Welcome to Litsy!

Birthday hall plus the tagged book which just so happened to arrive on my birthday from the Harvard first editions signed book subscription. My daughter and I are playing hooky from school and work to spa, eat fancy foods, and read 🥳

Finishing the long weekend with this one.

I saved the last hour of the audiobook for my walk home and end up crying so hard that I had to stop walking until I could blink all the tears clear. So - 5 stars, no notes!

Tbh, I wasn‘t sure about Bud in the beginning, if he was a character I wanted to spend time with - but then he hit submit on his own obituary and well, I was hooked.

I keep stumbling into books that explore grief in its many manifestations ⬇️

“Astha was brought up properly, as befits a woman, with large supplements of fear. One slip might find her alone, vulnerable and unprotected. The infinite ways in which she could be harmed were not specified, but Astha absorbed them through her skin, and ever after was drawn to the safe and secure.”This excellent opening paragraph just gets more excellent.Can't recommend enough.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7083955636

I See You‘ve Called in Dead, by John Kenney (2025)

Premise: After a drunkenly posting his own mock death notice, a New York obituary writer looks for the meaning of life and death.

Review: This is a fun, moving, and insightful book. I particularly appreciated how it held certain truths out for us without laying it on too thick; death is after all a mystery that‘s really impossible to write about well. It‘s also a really great New York book. Cont

I read three bangers in a row but The Antidote was the best book this year, absolutely incredible. I personally did not enjoy The Long Island Compromise.

This was interesting but not engaging. The characters resembled game pieces. If there was a plot, it was vague enough to escape notice. The author‘s descriptions of the dust storms were the most visceral and true of anything in the novel.

Hmm. Intensely atmospheric. I felt like I could smell the wilderness when reading.

The lack of plot here leads me to docking points. But despite this being more of a love letter to Alaska rather than a “beauty & the beast” style story, I found myself caring about all of the characters, even through their shocking mistakes.

After 43 days, I am calling it. I can‘t push myself any further. I tried the digital arc that I received, then I added the audio, then I added a print copy, in hopes that I would be able to push thru. I love this period of US History, but the slow meandering plot just did me in. Also, at this part of the book, some things were added to the story that I felt just slowed it down further and didn‘t make sense with where things were going. I read 👇🏻

It doesn‘t always work out when authors try to wrap up everything beautifully with an explanation of the deeper meaning, but she does this wonderfully! I loved the ending!

Also loved reading about Genoa, NE, my grandparents‘ old stomping grounds 🥰