Welcome to Litsy!

This one was a surprise and yet, I find myself wondering about my preference to know little about plot or theme when I begin a book. I admit, I was getting irritated- extremely irritated- with Isabelle. I still don‘t ‘get‘ her, but then she didn‘t really ‘get‘ herself. Many thoughts, thoughts that aren‘t landing. 🛬
Making a Chocolate 🍫 Pear 🍐 Pie today. #Dec2024 Book113

Starting now. #ToBlongList 🎧🍐

Definitely one of the best books I've read this year. The plot veers into a completely different path than I could have predicted - amazing writing! Reminded me of Trust by Hernan Diaz. Their plots are dissimilar, but the way the story is woven together is so clever.

Oh, this was seriously good! It's a powerful story on a subject I don't recall reading about before. I very much enjoyed the characterisation of Isabel and Eva and, oh my, the tension generated throughout as it becomes clear what is actually going on here. Actually I think it would have been my personal #bookerprize winner, were it not for the generous amount of 🌶️ , which i just don't like.

I completely understand why this book was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. This debut novel is a slow burn, but around 2/3 of the way through it, a twist completely turns the reader's understanding of the characters upside down. This book is intimate and sensual and gives a new sweeping perspective on the effects of WWII after the fighting ended. This debut novel deserves all of the accolades.

I saw that this was on the Booker Prize list and just grabbed it without really knowing anything about it, which turned out to be a great thing. This took a minute to get rolling, but then I could not put it down. There‘s so much tension that drives the story - I was just really invested to see where it was headed. The relationships are complex and interesting and the novel takes a few surprising turns. A marvelous debut.

#BookReport

I continued Sovereign #ShardlakeBR

I read Dyr som er verre foreldre enn deg (trans. Animals that are Worse Patents than You) and The Safekeep

I‘m almost done with The Swifts: A Gallery of Rogues

I‘m reusing last week‘s picture since The Safekeep has been returned to the library, so I didn‘t get to Orbital, but hopefully later today

The Netherlands 1961, 3 siblings. The oldest Louis changes girlfriends all the time. Isabel living alone in the family home. The youngest Hendrik lives with a man

After meeting Louis latest girlfriend, Louis suddenly tales Isabel that Eva will be staying in the family home while he‘s away. Isabel doesn‘t approve of this plan

A book about the consequences of war, memory and the truth

This book pulled me in and wouldn‘t let go until I finished it

So glad I prioritized The Safekeep as one of my #10BeforeTheEnd because it might be one of my top reads of the year, I really loved it.

2 down, 8 to go. Got to pick it up!

Oh my goodness. This is fantastic. I don't read many books around WWII and I am glad this one is written by a Jewish author, between that and the hype around the Booker I knew this would be a solid read but it was so much more. The tension and the evolution of the characters and story are masterfully done.
I am going to be thinking about this for a very long time.

#WeeklyForecast

Continue Sovereign #ShardlakeBR

I want to start Dyr som er verre foreldre enn deg (trans. Animals that are Worse Parents than You)

I want to read The Safekeep and The Swifts: A Gallery of Rogues

Maybe I can even get a start on Orbital

This may be my favourite of the booker shortlist so far (3 read) and was an intricate story of two women in 1961 Netherlands. Isabel lives on her own in the house her family moved into during the war, but her life is impacted when her older br leaves his girlfriend staying there while he works away. Ava is a dizzy, vibrant woman who grates on isabel. As the plot reveals itself as a reader, I was absorbed and ultimately moved by what was revealed

This might be my second-favorite novel on the Booker Prize shortlist so far (I still have one more to go). The style and the slow evolution of intense emotions really work for me, and the audiobook narration fits the content very well.

Unpopular opinion 😏

I appreciated the unconventional mystery plot device, but the writing style wasn‘t for me. Too many words to the point of repetition & overwrought emotion. At times I was thinking “get on with it already”…..It reinforces my admiration for the power of effective spare writing.

