Welcome to Litsy!

Shiloh says this was a good one!! Loved the narrators on the audio ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #dogsoflitsy #grammaslibrary #bookphotography #theberrypickers

For a book about the disappearance of a child, this is a surprisingly quiet, character-driven story. We don‘t remain in ignorance of what happened to Ruthie for very long, and that knowledge allows the story to just flow. After I finished it, I started Way Station, but I think it‘s something my husband will also like, so I‘ll choose a new #audiowalk book, and Way Station will become our road trip listen.

I started this yesterday after finishing Desolation Mountain in the middle of my #audiowalk. It feels very much like William Kent Krueger‘s stand-alone novels — especially This Tender Land. I like it so far.

Took two tries to get past the first couple pages but then I was sucked in to an amazing story of family!

Four year old Ruthie disappears during her family's yearly seasonal work as berry pickers in Maine. They spend the next 50 years wondering what happened to their beloved girl. Meanwhile, "Norma" grows up having dreams she can't quite explain with a family she often doesn't understand. The mystery unravels over the decades as the two families experience very different lives. It was good. A compelling family saga.

I went into this book relatively blind, and my gosh it didn‘t disappoint. It‘s a heartbreakingly beautiful story of family, love, and loss that spans decades….and I just couldn‘t put it down 🫐❤️‍🩹🫐

I started this today…and am almost done. I can‘t seem to put it down 🫣

There‘s just something about the feeling of starting a new book ◡̈

It took me a bit to finish this one, but it was really good! It was a little on the depressing side though. 💔💔💔

Trigger warnings for abuse, domestic violence, substance abuse, miscarriage, racism, terminal illness, grief, kidnapping…

#LitsyLove
#LitsyLoveReads

April 5, 2024

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“Time quickens the older you get, as if the universe is trying to push you toward the finish line, to make room for the younger, the stronger, to mark your brief place in history and move on.” 😢

Loving this one 🫐 💚

Google says this book is set in spring. I haven‘t read it yet, but it‘s on my shelf! #sundayfunday

Thank you for the #FoundFamilySwap package, @forestandcrow ❤️. Both these books have been on my TBR forever so hopefully I‘ll actually get to them now! I‘m also a big fan of those chips so good choice! Thanks again!

“When you‘re an only child, semi-imprisoned, books become more than paper between hard cardboard, more than the alphabet organized into words and printed on a page.”

This is so true!!

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#LitsyLove
#LitsyLoveReads

Picking this one back up! Hoping to finish it this weekend!

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What an incredible book! 10/10❤️❤️. I loved this in the same way I loved Anne Patchett‘s novels. This the story of an indigenous family in Nova Scotia whose youngest daughter goes missing one summer when they are picking the berry harvest in Maine. I‘m still crying, but they are good tears. Brilliant and gorgeous novel.

#MarvellousMarchReadathon #TheBookSpinBingo #SeriesLove2024 #ReadAway2024

A four-year-old Mi‘kmaq girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a tragic mystery that haunts the survivors, unravels a community, and remains unsolved for nearly fifty years.

Starting this one today! Love this cover 🫐 💜

Current audiobook, for book club. Amazing that Libby had a copy available- the eBook and print copies all have over 10 holds.

I am already questioning some of the premise even as the narrative attempts to explain/excuse it. And the hypocrisy of the “mother” is rage-inducing.

The story takes place in the 60‘s in Maine- where a Mi‘kmaq family arrived to pick blueberries for the summer and faced with tragedy. In parallel, we meet a young girl named Norma that grows up with an affluent but overprotective family.

Great writing in a debut novel although able to piece things together quickly so don‘t expect surprises; the ending was a bit rushed after chapters of longer development, but overall a good and fast read.

This gets a soft pick from me. I think my expectations were too high based on some of the hype this got. The story is good but for reasons I‘ll spoil in the comments I thought something was missing. The female narrator wasn‘t great either — her voice didn‘t show a lot of emotion.

While visiting some family in Westchester, NY I went to Split Rock Books in Cold Springs. What a great shop! They were really nice and gave me some book suggestions, including these 2. Tom Lake was on my radar already (from #auldlangspine) but I hadn‘t been focused on The Berry Pickers. I‘m excited to try it!

