Welcome to Litsy!

This is a slow, contemplative novel about a young artist battling with her mental health. I was surprised by all the love in this sad novel. I am glad I read it. 3 🌟

Not that it will happen, but every soon-to-be father should be required to read sections of this book. A woman explains what her life has become once she has become a mother. Her husband is busy at work and he abdicates all responsibility for the child. The exhaustion, anger, disappointment, loneliness, desperate love and raging anger toward a young child, all of it was perfectly described.

#offtheshelf

“Trying would be their life‘s work.”

So very good! 💔How can we recover from our mistakes, even those most ordinary of human failings? We all think we‘re special in or miseries and joys. But are we?

January 2025 Reads: 11 books. Most favorite was Incidents Around The House. Loved the audio with the kid narrator voice. Not so into Ordinary Human Failings.

My copy of this book includes an interview with the author in which she says “The part of inequality, economic and otherwise, that I find most tragic is that second chances are not doled out the same to everyone who makes a mistake.” That, and the title, really says it all. Heartbreaking. A great book I wouldn‘t have read without the excellent matchmaking of @monalyisha and the excellent taste of @TheKidUpstairs
#AuldLangSpine

I thoroughly enjoyed this short story collection. I wouldn‘t want to read it in warmer weather though. I read her book Small Things Like These on the beach and it did not fit the mood at all but the story has stayed with me and I appreciate it more now than when I read it. Moody winter was the perfect location for this collection. I‘d read each story again.

5/5 🌟

Beautiful. Funny. Raw. Honest. Primal. Angry. Moving. This book evoked a whirlwind of emotions. It's a powerful and candid account of a first-time mum's journey, exploring her immense love for her child alongside the struggles of motherhood and the loss of self that often accompanies it.

It doesn't sugarcoat the realities of being a parent, and for that, it feels deeply relatable. An amazing book!

My current reads: all fiction.