I am happy to host the August reads of #CampLitsy!

We will discuss the first half of Either/Or on August 6th, the remainder on August 13th.

Then the first half of Our Wives Under the Sea on August 20th, and the second half on August 27th.

@Megabooks @squirrelbrain and I are looking forward to seeing you there.

After the final discussion you all can vote for your winner and we will have our #CampLitsy Summer champion!

This is a wonderful read about Cyprus and love. Greek and Turkish people have lived separately for ages at the island, but Kostas and Isabella know how to find each other across visible and invisible borders. The fig tree is their witness and has always been.
Quite special! Thank you for choosing this book for me Meg!

#pop22 #BookTokRecommendation

A YA novel set in the #Gabon jungle about a boy coming of age all alone with a bunch of chimpanzees is not generally a book I‘d choose. And I wasn‘t really interested but I admit the ending was touching and sweet.

#ReadingAfrica2022 🇬🇦 #pop22 #TitleBeginsWithLastLetterPreviousRead

(Pic: Exhibition in a church, audiobook instead of audio your 🤣)

Thanks all for participating in the poll! We‘ve tallied the votes, and our summer reads are now set. We‘re excited to share the winners!

We‘ll read and discuss half of a book each week. At the end of the month, Camp decides which of the two books we just read heads to the end-of-summer finale. There, you‘ll cast a final vote to decide which book will be our #CampLitsy summer champion!

We‘ll get back to you with the schedule soon!

#WeeklyForecast 20/22

Still enjoying and cherishing The Island of Missing Trees. Then I‘ll read the short but very intriguing Winter in Sokcho, followed by this month‘s #NYRBBookClub choice.
After that, I guess it will all be about Camp!

#BookReport 19/22

I‘ve read three completely different books again this week. From wealthy Ghana to proud Afghanistan to a permanent residence in a London hotel. Incomparable but all good!

“There‘s a witch in that clock, holding it back.”

Time passes slowly in The Claremont, a hotel where elderly can live, though they are not allowed to die there. Mrs Palfrey is a widow who moves there and gets acquainted with the other permanent residents. They pass the time reminiscing and hiding their loneliness. Every once in a while we get a glimpse of the persons they once were. An honest witty read about life‘s last stage.

#bookhaul

Too many influencers here on Litsy - with #CampLitsy, #CampToB and #Booker22 yet to come 😳😳
But I really felt I need to read these!

Hi friends, we are excited to announce #CampLitsy, a Camp ToB-style summer read along run by @squirrelbrain @Megabooks and @BarbaraBB
📚 ⛺️

Everyone is welcome to join!

We‘ve made a longlist from last weekend‘s nominees. Link to the list: https://bit.ly/3w5SSIN.

Once you‘ve decided on your top 6, we‘ve opened up voting in this Google Doc:
https://forms.gle/ZTL8pH1rUWB9EvCG7

We hope you‘ll vote & join share❗️
Poll closes on Monday 16 May!

#FoodAndLit

Andrea Busfield, an English writer, fell in love with #Afghanistan and made it her home. This book is a declaration of love to a country that is so much more than war and drugs.
I felt really uplifted by the story of the young Fawad, his friends and family, their beautiful country and their optimism, despite the ever present political unrest.⬇️

This book showed a completely other side of Africa. The side of the wealthy in modern day #Ghana. Arranged marriages are still possible though. Afi is supposed to be lucky to marry Eli, a rich and kind man. Their love story is quite unrealistic and not very well worked out but it was easy and fun to read. A light pick.

#ReadingAfrica2022 🇬🇭

The Storygraph shows some interesting about my reading during the first four months of the year. What does it say about me that I mostly read emotional, reflective, challenging and dark books?! Literary though 😉 and not necessarily my daily mood!

It‘s a fun app!

#WeeklyForecast 19/22

I‘m late with my forecast, sorry. This week‘s plans are to read my #FoodAndLit choice for Afghanistan, to read the tagged for #Booked2022 and Missing Trees because I want to!

…. Continuing my last post: these books I suggested for #CampToB22. Please share your 6 #MostAnticipatedBooks!

I had to include one thriller although I know that‘s not really ToB‘ish 🤷🏻‍♀️😉

To reach the real ToB people, here is the form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfM6VOvtv_dy9-7v6GFk0ccZFrPnJG-vcnWHVaJ...

What do you think of the new way of selecting books for #CampToB22?

I see why the overexposure of some books makes them want to try a different approach but I‘m not sure if we readers can come up with the right books. I mean that part of the fun is that #ToB always comes up with obscure books I‘d never heard of. I am a bit scared that we‘ll be reading bestsellers this summer. What do you think?
And will you send in suggestions?

Another four #Pantone2022 colors!
Still loving their names! #Amazon #RoseViolet #LodenFrost and #ArcticWolf

Author Ramsey Nasr accompanies a group of Belgian biologists to #Tanzania where they research all kinds of animals in the rainforest, the savannes and along the beach. He feels like Darwin must have felt, discovering so many species he never knew about and nature in general.

