The Lightkeepers: A Novel | 
pickPhotographer Miranda remains haunted by her mother‘s death when she herself was a child. She takes a yearlong residency on the Farallon Islands, where some major episodes then occur. The protagonist here could be irritating at times, but this story is so engrossing that I didn‘t want to put it down and stayed up far too late last night to finish!
pickAbsolutely loved this book! It‘s original and unexpected. I loved the depth of the characters and the reality of them. There are so many elements that contribute to the story that I can‘t pin down how to describe it-mystery/nostalgia/nature/relationship fiction all in one. I feel like this is a book that will stay with me-highly recommend.
pickI love it when you randomly pick a book off of your shelves and turns out to be exactly what you needed in the moment. Miranda arrives at the Farallon Islands to spend a year among a handful of biologists and take photographs. No part of island is hospitable. As she finds her place she discovers both beauty and darkness in all she encounters. I loved everything else about this book so much I didn‘t even care that I didn‘t love the ending.
Currently reading and LOVING.
Happy Weekend, Littens! Happy end of January too! I had a productive month. I finished drafting my manuscript. It needs some pretty heavy revisions but I'm happy with the direction it's taking so far. 9 books read this month! Highlighted ones were my favorites. I'm finally over my cold! It only took a week...ha! But hopefully it'll be a year before I get hit with another one. Spending today reflecting & planning for next month. How are you?
It's already Sunday night?! How?! This weekend slipped past me in a flurry! Celebrated a friend's birthday, met up with my IRL book club, & did some snowshoeing! Haven't had much time to read but when I do sneak in a few pages, I'm loving it! Fascinated by how Geni uses the natural world to enhance the mood and tension. I'll catch up with you next weekend, I promise. Close to finishing a new draft so will be in my writing cave all week. ❤️🙌🏻📚
Setting up next week! Hoping for ❄️ so I can stay home & read. I'm almost done with SUCH A FUN AGE (#millenialauthor). Then I'll dive into tagged book which I pulled at random from my TBR Jar in an effort to #readyourownbooks. Tagged book also has seagulls on the cover so that will work for a #booked2020 prompt too! Finally I'll dip into FRIENDING bc making friends is hard but healthy & I want to be better at it. #weeklyforecast
Once Upon A Book Club Advent Edition
Day #5
Today was a mini book light! I love these!
pickA 2019 favorite. This book was hidden in my bookshelves since 2016, and I am stunned by the treasure. Lately, the city is grey and foreboding; I wanted an escape. This novel delivered me to the astonishing and dangerous (and very grey) Farrallon Islands (30 miles away from SF). I learned about sharks, whales, seals, and birds through the eyes of Miranda, a photographer struggling with loss, violation, and rebirth. I was enthralled. I wanted more.
So my Nana found this for a $1 at a yard sale! I'm going to get so much more reading done now
Let there finally be light! I‘ve been MIA this past week as I‘ve been in full blown family mode. I don‘t live in the same city as my family anymore so when I visit I go hard! While I was there I finally picked up a light for my library. No more small lamps on the ground
pickVery strong sense of place and vivid nature writing, which I really enjoy in a book. It‘s like traveling, but in this case I don‘t have to worry about actual bird 💩. The storyline is engaging, though I was disappointed by the twist at the end because it‘s rather far fetched. 4 ⭐️ Will definitely look out for more by Geni!
Do not want to stop reading this - engaging setting & writing in this so far! 🌊🐚🦑🦈🐳🐟🦇🐀
I‘d never have cute shoes like this because I don‘t make it out of the bookstore to shop at a shoe store!😂 https://funko.com/pop-yourself/designer
pickTold through letters to her dead mother, this story is about Miranda, a nature photographer who journeys to a desolate island to live for a year. She is there to photograph the island & lives with the biologists who are studying the wildlife. I read this book in one day, there was for me a sense of unease throughout as we learn about everyone on the island.
pickA solid book about the choices that we face as humans. A wonderful effort by Geni and I would happily read something else by her any day. I will say I didn't feel like the book at a strong identity. There was a firm suspense thread in the book that I feel didn't really get its full due. This is juxtaposed to the very melancholy setting of how the past can chain our future. I felt that it would have been better to be one or the other not both 4/5
Shortbread and homemade jam. This book is making me paranoid someone's going to swoop down and take my brunch.
pickVivid and stark imagery of sea life and nature. All takes place on a stark archipelago just off the coast of California. There is a lot of quiet drama both human and animals alike. Natural and unnatural brutality in equal measure for all who occupy this small and stark landscape. There is so much going in this book that it is worth rereading.
#TBRtemptation post 9! Miranda is a nature photographer on a 1-year residency on California's Farallon Islands, the "Islands of the Dead". Her only companions are scientists studying the fish, sharks, & birds. She gets assaulted. A couple days later, her assailant is dead. She grapples with her connections & suspicions of the others. Then more violence occurs. Considered a unique mystery where everything is blurred. #blameLitsy #blameMrBook ?
