Welcome to Litsy!

I can see the value in this book, but at 25% I was still not connecting and decided to give up.

This was my third try with this book. I tried e-book, but found the sort of stream of consciousness style didn't work with the format, so I switched to a physical book. But the timing of it didn't work and I couldn't focus. So I went audio, and it was worth all the perseverance!

I felt so much for Soldier. Her rage and loneliness, helplessness, doubt, and her love for Sailor are so raw and visceral and so very real.

cont'd

"Husband," I bayed at the bay window. You thought wolves were extinct in this land? I thought so, too. The sea is not glittering, and the mothers are not serene, and the wolves were never more alive than they are tonight. They are volatile, they are vengeful, and you have summoned them to your door.

"This was freelance motherhood. Struggling to contain your screams, while struggling to contain my own. Which were louder, and angrier, and scared us both."

Jesus, this one is raw. Don't read it if you are in the midst of post-partum haze. I think it would have destroyed me at the time.

Oof, this book is brutal! Its portrayal of a woman wrecked by motherhood (or rather by sleep deprivation, post-natal depression, and the lack of a support network) was relentless but, honestly, it didn't strike me as over-played. I'm relieved it wasn't longer, though!

The timing of my reading this is... notable: my one-and-only has her birthday next week.

Oof! This book is raw, painful, evocative, and relatable. If you have been a sleep deprived mom without the necessary help and backup require to survive, never mind thrive, you will likely relate to this book. I wish every set of new parents would read this and, honestly, experienced parents too. Check the content warnings, this may upsetting to some. #BookspinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

Brutal honest portrait of early motherhood. At times, it was uncomfortable to read. Beautifully written. 4 🌟

https://youtu.be/V0WlPIUyvVE?feature=shared

#janeaustenjuly

Introduction

Patreon news

Mystery guest

Week in Review

Soldier Sailor by Claire Kilroy

Blessings by Chukwuebuka Ibeh

This was a Goodreads giveaway and I‘m glad I didn‘t buy it because it‘s just okay. On the one hand Kilroy does some necessary truth telling about mothering, but on the other it‘s OVER THE TOP ALL THE TIME. (Just like those capital letters.) Constant overwrought isn‘t my favorite jam flavor.

“To him I was yet another clumsy housewife who couldn‘t keep up with him. I know because I used to think that way too. I used to be a dick. There‘s a spectrum. I was on it.” 😆

MC‘s reflection on being in the grocery checkout with a baby having a tantrum.

Photo is completely unrelated. A MN nature photographer had the amazing fortune of capturing a photo of a rare leucistic loon. He‘s not revealing the location. 🫶🏽

Oooooof I read the first 16 pages waiting at the salon and there are loads of heavy feelings in this one. I can tell it is going to be a raw examination of the self, motherhood & marriage.

This hugely anxiety-producing book sees a woman unraveling as she navigates motherhood of a toddler with not only zero help from her husband but him making things even harder for her. It‘s very well done and reaffirmed my desire to never have children. (If you‘re thinking of having kids and want to be talked out of it, this will be a big help!)

This was not a book for me. I in general do not love books on motherhood (not being a mom myself). But I know some women who have had similar painful first years with their children and useless husbands. As always I want to know where her community is? She has no friends or family to help? This is such a terrible reality for so many women, it was painful to read here.
#womensprizeforfiction #shoetlist
👇

Setting up my exercise bike to ride towards my TBR corner.
Motivation or Foreboding?

An exaggerated portrait of the dark side of new motherhood. It had an archetypal feel to it that didn‘t always resonate with me - a soft pick.

Holy. Moly. Exhausting, maddening, visceral, raw. Absolutely astonishing.

Oh Sailor, I thought, the little size of you. This is what it feels like when everything goes wrong, and by your own hand. When you are caught, cornered, the one to blame, when you discover something in your nature that you did not know was there and which you do not like. Confusion, shame, resentment, regret: it's my area. Don't panic. Sit tight. I can help you with this.

'Hello,' I replied but didn't know what to add nor how to pitch it because she was three and I hadn't gotten to that page in childrearing yet. 'We're not supposed to praise little girls for their looks any more,' I told my friend, 'but for their brains, and my God but your daughter is clever. Such clever hair, such clever eyes.' She really was a beauty, that child.

'Gets it from her mother, obviously.'

I ducked around a corner. Look, Mama's going round the bend! I wanted to tell you, but oh, oh. What struck me as the starkest contradiction of all was that, having navigated this much of life the volatility of youth, of love and loss, the agony and the ecstasy - the closest I had come to losing my mind was during the period known as settling down.

I had listened to him on the other side of that door snoring away in the box room, those snug, contented snores I used to find endearing, the two of us tucked up together in the same bed on a cold night, except we were no longer in the same room. And soon we would no longer be under the same roof, nor even under the same stars. I could not get my head around it: how could my husband sleep under the circumstances?

A woman is taking care of her baby. In her eyes, her husband is never home, but always in the office. So she is left with “just” taking care of the baby and house 24/7. A grim portrait of the early days of motherhood.

‘I get just two days off, you know?‘ my husband was complaining. ‘I get just two days off a week and I have to waste one of them in IKEA?‘
‘Two whole days? I haven‘t had a day off since he was born. Unless we count the time I was hospitalised with pneumonia. And then you got your mother in.‘

‘Our marriage. Where is it going?‘
‘What do you mean? I just got a promotion.‘
‘How could you not get a promotion?‘
‘You mean congratulations?‘
‘No, I mean, how could you not get a promotion when you‘re always in the office? You‘ve a wife who does all the cooking, cleaning and child-rearing. She pairs your socks, she books your dental appointments . She sorts out all this shit,‘ I said, tapping the tax and insurance discs displayed on the

A powerful evocation of the raw emotions of early motherhood. As the narrator talks to her toddler 'sailor', she describes with brutal honesty the contradiction of loving this new person so much you would kill for them but also run away. The loss of individuality is powerfully expressed, while the device of an old friend brings hope but also realisation that you can't go back. A brilliant piece of writing, tough, funny, heartbreaking. ⬇️

An only very slightly exaggerated portrayal of life with an infant. (Her husband was almost unbelievably useless, and she was definitely enabling his behaviour in the worst way.) Emotionally intense, funny in places. Entirely accurate about the equal parts love and terror involved in having a child.

#WomensPrize #WomensPrize2024

The narrator doesn‘t recognize herself in the woman‘s she used to be before she became a fulltime mother. It drives her mad but she‘s also madly in love with her little son Sailor. Her husband is worthless, doing nothing to share the responsibilities for their baby, he is just working and living his life. And loving her. But is it enough?

A very recognizable read about the struggles and blessings of motherhood. #womenprize

I remember this feeling so well! #motherhood

The MC talks to her young child as she struggles through the change in her life since giving birth to him, along with coping with a seemingly absent husband who prefers to work long hours.

I don‘t have kids so can‘t speak to the veracity of this novel but I certainly found the MC‘s stream of consciousness thoughts really stressful to read, but incredibly compelling.

Another great read from the #womensprize long list.

Oh wow - what a real story about how hard motherhood is. And how lonely. The gendered differences are interestingly depicted - in the husband and the friend. Ultimately makes you really appreciate your mom!