Welcome to Litsy!

This or that:
1. Eggnog
2. I like opening presents on Christmas but my family has a tradition where we open 2 presents on Xmas Eve: a book and a pair of pjs
3. Neither. I find the most unhinged tree toppers. Last year was Grogu and I‘m still deciding for this year
4. Ham!
5. I travel up to see my family💜

Most anticipated read: Krampus The Yule Lord
#wintergames2024 #holidaybookdragons #earlybird

I love a folklore retelling. The story of Baba Yaga is fantastical and magical, and author GennaRose Nethercott imaginatively reworks this tale for modern times. The blend of family, Jewish folklore, magical realism, and Jewish-Russian-Ukrainian cultural history defies genre, and this novel stands on its own as a unique story filled with fun but also allows the reader to understand topics that may be difficult to discuss.

I quite enjoyed this one. It was more intense than I was expecting. I adore some Baba Yaga stories and this one was unique.

1. Don't know whether they're unusual or not, but I have a knack for language, storytelling and literary translation. So much so that all my profs at school & uni said they wanted to read whatever I put out or translate.
2. Bellatine has a penchant for woodwork and can revive things and beings with her hands 😮
Her brother Isaac is much more than a street performer & con artist - he can literally become/be another person in the blink of an eye...

#ItTakesAllKinds @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Eggs
#RoadTrip
#Mythical
#War
#Fantasy
#WithMurder

I love love loved this book! 🐥🦵🏃🥀🖤🏚️💂📝🖋️🕯️🎻🪄🎭⚔️🚬⚰️🪦🗿🦿🐔🗣️

#TheNewSon is a #Netgalley #ARC,
#Thistlefoot is already published and fab.

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain
#psychologicalthrillers #folklore #GreatBritain #UnitedStates #Yiddish #darkfantasy #BabaYaga

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

'Behold: Kali Tragus, the Russian thistle.'

Making slow progress through this one, yet it's a steady one with much pleasure. So far, it's fabulous.
A dark modern fantasy steeped in Yiddish folklore, a road trip through the vastness of the USA and the heritage, myths and memories of its immigrants.

#folklore #fantasy #myths #legends #Ukraine #EasternEurope #Russia #BabaYaga #legacy

I only picked this up for the SFF book club and was kind of really invested in the beginning but a little over half way it kind of slowed down a bit and it felt like a chore trying to finish. I think there's a lot to unpack about trauma and memory but I didn't really connect to the way it was laid out.

Trying to finish a big chunk today to keep on my monthly goals target. Rolo is asleep on the job.
#DogsOfLitsy

It is a very cold, rainy, and really slow day at work so I figured I might as well get a few pages in.

I‘m enjoying the tagged but what makes it extra special is Sierra decided to ignore the dog and hang out with me while I‘m reading.
#CatsOfLitsy

I wanted to like this more than I did.
I felt like a few characters didn't even need to be in the story.
I really enjoyed the chapters from the house's POV. I also enjoyed Bellatine and Isaac's story, but I thought more could have been talked about revolving their gifts.

Baba Yaga is one of my all-time favorite folktales. Needless to say, I am really enjoying this book. We get different perspectives, characters you love and characters you love to hate. It was so easy to get swept up in the story. I‘m about 60% through and have loved every minute. #botm

A friend recommended this delight of a book to me and I loved it. It explores myths and legends, cultural destruction, Russian Jewish heritage, and the role that stories play in both culture and heritage, all wrapped up in a fantasy-horror book with a fun cast of characters. I saw one reviewer characterized it as culturally apropriative to have non-religious characters with Jewish heritage as the main characters, but I enjoyed (more below ⬇️)

I loved how this started. It really got my interest in the beginning and the story was so well written. I really enjoyed all of the characters including the house and the story behind each of them. It was a little slow at times for me, but I still loved the writing and the unique/weird story that the author told.

