Welcome to Litsy!

picked this up on indie bkstore day from Changing Hands pop up shop of banned books. The Tangs move to the US for a better life. This book is really upbeat,yet doesn‘t sugar coat how they are exploited by a hotel owner as mom,dad,& daughter Mia do everything to run a motel owned by a guy who only pays them part of the cost of a nights stay. I was joyful to watch them slowly find some success while not losing their empathy. Mia, a super character

Celebrating Indie Bookstore Day: purchased Blue Ruin for this year‘s Tournament of Favorites and they gave me the Supersonic. Posing in front of a pretty mural across the street from my next stop (which isn‘t open yet! 🤨) #ibd #indiebookstoreday

Part of why everyone here annoys me, I think, is no one appears to have real responsibilities, even as COVID hits. Rob and Alice have a daughter they ignore, Jay‘s life has mostly been wading through an art scene while being high, and the art anyone does finally do feels pretentious and light. They have disappeared into their art, a major theme. People return when they connect with others, and mostly everyone here is too selfish to do that.

I liked learning more about the Ethiopian immigration experience but otherwise the sprawling, disconnected narrative and bland main character put this near the bottom of my #ToB25 list.

This was really good. Did not expect that ending!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Current audiobook…

This novel covers a lot of ground: grief, family dynamics, generational trauma, illness, addiction, income inequality, immigration, racism. I appreciate the writing and the characters, but like others, I found following the story to be a challenge. The format and timeline feel true to life and therefore a little unsettling to me. I wonder if I go to fiction because a tidy narrative helps life seem more manageable. (This isn't a tidy narrative.)

I‘m not at all sure that I understood this book at all. My take away is that African immigrants to the USA (and their children) have a strong sense of dislocation and not belonging and they are always on edge, waiting to be arrested. I kept waiting for a story beyond this. If it existed, I lost it in the constantly shifting timelines.

Liked but didn‘t love this one. The protagonist‘s relationship with Samuel was really well written as were the real/not real elements. The way his relationship with his wife and son was described felt a little shallow and unfinished to me, I couldn‘t quite get a hold on it. Definitely a unique story overall and I‘m glad I read it. #tob25

Now on to beach reads!