This is an absolute gem of a book from the National Book Awards Longlist. A story of a life lived in Beirut, always keenly aware of the shadows of conflict, war, and corruption, but also embracing the vitality of life. Thoughtful and engaging, at times devastating and tense, but with a beautifully balanced humour throughout.

@squirrelbrain I think you'll like this, IMO it's worth the purchase!

As seems to be the way with Prize-listed books this year, I really liked this but fell short of loving it. A story of small town prejudice and family secrets, and of the many ways one can be an outsider.
It's a bit of a slow start, with some unnecessarily purple prose at the beginning - it seemed to be trying to establish lit fic cred. But once the family story gets underway and secrets begin their unveiling, it finds its groove. #GillerLonglist

"I began many a battle feeling indomitable and ending up prostrate and vanquished, my mother's flag fluttering, its pole staked right through my heart. I knew of no one else who could use sighs as a lethal weapon."

"I'd forgotten how goofy my sister could be. I suppose this happens with absence. Our perceptions of each other flatten, unchallenged by evidence that might form a clearer, fuller image. We become faint notions of ourselves rather than the tangle of contradictory details we actually are."

Alright #GillerLonglist, let's see what you've got!

#MondayMood I don't have to respect your opinion if your opinion disrespects the humanity of others.

(The credit at the bottom of the image is cut off, this is from Blair Imani, follow her on your other Social Media of choice for awesome content, her Smarter in Seconds series is so worth your time!)

A slow night at work, so I'm starting in on the next Jackson Brodie. Wasn‘t expecting to find a character with a degree from my alma mater! I've never seen it referenced outside of CanLit.

You know when a book gets SO MUCH hype it's almost too much, so you just half to let it sit on your shelf for a few years before you read it? I did that with Bunny, and finally decided to pull it down in advance of the second book coming out this fall.

I absolutely devoured this one. It is a weird, wild trip of a novel that kept me both entertained and completely enraptured by its dark, twisty world. Loved it.

cont'd in comments

An engaging crime novel, but I have to say I'm shocked this was on the Booker list. Judging it purely on its own merits it was a decent thriller, well crafted and developed story (but slightly let down by its ending, which I felt came together too rapidly at the close). But for a crime novel to be listed for the Booker, I was expecting more depth and it just wasn't there for me. Still, an enjoyable read and I look forward to more from Bauer!

A dual timeline narrative confronting the legacy of colonization from an Indigenous perspective.

In the 1850s, Mulanyin leaves his coastal home to come of age in a colonial town, where tensions between the local Indigenous community, newly arrived colonists, and ex-convicts are always simmering. He dreams of returning home with Nita, and believes that someday soon the white people will return across the sea and leave their land to heal.

cont'd

Parts of this were interesting and engaging - especially when the authors focused on the titular disease throughout history, various attempts to treat and prevent, etc. It read like compelling popular science, and was a decent listen. But when they venture into mythology and pop culture - werewolves, vampires, and zombies - it was far less compelling...

cont'd in comments

Taking a little breakfast reading time 💕💕💕 (if you put yogurt on a fruit crisp, that makes it a healthy breakfast choice, right? 🤣)

I freaking loved this one. I inhaled it. You can feel the cracking, oppressive summer heat from these pages. The narrative choice of multiple POVs encircling these sisters who refuse to bend to patriarchal society. Beautifully unsettling. I always hesitate to compare books and authors to those who came before, but this feels like the heir to Shirley Jackson. Highly recommend.

Catching up on reviews! #BookerLonglist edition

While this one has some pacing issues, I'm glad I stuck with it to discover its many, murky layers. A story of family disconnection and buried trauma, I appreciated the thematic ideas of a flashlight's focused beam obscuring more than it illuminates, and how difficult it can be to see the full picture of those closest to us.

Cont'd in comments...

This is not a drill!!!! Now, to wait patiently until next summer.... if only I was a patient person!

If you need me in June 2026 - don't. I'll be reading this 👇

Maggie O'Farrell announces upcoming novel Land | Hotpress https://share.google/09j45hGuNJWEWnofh

The Wild and crazy trio are back to school today! So I'm savouring some quiet on the porch with my book and my tea 😁👍❤️

(My middle kid is incapable of taking a serious picture, he's a natural born ham!)

"The girls, the infernal heat, a fresh-dead body."

There's nothing like a good book and a cup of tea on a beautiful morning ?

While I didn't love this one quite as much as Very Secret Society, it was still a worthy follow up. All the found family, cozy magic vibes. Talking foxes and zombie roosters. The ending fell a bit short, but all in all a lovely time if you're looking for cozy fantasy.

This was a great break from Booker reading! Engaging, entertaining, and interesting history and mystery (of sorts?) about rare egg collectors and thieves. Loved it.

This was definitely a #BlameitonLitsy pick - thank you to @sarahbarnes for your review which put this delight on my radar!

