Welcome to Litsy!

In a French village ravaged by WWII, the astonishing friendship between two girls generates a temporary farse in the literary world and separates their destinies by sending one of them to Paris and then to a British boarding school.

Although the writing and existential questions are beautiful, the ressemblance with my "My Brilliant Friend" is shocking, but Elena Ferrante's novel remains more remarkable, more powerful and overall exceptional.

#readingbracket2024 #bookbracket2024 I didn‘t know how to choose between this and the Postcard, but then I saw I rated this a rare 5 on StoryGraph. I wonder if this is the year all my favorites will involve stories of differing perspectives.

Moving, engaging, informative: two teen girls, best friends in post WWII France, create a scheme where the more gifted one channels literature through the more middle-class one, whose work is more likely to be accepted. They unexpectedly become separated when the “prodigy”writer is sent to England and the rest of the book explores their friendship, with its strong lesbian subtext, issues of culture and class, and youth power and choices. #Bookspin

I debated reading this book, each time I read the description I had a different reaction as to if I thought it had merit beyond another WWII novel. I loved this book. Its overt story is mildly interesting, but the existential questions it poses are the really beauty. Ideas of existence and meaning and identity explored in a fresh and poignant way.

Revenge is a story that begins with more promises than its ending can keep.

#Bookspin

1. Doppelgänger
2. Nothing to Envy
3. Run Towards the Danger
4. Thank You Mr Nixon
5. When We Were Sisters
6. An Immense World
7. Ghosts of the Tsunami
8. Hunger
9. A Small Place
10. Saving Time
11. Citizen
12. H is for Hawk
13. The Reason I Jump
14. Fruit of the Drunken Tree
15. We Should Not Be Afraid of the Sky
16. The Bandit Queens
17. Big Men Fear Me
18. Don‘t Bite the Hook
19. Some People Need Killing
20. Greenwood

I found last year's ToB winner interesting, esp the way it made me think about talent thwarted by circumstance and outlets for frustration, the fact it was about two post-war French girls but was written by a woman who lived in China until she was 26, and written in English as a second language. It all made it feel very spare and deliberate. I'm glad #ToB2023 made me read it, though I don't think it was my favorite of that crop of novels.

I couldn't manage a #top23of23. My collage skills just are not up to the task, so here's some of my favourite reads from the past year. There are a few missing but The Birthday Party, Forbidden Notebook, Girls of Slender Means, and Run Towards the Danger were my absolute stands outs!
@BarbaraBB @Cinfhen

This is an interesting book, set mainly in France and England. Agnes gets news that her childhood friend Fabienne has died. Then we hear the story of her life as a child and how she wrote a book, but the actual story was dictated to her by Fabienne. I enjoyed it, but I felt a bit letdown by the ending.

I fully understand why this novel has been on so many “must read“ lists! Not only is the writing beautiful...but the author has an amazing ability to pull you in until the last page is read. So many emotions! Highly recommend this one. It has definitely made my keeper shelf.

I tried this book but just couldn‘t get into it. In the spirit of not being afraid to DNF when something doesn‘t feel right to me, I‘m moving on to the next (with ube soft serve ice cream lol).

🤔 The writing is impressive, but I‘m giving it a tepid “pick”. I read the whole book with a sense of uncomfortable anticipation - like watching what you suspect might become a horror movie.

Wow, a judge and his kid who don‘t care for Sam and Sadie of Tomorrow x3! The result is The Goose marches on, on its way to become a Rooster?!

In our Zombie round, Tomorrow x3 does win however. With a difference of three Zombie votes it beats Dinosaurs.

So one animal wins, another loses.
I can‘t wait to so see where the rest of both the #ToB23 and the #LitsyToB23 will take us 🐓

In the #ToB23 The Book of Goose was up against Notes on your sudden disappearance, in ours against Tomorrow x3.

The Goose wins in the ToB, based on the thought of the judge (and maybe we all) having their own Fabienne. In the #LitsyToB23 however, a majority voted for Tomorrow. Maybe we feel more connected to Sam and Sadie than Agnès and Fabienne.

Anyhow, Tomorrow advances in our tournament. Later today I‘ll share our zombies. Stay tuned!

The first quarter final in both tournaments is between The Book of Goose and Mouth to Mouth. Ours has a very clear winner: a majority has voted for Goose. Again, we‘ve voted just like the ToB judge. It is getting boring, us being so in sync! Still waiting for big surprises!

“So I tried again later, attempting to set myself up for success—only to again find myself uninterested in continuing, letting my eyes go fuzzy over the words.” Many of us will agree with the #ToB23 judge‘s opinion on Mercury Pictures Presents. She chose The Book of Goose as her winner, as did we in the #LitsyToB23. A convincing majority voted for Goose. Tracy however will be disappointed, she voted for Mercury as her favorite book. Happy weekend!

