Welcome to Litsy!

Such an interesting concept, but I'm still trying to wrap my head around some of it. If Cloud Atlas was Asian and more linear (or backwards linear??).

A few really good ones, a lot of good ones, and a few disappointments. I read all three of my February #aardvark choices in the month of February! 🎉🎉

I loved both my #bookspin and #doublespin this month. Summerwater has rightfully received a lot of love here. Shanghailanders also in that novel-in-stories vibe with the story of a Chinese/Japanese parents with three daughters living in Shanghai after the parents met as young adults in Paris. The story is told in reverse chronological order. I don‘t think that plot device added anything, but the novel was still great! Life update ⬇️

This one starts in 2040 and works backwards to 2014! #aboutabook #setinfuture

@Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

This powerful novel opens in Shanghai in 2040 and moves backward in time, revealing moments in the lives of the Yang family: Leo, a wealthy structural engineer and Shanghai native; his wife Eko, born in Japan and raised in Paris; their three daughters, Yumi, Yuko and Kiko; and glimpses of the staff whose lives are temporarily interwoven with theirs. Fascinating, beautifully written, and deeply tragic.

Someday I‘m going to choose a #NetGalley I actually like again. This is not that day. The writing isn‘t bad but I couldn‘t get engaged with these ultra rich characters who do reprehensible things in a weirdly casual and unremarkable way. Told in reverse chronology, this should have been interesting but instead turned out to be a pet peeve of mine: a bunch of short stories that threw on a trench coat to pretend to be a novel. #bookspin for May.

This debut is a hard one for me to rate. Centering around the seemingly perfect, wealthy Shanghai Lang family of 5 (parents Leo and Eko; daughters Yumi, Yoko and Kiko) and the high and low points in their lives (both personally and as a group). The story is told in a regressive timeline (2040-2014) and includes snippets from each family member‘s life. It‘s a story about marriage, about parenting, about siblings and about those people who come 🔻