Welcome to Litsy!

Another 4 books on the National Book Awards longlist. I had no idea the tagged book was such a chunkster until it arrived!

I also have 2 on order from eBay but they‘re not arriving for a few weeks yet.

I‘m reading The Antidote in print - it‘s too early to say what I think yet. I‘m also listening to The Sisters on audio and, goodness me, it‘s long! 😬

The Remembered Soldier, by Anjet Daanje (2019, transl. 2025)

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A former soldier experiencing severe amnesia and PTSD struggles to recover his memories and life after he is brought home from an asylum by a woman who identifies him as her husband.

Review: This is a stunning, deeply moving literary love story that will reward patient readers. ⬇️

I was surprised by the negative Kirkus review. I enjoyed this story of four generations of women haunted by losses. Each generation has a gift related to memory and this gift leads them on sometimes foolhardy paths as they seek to find answers about a sailor that faced an angry whale. 🐋 This unusual novel earned a 3.5/5 ⭐️ rating for reminding me that the relationship between mothers and daughters can be complicated.

I'm reading this one for school and the concept is so intriguing. Earth is dying and a group of people are sent to colonize a new planet. Only one remembers Earth and she is in charge of telling its stories.

“Everything is made out of magic, leaves and trees, flowers and birds, badgers and foxes and squirrels and people. So it must be all around us.”

#Wildlife

#Falling

@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Wendy was, without a doubt, an extraordinary individual with many outstanding qualities. Her strength of personality coupled with her incredible drive, determination, and positivity in the face of what for lesser mortals would've been a devastating diagnosis is inspiring and humbling.

However, I was not in the right place for this...perhaps no more medical memoirs for me for a while...

I'm sure others would find this a source of hope.

#Maid. #CharacterCharm

@Eggs
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

The store‘s Fantasy/Sci-Fi Book Club read this and I loved it! It‘s a quietly unsettling book about a near future world where things are eliminated from society (the physical item and the memory of it) without notice. For example, one day birds are gone, or the concept of music. An aspiring writer, her mentor, and an elderly neighbor are the main characters. I found it lovely, haunting, contemplative… a great choice for a book club.