Welcome to Litsy!

So many significant quotes!

Here‘s one “Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final.”

“A sparklingly beautiful memoir-in-vignettes” NYT

Solid pick, extraordinary. Beautiful memoir💖

#favoritesofjune

#Read2025 @DieAReader

I think I would have enjoyed this so much more when I was first divorced, over 20 years ago now. I loved the questions, quotations, and chapter titles. I especially loved the chapter, “It gets pretty woo here“ about the idea that children get to choose which parents they'll be born to.

Oh my. I appreciated everything about this book. Smith walks us slowly through her experiences of discovering her husband‘s infidelity and the resulting processes involved in moving through her life as her image of family changes. I really liked the way she physically structured the narrative, her poet‘s ability to phrase something, and the questions she asks throughout the book. I couldn‘t put it down.

My friend needed notecards so into a bookstore we go. Of course I just had to buy books. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Lenz‘s Substack always makes me chuckle so I grabbed that one. Both books seem to center around the same theme and I‘ve gone through my own midlife extravaganzas and sadnesses, divorce, and finding my own life direction, but it‘s always good to see how others have handled it.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

I've never heard of Maggie Smith before- not THAT Maggie Smith, the American one. Being such a lover (and writer) of poetry myself I find it kind of hard to believe that, but it's true.

Picked up this #audiobook based on an online rec, and can say without a doubt that it was worth it. Her writing style and poetry are flat out fantabulous! Really and truly a heartfelt read.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

I have seen this since it came out and for some reason had ignored it, until yesterday. Extremely honest, sad but as time goes on Maggie finds peace. Great read.

Maggie Smith (No not that one, the American poet) is a gorgeous writer. I enjoyed the way this is laid out, it is a contemplative look at her marriage (the end of) and her life. She reiterates that this is not a tell all. It is not a true memoir, she is only giving you the glimpses she chooses. But I did end up wanting to sucker punch her ex husband! A beautifully told story with so much to contemplate on.

#weeklyforecast

I have the tagged on audio book, and am hoping to make progress on these other 3. Malcolm will probably take me until the end of the month but I want to finish Babel in the next couple of days (it is so good!). Chlorine was mentioned on a list of possibilities for the women's prize, I think it is a long shot but it sounds interesting so picked it up from the library.

I listened to this one over audio read by the author. This is the first book I‘ve read by Smith & I was not familiar with her work. I really loved this one. The pain she describes over her separation & subsequent divorce from her husband is so imbedded throughout the book. The struggles she faced as a working mom & wife & then as a single parent. How her husband seemed to struggle with her having a career. The never ending tasks of being a mom

My first read of 2024 and what a great one to start with. Beautiful writing, beautiful person. I loved the part about bees and believing in magic and karma! Everyone who reads this book will be a better person for it.

Reading this a few years into my own divorce process was an interesting experience—resonant, cathartic, challenging at times. I was struck, too, by how different this book felt from Smith's previous work. It‘s more formally experimental, messier in structure, and darker, more raw in tone, all of which befits a divorce memoir. Throughout, Smith presents a series of impossible questions, and though there are no answers, there is still resolution.

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Loved this book. Brilliant narration by the author. It‘s hard to describe it, a very real raw portrait of a marriage, of 2 people at odds with each other. Of how some men cannot handle a woman‘s success. Of how to keep going when everything falls apart. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Hi Litsy!!! My lovely and brilliant Mama @Bklover has been telling me to get on here for awhile now! She loves this community so much. I have been a reader since I was little kid reading and eating M&Ms in trees. This is the book I read most recently. She‘s a poet so even though this is her memoir, it‘s beautiful and poetic. I cried at least twice!

Maggie Smith, American poet, fellow Ohioan, wrote “Good Bones” a poem that went viral in recent years. Her husband (they met at a creative writing workshop) was jealous and couldn‘t be happy for her. They broke up and this is the lyrical memoir we got as a result of their divorce. I‘ve read many similar stories and felt more of a connection to this book than many of the other “divorce memoirs” I‘ve read. I know many of the places she describes.

Smith is a poet and her craft is wonderfully on display in this memoir about the breakdown of her marriage. She explores the gender inequality of invisible labor, but does so with not a technical term in sight. It‘s more about finding yourself when you are lost, and how disorienting that process can be. I finished the book with a sense of hope, and a desire to grab a beer with the author and continue the conversation.

