pickI gave Black Woods Blue Sky 4 stars. The vivid descriptions of Alaska made me want to visit even more. I struggled with Birdie—her selfishness and poor mothering made her hard to like, though I see how those traits served the story. Arthur and the bear, on the other hand, were magnificent. The novel left me wondering if the mysteries and magic it portrays could truly exist in real life.
pick“It was bewildering, how closely grief ran alongside joy.”
My first Ivey novel. Atmospheric! The setting of Alaskan wilderness is the MC, I would say. But then any book I‘ve read with an Alaskan setting utilizes the starkly primitive and foreboding quality of that region to create mood and foreshadowing. I hope to read more by Ivey.
#Read2025
#LitsyAtoZ
pickEowyn Ivey always makes the real world magical and the magical seem real. I wasn't sure I liked the last section of this one, up until the ending when I realized that everything happened just as it had to.
pickDelightful magical realism, featuring characters I could be friends with (except for one or two that I loved to hate). The main character was trying to overcome past tragedies, so she could begin to fully live life in the present, learn to trust herself, and look forward. A light-hearted, feel-good read.
This was my July #FictionalTraveler selection, for the #Water prompt.
“Alma once had a friend, a writer, who for years before she died, relatively young, was always talking about this one story she had to write down.”
#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl
Started this book. A writer decides to start a literal cemetery for all of her untold stories when she inherits a plot of land near the city dump. She wants her characters to rest in peace, but they have other ideas. I haven‘t gotten to any buried characters yet, but so far, so good.
“Now are the woods all black, but still the sky is blue. May you always see a blue sky overhead, my young friend.”
#MotherandChild
#CharacterCharm
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
so-sodid i vibe with that.. or did it vibe with me?
symbolism & #animism are doing heavy lifting here & if you hate metaphors, this desert will probably bury you.
🏜️ = existential isolation
🌵= wounded life but still alive
🫀= vulnerability, pain made visible
& a lot more! talking rocks, a bird & a wagon.
#magicrealism #surrealism #darkhumor #fiction
#weird #feverdream