#ReadingAfrica2022 🇹🇿

#BookReport 18/22

Four books, three for #ReadingAfrica2022. The tagged one and especially The House at Sugar Beach, were absolutely great. The #Persephone was an okay read, Homo Safaricus I just finished. Review will follow soon!

Another lovely #Persephone. No spinster lit this time but a story that starts off as a Cinderella one (plain girl meets her prince) but ends somewhere completely different. Not my favorite but I did spend some pleasant hours with Emily Fox-Seton and Lord Walderhurst.

(Pic: Remembrance Day, Holocaust Monument)

#pop22 #SetInVictorianTimes

Friendly Reminder 🧡

Our #SummerHeat buddy read, hosted by @Cinfhen and myself, is just a few weeks away!! If you need to reserve the book or order a copy, now‘s the time!! We‘ll be discussing Seven Days In June the weekend of June 17-19.
More details to follow 🍒☀️🕶🍹🏝

Tagged are people who expressed interest. If you‘d like to join us too, please comment below ⬇️
Looking forward to some #FunInTheSun

One of my African favourites so far for. These are the memoirs of NYT journalist Helene Cooper, who grows up in #Liberia. When the country falls apart after the coup of 1980, she and her family flee to the US. Her less privileged half sister Eunice stays in a country that for years suffers under crazy dictators who recruit child soldiers  and drug them to fight for.. well, for whatever. ⬇️⬇️

#ReadingAfrica2022 ??

May plans! My #bookspin is Anos Ku Ta Amanda for #ReadingAfrica2022, #doublespin is one by a favorite author: After you‘d gone. So I should be fine 😇

Picture, caption, quote: all about this page is heartbreaking ❤️‍🩹

However, this book about a childhood in #Liberia is much more than that. #ReadingAfrica2022

If not for #ReadingAfrica2022 I would never have discovered this popular series about the lovely Mma Ramotswe, owner of the first ladies‘ detective agency in #Botswana. The mysteries she solves are not the point I think, the book especially shows a deep love for Africa. It‘s hard to believe a white man wrote this book yet he did an excellent job!

#19822022 #1998 #ReadingAfrica2022 🇧🇼

#WeeklyForecast 18/22

I am in the middle of two books for #ReadingAfrica2022 that I hope to finish this week. Also I want to treat myself to reading one #Persephone book a month. They really are the ultimate comfort reading. This month‘s is the tagged one.

#AprilStats #AprilWrapUp
Look at those 4.5 star reads! I had a good month, with an unusual amount of Dutch books too.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
Elena knows
Love, if that‘s what it is
The fortnight in September
Sea of tranquility
Noodweer (Dutch)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The master key
The journey
The purple violet of Oshaantu
Purple hibiscus
⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
Monterosso, mon amour (Dutch)
Mijn pa is nooit alleen (Dutch)
Paradais
⭐️⭐️⭐️
La bastarda
The book of mother
Cursed bunny

#BookReport 17/22

I have been ill this week and haven‘t read for a few days. And yet I‘ve managed to finish these four books. Sea of Tranquility was the obvious favorite although I enjoyed the tagged one too and loved the Dutch book Noodweer.

Emilia and Bruch are happily married, but their relationship is based on a lie. When they first meet, Emilia conceals something important that happened to her. At first, this doesn't seem to hinder their love and for a long time she thinks it won‘t be necessary to tell him. But over time she realizes the impossibility of doing so. Should she come clear or is it too late? Schermer allows the reader to witness the doubt and despair of Emilia.

In April I read four more countries for #ReadingAfrica2022. I liked all of them but the Adichie was the best!

🔸 Chad: The journey
🔸 Equatorial Guinea: La Bastarda
🔸 Namibia: The purple violet of Oshaantu
🔸 Nigeria: Purple hibiscus

I haven‘t been feeling well for the last few days (the flu I think) and this book was obviously not the best companion. A mix of horror and violence and SF and monsters and rats and abortions… I had a hard time finishing these short stories, especially the ones in the second half of the book. Definitely not among my favorite short story books.

#InternationalBookerPrize2022

Page after page of stream of consciousness without any break or paragraph… it was hard to keep up and then I didn‘t even want to any longer. I am sorry Sarah and Scott and the rest of my #NYRBBookClub squad but my mind can‘t handle it at the moment 🤷🏻‍♀️

This is the uncomfortable read about two Mexican boys, more or less condemned to each other out of loneliness, and frustration about how life is turning out. They can‘t be more different yet they keep meeting each other. But it‘s a toxic friendship and you know from the start that no good can come from this.

