Welcome to Litsy!

Catching up on posting! I've had this ARC, from my days as a bookstore owner, for something like 15 years. My husband read it back then and recommended it, but I only just now got to it. It's fantastic. So atmospheric and nice and long.

Oooo, so dark and creepy! It starts off cozy and then turns on you. A very disturbing read that has many possible interpretations.

#BookSpin #BacklistReadathon #10BeforeTheEnd Number 3

I was a little intimidated by this but was immediately engrossed. Might help that it was inspired by one of my favorite books (though not a retelling, I don't think.)

#10BeforeTheEnd #BookSpin

A poor village boy became enchanted with Hundreds Hall. When as a doctor, he‘s called there to help a sick servant Betty, she tells him there‘s something not quite right in the house. And from there the strange occurrences begin and proliferate. And does Doctor Faraday, the ever rational guest, have any role in it? This is a very slow burn, made wonderfully bearable by the most brilliant narrator. Don‘t read it for the scares. There aren‘t any. ⬇️

I enjoyed this. A part of me expected a bit more to tie it all together, but it was well written, despite being very slow paced. If you‘re expecting *scary*, this isn‘t for you, though. #AuthorAMonth

About halfway thru with this chunkster and the low rating of it on here baffles me. Is the pace slow? Yes. But the writing has sucked me in. I can‘t wait to see where the rest takes me. #AuthorAMonth

I‘m loving the narrator. Perfect for this book. I could listen to him read the classified pages. #authoramonth @Soubhiville

My next audiobook for #authoramonth @Soubhiville

Too long and with glacially slow pacing but I was still caught up in this post war tale of a doctor who becomes involved with the family living in a crumbling house whom his mother once worked for. As he grows more entangled in their lives, sinister things seem to be occurring . Is the house haunted or is something else afoot? This is more than a spooky house story with its examinations of changing class structures which I enjoyed.
#authoramonth

Next up! #AuthorAMonth pick! First time reading Sarah Waters…

Very fun picking this one up here at Waterstone‘s in Reading England for #authoramonth next month. @Soubhiville

🤪 I borrowed this audio only to realize I had already listened to it once before. Oh well, it was still fun since it had been a while.

I recommend it for the spooky fall season! 👻

Set in Warwickshire after WW2,a working turned middle class doctor in his 40s befriends an impoverished upper class family,hanging on to their crumbling manor,its splendor dying because they no longer can maintain the estate.The first half was a pick for me,it read like Jane Eyre meets Great Gadsby with a twist of its own.Unfortunately,it derails into something else,the ghost wasn‘t creepy but silly.Madness&hinting at another possible explanation

This had been sitting on my shelf for far too long. I thoroughly enjoyed getting caught up in this story of a crumbling manor house and its equally crumbling aristocratic family. A clever and spooky book, that is possibly a little long unless, like me, you enjoy hanging about in creepy old houses. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I enjoyed this #Roll100 pick for May.

A dr begins to spend time at an old stately home, in order to treat one of the residents. The family begin to experience strange things in the house, which continue to escalate.

The novel itself is quite slow, and from the perspective of the dr. I enjoyed it but disliked the dr (maybe because of the time it is set, but I found him to be an entitled ass). Also wasn‘t happy with the dog aspect of the story!

#Roll100 for May

I am getting some seriously old TBR books off my pile with this (she says while still not having finished/really started Apr…) ☺️

#Movie2BookRecs @klou
Prompt: Poltergeist

The tagged book has been on my tbr pile forEVER, so 🎉.
@TheAromaofBooks

#Movie2BookRecs @klou
Prompt: Mama

THANK GOD... a crumbling English Manor house has eccentric residents that a local doctor is obsessed with. Deaths occur, they may or may not be supernatural. That's all. All I got was 16 hours older. 👎

Been slogging through this during the workday. It's a little Grey Gardens but slow and rambling... it's not awful but s-l-o-w 🐌

Through the eyes of a country doctor, this post-WWII story details the collapse of a beautiful manse due to time, a changing economic landscape (down with the landed gentry!) and most insidiously, a ghostly blight. Despite a long, untethered plot, the “ghost” stood out: sometimes the most malicious things out there are nothing but incarnations of our darkest, most possessive wishes. Background record: “Once Upon a Dream” by The Rascals.

The word that describes this book for me is unsatisfying. It was far far FAR too long, a meandering story that just never turns into anything particularly interesting, not even at the end.

#lmpbc finished and being sent off tomorrow.

Michigan is getting hit with lots of snow, and we are loving every second. But it‘s throwing off my shipping schedule.
Valentines Swap will be mailed out tomorrow! I received yours yesterday ☺️ @BookwormAHN
Trying to finish my way through the #lmpbc picks for this month, and will hopefully have those shipped Monday at the latest!

Still, nice sleeve cover, also.

I think, I grabbed this book from a book thrift years ago because I found the blurb on the back interesting.

I‘m sure it took me too long to pick it up since then . I‘m pretty sure that my bookish interests have shifted in the meantime. 🤷🏽‍♀️ Sorry, not sorry.

I like the hard book cover. 😍 But I dislike the book. I scarcely made 100 pages and since I began reading, I kept asking myself if there finally will be something happening. It‘s just boring story telling for me. 🙄 (Insofar as I want to grant the book something like a plot, a story.)

