Welcome to Litsy!

This book looked at the preparation (or lack thereof) and response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and the gulf states. The focus is placed on New Orleans where things went completely off the rails. With the storm having been nearly twenty years ago, I had forgotten a number of the details or never knew them as an outsider. The poor decision-making, lack of planning, and inadequate response made for a maddening listen.

All my buddy reads plus an extra for the cottage ( and another extra just in case) ( and all the books on my kindle just in case case ) #readharder 🤣

This book is unique because I didn't cry while reading it, but I started crying later when I was thinking about it. It's a beautifully done magical realism about hard choices made in circumstances you didn't ask for. You're forced to think about what matters and who your village is. I've also never read such a vivid post-apocalyptic world.

When I checked this book out, the librarian said, "Where did you find that? I can't believe we have a copy in!" Then she realized it was my hold I'd gotten from the holds shelf. ? Two chapters in and I can see why my library has over 20 copies in circulation with a 10+ week wait on holds. I'm immediately hooked!

This is an example of how different my reading tastes are. The first three Goodreads reviews are two stars, but I loved this book. I was immediately drawn in by the story and characters. I loved the lyrical writing and setting and cried several times. I thought the last reveal appeared too fast, but my heart was taken by this book.

After finishing Ivan we moved onto Bob‘s story. Another 2 big thumbs up from the 9 year old. She loved getting hear more about Bob‘s story & how he found his home. Another sweet but sad story at times following the lives of these characters.

This was the March bookclub pick.
I don't really think it was for me.
It was quite uneventful in the beginning. Took a good 100 pages to get into it. Once the storm came through, it picked up. But was still just, meh.

Like I said, not for me. So I won't be rating this one.

03.28.2025

This is just such a haunting story of how the end of times could/will happen. It‘s beautiful and got so fraught at one point I couldn‘t read it before bed because my dreams were stressing me awake. A perfect book to read in April for Earth Day which we should honour on all of our days 🌎

Cold brew coffee float for breakfast #winning

We're saying these words every day, but they were written in 2010. When there's a hurricane, we build a prison. When someone looks different, we send them away. These aren't leftovers from some traumatic national crisis. It's who we are. We love this shit.