Litsy

Old Babes in the Wood: Stories | Margaret Atwood

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I finally finished this book of short stories in a patch of morning sunshine. I liked the last stories the best. “Metempsychosis” - a story about a woman who thinks she is a snail, was quite disturbing. “My Evil Mother” made me smile.
March 9, 2025

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merelybookish

Street of Riches | Gabrielle Roy

Nice to see the river open again. And a duck!
More 🇨🇦 #Canlit 🇨🇦 for my #weekendreads.
Print: Streets of Riches (1957) by Gabrielle Roy
Audio: Beautiful Losers (1966) by Leonard Cohen. (This one is challenging. 😬)
@rachelsbrittain

eclectic-reader Hi, Margot 👋 I hope you are doing well 1d

merelybookish @eclectic-reader Hey Scott!! I'm doing okay. How are you? 20h

eclectic-reader @merelybookish I'm okay; it's been a strange winter: political turmoil, waylaid by covid & blizzards & then had to move in February. Settling into spring now. Def enjoying the calm. 17h

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eclectic-reader Also, I'm curious why you say the Cohen is challenging. Is it the format or the content? I love him as a singer, but I haven't read any of his novels. I can see how some of his novels might not work so well, though... 17h

merelybookish @eclectic-reader Agree it has not been an easy winter for lots of reasons! Hope you like your new place. Is it still in NKC? As for the Cohen....well ... It's postmodern and so difficult to follow (allusive, plot-less, meandering, etc.) AND sexually explicit to the extreme. Every sexual act, organ,and conquest is described at length. Repeatedly. It's A LOT!! 🤣 15h

eclectic-reader I hope that your family is doing okay. I'm still in the same area, I moved only a few minutes away from my old place. The Cohen does sound like a lot. I think I had one of his novels on my shelves, don't think I'll bother.
Although the following isn't really explicit, it was certainly a very unusual and intense novel by a singer

And the Ass Saw the Angel

11h

46 likes6 comments

Graywacke

Study for Obedience: A novel | Sarah Bernstein

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I felt fascinated but confused the 1st time I read this. I had sympathy for narrator, but some serious doubts. I reread it to try to get some clarity, but found it equally opaque. Now i see a path of evil intent by our narrator. But i couldn‘t pin her down. She‘s hiding herself. In interviews the author says she wants readers to finish the book with questions, not answers. I have more questions upon rereading. The book is brilliant, by the way.

sarahbarnes I‘ve been put off my reviews of this one, but you‘re making me want to give it a go. 2d

Graywacke @sarahbarnes goodness, I love it. It‘s unique in that it‘s so focused on sound. If you read, i hope you take to that aspect. But it‘s difficult in that it‘s all an unreliable narrator not enlightening the reader. So readers have to roll with it a bit. 2d

51 likes2 stack adds2 comments

BarbaraJean

Rainbow Valley | L. M. Montgomery

Hello, #KindredSpirits! Checking in halfway through our read of Rainbow Valley!

📚How is your reading going? What are your thoughts so far?
📚What stands out to you from the first half of the book?
📚Any favorite sections or quotes?

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMReread

rubyslippersreads, JenlovesJT47, CogsOfEncouragement, lauraisntwilder, kwmg40, TheAromaofBooks, julieclair

CogsOfEncouragement I'm just to chapter seven at this moment, but plan to finish the whole book in time for next week's discussion. This is a re-read for me. I read it once over ten years ago.

I'm struck by the relationship between Susan and Shirley, that he would not go with the rest of the family to Avonlea but with Susan to visit her brother. I can't imagine.

3d

CogsOfEncouragement Chapter One:

“Speaking of gossip...Mrs. Harrison Miller over harbour tried to hang herself...If I had been in her shoes, Mrs. Dr. dear, I would have gone to work to worry him so that he would try to hang himself instead of me.“
3d

CogsOfEncouragement Chapter Four:

Love was the only law at Glen St. Mary manse.

The world isn't a vale of tears, Mrs. Taylor. It's a world of laughter.