@elkeo I just commented on @batsy 's post about this one a few days ago. It looks amazing. I had to stop reading the first few pages to open my last gift! 😘😘
#NOTSummerSantaGoesPostal
#NOTSummerSolsticeBookExchange
Hitchcockian Gothic is how I would best describe this book: ghosts, hauntings, paranoia, loneliness, dreams, nightmares, sharks in the waters, & angry birds. Despite frustration with the ending, I enjoyed it. Photographer Miranda goes to the Farallon Islands, also called "Islands of the Dead" by indigenous people, to live with a bunch of reclusive scientists, isolated & cut off from the world. Bad things happen. #laislabonita #junetunz @Cinfhen
"We may never know what another person is thinking--never truly get into anyone else's head--but photography brings us as close as anything can."
pickI didn't know anything about this book going into it but I've absolutely loved it. It's strange, and mesmerizing, and wonderful.
This is Pomham Rocks Light, one of the most random and hidden things in my hometown. We have one of the oldest operating hand-carved Looff carousels in the country, and we have this lighthouse, which I didn't discover until I was 17 and took a wrong turn after dropping a friend off after band practice. All of a sudden I was staring down at the Providence River and the lighthouse. I love that it's there. And I miss my hometown. #lighthouses
First and probably only book birthday present today - most everyone knows I buy too many books on my own so there is no hope of them surprising me - but this one is new to me and looks pretty good! Mysterious happenings on odd moody islands right off the coast where I live? Yes, please!
#221bdayclub
Current exercise listen. So far, so good! 🏃🏻♀️
pickOverall, a good read. Loved the setting - the Farallon Islands - a harsh, rocky archipelago and wildlife refuge off the California coast. There are many of those 'nature isn't always sunshine and roses and cute baby animal' moments. There is a mystery surrounding an assault and the death of one of the researchers on the island. I wish the book would have included a map of the islands. And, my goodness, you don't want be there during bird season!
The only kind of retail therapy I know. Thank you Broadway Books for being there when I need you most. #booksmakeitallbetter #readmore #tbr #overthis #getindie
#TBRtemptation post! Beautiful cover! A just-released debut novel receiving lots of praise. Miranda's a nature photographer who travels to California's dangerous Farallon Island archipelago for a 1-year residency. The few scientists there study the animals, particularly the birds reminiscent of "The Birds". Miranda's assaulted & her assailant's found dead later. Then more violence. Accident or murder? Whodunnit? Tense! #blameLitsy #blameMrBook ?
#bookishhoroscope Open the book next to you to page 117. The second sentence will predict your 2017.
This will be interesting...I'm pretty skeptical🤔
I had a short day at work today and the hubby is working tonight so I have some time to read and snuggle with the kitties. Nellie is at my feet, Teddy is on my lap, and poor Louie got cropped by the photo editor. I'm 34 pages in to The Lightkeepers and so far, so good. This is on my TBR so yay for me for getting back to the stack📚📚📚
"She knows how dangerous the islands can be. She know this better than anyone else."
pickFinished this one, bundled up in my jammies while the snow falls outside. This is my first book to check off on my #litsyatoz. It was moody and atmospheric. And Geni's ability to describe the landscape was incredible. Her description of the Sister, a great white shark, gave me chills.
@BookishMarginalia
pickWow. This book. Wow! This book deals with so many subjects beautifully. Death and dealing with loss, rape and mysterious manifestations on an island inhabited by mostly wildlife. It's touching and heartbreaking and at its core hopeful and determined. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #debutnovel
Looks like I read 80 books in 2016. Nice! Looking over the list, a couple of themes jump out. It appears that I really like books about groups of people on an island doing their thing. Loved the environmentalism in these two.
pickI'm trying to find an eloquent way to tell you how insanely great this book is, but while I'm still processing all I keep coming up with is STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING AND READ THIS BOOK RIGHT NOW!
It's breathtakingly atmospheric, haunting and thought provoking.
Kicking myself for letting it sit on my shelf for months, but so very glad that this was my last book of 2016 - it 100% made its way into my top 5 for the year!
Thirty pages into it and completely sucked in. I have a feeling that if I finish this by EOD tomorrow, it'll be a contender for my top 10 list this year! 🙌🏽
pick"The birds are making their battle cry." #firstlines #naturewriting #pacific #california #suspense #memory #biology #debut
pick2016 was a year of (largely) great reads for me. I've just finished the "The Lightkeepers," and knew from damn near page one that it was at the top of my list. It's the story of Miranda, mid-thirties nature photographer, who is perpetually mourning a great loss. She seeks solace on a hostile island off the coast of California, where the seasons are marked by different marine life. This story is filled with tragedy, mystery, and unyielding beauty.
So this is my world. Madly trying to get everything packed before Thursday when movers arrive to pack our pod. Listening to The Lightkeepers as I work. It's okay. Reminds me of Lily King's Euphoria, in part because same narrator is doing the audio. But also because it's about a woman working in an isolated location. But this one is more psychological thriller.
Congrats to The Lightkeepers for winning the inaugural ChiRB award for best fiction by a Chicago author. The moderator at this awards ceremony is a trip... he called Chicago "colder than Lionel Shriver's cold white heart". ?
