Welcome to Litsy!

Mostly OK but I had to skim sections about who fought who and why of Snorri‘s kin. Most interesting is that we get all of our Norse myths from a man who lived in 1200s Iceland which influenced Tolkien and others.

This was not chosen by my book group for this year, but I still wanted to read it. This was so well written- I felt that I was in 19th century Iceland, and I felt all the emotions of each character, or reaction to a character. So so good on audio too, but I‘m glad the group didn‘t choose this. It‘s also incredibly sad, and the discussion would just be how terrible this or that was. Fantastic book

Started a book about early Iceland and a famous poet who wrote about Norse myths and the sagas.

Set in the late nineteenth century, this is a short novella of two intertwining stories. First is a priest who is hunting a blue fox and gets trapped in an avalanche and ends up hallucinating. The second is the story of a herbalist and the girl with Down‘s syndrome that he ends up rescuing and caring for until her death. The two stories come together and while there is darkness there is also goodness in this story.

I am not generally a fan of books that make me sad, but this one was an exception. It was so well written, so evocative of time and place, and so thought-provoking. A 5-Star read for sure.

This was the #LiteraryCrew selection for July, and I enjoyed our discussion, as always. @Librarybelle

#Pantone2025 #LyonsBlue @Lauredhel

Miller is an author who has a farm in Vermont. I really enjoyed his first book so I had high hopes for this one. This is a story of a young man watching his father farm in Iceland and helping him to take on the duties of the farm as his father falls into a depression. I feel as if I learned so much about Iceland and about farming through this book. It wasn‘t quite as good as The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven but a worthwhile read, for sure.

I really liked this attempt to tell the story of Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir in her own words, for the most part. There were a few stylistic bits I disliked (the bits in italics), and some of the (one-sided) conversations between her and Agnar were a bit too long, but I loved the affection that grew up between them that was very obvious despite the way the story is told.

#weeklyfavorites

Finally finished Burial Rites. An excellent and heartbreaking story. Highly recommend. Glad I joined in with the reading, even if I was a little late due to losing the book for a couple weeks.

ETA: I didn‘t notice the print in the corner while creating this on Canva. 2023 has nothing to do with the book. 😆

#literarycrew

1) One of the schools I worked at this week had this display.

2) Got a Dodgers history book to listen to on off days.

3) My kids went to their hometown and brought back this candy from a shop there that makes candy canes.

4) One of my kids volunteers at a food bank. They sent them home with a box of veggies. I made soup.

5) Finally found my copy of Burial Rights yesterday. Long story. Just disappointed I‘ll miss the discussion.

#5joysfriday