! About half way through.

#weeklyforecast
Currently reading All Things Cease to Appear, loving it so far!
The others were Mother‘s Day pressies today so may go to the top of the pile!

Loved this book about two families who find love and meaning with each other in the 1980s, but are torn apart again. We look back from 2018 to see the effect on everyone, and what happens when they meet again.

I really couldn‘t put this down and inhaled it in two sittings - all of the characters were beautifully drawn and your heart aches for all of them in different ways; it‘s one of those happy-sad books.

Book 8 of the #womensprize longlist.