Welcome to Litsy!

#ToBwaiting These are a few titles being talked about for possible inclusion for next March‘s Tournament of Books. We should see the Long List in a couple of weeks.

I do hope Poor Deer is selected- I am enjoying the audiobook. Wild Houses was offered as an Audible freebie (or discount - can‘t recall) so I have it up for a listen soon.

The brother of a drug dealer is kidnapped. That character and the sweet and anxious man who must open his home to the kidnappers, and the girlfriend of the kidnapped man are all characters you root for. While I enjoyed the novel I can‘t say I was fully invested in it even though the Irish small town setting, the characters and the intrigue normally would have kept me focused. I enjoyed the writing though. #bookerlonglist24

#Booker 9/13

Not sure how or why this book ended up on the Booker longlist but I did enjoy it. It‘s a fast paced story about a drugsdeal gone wrong and the consequences for a bunch of interesting characters. I especially loved Dev and Nicky and I loved the ending, especially what it meant to Nicky!

(📷 Dordrecht, Netherlands)

This was a solid pick for me but not sure how it made it onto the longlist. At least it wasn‘t dry and repetitive which seems to be a theme of this year‘s longlist.

Our panel‘s reviews are here https://thereadersroom.org/2024/08/16/booker-longlist-2024-wild-houses-by-colin-...

Booker Prize longlist (13)
Shortlist (6) announcement date, 16 September
You've read any?

You are invited to check out my latest weekly booktube episode:

https://youtu.be/rZEhFePF9jk

It‘s an All-Canadian Friday Reads featuring graphic novels; poetry; nonfiction; SFF; historical fiction; & short stories
#LGBTQ #CanadianAuthors

The first book from the #Booker24 longlist I've read since the list was announced.

Gripping story set in small-town Ireland. I was worried about what was going to happen to the "nice" characters (and hoping for some kind of comeuppance for the awful ones).

After the separation, Dev thought the mother might get rid of the chair, but she did not. Eventually he realised this wasn't out of sentiment. Getting rid of the chair would have been a definitive act, and to someone of his mother's worn-down and inveterately fateful cast of mind, definitive acts were acts of presumption, vulnerable to unforeseen consequences, and therefore reckless. The chair became a kind of protective charm and warning system..

Really wasn‘t expecting to love this book centered around a drug related kidnapping in small town Ireland but I think I did. Sure there are the violent, lackeys out to the money owed to their boss that you would expect in a book like this one but there are also the perspectives of the others that get caught up in it all that make this book anything but typical. The writing is tight and the dialogue smart all in under 300 pages.

A well told story of two small time Mayo crooks, and a few other brilliantly written characters. Engaging from beginning to the very end , with some beautiful writing too. Colin Barrett creates a great sense of place , of small town Ireland. It reads like a thriller, I loved it.

There‘s a lot to like here, some great Irish storytelling about a lives of crime, and crime-adjacent lives. There‘s some cracking dialogue and a rollicking plot. but in the end I wasn‘t really sure what it was saying about the way that crime ripples through lives, or about its characters. Very much a vibe-y novel which is great on that level, but was missing a little depth for me.

#booker #longlist 8/13

I went into this expecting not to like it, based on other reviews and, indeed, it took me a while to get drawn in but soon I was engrossed. Dev lives alone in a remote cottage following the death of his mother, when his dodgy cousins turn up with a teenager in tow, who they‘ve kidnapped to pay off a drug debt.

I can‘t figure out (yet!) if I agree with those who say it isn‘t a Booker book - still mulling it over! 🤔

I was only going to have a look … now I can‘t put it down. It‘s the writing that has caught me.

https://youtu.be/5KGqTmluH50?feature=shared

A dark story about the dead ends of life. Two characters kidnap a teen boy to force his brother to pay a drug dealing debt, stashing him at their loner cousin‘s house. The cousin is a young man who experiences depression and anxiety and is grieving the loss of his mother. The boy‘s girlfriend just wants to escape the town. It‘s a story that doesn‘t offer easy resolutions but brilliantly illustrates the dead ends in some communities.

Engaging, entertaining, & thoughtful. Small town drug dealer Cillian English has pissed off his suppliers, they retaliate by snatching his teenage brother Doll and hiding him away in a country house. The story is elevated by Barrett's choice to frame the telling through the eyes of Nicky, Doll's girlfriend, and Dev, the owner of the house. Both really just want to get through this & be left alone. They give the story a unique and memorable heart.

Two VERY different #TuesdayTunes I keep returning to these days:

Rise - The Frames https://open.spotify.com/track/4mHLZO8iKoHQSkxRVavhC1?si=HCGuoB2URoOMvSbCGwQ5CA

Sorry, Not Sorry - Demi Lovato https://open.spotify.com/track/0yvPEnB032fojLfVluFjUv?si=LYWybnkARFWBNJpJtn3nOg

@TieDyeDude

(Tagged is my current read!)

Beautifully written, impactful literary crime novel about stagnation in a small town in Ireland. This is Barrett‘s debut novel which is getting some deserved buzz in literary circles. My full review is on the blog: www.thereadersroom.org

Loving this book. Also not a spoiler