A small #bookhaul from yesterday's day out with friends.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫/5
A beautifully written story of heartbreak, love, tragedy and family. After reading this debut novel, I‘m definitely looking forward to more from this author.🫐

Loved this read. I‘m on a 5 ⭐️ reading bender. Ruthie is taken as a little girl. Told between Ruthie‘s new life and her real brother Joe this read set in Maine and Nova Scotia is really heart felt. The indigenous berry pickers of the early 70s and the story of your family meaning everything. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

4.5/5 🌟

How does one move forward in life when a sister/child disappears without a trace? This book explores that question and more. It's a poignant and heartbreaking narrative delving into themes of loss, guilt, trauma, secrets and love. A truly worthy read.

I love this cover!
#aBookYouChoseBasedOnTheCover

Such good little quiet debut novel about family, loss, heartbreak, and regret.

Starting my last book of 2023.

What an incredible book! Two families that experience loss, pain, and love that never dies. Not only does this book deal with the main plot point of a kidnapping, but it also delves into the trauma of losing a child, family bonds, indigenous culture, mental illness, and the joys and cruelties of love. This is a powerful story and it was both Norma's/Ruthie's quiet strength and Joe's own troubled life that drew me in.

I loved the premise of this and the ending, while predictable, was affecting. However, I found much of it flat. The writing isn‘t great and too many characters are one-dimensional when there was such rich potential material to mine. It felt like a missed opportunity. Two thumbs up for the cover, though.

Beautifully written and I shed a few tears I have to say. Even though the story holds no surprises as we basically know the outcome from the start I enjoyed it immensely. The ending is a bit too soppy for me and there‘s no real mystery. I would have liked to have had more on the lives and traditions of the Mi‘kmaq people but it‘s a beautiful story that will touch your heart.

A 4 year old goes missing while her family is picking berries. A young girl has dreams of a shadowy figure, a mother but not the one raising her. I read this book quickly. It was engaging and I was interested in where the story was going to go. However it never blew me away. It felt in many ways like combined pieces of stories I have read before, lacking any real tension, perhaps because of the prologue. All the praise had me expecting more.

“A four-year-old Mi'kmaq girl (from Nova Scotia) goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a tragic mystery that haunts the survivors, unravels a community, and remains unsolved for nearly fifty years.” Read it in a day, because it was impossible to stop. I might be emotionally destroyed now. I loved it.

This emotional listen captivated me from start to finish! In 1962, a 4-year-old girl goes missing from the Maine berry fields where her family works for the season. Older by two years brother, Joe, feels guilt throughout his life that he was the last to see Ruthie. His narrative as the guilt compounds the tragedies of his life is balanced by Norma‘s story, where she struggles with dreams & parents that don‘t seem to tell her the truth she craves.

Historical fiction starting in the 1960s and set during the blueberry farming community of Nova Scotia. An Native Indigenous child vanishes, setting off a mystery that will span several decades that will spark themes of racism, classism, xenophobia, and secrets among two groups of families that are affected by the tragedy.

The events of this book are dramatic but the story is calmly told. I was quickly invested in Joe and his younger sister, Ruthie/Norma. I couldn‘t wait to get to end because I needed to know the particulars when Norma finally realized her Nova Scotia roots. I thought this was a very good effort by a first time author.

For my first book of November I inhaled this one. Warning it's an emotional roller-coaster touching on pregnancy loss, child abduction and racism. Still, this story has heart and touches on the complexity of family and how one moment can change so much.

I like the premise: what happens when the youngest child of a Mi‘kmaw family goes missing, and that it‘s told in chapters that alternate between the two youngest siblings. We know from the prologue that they are reunited 50 years later, so there isn‘t suspense in that regard, but there is much drama & tragedy. Unfortunately the writing is so cliché that I found myself skimming sections. Maybe Amanda Peter‘s style will work for you? #CanadianAuthor

I felt irritated by Amanda Peter‘s style throughout her debut novel. ie:
“The room was too small for all the people in it. It smelled slightly of mould, the kind that comes with old houses, houses that hold happiness and grief in the walls. Houses where laughter has been absorbed into the cracks in the plaster and tears have washed the floors many times over.”

Aunt Lindy was Dad‘s older sister by 11 months and she was a fat woman—no other way to say it than that. She hugged me with such strength that I thought I might be sucked into her roundness, but I survived, breathless but alive.