Welcome to Litsy!

This novel is a love story on many levels. There‘s the love of parents, love of friends, love of spouses. There are tragic moments when a man is convicted of a crime he didn‘t commit and is sentenced to prison. The novel is mostly filled with letters written while the man is in prison. There is lots of passion and pain. When the attorney finally is able to get the man‘s conviction overturned, he heads home and everything has changed. 3.75⭐️

This book!!!! My high school self buried the emotional trauma of the ending and my adult self is considering reburying it.

John Marsden had such an ability to capture teenagers (some of the language is a bit dated - I‘m still chuckling at fair dinkum) - the highs and lows of being young and figuring stuff out.

I‘ll be thinking about Trace & Mandy for awhile.

Buddy read with @Rissreadswithcats - hope I didn‘t leave you too many messages 😅

You just don‘t see FAIR DINKUM in print very often 🤣 my mum says it sometimes but I wouldn‘t say it‘s still in super common usage…

Anyway, it made me laugh. Maybe I should just commit and read 90s Australian teen fiction for 2025.

This book is a heartbreaking, infuriating and powerful memoir of one man‘s time on death row in AL for thirty years. Thirty years of his life that were stolen from him, for crimes he did not commit. It‘s an up close look at poverty, racism, and a deeply broken system that was never right from the start. Bryan Stevenson of EJI fought like hell to get Anthony‘s freedom, against all odds and with no cooperation or care from the state. Had it not⬇️

I carry scars that only Lester and Bryan really see. I document every day of my life. I get receipts. I purposefully walk in front of security cameras. I don‘t like to stay home for too long without calling a few people to tell them what I‘m doing. I always call someone and say goodnight. It‘s not that I‘m lonely or that I‘m afraid to be alone. In many ways, I prefer to be alone. I create an alibi for every single day of my life. ⬇️

I was at work. I didn‘t try to rob and kill anyone. I was at work where a guard had to clock me in and clock me out. They told me it didn‘t matter that it wasn‘t me. They told me that a white man was going to say that I did it and that‘s all it would take. I was going to be guilty because I was going to have a white jury and a white judge and a white prosecutor. My defense attorney wasn‘t paid nothing. He couldn‘t get money for an expert.⬇️

Whew. Okay. I disliked all the characters and I loved all the writing. She writes real people, with all their flaws and realities, which made me dislike pretty much all of them. But the story is gripping, and if you can stick with it, it‘s a really good book.

Insomnia worked in my favor last night and finished this interesting, chapter-less book. 📖

The hubs and I are on a #stephenking movie kick 🤷🏻‍♀️ #losersclub #booktomovie