Okay, #ToB23 wrap-up time! Looks like I‘m team Goose & Rabbit this year.
5⭐️ LOVED Pictured
4⭐️ REALLY LIKED The Passenger, TomorrowX3, The Violin Conspiracy, Sea of Tranquility
3.5⭐️ Dinosaurs, My Volcano
3⭐️ LIKED Nightcrawling, Mercury Pictures Presents
2.5⭐️ Olga Dies Dreaming, Mouth to Mouth
2⭐️ IT WAS OKAY An Island, Seven Moons
BAILED Manhunt, Notes, 2 AM
IN PROGRESS Babel (enjoying, but will probably end up in the liked category)

As I think of this book I keep wondering why it has this title. What do geese have to do with anything? I liked this story about two intense friendships, a teenage girl with a very active imagination and a tough demeanor and her friend who cares deeply for her. The author does a great job of reminding me of that phase of life where your friendship can feel like a fever. However, over time I don‘t think there‘s much I will remember. #TOB23

I‘m not a fan of child protagonists, so this was initially a little hard for me to get into, but once I did, I quite enjoyed it. Li develops the characters and the story in such a way that I became invested. My complaint is that I felt she didn‘t do enough to explore Fabienne‘s motivations, and she‘s so important to the story that this left a bit of a hole in it for me, making this a soft pick for me. #tob2023

I really liked this story of an intense friendship between two girls in France just after WWII. Their relationship is almost symbiotic. However, when circumstances do separate them, they can never be friends again as they once were. The spell is broken, which happens to many young people as they move from adolescence to adulthood. I understand the comparison to My Brilliant Friend, but think this is actually quite different. #ToB2023

I finished this book this morning during another stretch of parking lot reading time. I really liked it, with its unresolved tensions, things left unsaid, and blurred lines between fiction and reality. The portrayal of the friendship between Agnes and Fabienne was powerful, especially the place it held in the memory of Agnes as an adult. A favorite from the shortlist for me. #ToB2023.

Reviews of this are all over the map, but I loved it! I was swept up into this twisted fairy tale about two friends from rural France, Agnes and Fabienne. As others have noted, they were very reminiscent of Lenu and Lila from Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan series. For both duos, there is a sense that playing pretend is key to surviving girlhood, and its loss brings consequences. One of my new faves from the #tob23 shortlist.

People like Mrs. Townsend, who are obsessed with keeping a full account of their lives, are like artists who create optical illusions. A year is a year anywhere, a day is a day for everyone, and yet with a few tricks these archivists make others believe that they have packed something into their days, something precious, enviable, everlasting, that is not available to everyone.

Boooorrrrrrriiiiinnggggggg - not for me. I thought it would have more geese. #audiobook #tob2023 #itcouldbethatiamjusttired #feelingexhausted #longday

#DogsofLitsy #CopperBopper #whpg #griff 😴🥱

I'm sad about how this turned out. It started off strong—there was something deliciously dark & evocative about how Li set the scene with Agnes & Fabienne & their rural childhood. The writing was sharp, with numerous great lines. I had expectations for a bold, explosive novel. But a good third of it was a meandering segment about Agnes abroad in England & very little of Fabienne, an intriguing character. The novel lost its initial power. #ToB2023

The weekend in Berlin with my friends was fun and a nice change, but I don‘t feel rested at all 🥱😴.

New books!

Every single relationship in this book was weird. (Maybe I just don‘t understand French culture) Honestly, I think that‘s what kept me reading was it‘s pure weirdness. I thought the middle needed an edit, but overall another soft pick.
#tobshortlist2023

Another #tob23 light pick. A book about two childhood friends in a small French town and the intensity of friendship when you are young. The writing felt muted and I kept expecting something dramatic to happen that never did but in the end I can appreciate this for what it was- a well written, quiet book the details of which will likely be forgotten before the next TOB.

I would have rated this a pick if I didn't feel like I need to read it again...I definitely missed something first time through it. There is a dark underlying current that I didn't entirely understand because it is wrapped up in a beautiful, sparse prose. It was bizarre... But in a good way 🤷‍♀️

The tagged book is a light pick for me. It kept me company on my commute but with about 2 hours left I wanted to power through so I could just be done. It is a story of friendship and how we change when our circumstances or choices have us go down different paths. #TOB23 #52Books #Secrets

@Librarybelle @rmaclean4 @Read4life @ravenlee @LaraReads @britt_brooke @triplem80 @AshleyHoss820 @Cinfhen @BarbaraBB @jenniferw88 @squirrelbrain @KarenUK

I enjoyed this one, even with the squirmily accurate feeling of being trapped by one's circumstances and choices. Although this is a story about two childhood friends, the feeling of our having spent the best years of our lives carelessly unaware that they were our best years reminds me of middle age. Although that could be the same effect as when, during a breakup, every song on the radio sounds like a love song. #tob2023

A #ToB2023 pick for me! It may be because my expectations were incredibly low, based on some of my fellow ToB-er‘s reviews. This felt SO MUCH like My Brilliant Friend, though a different setting (this is France/England vs Naples setting of MBF). Agnes and her best friend, Fabienne, are the most clever girls in their provincial French town. They scheme with an older man to create a hoax which creates ripples throughout their lives.

