Welcome to Litsy!

My January (tracked) reading. I'm chipping away at my backlog of modern children's books (I try to know what's out there to gift to friends' kids and also for fast URC solutions haha). The only book here I DO NOT recommend is “A River's Gifts“. It plays fast and loose with facts and assumes children are too stupid for nuance. It's also not written by Klallam people and it shows. The two queer romances are both @willaful's fault, thank you. ❤

He read me Arthur Rimbaud's Le Bateau Ivre to awaken my freedom, read me Baudelaire to contain my pain, read me Apollinaire to dilute my distress, read me Leconte de Lisle to rouse in me exaltations he called automatic, read me Saint-John Perse to take stock of the world in the rambling seaspray, he read Faulkner to show me the dark disorders in the head-depths of men...

CHRISTMAS DOWN HERE
The opportunity was during one December when City went up in flames. A disagreement between blackmen and france-whites following a tale of some illegally parked bike. Shots were fired. The white man's shot hit. Other Martinicans drinking by the kiosk nearly stoned the white shooter...

Always amazed how many different perspectives on a book are possible! From "put more in the glossary" to "how had I not come across this novel before?"

The women had to face the rest of life, including the duty of finding food for a swarm of lit- tle ones, and all without a garden. Each mama, you hear me, had to sow in herself a small plot of cunning, and look after the harvest, ill luck or no. Perched by the window, my Esternome would shout, turning to Idoménée, The hills have come down to City, the hills have come down on City, a bloody madness ...

In my defence, book club is early this month...

This is a book that shows how important one‘s culture is and how everyone comes together to have fun. The author says, “I love the concept of play: everyone cheering together, forgetting about whatever challenges life can bring,” I think this is beautiful and really comes through in the illustrations.

This book is beautiful! I love the cultural significance of using actual Creole words/ phrases and showing the English translations. The illustrations beautifully show the village where this children live. It really shows how something simple like futbol can really bring a village together. I also love how even though there‘s rain, the illustrations show them having the best time together no matter what conditions they‘re in!

#martinique #readingtheamericas2023 Remarkable story of an island people and how they came to build a small place of their own, a shantytown named after the fuel tanks. It is the memories, writings and narrated stories as told to an urban planner by a woman of incredible strength. Translated from French but full of Creole dialect. A rambling, messy wonderful book.