Welcome to Litsy!

I forgot to post a picture of my #jolabokaflodswap box when I sent this out last week. It traveled up the east coast and should be arriving today. Enjoy!

My lunch breaks have been pretty busy recently, and I probably went about 2 weeks without reading at home, so I'm pretty happy with what I still got in last month. Lots of graphic novels during down time at work 😁

I read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy, so it is sometimes jarring to read a book that is so incredibly real and human. Senhor Jose works at the Central Registry, which records citizens birth and death. His side hobby is collecting records of famous people, but one day he finds the record of "an unknown woman" stuck to the back of a famous person's file. And so begins his quest to learn about her and break the mundanity of his bureaucratic existence.

#DaysDevotedTo Day 8: #CoffeeTea with a Norwegian novel while I was in Bodo Norway early this year. This is part of the free “fika” offered by the hotel between 3-5 pm and- said to be a big part of Scandinavian culture. Reminded me of our merienda - byproduct of Spanish colonization.

#CoverLove #white this book was controversial when first published, I really loved it at the time .It‘s always been one of those what would you like to read again where it felt like the first time books. I‘m always wondering if I should read it again & maybe be disappointed or treasure the memory.

Set in the early 1900's in Kenya & Tanzania, we witness the invasion of the Germans and later the British.

There were parts of this I was totally absorbed in, while some chapters I struggled through. Some characters were really well done and interesting, while others flat and didn't really have a role anywhere.

Now reaching the end, I really like this story (which has been a theme for me with this author's work).

#CoverLove Day 26: #Angel - the novel I brought while husband and I were in Sibiu, Romania last year. Paired with the city‘s assorted cheeses and cold cuts.

Soft pick. Montale was a poet who also wrote short prose pieces for various newspapers just before and after WWII, most of them lightly fictionalized anecdotes from his own life. This book is a compendium of those newspaper columns, which collectively form a memoir of sorts. I liked the non-linear, piecemeal structure of this, as it seems to mimic what it's like getting to know another person in real life, a series of tiny glimpses that 👇

I liked the premise and how the book started. Even the characters seemed interesting. But, the writing style was not for me. I thought I'd get used to it and that made me read like 40% of the book but it was simply annoying after that.
#hailthebail

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

Maybe you'll recall seeing the Amico delle famiglie at my house.