Welcome to Litsy!

A book looking at social media appearance, how it seems real life should measure up. To hammer home the point, the book focuses on how things look, and treats our characters from a distance.

Not sure I‘m a fan of this cold distant literature. But it reads nicely and is well-executed.

This is my 11th from the International #Booker longlist. #IB2025

Well, I got lost 🙁

An important book. On Nov 24, 2021 a sinking boat with 29 refugees wasn‘t rescued. A French radio operator was in contact with them for hours, but failed to get them help, and criticized them. 27 people drowned.

This is a fictional look at the radio operator. She narrates her thoughts and a perhaps imaginary questioning.

Unfortunately I couldn‘t follow what she was thinking. Didn‘t make sense to me. I just missed too much.

The IB Prize winner

The stories are Wharton-esque

The author is a native Kannada speaker, and also activist, lawyer and feminist. Kannada has 60 million speakers, and is older than Hindi.

These stories do not directly challenge cultural norms. The characters all exist in their Muslim Indian world and accept their realities, including their economic reality, as the natural order. It's within this mindset that BM‘s feminism lays its hands.

Bought and started yesterday. This is one of three books i left to complete the International Booker longlist.

#booker #IB2025

Starting a new book. I have four left for the International Booker Award long list.

This one, oddly, is not available as an ebook on Kindle in the US. I bought my copy from Bookshop.org - didn‘t know they sold ebooks!

I know myself, with #CampLitsy25 on its way and probably #CampToB25 (why hasn‘t it been announced yet?!) and the upcoming #Booker longlist I know I‘ll keep changing my reading plans. So to make it doable I chose the shortest books on my TBR shelves for #14Books14Weeks. Looking forward to reading all of these!

Another book I‘ve been reading from the International #Booker longlist. Originally written in Kannadan, it‘s a muslim-Indian perspective. It‘s been terrific so far. #IB2025

My 8th from the #Booker longlist comes from a Mexican activist. She tells us, in her best and last story, that a woman is murdered in Mexico every two hours and twenty-five minutes. I liked the last story a lot. Most of the other stories - confident unreflective irreverent voices - sounded too much the same to me. But a good collection overall and an easy read. #IB2025

I loved this book. It‘s a literary look at Surname around 1980. The main characters is a Jewish-African mixed-race. She leaves her black husband after nine days and goes to the capital to some wild affairs. The language captures the lush surroundings, but it leaves gaps the reader has to fill in. I loved that. Negative capability with intent. It works. #booker #IB2025

Based on a real event where 27 migrants drowned in the Channel because the British couldn't get to them in time and the French wouldn't help, even while the boat was still in French waters. A semi-stream-of-consciousness narrative where the French navy emergency dispatcher tries to justify her actions and her words, refusing to bear the collective guilt and responsibility of society. Powerful and uncomfortable. #InternationalBooker #Booker