1. Childhood nickname. 2. Thriller. 3. Summer is my favorite season 4. I believe in spirit entities 5. USA 6. Wife, Mom and everything that entails. Library volunteer. #Scarathlon #TeamCryptKeepers @LiseWorks

Excellent reading view (with a window seat no less!) for this excellent fantasy novel ❤️

Thistlefoot is bound with searing history, imaginative force and deeply profound moments. Though there was so much here and I was moved by the message of the novel and certain passages, it overall lacked cohesiveness and I struggled to follow along at times. Baba Yaga‘s perspective was my favorite to listen to 🎧 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Weird coincidence! I started this book yesterday. Yesterday evening, I was working with a journalist who told me about his Jewish heritage on his dad's side, and his family fleeing the pogroms in Russia. Today, I reached a part in this book where one main character reflects on his own Jewish heritage with ancestry fleeing the pogroms in Russia.

A friend recommended this book to me and I'm already entirely in love 😍 The descriptions paint such vivid pictures not only for the senses but also for the emotions. It's fun seeing elements of Baba Yaga folklore popping up, and illustrative pops of references to Jewish culture. As a bonus, the audiobook is narrated by the same person who read The Diviners, who does an amazing job!

Combination of the history of pogroms vs. East European Jews and the fairy tale Baba Yaga. The Yaga siblings have inherited a house on chicken legs from their deceased great grandmother but a shadowy figure is intent on hunting it down and destroying it. Why? Themes: generational trauma, persecution, using fear to spur violence, importance of stories and remembering. https://cannonballread.com/2023/08/thistlefoot-a-novel-elcicco/

Outstanding mix of history and fairytale. The Yaga siblings have inherited a house on chicken legs from their great-grandmother but a dangerous entity wants to find and destroy it. Combines the history of East Europe‘s pogroms with old folk tales. Themes: importance of stories and remembering. Brilliantly done. https://cannonballread.com/2023/08/thistlefoot-a-novel-elcicco/

If a story does its job, it doesn't ever end. Not really. But it can change. This is the nature of folktales. They shift to fit each teller. Take whatever form suits the bearer best. What begins as a story of sorrow can be acknowledged, held like a sweetheart to the chest, rocked and sung to. And then it can be set down to sleep. It can become an offering. A lantern. An ember to lead you through the dark.

Reforging generational trauma into remembering and respect for one‘s own history.

The characters ride on the edge of being unlikable. It‘s done skillfully, though, so the reader emphasizes rather than gets annoyed. The story has three layers—the dark and fairytale-like past, the allegoric plot of a puppet show, and the modern-day present.

I loved how carefully constructed it was, although the jumping between layers was a bit distracting.

4/5

Oh no! Unpopular opinion. I couldn't care less about anyone in this story.
While there are bits and pieces that I can see could be interesting, it is just not holding my attention and I am not wanting to pick it back up, so I am bailing.

“There is a shtetl called Gedenkrovka, in the Smiliansky district of the Cherkasy region of Imperial Russia …” Nethercott (a fine poet) has crafted a wondrous, terrible debut novel that weaves together two timelines united by the children and descendants of Baba Yaga. Her children were threatened and her are descendants are being stalked by a dybbuk created one terrible day in 1919, and still furious that the house, Thistlefoot escaped a pogrom.

A retelling of Russian myth, plus traditional Jewish tales & the true history of pogroms in Eastern Europe, combined with a contemporary American setting imbued with fantasy—this adventure is right in my wheelhouse. Told from 3 POVs: close 3rd -person of the two youngest (and queer) members of the Yaga family, plus direct address from a sentient house on chicken legs. Enthralling! #LGBTQ #Audiobook read with vocal adeptness by January LaVoy.

Funny how truth changes in the telling, how a person becomes a myth, how a myth becomes a hero. Do not mistake Baba Yaga for the hero of my stories. She is not. She is not the villain, either. She is only a woman.
(Internet image)

A house can be burned, a story cannot. What is a house but a container for a life? What is a life but a container for a story? When a container is broken, it does not destroy the contents, it sets them free.
(Image: the author and her puppet theatre)

I put this book down for a while to read the library books that all came in at once, so it took me a while to read it. It wasn't a book I felt I could read quickly. This book needed to be read slowly and thought about and truly savored. I feel emotional now that it's over and I don't usually get emotional when I read. It was weird and magical and oh so beautiful.

"There are no ghosts of the dead. And yet, this is a ghost story. There are no ghosts of the dead. But events? Events, if they carry enough wailing, can leave a mark. Can squeeze themselves into terrible shapes, grow arms, legs, a head on which to wear a hat, feet on which to follow you. Events - they have a way of coming back."