I didn‘t like how disrespectful the men talked about Caroline, either, and found myself less and less interested in the characters and the plot.

So: Time to bail.

“A clever boy like you should know better" [...].
I had to listen to such remarks from adults all the time when I was a child. [...] They put me in a helpless, silent rage every time, because on the one hand I was desperate to live up to my reputation of being a clever boy, on the other hand it seemed very unfair to me that this intelligence I had never asked for was suddenly being used to reprimand me.” (page 10)

⬆️⬆️⬆️ I so much feel him.

Finished Little Stranger. I thought the beginning & end were strong, but the middle a bit of a drag. Overall, a definite pick. Won‘t say more as this is an #LMPBC book … and I‘ve sent it on to you @carlthecattt !

Started reading Leave the World Behind.. about 1/3 in and very intrigued! I see it doesn‘t have a lot of Goodreads love, so also curious about that 😁

And THANK YOU @Chrissyreadit for this very cool name display!! I love it! ♥️♥️♥️

Yay, received my #lmpbc #groupw package from @mklong - thank you! I love this cover 🤩 And can‘t wait to read it! 👏🏽👏🏽

Just released our episode on Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger. Pictured is Peter, who lost a bet with yours truly, and now has to wear a moustache for a week. I think he should keep it.

https://open.spotify.com/show/6A6hXZ7eaOG7BtHOSJpCTI

I think I received your gift Jessie and I am SO happy with it! I love Sarah Waters and I‘ve heard the best things about this specific one. Thank you so much!! ❤️❤️

Waters is just incredible. This leisurely paced gothic teases out its mystery until the end, & even then I left book club w/a totally different understanding from my own reading: SO COOL. Intricately wrapped up in this is the politics of a changing England, with preoccupations of class and upward mobility. I thought it was claustrophobic, fatalistic, and creepy. As a book club pick: A bit long to read in a month but the conversation was great.

This book did subtle menace & creepy in all the ways that hit right. Families, burdens, responsibilities, class difference, property, & what Karl Marx said: "The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living". I took as long as I did to read this because while the book is very good, it's also deeply unnerving & uncomfortable in how it brings to light the aspects of human nature that transcend the empirical.

Loved love loved it! Thanks again @Avanders for gifting this one to me. It was a great source of creepy that really fit the season!

#FallTBR
#IPromiseToRead
@AkashaVampie

I'm about a 100 pages in and there's already been a pretty unnerving scene that kind of hits you out of nowhere. There's a bit of that subtle menace underlying everything but it still made me feel 😰

Sarah Waters knows how to set a scene...

Capping off spooky season with this read, which has been on my TBR for years. Home with the kids right now, since two of them have COVID (😓). Not very serious, thank goodness, but it does mean a lot of togetherness time. This is a nice read during their rest time.

@Avanders I am started this yesterday (so far its been hard to do my school work because I don't want to put it down!) Anyway, thank you again for being so amazing!

#FallTBR
#IPromiseToRead
@AkashaVampie

What do y‘all think of these options for our winter spook fest #LMPBC round?

Looking for a creepy book to read for our October book club.

Family bookclub pick for October. I‘ve owned this book for many years so I‘m glad to finally have a push to read it.

Great atmospheric thriller/mystery/horror? Think Haunting of Hill House, or Mexican Gothic… I rly enjoyed it! I love Sarah Waters in general so there you go.

Thank you @Avanders for the lovely #CBBC package *I already ate the macaroons!!! Also, I needed some chapstick for work! So now I have a ton to choose from and the coffee smells great! I can't wait to start the #CBBC book (and eventually I will get to this lovely book you gifted me) thanks again!!!

I grabbed this audiobook on impulse when I saw that a friend had started reading it. It‘s a pretty solid ghost story that incorporates the rise of industrialization and the fall of the aristocracy, but it remains vague about the haunting itself. I prefer ghost stories where we get to see the ghost at some point, or figure out how it came to be there, but we never get that here. But of course, it‘s still very well written and well narrated ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was a great #bookspin pick for October. Waters is quickly climbing the list of my favorite authors. I love how quickly she can set a scene and draw you right into it. A family living in falling down post-war British estate is haunted by a ghost or is it all in their heads? Or is it something even more sinister? Waters keeps you guessing til the very end.

Ooofff, an excellent read that doesn't so much deliver scares but an atmosphere dripping with dread and foreboding. It takes a while to get to the 'spooky' stuff, but once it begins the book doesn't lose focus. If you prefer your ghost stories to be subtly over screams, this is for you.

Recommended for fans of Michelle Paver, M R James and Elizabeth Kostova.

Thanks @Hufflepuffle for everything in my #litsylovefallswap - I seriously ❤ everything & can't wait to start the books! @rsteve388 @Bookgoil

481pts @Clwojick #teamslaughter #scarathlon2020

Ooo with a quote like this how could you not stack this one!?

#MonsterSheWrote , #GothicWomen #ReadingWithTBRCrew @jb72

🎧 This isn‘t your Shirley Jackson or Stephen King-like haunted house story. It‘s more like a slow burn Victorian gothic-ish creepy tale involving possible ghosts in a malevolent house. I liked it well enough to keep listening and by the last third I was on the edge of my seat! Interesting & atmospheric. This is a pick due to the last half of the book really grabbing my interest! ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/4