Welcome to Litsy!

There were a couple of contenders for best June book. It is one of those times where today‘s best is the tagged but tomorrow‘s might be either Lamentations by C J Sansom or The Wreath the first book in the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy.

@TheEllieMo

#Top25Of25 Part 3 of 4

These last days of the year I am@sharing my 25 favorite books of the year.

Today I share the 4 books I rated with 4.75 ⭐️

Yesterday and the day before I showed my 4.5⭐️ and 4.25⭐️ rated books.
Tomorrow I‘ll share the four 5⭐️ books I read in 2025.

I enjoyed this one so much, partly because my time in Berkeley overlapped a little with the characters; they‘re a few years younger than I am.
There‘s a Spotify playlist of the songs featured in the book and that‘s always fun.

This snappy debut moves quickly— spanning more years than I expected given its less than 300 page count. Percy meets Joey & Zoe (who like Bowie) in her sophomore year of college & her relationship with the couple—both together & apart forever changes her life. Plenty of will-they/won‘t-they tension, musical banter & strong nostalgia that got songs stuck in my head without more than a track title, this is fun, but a bit too brief! I wanted more!

An enjoyable listen (mostly listened, did have the physical book as well) which is a love story infused with music. Percy and Joe meet in college. He‘s a musician, she has a deep appreciation of music. She helps him with his songwriting and they form a bond. Life and circumstances create distances over time. Will they reconnect? Tons of musical references. Side note: #nofilter on this freaking AMAZING blue sky and gorgeous day.

Every once in awhile you read a book that feels like it was written for you. This book brought me back to twenties self in such a powerful way. Long passionate talks about music while trying to figure out everything else.. I can see how many people might find this a basic love story but for me it felt like revisiting my younger heart.

#WeeklyFavorites

It‘s been a great reading month. All of these were good but the tagged one took me in completely and I am still thinking about it. No high class literature but I loved it. The right book at the right time!

I understand that this book is not for everyone but I LOVED it: music and lyrics and a lovestory to die for 😉!
The storyline comes close to the daydreams of a younger me: he a lead singer and she criticizing and improving his songs.
I loved the smart dialogues, the deep dive into real songs, the setting in time and the choices Percy and Joey make. I had the best of times being in their company. #14books14weeks book 7

📸 Pride Amsterdam

⭐️⭐️⭐️

As a proud Elder Millennial, some of the tracks really took me back: Total Hate 95, Never is a Promise, etc. But the story itself unfortunately didn‘t grab me.

I could NOT put this one down. A “will they/won‘t they” love story spanning the 00s New York and San Francisco college and music scenes, it quickly stole my heart (despite - or because of? - the deep-dive music-nerd parts). Imagine Normal People / One Day / Daisy Jones & The Six with a kind of music-nerd version of Lee from Curtis Sittenfeld‘s Prep as the self-absorbed main character. I loved it deeply.

I have mixed feelings here. This is a low pick. I greatly enjoy stories that incorporate music, such as this and “Love is a Mixed Tape.” Im familiar with most of the music mentioned and locations in part of the book. I liked listing the artists and bands. It just didn‘t seem to go deep enough for me. There‘s a film of this being made.

Part 4 -Last one.

-Yeah Yeah Yeahs
- Wilson Pickett
-Solomon Burke
-Queen
-Siouxsie and the Banshees
-Rilo Kiley
-Curlers
-Joan Armatrading
-Van Halen
-Bon Jovi
-Joy Division
-Karen O
-Tv on the Radio
-Johnny Cash
-Limp Bizkit
-Arcade Fire
-Norah Jones
-The Decemberists
-Girl Talk
-Beach House
-The Knife
-The Counting Crows
-The Pretenders

End

Part 3

-The Doors
-Blonde On Blonde
-Erykah Badu
-Interpol
-Sam Cooke
-Carole King
- Run DMC
- Neko Case
-Flaming Lips
-Cat Power
-Billie Holiday
-Leonard Cohen
-Janis Joplin
-Tori Amos
-Graham Nash
-Cat Stevens
-Carly Simon
-Sam Cooke
-Lou Rawls
-Beyoncé
-N.E.R.D.
-OutKast
-PJ Harvey
-The Eagles
-Kate Bush
-Joanna Newsome
-Amy Winehouse
-Michael Bolton
-Belle And Sebastian
-The Strokes
-Cole Porter
-Pulp
-Erasure
-Orange Juice

My feelings on this one are complicated and still a bit muddled. While overall I really enjoyed reading it, and deep diving into a lot of the music talked about, a lot of the time I just really didn't love Percy and Joe themselves. Percy's college age/post college self absorption was often grating, but it did feel very genuine, and there was just enough self awareness (and side characters willing to call her out on her BS) to shake it off. cont'd

"I was wearing the plain black T-shirt and skinny jeans that I had started wearing every day and would wear some version of for the next several years, having decided that my bangs could do the heavy lifting in signifying the existence of a personality."