"You know the only real way to respect people whose lives are over? Or those like me, whose lives never even began? You prove to them that you aren't wasting yours."

Wow, I did not like this book. I‘m not sure why I finished it. I was about halfway through and already miserable. I didn‘t really like any of the characters and found it very boring. A retelling of baba yaga (and all I could think of was John Wick).

I hope you all like it better than I did. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Moving on.

#BOTMbacklog

“What happens when the walls we raise outlive the dangers they were built to keep out? At what point does a fort become a cage?“

I really enjoyed this story. It's kind of a Baba Yaga origin story, as discovered by her descendants after they inherit her infamous cabin on chicken feet. I personally connected with the historic theme of displaced jews in Russia. It really added depth and humanity to the Yaga history.
5 ⭐️
#Doublespin ✔

It‘s frustrating, but I‘ve borrowed the audiobook twice and I just can‘t get into this. I‘m still only 2.5 hours in, which feels like it‘s been 20 hours, and I just don‘t have the patience for the slow pace. Some say it‘s riveting, others complain of the pacing but state that the ending makes or saves the book. Hopefully I‘ll find out for myself someday, at a time in the future when maybe I‘m more well-rested and focused! 😂

"Things happen that we cannot speak of. These rememberings are prickly like blackberry briar in winter, with no leaves to soften them. And the very worst thing about memory, the deadliest, most brutal part: memory can be forgotten. But a folktale - a folktale can never be forgotten because it wiggles & rearranges until it sits neatly on the heart."

Options for #lmpbc group F.

"People in our family, we're born with thistles in our feet. It's why we're always traveling. Because if we stood still, the thistles would prick us."

Highly recommend! Puppets, magic, folklore— this might have been a perfect read for me 🏡 I really needed it at the moment, too ❤️✨

Haus by Laura Tempest Zakroff of Owlkeyme Arts

Buy a print or stack of cards at https://owlkeyme.square.site

Absolutely gripping! This was a beautifully written story about families, generational trauma, and folklore with unreliable narration that left an ache in my chest. The Yaga siblings/family were written with such quality that I feel everyone will be able to see a bit of themselves and their families in them.

I finished Thistlefoot this week for another traveling book group and it was quite a read! Overall a lovely message with very complex characters. I thought the middle lagged a bit but the ending was perfection! I loved all the Baba Yaga stories woven in throughout. Using this for #booked2023 A Title with a Proper Noun
@Cinfhen @alisiakae @BarbaraTheBibliophage

I'm not certain what happened to my post from last night, but it's gone now. 🤔 Anyway, I started this book last night about the Yaga siblings who inherit a sentient house on chicken legs named Thistlefoot which has arrived in America from Eastern Europe. Unfortunately a sinister figure also arrives at the same time with dark secrets from the past.

A beautiful story about the importance of bearing witness and passing on legacies no matter how painful they may be. I loved this book and consider it a five ⭐️ read. #botm

Here are some of my favorite reads of 2022! I have to give the top spot to Thistlefoot! 🏚🍗🍗🖤

🎧 Entertaining! A dark fun quirky fairytale retelling! Heavy on the “QUIRK”. Good narration! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/3

Reading by the (TV) fire .

A low pick... it had a loy of potential, but didn't quite live up to my expectations

Thistlefoot is easily the best novel that I have read all year. The story and characters are gripping and entertaining. I especially enjoyed hearing from Thistlefoot within the narrative. The descriptions are nothing short of amazing, creating a detailed and complete picture of the settings, the characters, the action, etc. There are also sections full of thought-provoking words and ideas that are so insightful. This was a hard one to put down.

Another favorite from 2022 for #adventrecommends @emilyrose_x

This is one of my favorite fairytale reads and definitely one of the best Baba Yaga stories I've ever read.

If you like fun, adventurous stories based on classic fairytales but with a modern twist, check this one out.

An estranged brother & sister from a family of puppeteers inherit Baba Yaga‘s iconic house on chicken feet—and an ancient and terrifying foe—in this playful, powerful, and heart-wrenchingly wise novel that brings Jewish folklore to a modern, magical realist American setting. Thistlefoot has so much to say about generational trauma, history as haunting, the redemptive power of remembrance, and the healing potential of storytelling. A tour de force.