As opposed to The Birthday Party which was MADDENING in thrilling anticipation of the climax, being akin to a movie in slow motion. 😵 👍🏾

It‘s rare that multiple times within a book I think that it‘s not what I expected. And that‘s what happened here, in the best way. I liked how I learned different things as I moved through the story. And while there is brief explicit sex, I‘m a little surprised anyone has mentioned it, as I‘m not a fan of explicit sex in books, but it serves the story so well here that I works. (I wonder if it‘s the type of sex that is a problem for some.)

So I wasn‘t sure about this story and several times almost stopped reading it. BUT for some unknown reason I kept reading it. I‘m so glad I did. What a beautiful but chilling story.

https://youtu.be/7YtuMpg5BE4?si=h4RJavp0F3eFXIcv

Introduction

Mystery guest

Weekly highlights

The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence

The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden

Ivy's Tree by Wendy Burton

Animal Person by Alexander MacLeod

#WeeklyFavorite

@Read4life

I have spent some time trying to figure out why I loved this less than everyone else seems to and haven‘t come to much of a conclusion. I liked the beginning with all of its fraught anxiety much more than I did the part after the revelation in the third act (which was not really much of a surprise). I liked it but I expected it be my new favorite from the Booker shortlist and it didn‘t live up to that for me. Still a pick.

This book blew my mind! So incredibly good. ♥️ The unexpected turns, the almost unbearable tension at times, the sheer beauty of the story. I haven‘t read the full shortlist but would be very pleased to see this book take the prize.

.

I was convinced James would win the Booker. Then I read this....

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

Thanks for the tag! @Mitch

1. The tagged book will be on my favourite list for 2024 as well as just for August.

2. I prefer paper books, but read all three types - they all have their place!

3. Probably literary fiction.

#wondrouswednesday

Booker Shortlist is here! Who's got thoughts?

I'm so happy to see The Safekeep here, as soon as deWaal started talking about it I knew which book he was talking about and cheered!

I bailed on Orbital and Creation Lake, so of course they're both here. Maybe I'll try them again. And maybe I'll finally give held a shot.

James was expected.

Stone Yard Devotional I need to order from Blackwells because who knows when it's coming out in Canada.

So, I liked Isabel. I liked how every other character revealed themselves responding to her challenging chilled persona. I didn‘t mind the sex. But i didn‘t like the gimmick. So, again, so-so.

#booker #booker2024 #longlist

#BookerPrize

The first third was fine but I wasn‘t convinced that it would turn into something remarkable. Glad I stuck with it because it surprised me. I won‘t say more except read it.

That makes 6 read with 2 started and paused. I‘ll go back to them if they get shortlisted. Waiting on Wild Houses hold and my copy of Stone Yard to arrive. Didn‘t get as far into the longlist as I wanted but looking forward to tomorrow‘s announcement.

I have a theory that readers from continental Europe, unless they are quite young, clock the plot twist/part 3 reveal already in the first chapter. But I quite enjoyed it even though I spent the first half of the book frustrated with the MC. 😂 She was a thoroughly unlikeable character, and I loved getting to know why she was that way. Unlike some, I really liked the ending. I hope this gets shortlisted.
#Booker

I‘ve read nine #Booker books so far and I am not really motivated to read the ones I haven‘t yet. Yet if they make the shortlist on Monday I probably will nevertheless.

For now I hope the shortlist will match my personal one, which is:
1 The Safekeep
2 Stone Yard Devotional
3 My Friends
4 James
5 Wild Houses
6 Held

What can I say that hasn‘t already been said about this book. A 5 star read. I don‘t want to say too much as the unfolding story is worth the privacy of its telling. A taut story of Isabel, a cranky woman living alone in her family home, a sudden change in the home, and a revelation. This is not a mystery. It‘s a story of desire. It‘s a story of home. It‘s a story of what is taken away from you. A great debut. #bookerlonglist

Remember to keep space on your bookshelves for cats to snuggle.

I finished Creation Lake yesterday (was mixed) and I started this today. #booker #booker2024 #longlist

Wow. The first two parts were good, but then it turned into so much more, and had me thumbing through the first two parts to read the story with this new information. Best to go into this knowing as little as possible, but if you start it and don‘t get it, stick with it! This is my 3rd of the #Booker Longlist, and so far I‘ve really liked them all (James, My Friends). Pictured with the gorgeous endpapers, which I love, in part b/c of the story.