A soft pick for me. Beautiful prose. Loved the structure. Love her poems. Just so much focus on bitter divorce and mothering and that‘s not my favorite cup of tea.

4✨

When I added this one to my TBR, I thought it was a memoir by Maggie Smith (Actress)
But on closer inspection I found that it was in fact not her, but Poet Maggie Smith. So I had to change my mindset before I started listening. I've never read any of her work, but as soon as I hit play I was drawn in by her lyrical writing.
This is a deep, sad story of love, loss, and how to keep on keeping on. How to turn a Hurt into something Beautiful.

I didn't know much about Maggie Smith aside from her runaway popular poem, Good Bones. I picked this up, curious, and found it to be a beautiful, emotional look at her marriage ending. It's nuanced and poetic, I enjoyed hearing her narrate the story. It was slower and sadder than I thought I wanted, but there's enough moments of wit and joy that I left the book feeling hopeful. You could make this place beautiful, indeed.

(also - great cover!)

Book #70
3.5/5
If I'm being honest... I borrowed this audiobook from the library thinking it was an autobiography by Dame Maggie Smith. Disappointment aside, this memoir about a poet's journey through the end of her marriage is insightful and, well, poetic. It's a bit wordy (as I would expect from a poet), but it is relatable.

A memoir, yes. But a poem, too. Short stanzas interspersed with vignettes. I appreciate her instinct to lay forth the messiness of it all and her dexterity with language. It‘s the story of a divorce, and an ode to the power of finding beauty in sorrow. It makes me believe there are spaces in which grief can be beautiful.

Current read, and I‘m not sure this is the book for me. The language is beautiful, as you‘d expect from a poet, but the sadness is pretty overwhelming at times, and dwelling on things is not my personal way of dealing with things, so it‘s a LOT. There are some interesting set pieces in here, too, so I‘d say it‘s worth a read.

May 2023 Reading Wrap Up. Late again!

5 🌟
You Could Make This Place Beautiful: Maggie Smith 📖
4.5 🌟
The Dance Tree: Kiran Millwood Hargrave 🎧
Maureen: Rachel Joyce 🎧
4 🌟
Birnam Wood: Eleanor Catton 📖
3.5 🌟
The Bandit Queens: Parini Shroff 📖
The Faraway World: Patricia Engle : 📖
A Tidy Ending: Joanna Cannon 🎧

The writing is great, but I often felt I was being scolded as a reader. Smith says from the start that this is not a tell-all book. But then she repeatedly brings up a point of her story, accuses the reader of expecting details, and then refuses to speak about it. It was disruptive. I appreciated her thoughts on individual ambitions within a marriage and the division of labor in the home. So while I had some issues, it‘s definitely worth reading.

5 🌟. I inhaled this memoir written by a poet with the cadence of poety. I wrote down so many quotes. I read a library copy, but I will buy my own so I can underline passages. Loved the repeated structure of very short chapters. Highly recommend. #52bookclub23 #typographical @LauraReads @KarenUK @britt_brooke @CarolynM @Smarkies @LeeRHarry @Clwojick @BookBelle84 @jennifer80 @Librarybelle @triplem80 @Bluebird @Read4life @ravenlee @jlhammar

I just read two memoirs back to back. One was flat (Stash), one was brilliant. 👆 What was the difference? Smith writes about the pain of her marriage's end, her journey to heal, her new sense of self. She's a poet, so that helps & she's aware of (and constantly questioning) HOW she tells this story. How it develops a plot, symbols, foreshadowing. And she plays with that while never sacrificing the emotional quality of her pain or growth. 👇

The author describes this not as a 'tell-all' but more of a 'tell-mine' as she points out she can only tell her side of the story. While she admits she is not totally open about everything, what she does write about is both thought provoking and beautifully written. I am not generally a fan of poetry in general, but her piece “Good Bones“ which went viral is truly a wonderful poem. This memoir touched me and was a pleasure to read. 4/5 stars.

A heart wrenching memoir by the poet Maggie Smith.She writes about the discovery of her husband‘s affair and the end of her marriage.She shares her shock her struggles to survive while raising her son mostly on her own now.Maggie‘s Smiths writing drew me as she shares her emotions.

A heart wrenching memoir by the poet Maggie Smith.She writes about the discovery of her husband‘s affair and the end of her marriage.She shares her shock her struggles to survive while raising her son mostly on her own now.Maggie‘s Smiths writing drew me as she shares her emotions.