Welcome to Litsy!

Mexico. Slow burn start. The fairly tame beginnings veered into brutality and depravity around the midway point. The ending felt like careening off a cliff. Shocked. Disturbed. Repulsed. And yet....the story failed to thrill me.

Perhaps reading so slowly left me too much time to ponder what I wished I knew rather than focus on what was laid out before me? The characters never felt more than pieces being moved through a preordained plot.

Also in March: evolving circumstances allowed / required me to accelerate my plan to move out a piece of furniture and relocate this little bookcase in its place. In the process I folded my #readordonate books back into the general TBR shelf and decided to donate the tagged book unread.

Magazines to be read are on the bottom shelf and stacked on the side. On top of the magazines are the “outbox” for books and a box for the Real Simple cards.

#LuckyInLove

How about foodie #Intimacy for today‘s prompt?! This book is “Intimate Writings on Love, Life, Food, and Flavor” ❤️‍🔥

I really this novel about a man sentenced to read aloud to the elderly & disabled. Wonderful, eccentric characters & a great sense of place in Cuernavaca, Mexico. The narrator‘s love & frustration with his home town infuse the story & add texture. His struggles feel real, including the backdrop of violence. His growth & relationships with other characters create tension & propel us forward with delightful poetic references woven in. Masterful.

I nodded to indicate that I was happy to be of service.
"Can I get you something to drink?" he added right away.
"Perhaps a little red wine," I accepted out of politeness, "if you'll be joining me."
"I never drink," said the Count, with a theatrical pause, "wine."

☠️

https://youtu.be/MglT0ITyPR4?si=Li25V4LlFAj5hMkU.

Introduction

Mystery guest

Home Reading Service by Fabio Morábito, Curtis Bauer (Translator)

Mild Vertigo by Mieko Kanai, Polly Barton (Translator)

Kintsugi by Anukrti Upadhyay

Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham

My Friends by Hisham Matar

All Aunt Hagar's Children: Stories by Edward P. Jones

Prophet Song by Paul Lynch

Trying a new book and a new coffee shop tonight 📖 ☕

#NewYearNewBooks Day 29: #InvolvesPoison - this book takes the reader to the realm of the marvelous and the strange, what with books moving of their own free will, or the presence of malignant books that poison other books - #InvolvesPoison- around them, not to mention a wild book that will only make itself visible to the right reader, under the right circumstances. My review: https://wp.me/pDlzr-hMV

This all began he thought- when Pedro Páramo, coming from such low beginnings, climbed his way to the top. He grew like a weed. The worst part is I made it all possible: "I confess Father that last night I slept with Pedro Páramo." "I confess Father that I had a son by Pedro Páramo." "That I gave my daughter to Pedro Páramo." I kept waiting for him to show up and confess something himself, but he never did.

-They say his soul is wandering out and about. People have seen it knocking at some girl's window. Looked just like him. In leather chaps and all.