Welcome to Litsy!

This is a tough book for me to review, and I‘ve actually waited a few days thinking about it. It has some really interesting aspects in the way it‘s told by the son of a couple who were convicted and executed for conspiring to steal secrets for Russia. Yet, it was also complicated to follow as it jumped back and forth in time. Additionally, I wanted more of the sister‘s story.

#audiobook #1001books #Reading1001 #TBRTakedown July 2024

There has not been enough hammock time this summer, but today I finally got a bit with Gandalf for company. I found this book an interesting examination of character and commentary on aging alone, but it was a rather slow and melancholy read for me. I was glad that it ended with a bit of hopefulness.

#Reading1001 #TBRTakedown June 2024
#1001books #HammockReading

This was a disturbing story. I was fascinated throughout the first part as Grenouille learned all about scents (and horrified by one scene), then a bit lost by the hermit in the hills portion, and again intrigued by the next section. Then things got crazy! I have no words for the ending, but I was completely engaged in listening.

📷: Happy beagle photo to balance out the creepy murders in this story.

#1001books #audiobook #TBRTakedown April 2024

It took a long time for me to become invested in this story of a Bengali couple that moves to the U.S. and starts their own family. Yet, in the end I really enjoyed reading Gogol‘s story.

#audiobook #1001books #Reading1001 #TBRTakedown March 2024

There are some wonderful descriptions in this memoir, but I didn‘t quite get any point besides sharing of a particular time in English history. Without any connection to the author, I would prefer a story to experience a period of time.

#memoir #nonfiction #1001books
#Reading1001 #TBRTakedown February 2024

I didn‘t particularly like this book, but I found it written in an interesting way that worked well on audio. I was intrigued enough to look up more about Kesey and the 2011 documentary using some of the Merry Pranksters‘ video footage. I‘m slightly more interested in reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo‘s Nest with this background on the author but still baffled by the idea of a continuous acid trip road trip and parties offering basically free LSD.

I completed 45 books from the #1001books list this year for an updated total of 253 out of 1,318!

A few were rereads but from long enough ago that I didn‘t have dates in Goodreads. As usual, there were books I just pushed through to finish as well as fantastic reads.

Several were read for the #Reading1001 group, including 13 for #TBRTakedown. Many others were read with or for various readalong groups and challenges listed in the comments.

I‘m just not a fan of Virginia Woolf‘s style. This is beautifully written with detailed descriptions from the perspective of various characters, but I was again disappointed by the lack of plot. I didn‘t especially care about any of the characters except for the story of Septimus and Rezia, and theirs is just sad.

I read most of this on #SerialReader but also listened to an #audiobook version. It was easier to follow the characters in print.

I‘m really not quite sure what I read. This is a strange novel that includes different timelines, mostly in the 1600s but also the 1990s, as well as a fairy tale retelling. We get this story mostly through the alternating perspectives of Jordan, a boy rescued from the Thames, and Dog Woman, the woman who rescues and raises him. Their stories include sex, violence, humor, and some quotable lines.

#1001books #Reading1001 #TBRTakedown

I seem to feel much the same as many other Litsy reviewers about this book. There were descriptive parts I thoroughly enjoyed, like the section about riding a motorcycle on the salt flats, but overall it was a long listen that often lost my full attention. I‘m not sure what I was supposed to get from it, and it definitely jumped around confusingly at times.

#audiobook #1001books #Reading1001
#TBRTakedown September 2023