Welcome to Litsy!

#readingoceania2024 #tonga Although not a great book it nevertheless lends insights into this independent constitutional monarchy. Focused largely on Queen Salote, who died in 1965, the book is outdated and still informative. PLUS for the first time ever, I completed all the prompts for 2024. Of course, I still have tons of prompts left from #readingtheamericas2023. Happy New Year all.

This is a captivating story about Rachel, a slave in Barbados who seeks to find her stolen children after emancipation comes. It‘s powerful on a mother love and freedom but I found it strangely flat - full of coincidence and a large cast of often more interesting characters of whom we learn only some of their story. Bought those one for #readingtheamericas2023. D only just got to it!

I‘m not quite sure how best to describe this tragic romance wrapped up in a slave narrative. Although seeming strangely uneven to me in the way Oroonoko was treated, it details the brutality of slavery. I can appreciate its impact when written by a woman and published in 1688.

I had this in my TBR for #ReadingTheAmericas2023 but just got to it today. #Suriname

#1001books #audiobook

I lost my dad shortly after Christmas. Aside from finishing The Feast of the Goat, I‘m sticking to lighthearted books for now because I‘m too sad for heavy literature. Lots of P.G. Wodehouse, lots of cozy mysteries and vintage-set mysteries. It‘ll be okay, eventually. I sure wish I had thought to ask my dad to read along with me in #readingtheamericas2023. He would have had interesting things to say about all my books. :(

Your cup of coffee or glass of rum must taste better, the smoke of your cigar, a swim in the ocean on a hot day, the movie you see on Saturday, the merengue on the radio, everything must leave a more pleasurable sensation in your body and spirit when you had what Trujillo had taken away from Dominicans thirty-one years ago: free will. #readingtheamericas2023 #dominicanrepublic

It had been this malaise of so many years‘ duration - thinking one thing and doing something that contradicted it every day - that led him, in the secret recesses of his mind, to condemn Trujillo to death, to convince himself that as long as Trujillo lived, he and many other Dominicans would be condemned to this awful queasy sickness of constantly having to lie to themselves and deceive everyone else…#readingtheamericas2023 #dominicanrepublic

I didn‘t get close to finishing #readingtheamericas2023, but I want to continue it, so I‘ll be #readingtheamericas in 2024 as well. I‘ll be using the books in the Around the World in 80 Books challenge on Goodreads as well. Anyone else still #readingtheamericas in 2024? @BarbaraBB @Librarybelle thanks for hosting and have a good time #readingoceania2024!

2023 was an excellent year. I finished the challenges I set out to finish. I read lots more than just books for challenges, such as several books about the history of Italy for my epic trip there and at least one chunkster, Papillon

Thanks to some overlap here are the totals:
#LitsyAtoZ 118
#Foodandlit 20 for 12 countries
#AuthoraMonth 13 for 12 authors
#ReadingtheAmericas at least 50 for 50 countries
#SeriesLove2023 17

Thanks to all the hosts!

I didn't read every country in the Western Hemisphere, but did pretty well this year! Lots of new knowledge and insights! Thank you @BarbaraBB and @LibraryBelle for this year's #ReadingtheAmericas2023!

Highly recommended: captures the courage and terror of people fleeing through #Mexico from #Guatemala, #ElSalvador, and #Honduras in the hope of a safer life in the U.S. Centred on “The Beast,“ a train to which people cling in any way possible through Mexico. Martinez does a fabulous job of interviewing people from various backgrounds and at all stages of the journey. #ReadingtheAmericas2023 #Nonfiction2023 #StillHaventfoundwhatI'mLookingFor