In addition to the five greatly anticipated books I recently received from the library, three more came off the hold list and into my grabby little hands. I‘m delighted!

#Bookerlonglist

What a beautifully written, sensual story.

For a book that deals poetically with such emotive material, I didn't find it overbearingly saccharine or contrived. The writing just flowed off the page & slowly took root in my heart.

The less you know going in, the more impact the story will have. Slowly, inexorably we watch things unravel. So much feeling crammed into so few pages. I hope The Safekeep makes the Booker shortlist at the very least.

What a debut! So very good. I‘d be happy to see this make the #Booker2024 shortlist.

Was it just really breezy today or was The Safekeep giving me goosepimples 😭😭😭

Update: wow. This post looks like CHECK OUT MY BLOTCHY ARM. But I'm leaving it here because THIS BOOK.

That's the camera, not a rash 🤣🤣

The Safekeep was a bit of a slow burn for me. It‘s beginning as a story of a house, and an awkward family dynamic was almost too traditional for me. Once I dug into it a bit further and it really got going, it grew for me into an interesting story about possession, dispossession, and repression. While initially it felt like a character study, when it moved beyond this to a more thematically led story it shone brighter.

Started this one.

There's no way I'll make it through even half of the #bookerlonglist but I've bought a few to be getting on with.

Plus iced coffee. Because this is my fuel.

The best of the #Booker longlist so far. I loved the nuanced characters, the historical setting, the central romance. It was heartbreaking and at times a little predictable, but I really recommend it.

After her mother‘s death,Isabel lives alone in a house her family moved to during the war.Her brother Louis is the one who will eventually inherit the house, her brother Hendrik is gay & in a relationship.When Louis leaves his new girlfriend,Eva,in the house with Isabel while he‘s away on a work assignment, the house,once an enclosed space Isabel felt trapped in,& Isabel‘s life change. Well written debut!

The first book I completed at our cabin in the woods and it blew me away. I am astounded that this is a debut. The tension builds and wanes throughout the story in an absolutely masterful pacing. Issues of love, lust, and human connection are played off of those of truth and reconciliation with a deft touch. This is one that I couldn't put down and will stay with me for a long time. Easily one of the best I've read this year!

Post-war Overijssel, the Netherlands. Reconstruction and recovery in full swing, memories of the Holocaust hidden as much as possible.

Isabel lives alone in her deceased mother's house, where everything moves along quietly until her brother Louis shows up with his girlfriend Eva to spend the summer with her.

I think I‘ve found my #booker winner. I‘ve read only 5 so far but it will be hard for the others to beat this one. What a book ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I thought this was brilliant. Set in 1961.
Described as “ A world as carefully calibrated as a Dutch still life “
I loved it. I‘m saying no more because the less you know going into it the better , this was one reviewer‘s advice and I‘m so glad I took it.

#bookerlonglist 10/13

Loved this - it‘s up there at the top of my list with Stone Yard Devotional. I don‘t want to talk too much about the plot - you need to read it for yourself. I had a little inkling partway through but the denouement was still devastating.

Isabel lives a friendless, neurotic life alone in her family house in The Netherlands in the 1960s, until her brother‘s new girlfriend comes to stay while he is away, upending her life.

Started this one from the #BookerLonglist this morning, and I'm immediately drawn into the story. So intrigued by Isabel!

Wonderful start to the 2024 #Bookerlonglist . Rich tale of how we begin to reconcile with the holocaust. Set in the early '60s in the Netherlands. This novel also explores what it means to be gay. Highly recommend. 4.5 🌟

Wow - how is this a debut! Fantastic story telling, amazing working and characters that will live with me for a long time. The best I‘ve ever read on intimacy, complexity of character and what it means to be a woman. Add to that trauma, historical legacies and the power of memory and place and you‘ve got a cracking novel.

A perfect evening: book, snack, and seltzer.

This is one of the most well-crafted books I‘ve read in a long time! Loved how the author kept me on my toes with anticipation.

The narration can sometimes be slow-burn, which sometimes annoys me in other books but this was done perfectly.

There are some very spicy scenes on this book, so if this is not your jam, please take note.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Pub Date: 5/28/24

#NetGalley