#52BooksIn52weeks #WealthyCharacter
#internationalBookerPrize2022

#WeeklyForecast 17/22

I am still making my way through the #InternationalBookerPrize2022 longlist. Paradais and The Books of Jacob are in progress, next will be Cursed Bunny, which is shortlisted. I also need to get to our #NYRBBookClub selection, which I get a feeling is all but an easy read.

Much has been said about this book and I too loved it. Once again ESJM has created characters who feel so real and human. Their relationships and fears, whether set in the past or the future, feel extra relatable now that we ourselves have just experienced a pandemic. But how Mandel writes about it makes COVID and current times even more scary. Yet I could have read on and on about those characters - in any time or place.

#BookReport 16/22

Just those two but man were they good. Completely different but both highly recommended!

It‘s the 1930s, and the Stevens family travel to the English seaside town of Bognor. For two glorious weeks they are freed from collars and stockings, from work and duties.

It is the 20th time they go there and their days pass in the same way each year. The family can afford little but what dominates is their constant enjoyment and making the most of every little ritual.

A wonderful book, a typical #Persephone. Highly recommended.

This is the beautiful, sad story of 15-year-old Kambili, set in #Nigeria. She is the daughter of a wealthy and fanatical religious man who physically and emotionally abuses his family if they don‘t live up to his Catholic standards. During a sleepover with her free-spirited aunt Kambili starts thinking of her own identity - with all consequences. Recommended!

#19822022 #2003 #ReadingAfrica2022 🇳🇬 #52BooksIn52weeks #FiveSyllableTitle

#WeeklyForecast 16/22

A little late only because I was hoping I could include Sea of Tranquility but it still hasn‘t arrived. These two to kill the time 😉

A book about hermits, about fathers and sons and about getting away from our past only to cherish it when we‘re older.

#bookreport 15/22

I finished two books for #ReadingAfrica2022, the tagged one was longlisted for the #InternationalBookerPrize20222 and I have been reading some Dutch fiction which I hardly ever do but have been in the mood for lately.

Four more prompts for #Pantone2022 :
#ChiseledStone #Skydiver #AbundantGreen and #Poinciana. I‘m halfway through now but the second half is always harder!

Carmen reads a lot, but she never recognizes herself in her books. Stories are rarely about women like her. “I have experienced and accomplished little in my life yet I would like to read about it,” she tells her neighbor on the plane, flying home from Cinque Terre where she went in search of her first love. The neighbor is author Pfeijffer. He fulfills her wish. The result is this novella, written especially for the Week of Dutch Books promotion.

Ali‘s friend Kaunda doesn‘t cry when her husband dies. He had not been a good man and abused her so why should she be sad? Because her in-laws demand it, because that‘s the way things are supposed to go in rural #Namibia. Based on this main storyline, this novel explores the status of women in traditional Namibian society. A very good read. I am learning so much about Africa!

#ReadingAfrica2022 🇳🇦 #1982022 #2001

Elsa‘s and Violaine‘s mother, Catherine is beautiful, brilliant and bipolar; she is a dancer who is determined to live life to the max. Why would she give up her right to freedom? Just because she has two kids?

After the war and the bleak fifties in France, she parties, argues, drinks and makes love throughout the sixties. Despite their mother's unpredictability, her daughters love her unconditionally.

#WeeklyForecast 15/22

I am still working my way through Jacob and will for some time to come. I am planning to read another book from the International Booker longlist, another African one and hopefully my pre-order of Sea of Tranquility will arrive!

I got a rare and unique insight in #EquatorialGuinea, a country I knew nothing about, a country that never makes the news. Having said that, the story was not written well. It‘s about the coming out of a girl, being a so called “man-woman”. I appreciate the book though for learning about this small country.

#ReadingAfrica2022 🇬🇶 #pop22 #AboutGenderIdentity #Booked2022 #ComingOutStory #52BooksIn52weeks #IndieRead
(Pic: Shoreditch, London)

Meeting up with friends in a pub in Soho, London. I suddenly notice that George Orwell visited this pub too. What are the odds?! 😇

I hope this book will be translated in English.

A married couple. She leaves, she has sex with another man and her husband seems so boring. Their children, reading a chat between their mother and her lover. The father, Tindering for the first time.The daughter, in love with a cute Moroccan boy. The father‘s love for his kids. The mother, irritated with the responsibilities coming with being a mother.

#pop22 #CutleryOnCover
(Pic: Sunny London)

#BookReport 14/22

I traveled the world this week: from Japan to Argentina to Africa. All three were completely different and all were VERY good.

When he is just 7 years old, the army kills Abdul‘s entire family and burns his home in Darfur. He flees to a refugee camp in #Chad. Via Lybia (another war) he manages to cross the Mediterranean and make it to England, a young boy with PTSD, all alone in the world. Today he is a British citizen and jockey of royal horses. Like his journey, his story is hard & emotional.

#ReadingAfrica2022 🇹🇩
#19822022 #2020 #52BooksIn52weeks #PhotographsInside