Litsy

Sundowners | Lesley Lokko

This walk in the woods today was grounding.

I had an interview on Wednesday that went really well, and I‘ve been deliberating all week about whether I should leave my job. I‘ve ultimately decided against it but it wasn‘t an easy call. How do you say “no” to a job where your would-be employers kick-off the interview by asking you to do a chicken impression? What a silly time we all would‘ve had…

I don‘t think I‘m ready for a new week to begin!

Bookwormjillk A chicken? Really? 22h

monalyisha @Bookwormjillk I suppose it‘s *possible* that I brought it upon myself. I may or may not have written in my cover letter that “my chicken impression [was] the talk of the town.” 😅🐓 21h

AnnCrystal 🤩💝😍. 16h

41 likes3 comments

Blueberry

The Elephant Whisperer: Learning About Life, Loyalty and Freedom From a Remarkable Herd of Elephants | Anthony Lawrence, Graham Spence, Lawrence Anthony

#Whispers. #HauntsandHexes

@Eggs
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Eggs 🐘🖤🤫 4d

34 likes1 comment

charl08

The Heart of Redness: A Novel | Zakes Mda

But the colonists were too stubborn to accept his invitation.

What the Believers had suspected all along, that the whites were beyond redemption, was confirmed. What else would one expect from people who were a product of a different creation from that of the amaXhosa, people who were so unscrupulous that they killed the son of their own god?

(Photo taken waiting for the Sarah Hall event to start...)

43 likes2 stack adds

BarbaraJean

Story of an African Farm | Olive Schreiner

pick

A low pick on this much-belated review (the #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead read it in July!)—although this is mostly pulled from my comments in our discussions, I still wanted to finally get a review posted!

I read this solely because L.M. Montgomery references it multiple times in her journals & her comments about it piqued my curiosity. And while there was a lot about the book that was frustrating, I‘m glad I read it because of the LMM connection.⤵️

BarbaraJean (Cont‘d) Overall, the story felt disjointed & uneven—Parts 1 & 2 are vastly different, and the book is filled with almost forced philosophizing. A couple chapters felt like they were just setup for long one-sided conversations on philosophy, religion, and feminism. I kept pondering how Schreiner might have conveyed the same ideas more naturally within the story instead of using long monologues. It was fascinating how progressive ⤵️ 3w

BarbaraJean (Cont‘d) …so much of the philosophizing felt, for its time, but the story‘s feminist views felt ironic against its backdrop of colonialism and casual racism.

The ending was quite bleak & hopeless—this certainly wasn‘t an uplifting read—but reading it in the context of LMM‘s journals was fascinating. Many of the ideas reflect her spiritual and religious views as articulated in her journals, and I noticed lots of passages that echoed her writing. 3w

rubyslippersreads Great review! This is another one I think I‘ll pass on. 3w

39 likes3 comments

IReadThereforeIBlog

Nate Plus One | Kevin van Whye

so-so

There are no big surprises in Kevin Van Whye‘s YA gay romance, which hits all the beats you‘d expect in a friends-to-lovers tale. It‘s sweet without being cloying and I believed in Nate and Jai‘s attraction but there are missed opportunities here, from the homophobia of some members of Nate‘s family and their wealth disparity to the battle of the bands competition and Nate‘s relationship with Tommy, which lacks resolution.

4 likes