Welcome to Litsy!

Yiyun Li had endured more in her life than I can fathom and yet she is able to go on. This book about the deaths by suicide of both of her sons years apart is told matter of factly but that doesn‘t make it emotionless. For me it amplified the sentences that hit me hard, as if they snuck up on you. Thoughtful and reflective and like nothing I have read before.

Was hoping I might be able to use this for some of the teens I work with but it‘s too “much” for adolescent community mental health. Kate Bornstein is straight up truth.

#grateful
Poe had an echocardiogram today so was at the vet‘s all day. We are awaiting results. The Vet again had to drain lots more fluid from his chest which is not a good sign. We are so happy he is home with us for now. Enjoying the “now” (Yiyun Li) with him.

The book‘s title within the book. #memoir

Time to bundle up- 32 this morning. The real Poe is huddled next to a steaming radiator in the kitchen. Smart cat, that Poe! #10BeforetheEnd

Next up for Poe & I. #10BeforetheEnd #week2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDWZEzT1CTs

Intro

Mystery guest

Weekly highlights

Old Rendering Plant by Wolfgang Hilbig

About Uncle by Rebecca Gisler

Though the Bodies Fall by Noel O'Regan

Resonances

Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell

Gaza Weddings: A Novel by Ibrahim Nasrallah

Birdeye by Judith Heneghan

The Ecliptic by Benjamin Wood

...etc

This is a haunting, lyrical story set on the Irish Kerry cliffs. Micheál, a reluctant guardian of a suicide blackspot, inherits his late mother‘s grim duty of watching and intervening when he can.
Torn between family estrangement, personal grief, and the suffocating pull of home, Micheál‘s silence speaks volumes. I‘ll be thinking of this for a while.

Chris and Emily‘s lives are so intertwined from birth that it‘s no surprise that they become a couple in high school. Their future together seems predetermined until the night Emily dies by gun shot wound, tearing the lives of her loved ones apart. I liked this in that it was very readable, Picoult checks all the emotional boxes, and I love a dramatic courtroom scene but the more I think about it the more problematic it becomes. (1/2) #DoubleSpin

Both of the author‘s sons died by suicide, as teenagers, 6 years apart. The author talks about how to keep on living afterwards. You would imagine this book to be terribly emotional, but it‘s not. It‘s also not cold-hearted.

It‘s very difficult to find the words to describe this book - it‘s poetic, beautiful, clear-eyed and somehow hopeful.