Welcome to Litsy!

This book made me want to cancel my lunch plans yesterday and stay home all day and read. I am so glad the higher praise Wait get on Litsy convinced me to give her another try after not loving another of her books because this story about a young mother and her daughter‘s journey through their involvement with a cult was fantastic.

This book started strong but completely fizzled out 40% in. I bailed at 60%—life‘s too short for boring books, and I‘ve hit my limit on privileged, elite British society.

This is such a detailed and nuanced description of a time that was not generous or kind to women in its mythology. Pat Barker is great

Recent acquisitions:

📖 Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy (I collect editions of Tess, my favourite novel, and this Christmas gift from my daughter is my 32nd)
📖 Cathedrals, Abbeys, and Churches of England and Wales: Descriptive, Historical, Pictorial (1898) by T. G. Bonney

In the third book in Barker‘s Women of Troy series, we are given the story of Agamemnon‘s return to Mycenae. We know what will happen, but Barker provides us with an excellent retelling, setting up a story of revenge that picks up speed as we read. Baker writes beautifully, but I did take exception to her decision to use modern idioms and phrases. What she might gain in attracting younger readers, costs her a feeling of power in an ancient tale.

Not loving this font.

This was such a tense and melancholic read. Moss perfectly captures those first months of Covid and lockdown and all of that uncertainty. I‘m not sure I could have got through it had I read it closer to pandemic times. I really felt these characters thoughts and feelings.

This is incredible. I‘m looking forward to seeing where every section, every chapter takes us (and how). I have even deployed the magnifying glass without throwing the book across the room (which is my standard reaction to stupidly small print). Just for a page though - if he repeats this too often, book-throwing may ensue.

It won the Goldsmiths with good reason. Layout is important, so I‘d recommend print if you can.

Virginia Woolf also wrote “normal“ narratives. #12Booksof2024 @Andrew65

Delighted to get Cuddy as my first BookSpin of the year. This was a Gladstonerds blind date from @LeeRHarry back in October and, from the first few pages, a book I will be sinking into!

While my #bookspin list this year is all physical books I own, my #doublespin is ‘work reading‘ - pushing me to read books that are on the shelves in my branch library, so I‘ve a greater range of ‘immediate‘ recommendations for library customers.