This book feels so much like My Brilliant Friend (the show, as I have not read the book). It‘s about young female friendship and it‘s slow and relational and beautiful. The type of book to settle into feels like you‘re watching a movie.

So far this mid century French girl friendship is giving Elena Ferrante vibes

I‘m not really sure what to make of this #tob shortlister. I‘m giving it a pick but it‘s a low pick.

The narrative felt curiously dispassionate and distant to me, which I often find the case with French literature, particularly when translated into English. I wasn‘t sure if this book was written by a native French speaker, so looked it up just before posting and found this fascinating article. ⬇️

I did not like this book. At all. I don‘t even think it‘s a marmite book or that there was anything deeply flawed in the writing or conception. It just wasn‘t for me and I accept that. I probably wouldn‘t have finished it, but I‘m trying to be a completist with this year‘s #tob shortlist. (I‘m even going back to The Passenger because @batsy has given me new thoughts about it.) So yeah… 🤷🏻‍♀️

Top Reads of 2022! It has been a great reading year.
The Book of Goose
Nightbitch
Popisho
Learwife
Black Sun
Migrations
The Summer Book
The Trees
True Biz
Creatures of Passage
Demon Copperhead
Foster

Audiobook for dog walking. #ToB shortlist
I'm enjoying the narration, despite (or because of?) the slightly unsettling characters.

@Megabooks @Cinfhen @MicheleinPhilly @Suet624 @Chelsea.Poole @squirrelbrain @BarbaraBB @Addison_Reads @sarahbarnes @RebelReader @Hooked_on_books @Ruthiella

A quick and unusual read that was surreal at times. The writing was very compelling, as was the relationship between Agnes and Fabienne. I probably missed a lot of the symbolism but will be digging into reviews on this book to try and understand it a bit better - definitely a lot going on under the surface. It wouldn‘t be my pick for #TOB23 but I‘m glad the tournament brought it my way.

#PercyCat

Another 5 ⭐️ for the year sneaks in, probably really a 4.5 as I found it quite hard to get into but once I did... Plus I've finally finished work so am feeing generous and festive! Not what I expected which is always a treat. Read on kindle so pic of my parents' tree.

Subtly gripping novel about two young girls in rural France who write a book together. Though the basic plot doesn‘t sound captivating, Li‘s writing was engaging and page-turning. Slow boil, yes, but fantastic character development.

As children in rural France after WWII, Fabienne and Agnès live in their own private world, needing nothing or no one. Until Fabienne comes up with the plan to write a book together with Agnès as its official author. This is the beginning of the end of their perfect little world. I am not sure of the meaning of the book, I feel like I missed something (see spoiler below), but it is an atmospheric and intense read. #ToB2023

A story of intense obsessive childhood friendship between two friends, Agnes & Fabienne. Told throughly the eyes & memories of adult Agnes. #ToB23 - I liked this more than I was expecting. Beautiful writing, atmospheric, reminiscent of My Brilliant Friend.

Starting a new #ToB23 shortlist contender
I don‘t know anything about this book, nor have I read any reviews…so I‘m going in cold 😗

I thought this was a beautiful, complex book. The relationship between the two friends at times felt toxic, yet at other times the connection between the girls felt vital to their survival. The setting of a postwar France was also perfect for the story.

I feel that it deserves to be on the #ToB23 shortlist.

Intimate, mesmerizing, haunting. I loved this novel about an intense friendship between two adolescent girls in 1950s rural France. Elegant, measured prose and very short chapters made for a pleasurable and propulsive reading experience. And that cover is just perfection! #ToB

I have mixed feelings about this book. I like a book that makes me “feel” but I just wasn‘t feeling this one.
All in all, life can be sad.

5 🌟
True Biz: Sara Novic 🎧
The Book of Goose: Yiyun Li 🎧
4.5 🌟
Briefly, A Delicious Life: Nell Stevens 📖
Delphi: Clare Pollard 📖
4 🌟
The House of Fortune: Jessie Burton 📖
A Year Without Months: Charles Dodd White 📖
3.5 🌟
Bluebird, Bluebird: Attica Locke 🎧
3 🌟
The Matchmakers Gift: Lynda Cohen Logman 🎧
The High House: Jessie Greengrass 🎧
DNF
While Justice Sleeps: Stacy Abrams

One of the best books I have read this year. If you like Ferrante you will love this novel. Follows a friendship of two young girls in post war France. Beautiful writing. 5 🌟