Welcome to Litsy!

Seasonal Recs! #ihavequestions

Spring: Absent in the Spring by Mary Westmacott/Agatha Christie—It‘s in the title…😁
Summer: Mama Day by Gloria Naylor—major summer vibes: like a powerful, looming summer thunderstorm
Fall: Peace Like a River by Leif Enger—fall vibes, with a journey across the frozen Badlands
Winter: The Historian—I read this in winter in Germany so it‘s forever associated with snowy landscapes (and very effective blackout shutters)

That cover on the right—😂

While traveling back to England, self-satisfied Joan Scudamore is stuck at a remote desert waypoint for several days. She quickly runs out of reading material 😱 and is left alone with her thoughts. The characterization here is masterful. Christie leaves us inside Joan‘s POV but gradually reveals the gap between Joan‘s view of self and the reality of her character. This was excellent—one of my top reads this year.

Joan Scudamore takes a terrifying introspective journey when she is stranded at an Iraqi train station for several days. This capable, conventional British mother is shocked to realize that she has cut herself off emotionally from her family by seeing them only as she wishes them to be. Agatha‘s astute psychological insights and keenly subtle writing make this a tragic masterpiece of re-examined life, akin to Ishiguro‘s Remains of the Day.

This was pretty great, if rather sobering and a bit sad. But very honest and true, even as these qualities are not ones Joan can embrace for herself. Christie's pride in this one is, I think, entirely justified.

#LMWBR #MaryWestmacottBuddyRead #westmakittens

We all know this would be the true horror for Littens!

This was my second reading, and I enjoyed it even more this time. It made me sad (and a bit annoyed) that Joan was never able to grow beyond Miss Gilbey‘s assessment of her.

#LMWBR #westmakittens
#MaryWestmacottBuddyRead

@ruthiella @KathyWheeler @quietjenn @Librarybelle @kspenmoll @BarbaraJean @peanutnine @Roary47 @willaful @batsy

We all know this would be the true horror for Littens!

This was my second reading, and I enjoyed it even more this time. It made me sad (and a bit annoyed) that Joan was never able to grow beyond Miss Gilbey‘s assessment of her.

#LMWBR #westmakittens
#MaryWestmacottBuddyRead

@ruthiella @KathyWheeler @quietjenn @Librarybelle @kspenmoll @BarbaraJean @peanutnine @Roary47 @willaful @batsy

Over the past three weeks, my library hold for this book has gone from “Pending” to “Unknown” to finally “In Transit” a couple of days ago. So I finally started reading it via Internet Archive. I got to chapter 5 just now and found this vodka ad. And on the next page, coffee. ?? 😂

#LMWBR #MaryWestmacottBuddyRead

#LMWBR #MaryWestmacottBuddyRead

She considers what Jesus went through when he spent 40 days in the desert.

At one point, she realizes she has prayed like the Pharisee in Luke 18 - “I thank thee, Lord, that I am not as this woman.” She (temporarily) experiences humility.

The Russian on the train compares her dedication to a “new life” to a saint‘s epiphany. #LMWBR #MaryWestmacottBuddyRead

Hey #westmakittens! I‘m traveling today, so I‘ll post these for discussion even though I might not be able to respond right away.

What did you think of the narrative technique here? I thought it was so interesting to read about Joan‘s life through her eyes while also obliquely perceiving the other characters‘ contradictory viewpoints. #LMWBR #MaryWestmacottBuddyRead

It had been quite easy to fill her life with unimportant trivialities that left her no time for self-knowledge.

If you loved people, you should know about them. You didn‘t know because it was so much easier to believe the pleasant easy things that you would like to be true, and not distress yourself with the things that really were true.
#LMWBR #MaryWestmacottBuddyRead

#MaryWestmacottBuddyRead #LMWBR

A very short read and my favorite of the three Westmacott novels read so far.

A middle aged Englishwoman is stuck in a remote rest house on the Iran/Turkey border as she waits for a delayed train. It‘s just herself and her thoughts for three days and she has a revelation about her life and how she‘s lived it thus far. But will she implement any lessons learned when she returns to her regular, comfortable life?

#Weekendreads

Two buddy reads for #MaryWestmacottBuddyRead #LMWBR and #PemberLittens #HashtagBrigade respectively and one#BlameitonLitsy. Really enjoying all three.

Our November book for the #MaryWestmacottBuddyRead is ABSENT IN THE SPRING! This is the one I‘m most looking forward to reading. Agatha Christie described it as “the one book that has satisfied me completely - the book I always wanted to write.”

Tag me and #LMWBR in your reviews whenever you read it. I‘ll plan to post questions, but I am traveling Nov 18-23 so I may post them before I go.

Today got up to 108 degrees F 🥵! It finally cooled off enough before dinner for me to paint a wall in the backyard and this audiobook kept me company while I applied the first coat.

This isn‘t what I was expecting, but Christie‘s style is all over it. Getting a lot of Hagar Shipley (from The Stone Angel) and Undine Spragg (if she were middle aged and had a conscience, from Custom of the Country) vibes from the MC. Not entirely pleasant 😬

Having pretty much read all of Agatha Christie's novels in my teens and early 20's, I decided to read the novels she penned as Mary Westmacott. This one, Absent in the Spring, is an interesting exploration of this question, "If you'd nothing to think about but yourself for days on end I wonder what you'd find out about yourself." I enjoyed getting lost in Agatha Christie's writing again. Always a great distraction!

I flew through this -- picked it up after work and finished it at 10pm. This was a Shedunnit-inspired purchase and a fascinating read. I'm not surprised that Agatha Christie was proud of this book, it's quite something.

The most wonderful #achristieswapisannounced package from @rubyslippersreads !! I cannot wait to read all the books and also display the gorgeous edition of Miss Marple Stories. Love the tea, bookmark, and pin (“I do not approve of murder”), and the card is 👌. Thank you, thank you! My first order of business after this post is making a cup of Agatha ChrisTea and choosing which book to read first! 👇

For #agathachristielove, some of her books written under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. I've only read the tagged book, but would like to read some of the others. #autumnreads

This book is not at all what I expected. I always heard Agatha Christie's book under a pen name were romances. Either I heard wrong or the definition of romance in the 1940s was totally different. This reads more like I imagine Mad Men or Breaking Bad would in book format...namely, you're not supposed to like the main character, and she was AWFUL.

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