Welcome to Litsy!

I have long been fascinated by how the brain works and how it can go wrong, and this is an exploration of the latter. Initially, Alice is incredibly relatable, heading into college with all the insecurities and fears that entails. Then things start to go very wrong for her. This is a good way to gain empathy for those suffering from significant mental illness and a demonstration of how badly our health care system lets these people down. #TOB26

This book totally hit the spot for me. It's tragic and terrifying on a global scale while at the same time fiercely personal and quiet. I love how the story unfolds and the feeling of hope that accompanies the fear and uncertainty. The way I feel reading this one reminds me of how I felt reading Smith's There But For The, which isn't really anything like this one in plot or structure. #tob26 longlist

#ToB26 #16

Two men have become friends at college. Turning 50, they still are. And so are their wives and daughters. During a weekend that the two families spend together something happens that changes everything. All of them have to decide what‘s true and what isn‘t and how to go on from here.

An interesting premise but the author needs way too many words to tell the story. That makes it
an okayish read but not a ToB-worthy one.

As can often be the case with short story collections, this one was uneven for me. The stories that leaned a bit into horror worked the best, but I found too many of the stories pretty forgettable. #TOB26

Evie arrives to do her SAT tutoring session with a wealthy teen and finds the parents brutally murdered and a woman tied up in a closet. Then their daughter and her boyfriend arrive, prompting Evie and the woman to run, now as the #1 suspects. A bit thrillery but more than that, as the women get to know each other. I found this riveting and didn‘t want to stop listening. #TOB26

#ToB26 long listed, but this was already on my radar. As someone who loves those stories about reclusive people living off grid I was hoping for much more of that, since our MC is doing just that—he removed himself from the world at-large after a family fight over politics on Thanksgiving 2016. The novel really takes off when his grandchildren show up at his door. A look at America in the age of MAGA and the creepy Christians-with-guns movement.

This is told as a fairytale, a retelling (apparently) of Bluebeard which I was unfamiliar with prior. I loved the way this played with the fairytale genre and ways we tell stories to circumvent reality, often even to ourselves. But ultimately, the narrator tells us: “The people are us, the time is always.” Side: didn‘t I just read this somewhere on Litsy? Such a perfect line. I‘m not sure I grasped all this was doing but I had fun trying. #ToB26

I brought these home from the library last week, my first stack of #ToB26 from the long list.

My parents recently moved to a seniors' home and I'm cleaning up their house, getting it ready to sell. I found this treasure and am taking it back home. I'm planning to read my #ToB26 books in the company of #TheRooster!
#TournamentOfBooks

December #bookspin and #castthedie list. I might trade out one of these to put in Lion by Sonia Walger, but aside from that, this should pretty much be my list. Lots of #ToB26 longlist and my ever-aspirational #Roll100 titles.

@TheAromaofBooks @PuddleJumper