Welcome to Litsy!

Another fun fact about the #Netherlands our January country for #foodandlit @Catsandbooks

https://www.instagram.com/p/DGtz04quhmn/?igsh=OXBod2JkNnZpOHpo

#ReadTheWorld2025

Hi @GatheringBooks here‘s my first update on your challenge. In January and February I read 6 books set in countries and/or written by authors from all over the world. These countries are #Mexico, #Japan, #SouthKorea, #Netherlands, #FrenchPolynesia and #Chile. I hope to read at least six more in March and April!

This debut novel was beautifully written about the quieter wrongs that took place in Holland affecting Jews during WWII and how long after those wrongs could not wholly be corrected.

#Bookrelated

Today‘s section in our #TreeADay reading. My question to you is if you have read the tagged book, any factual history or historical fiction set during WWII how you cannot see the parallels from that time to this? What is keeping you from recognizing how our freedoms are being taken away piece by piece? It is happening again and you are not only cheering for it you are praising God for it. God help us all.

Really ??? This was shortlisted for the women‘s prize ? I bought it after listening to a book tuber comparing the authors writing to Sarah waters. Sorry no ! First half is just boring , admittedly it does pick up and has a great twist at the end but sadly not worthy of more stars from me !

This book had been on my shelves for years and I now finally picked it up. It‘s set in Amsterdam, where I live, in the 17th century, when we sailed the oceans and colonized countries and were a very wealthy trading country. That background is interesting to me, more interesting than the plot to be honest. But all in all a fairly good read and a light pick.

I did not know much about this book going in. It was not at all what I expected, but I loved it.

We are past our #foodandlit month for #Netherlands but this little story and painting are too sweet not to share:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DF6ffAUJpl1/?igsh=MTAwdXN5cjl2M2ptZQ==

@Catsandbooks

Anyone who has ever seen goldfinches fluttering and chattering and alighting on seedheads in meadows, or watched them bumbling through the thistledown they love, will know why the word charm was chosen for their collective noun. A charm of goldfinches soars at dusk, swoops at dawn, sings upliftingly in summer trees. In flight, the yellow stripe spreads into a golden cape.

[CT scans of The Goldfinch] ...show...the painting bears the traces of a blast, the minuscule indentations of hurtling matter, broken shards, hard pellets blown scattershot....
the explosion registered in a surface that did not split or shatter because it was not dry. The Goldfinch was still wet, still drying
.... when I stand in front of this painting it carries the last of his energy....
The painting lives. The creator survives.