Welcome to Litsy!

My Antonia is one of the “best loved” American novels. I hate it, which is shorthand for saying that the book did not speak to me & I am jealous that it speaks to others. I decided to give her another read. I did this with Steinbeck last year and while I still hate The Grapes of Wrath, I happily found The Red Pony to be a marvel. I chose Cather‘s My Mortal Enemy. And it is a revelation. The characters & situation are drawn with care & pain.

Book Mail - These came today from Belt Publishing. They're having a sale on their complete Revivals Series, and I couldn't resist. There's some good stuff here - The Marrow of Tradition for example is a novel based on the 1898 white supremacist mob violence in WIlmington, while The Artificial Man is a short story collection from one of the few early female science fiction writers. Well, my TBR pile is really getting out of control now!

Found these on the “pay what you will” cart at the library.

I‘m guilty of reading political criticism within Cather‘s works. So, let‘s see what this book has to say about her feelings.

What an interesting (and still accurate?) take on American opinions.

Maybe we should try thinking and discussing. 🤷‍♀️

(Written in 1922)

Next ten books. From my at home TBR. All bought used.

#usedbooks #thirfting #mounttbr

1. Last Shot (Star Wars) by Daniel José Older
Blackout by Connie Willis
Assembling California by John McPhee

2. Wicked Bugs by Amy Stewart

3. One of Ours by Willa Cather

#weekendreads

A moving novel about human restlessness and search for purpose. Claude Wheeler is born into a prosperous farming family in Nebraska at the turn of the century. Finding dissatisfaction in work and marriage, Claude finally finds purpose while serving in France during WWI. A well-drawn character portrait and portrait of the time. 4⭐️ #hoopla

#12BooksOf2020

I've loved being part of the #CatherBuddyRead with @Graywacke and all the others. This is my favourite of the books we've read this year.

This photo from April was in my main Instagram account (melissajayne80) 9 top for 2020 and out of this pile for April‘s #deweysreadathon, I managed to read all but 2 of these books by the end of the year (the two that I didn‘t get were The Address and The City of Girls).

Our latest #catherbuddyread ... an oddly nostalgic look at the world of slavery.

That is such a strange, and wrong, sentence. And yet I actually liked this novel quite a bit, and I liked that Cather is looking at her parents‘ era, reminding us how close we are to this seriously messed up world. The novel has problems, and it strains our sensibilities, but it also has that Cather voice and integrity. (And brought up great discussions.)