Welcome to Litsy!

(1984) Here's a collection of short pieces: anecdotes, character sketches, meditations as written by a Latina girl growing up in an urban Chicago neighborhood. The pieces are gorgeous, with language so efficient and evocative they feel more like poems than short stories. Themes of growing up, family, finding joy in a world that will casually devour you, and the tension between duties to oneself and to the community who builds one. I liked it much

Journeying with Esperanza for the year that we get to be with her and her family on Mango Street, is a balm to witness her own coming to herself as she remembers that as much as she wants to leave and never return to this neighborhood, she will return to help the people she has left behind. “They will not know I have gone away to come back. For the ones I left behind. For the ones who cannot out.” She realizes her responsibility to her community.

A quick read with a lot of heart folded in. Esperanza speaks of her attempts to make friends, first job, and so much more as she tries to find her bearings as a young teenager.

October #bookspin ✅ @TheAromaofBooks

Ch 22: uh oh…… #aretheygettingcoldfeet #sydneymailedherletters #miltondidnot #iwouldhavethoughtitwouldbethereverse #staytuned #almostthere #vignettes #hashtagbrigade

Ch 19: the colonel drives me nuts #butfirst #veronicasdadwontlethermarryvictor #whoapparentlyisworkinginhisdadbod #thecolonelhangswiththegirls #hispoorwife #ronniewalksoffwitheileen #bizarrechapter #vignettes #hashtagbrigade

Ch 8: pick a little talk a little #theseladiesaretheworst #talkingtrashaboutsydneyandkerr #tessdoesntdefendher #syndneycomesinforastamp #thoseladieshavenoshame #sydneyhadthelastword #staytuned #vignettes #hashtagbrigade