Welcome to Litsy!

When it‘s cold, we snuggle. Who am I kidding, this is pretty much every day.

I loved this slow moving story of Alma, a botanist who after exhausting the study of plants in her father‘s greenhouse turned to mosses. Her life is an unusual one, mostly solitary though she lived with her father and adopted sister, and melancholy. The writing here is beautiful, the pace perfect for Alma‘s life.

This is not a fun book like all of the author‘s books from Oceania—you will learn he‘s sadly and desperately recovering from alcoholism, which isn‘t much of a surprise if you read his prior books. So trigger warning. He takes a solo trip to follow Robert Louis Stevenson‘s travels to his final resting place in #Samoa, with stops in #Kiribati and islands in #Micronesia. Having listened to his other books, this is a sharp departure from his ⬇️

The author is touring islands in Micronesia in this book. At the museum yesterday I took photos of some of the artwork from Micronesia including this “Carved Male Figure,” from early 20th century

#readingOceania @Librarybelle @BarbaraBB

I visited the Oceania gallery at the San Antonio Museum of Art, so be prepared for a few interruptions for pictures of artifacts from the regions I‘m reading about. #readingOceania @BarbaraBB @Librarybelle

My third audiobook by Troost (I‘m two book reviews behind). #Kiribati and #Samoa #readingOceania @Librarybelle @BarbaraBB

#WomenInScience "At no moment in history has a bright young girl with plenty of food and a good constitution perished from too much learning." Inspired by 19th c. journals from women studying evolution & botany, Gilbert creates Alma Wittaker, whose journey both spiritual & physical, leads to unique discoveries about mosses in Tahiti. Yes, EG makes this informative, exciting, & fascinating! Really! #NewYearNewBooks @Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

I made my goal, reading a little over 20 hours between the 4 pictured books. All of them quite good! I hope you met your goals too. Thanks for hosting @Andrew65

Inspired by the life of the painter Paul Gauguin, Maugham charts a fictional tale based in London, Paris, and Tahiti as we learn about the strange and provocative Charles Strickland.
I liked the first half but then the story started to drag and become repetitive. It is a book of its times and hence unnecessarily sexist and racist. Overall I was underwhelmed by this book.

Maugham calls his shots so smoothly.

Still chipping away at this re-read. I love the mix of character development and focus on the natural world of mosses and other plants. Just the calming, yet interesting, vibe I need right now.