Welcome to Litsy!

Fascinating memoir
No. 17 New York City
#JulyJourneys
@Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

1. This is a beautiful, intimate, and humane love story to the spirit of everyday life in NYC and a moving tribute to the author‘s late partner Oliver Sacks.

2. Although not technically a genre, I love nature writing. Some of my favourite authors include Richard Wagamese, Terry Tempest Williams, and Mary Oliver

3. I read mostly non-fiction so I have so many 😂, Kay Redfield Jamison, Ibram X Kendi, Isabel Wilkerson...

Thanks @Eggs for the tag!

Sneaking in some reading during my lunch break. I am loving this book so far!! I have about devoured this book since it arrived Saturday @IvoryLunatic Great pick @Bookishthoughts #LMPBC #round07

This book is a poem, a lovesong, a serenade, a celebration. Of New York City and of Oliver Sacks. Every sentence in this book feels genuine and intimate. Hayes writes with so much respect about the people who make his city and about the two lovers who made him into the man who wrote this wonderful quiet book.

(Pic: Oregon‘s forests)

Thank you so much, Barbara, for gifting me this book. I‘ve heard it‘s beautiful and I look forward to reading it. This certainly brightens up my day. Thank you, lovely. ❤️
#bookmail #litsymail #litsylove

#summernightcity brings me right back to this favorite book, I don‘t care if it‘s my 5th time posting about it! I stumbled upon it by accident and am so happy I did. This picture is from last year when I was first reading it while living in NYC 🏙
#abbainaugust

I got this to read while on NY. I like the idea of the symmetry. The preview appealed to me on a few levels, but mostly I've been wanting to read books on loss, as it's been popping up in my life. The book didn't deliver for me. It felt a bit self-indulgent, and I found the name-dropping annoying. However, I didn't have much opportunity to read more than a few pages at a time, and that may have contributed to the dissatisfaction I felt reading it.

Ack! I'm not reading! I got a copy of Insomniac City to read while I'm in the city. It sounded like a fun idea at the time, but I haven't had any down time and it doesn't look I will during my remaining time here. 😞

Thanks for posting about this book, @emilyhaldi ! I love books about New York and loved this one.

Since I‘m on an NYC book bender at the moment, let me throw it back to early 2017 when I read this book that is now one of my all time favorites! Hayes‘ writing of his love story with the late Oliver Sacks as well as his love affair with NYC is so real and beautiful ❤️ I recommend it to everyone I can and look forward to re-reading it.

Glad you joined litsy 6 months ago @BarbaraBB and thanks for the giveaway fun!

This book was everything! Life, love and NYC. I stumbled upon it during a sale and it turned out to be one of my favorites reads.

“The most we can do is write — intelligently, creatively, critically, evocatively — about what it is like living in the world at this time.”

Oh, my heart belongs to these incredible words. What a book.

Oh wow.

We dropped our oldest off at the airport today. At 5am. He's off to college halfway across the country. I'm feeling all the feels. But I'm also not much of a morning person. Hubby is making me take a nap. He doesn't need to know that I'm actually having a #LitsyPartyOfOne in here. Shhh.

When a book touches you somewhere deep. And you get to share your love with the author. That's an amazing thing. The book really is exquisite. I'm almost finished, but I don't want it to end. I highly recommend this one.

What a day! I'm a big ball of anxiety! Is it too early to drink? I need cocktails for my #LitsyPartyOfOne By the way, the cover, under the dust jacket of this book, is beautiful. Almost as beautiful as the words inside.

"I feel beautifully comfortable with you."
I'm reading when I should be sleeping. This book is so exquisite, I don't ever want it to end.

Starting a new one. I think I'm going to love it.

#bookmail Because my TBR just isn't big enough.

I will take any opportunity to endorse this book about the brilliant Oliver Sacks' #goldenyears and the trifecta love story between him, Bill Hayes, and NYC ❤️
#junetunz

Such a tender, beautiful, loving book. Told in stories and journal entries, it chronicles Hayes's move to NYC at 48 and his life with Oliver Sacks and Sacks's last days. This book radiates love and life.

Our #WriterCrushWednesday goes out to Bill Hayes for Insomniac City. Hayes gives readers a powerful glimpse into the life of an insomniac in NYC. He explores his own grief and celebration of life using visual snapshots to capture his intimate relationship with neurologist Oliver Sacks, as well powerful street photos of everyday New Yorkers. http://buff.ly/2rfIi1i

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Beautiful!

😊

A book about NYC and Oliver Sacks, two of my favorite things in life. I'm enjoying this one, not rushing because I don't want it to end. I miss Oliver Sacks 😢

Such a special book! This is a beautifully written memoir and authentic love story that I think I will pick up again and again. I tried to read this slowly in an attempt to absorb Hayes' words as well as his inspiring outlook on life. I smiled as I read, even through my tears at the end.

Immediately after finishing I read Gratitude- written by Hayes' partner and referenced in his book - and would recommend them both to anyone ❤

Mildly obsessed with this book already. And it couldn't come at a better time... After taking 3 hours to de-plane, walk a mile to baggage claim, find my bag, wait for a taxi, and drive home through miserable traffic from JFK, it was nice to be reminded of the beauty of living in NYC ❤

If you think it simple, even ordinary, as it is merely a collection of stories, small snippets of people's lives shared, you'd be correct. But, if you were to say it was thought provoking, touching, even extraordinary, you'd also be correct. For, what is more extraordinary than life? Perhaps only our ability to share those experiences. #insomniaccity #billhayes

Some of my friends call me "but girl" (and not just on account of my gigantic derrière). I'd like to think I'm in good company... #butgirl #oliversacks #insomniaccity

My sentiments exactly. 👍🏻❤️

I say I love writing, but really it is thinking I love...

"He was without a doubt the most unusual person I had ever known, and before long I found myself not just falling in love with O; it was something more, something I had never experienced before. I adored him."
**********
Insomniac City: New York, Oliver & Me by Bill Hayes. #billhayes #oliversacks

Find someone who writes about you the way Bill Hayes writes about Oliver Sacks. This is a beautiful book.

Paean seems too strong a word for such a gentle book. Insomniac City is a memoir in search of celebration - which it finds. Little flecks of recollection and adoration for lost beloveds and a city which sleeps restlessly (just like Bill Hayes). Read this and fall in love.

He was without a doubt the most unusual person I had ever known, and before long I found myself not just falling in love with O; it was something more, something I had never experienced before. I adored him.

'On Monday night I stopped by my old apartment... a place I had not visited in several years. I felt such a strange flush of sensations - familiarity mixed with forgotten-ness, if that's a word - something akin to deja vu'

This is the second time in three nights that I've had insomnia. Reviewing my food/drink doesn't show any oddities. I just lay here in bed for hours at a time. I used to get up and read in the living room for a hour or so until I was sleepy. Now, starting hr 3, I finally went & got my cell to check LITSY and faff around until my lorazepam/melatonin/L-Theanine trio kicks in. Thankful I have the morning to sleep. Any advice out there for me, Littens?

This is the second time in three nights that I've had insomnia. Reviewing my food/drink doesn't show any oddities. I just lay here in bed for hours at a time. I used to get up and read in the living room for a hour or so until I was sleepy. Now, starting hr 3, I finally went & got my cell to check LITSY and faff around until my lorazepam/melatonin/L-Theanine trio kicks in. Thankful I have the morning to sleep. Any advice out there for me, Littens?