First holiday read finished in beautiful 🤩 Croatia 🇭🇷 overlooking the 20 minutes of water to stunning 🤩 Dubrovnik where GOTs was filmed , loved those books 📚 back in the day. I enjoyed deep cuts wouldn‘t say I loved it but enjoyed the angst and frustration and misunderstandings of love , more of a love story to music 🎶 than daisy jones & six to which it‘s compared,a short read & a good one, looking forward to the film with Austin butler

Part 2

I‘m listing all musicians and bands mentioned. I thought I lost this book out in the wild. It turns out it fell behind the sofa.

-TLC
-Bob Dylan
-Billy Joel
-Buddy Holly
-Jimmy Cliff
-Lou Reed
-The Magnetic Fields
-Yo La Tengo
-Modest Mouse
-Nick Lowe
-The Shins
-Stevie Nicks
-Nina Simone
-Fiona Apple
-Pete Seeger
-Neil Young
-Pavement
-Radiohead

“I let myself be cocooned in Ok Computer. No-body paid me any mind when I threw up a little, sending a stream of Long Island iced tea tricking down to the sidewalk. Briefly I dozed off and had an an insanely unsubtle dream in which my vagina spilt open as I walked, causing a whole bloody spectacle on Telegraph Avenue, children screaming, men fleeing”.

Hmm. Yeah. That happened to me once.

“That‘s what I wanted, more than anything: a low pressure way to say hey, we‘re cool, how are you. No need to be weird anymore; we‘re too old, and the world is too fragile.”

“Pour Some Sugar On (Past, Present, & Future) Me”

It was the summer of 1996. My best friend, Dana, and I had decided to start a band. Never mind that neither of us knew how to play an instrument. Never mind that at least one of us (me) couldn‘t carry a tune. Our name was Azalea and we were going to be HUGE. I knew this because I‘d read what was written in Dana‘s composition notebook. 👇🏻

1. I was a great student in elementary and middle school. OK in HS, with the added bonus that I moved from DR to RI on my senior year and was so far advanced in the curriculum that I took mostly electives 🙌🏽 Did well in college

2. This has been one of my fave reads this year, and the MCs meet in college.

#Two4Tuesday @TheSpineView

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. I didn‘t know all of the music and this wasn‘t my era, but I still loved the passion of the lyrical analysis and could relate to the emotional connection to songs. I think my favorite parts were the sparks of Percy and Joe‘s creative collaborations. ⬇️

This book is such a unique love story - a love story about friendship and indie music. Creative partnerships like Percy's and Joe's have such a rich dynamic, and I loved how Holly Brickley takes us through their ups and downs. Life and love are complicated, and Deep Cuts is an honest and frankly refreshing look at the early 2000s and all that came from that time, especially when it is the right person at the right time.

This music industry story is more quiet than those told of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n‘ roll. It‘s chock full of song references made more fun because these days it‘s so easy to pull up said songs for a new listen. The setting is early aughts Berkeley and NYC, and it‘s about the love of the lyric. I don‘t know, I just really enjoyed a story concentrating on this aspect of music.

“I loved these Craftsman homes of Berkeley, especially the undisturbed, unkempt ones. They were soulful and comfortable and had all the amenities that actually make people happy, like porches and window seats, and none of the things we believed to make us happy, like open-floor plans and living rooms optimized for super bowl viewing. They were built for reading and close conversation. Berkeley felt like a glitch in the modern machine, back then,

“I KNOW I KNOW YOU HATE SUBLIME EVEN MORE THAN YOU HATE NO DOUBT”.

Sometimes I do miss the 90s.

I‘m listing all the bands and singers mentioned as I read this. I‘m now on ch 4. I‘ll post a full list at the end. No doubles. Here‘s hoping I don‘t miss any.

-Hall and Oates (Sara Smile)
-Joni Mitchell
-The Brian‘s Jonestown Massacre
-The Beatles
-Elvis Costello
-Elliot Smith
-Beach Boys
-Stevie Wonder
- Green Day (Dookie)
-Neutral Milk Hotel
-Tracy Chapman (Fast Car)

“Actually,” I said, unable to stop myself, “ I would call this a perfect track, a perfect recording. Not a perfect song.” I could tell he already halfway understood but I explained anyway, with a level of detail befitting an idea of far greater complexity: “ A perfect song has stronger bones. Lyrics, chords, melody. It can be played differently, produced differently, and it will almost always be great. Take “Both Sides Now,” if you‘ll excuse me

🤨No

Yeah, yeah I have to read this one.

We follow Joe and Percy from college to adulthood as they navigate heart ache, career highs and lows and their friendship. I loved the references to songs from my youth and found myself pausing my reading to queue up a particular song. This one is definitely for the music lovers. Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the ARC.

Percy and Joe meet at a college bar and start dissecting a song…We follow them becoming best friends, having a deep attraction to each other but the timing was never right.

They go their separate ways after college, but somehow keep circling back to each other because of music.

Loved the nostalgia on this. Loved their mutual best friend, Zoe.

Read it!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Had this one preordered and it came today!

Been slowly reading this one for a few days and I‘m enjoying it, so far.

Pitched as High Fidelity for the Indie Sleaze Era but it lacks Hornby's charm. I would feel like I'm too old and boring for this one but as an elder millennial I'm actually the target audience here. I was in college listening to these bands. I had a blog. I get it. But like, this did absolutely nothing for me.

I'm going to pass this on to my coworker that's into Sally Rooney. I feel like that's the better comp than Hornby.