Father said in his sermon...we should love everybody...How could we love Mrs. Alec Davis?...Oh, father only said that from the pulpit...He has more sense than to really think that outside. (edited) 3d

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CogsOfEncouragement Chapter Five:

Mr. Wiley used to mention hell when he was alive. He was always telling folks to go there. I thought it was some place over in New Brunswick where he come from. 3d

julieclair I‘m behind as usual… 🙄 2d

lauraisntwilder Just like the last time I read this, I can't help feeling like it's strange to be introduced to all Anne's children and then spend most of the book with an entirely different group of children. I like Meredith children, so I'm still enjoying the book, but it's odd. Gilbert only spoke in one scene so far, that I can remember. I miss him--and Diana and Marilla, and, actually, Anne, too! 2d

BarbaraJean @CogsOfEncouragement I thought it was odd as well, to have Susan take Shirley with her to visit her brother instead of him going with all the other siblings to Avonlea. He and Rilla kind of just disappear from the narrative (well, until the codfish episode with Rilla!). (edited) 2d

BarbaraJean @CogsOfEncouragement I love all the quotes you mentioned. Every one of them was one that caught my eye as well. I loved this especially: “The world isn't a vale of tears, Mrs. Taylor. It's a world of laughter.“ I love Faith Meredith so very much!! 2d

BarbaraJean @lauraisntwilder It IS odd. The first chapter sets up expectations that the book will be about the Blythes, and then the focus completely shifts. Like you, I like the Merediths, but it's such an adjacent-feeling book, rather than an “Anne“ book! Also: I wanted more about Anne and Gilbert's Europe trip! I'd read a whole novel about that! 2d

BarbaraJean @julieclair I get it! Feel free to drop back in when you're able to catch up! 2d

lauraisntwilder @BarbaraJean Yes, would love more on the European trip or the Blythe children with Marilla and Rachel! 1d

TheAromaofBooks I haven't started my reread of this one yet, but I'm planning to read the whole book this week!! We're at the new house with no internet right now, so my Litsy check ins are a little sporadic 😂 Hopefully we'll get things sorted this week!!

It's interesting to read this book directly after House of Dreams instead of after Ingleside. I think that adds to the “why isn't this book about the Blythes“ kind of feeling. 21h

BarbaraJean @TheAromaofBooks You‘ve had just a FEW other things going on in your life… 😆 Looking forward to hearing your thoughts next week, and best wishes on sorting all the things! (Or most of the things… some of the things… a few of the things… 😂) 20h

kwmg40 I've only just started reading this novel so can't say too much yet. It's a reread for me, but I'd first read this so many years ago that it feels like a new experience! 14h

25 likes14 comments

BarbaraJean

Rainbow Valley | L. M. Montgomery

“It is never quite safe to think we have done with life. When we imagine we have finished our story fate has a trick of turning the page and showing us yet another chapter.”

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMReread

rubyslippersreads, JenlovesJT47, CogsOfEncouragement, lauraisntwilder, kwmg40, TheAromaofBooks, julieclair

37 likes

CogsOfEncouragement

Rainbow Valley | L. M. Montgomery

“Mr. Wiley used to mention hell when he was alive. He was always telling folks to go there. I thought it was some place over in New Brunswick where he come from.”

- Mary Martha Lucilla Moore Ball Vance, age 12

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead

26 likes

Gleefulreader

In the Skin of a Lion | Michael Ondaatje

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I had read Michael Ondaatje long ago, but I hadn‘t read this one. On a discussion with my massage therapist he said this was one of his favourite books, and so I picked it up. I was not disappointed. This is a Toronto novel through and through, reflecting an era of major public works (the Danforth bridge, the water plant). It is a story of love and the immigrant experience. The writing is beautiful and the story timeless. Loved it!

TheKidUpstairs One of my all time favourites. "The first sentence of every novel should be: Trust me, this will take time but there is order here, very faint, very human." 5d

BookBr Love love love this book❤️ 5d

22 likes1 stack add2 comments

SomedayAlmost

The Handmaid's Tale | Margaret Atwood

Time to reread & then share Atwood's all-too-relevant classic in our LFL... #Atwood #womenwriters #lfl

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BarbaraJean

Rainbow Valley | L. M. Montgomery

“There are days when he growls at everybody because he thinks he is fore-ordained to eternal punishment… My own opinion is that he is not sound in his intellect, for none of that branch of the Millers were. His grandfather went out of his mind.”

Well, THAT lands differently after reading last week‘s section of LMM‘s journals. 😳😬😢

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMJournals #LMMReread

JenlovesJT47, lauraisntwilder, TheAromaofBooks

TheBookHippie 😵‍💫 6d

TheAromaofBooks For real!! 😥 6d

30 likes2 comments

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