New in! I'm super excited about these. Edenglassie, I've had on order since January. It's from @CarolynM's #AuldLangSpine list, and I'm pumped to finally get a chance to read it (and that cover! 😍 BOTH these covers are fabulous 👌)

#BookerLonglist
What a wild ride! It burrowed into my brain in the best ways, made me think, and then every once in a while dealt a fierce punch to the heart. This kind of mutli-genre novel can be a very tricky tightrope and requires special talent to manage, esp. when you bring in elements of metafiction and autofiction. Reva accomplishes an impressive feat, like Percival Everett says in his blurb “I like it when a book is smarter than me!“ cont

Brilliant. Engaging and thoughtful.

Hard to think of anything to add to the outpouring of Litsy love for this one!

If you're on Bluesky, John Scalzi is a great follow! And if you like witty, irreverent sci-fi, he's always a good choice for books, too!

“I have exchanged my hope for a mood and a frying pan.“

Her mother's theory: The Internet was to blame. The Internet overwhelmed young people with dating choices. The original Yeva, biblical Eve, had no such choice. God put her in front of the fact of Adam, and that was that.
"Didn't she cheat on him with the snake?"
"But it wasn't with the snake that she created all of humanity."
"Have you seen humanity lately?"

#BookerLonglist

I loved the first 3/4 of this book. The isolation of the country and the cold, the powerful sense of melancholy, and the beautifully drawn characters wrestling with who they are to themselves and how they fit in society and community in a post-war world. It is a thoughtful portrait of a frozen world and frozen people amidst a greatly changing time, and Miller's writing is deeply engaging.

Cont'd in comments

#FinallyReading 🎉
I've been on the hold list since the International Booker Longlist was announced, and it's finally my turn, just in time for Women in Translation Month! So excited to dive in.
#WomeninTranslation

Question for those who have read this one: how violent is it?

I've only read one of Cosby's previous books (Blacktop Wasteland), and while I thought his writing and especially characterizations were excellent, the visceral violence was just too much for me. So now I'm torn between being a #CampLitsy25 competition l completist and knowing that some things are just not for me.

Thanks for your input!

Like @squirrelbrain 's post from The Times said: Yes Please. This was fabulous.

One hot Malaysian summer, Jay's family leaves KL for the countryside and the run down, struggling family farm. As he works super by side with the farm manager's son, Jay experiences the longings and intoxication of first love. Flashbacks to the past test and expose family secrets and connections, and Jay and his sisters face coming of age in a struggling economy.

"In those moments, with the sun burning above us, we felt as though we could play that game all day, every day for the remainder of our youth. There were no rules, no winners or losers, no objective, and every match ended in laughter that we couldn't explain."

My eldest is a devotee of all things Pilkey, and he's getting his younger siblings into the Pilkey-verse, too. Yesterday we had some errands to run, and he needed an audiobook for a summer reading challenge, so we found this one available on Libby.

Pilkey gets kids. Fart jokes abound, the kids are smarter than the adults, the teachers' names are perfectly ridiculous (Ms Ribble and Miss Guided are my faves), purely funny silly fun. Cont'd 👇

I loved Patricia Wants to Cuddle, so when @Reggie reviewed this one I needed it. It was just the right rom com-ish read before I dive into Booker territory! Like with Patricia, Allen serves up a quirky premise and delivers depth and heart. Adam is hired to ghost write a memoir for megawatt Movie Star Roland Rogers, but when he arrives at Rogers' LA mansion, he discovers the star is, in fact, dead and haunting his own home and electronic devices.

Start your engines! The Booker Prize Longlist is here https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/prize-years/2025?utm_source=subst...

Who's reading from the list this year? Which titles excite/interest you the most?

@BarbaraBB @squirrelbrain @Graywacke @JamieArc (I can't remember who else follows the Booker, feel free to tag others for discussion! Or just hop on in!)

What an absolute gem of a book. It's been on my shelf for a while, and I thought it was a good time to pick it up as I await next week's Booker Longlist announcement.

Claudia is fiercely intelligent and independent, straining against the strict boundaries society places on women. But the interwar period and the dawning of WW2 allows ambitious women like Claudia a foothold to a different kind of life.

cont'd in comments

There are so many layers to this short, compelling novel, I feel like I could read it 5 times and discover something new and different each time.

When a woman is found, battered and malnourished, on the side of the road near a small Australian town, she becomes "The Unknown Woman" - a sort of cipher for the fragile hopes of too many who have lost a loved one.

Cont'd in comments

"Geordie never just cried. He wept the uninhibited, noisy tears of filterless mourners, shrieking and thrashing the way the rest of us want to but learn much to early to control."

I loved every single page of this marvelous book. Reminiscent of some of the best CanLit, I couldn't help but think of Margaret Laurence and Ann-Marie MacDonald while reading.

One November day in 1967, two women disappear from a small community in BC. The book that follows is about the lives lived in the wake of that disappearance. It is beautiful and melancholy, with just enough glimpses of beauty and joy to maintain balance.

Cont'd 👇

Not much to add to all the wonderful reviews of our latest #CampLitsy25 selection. It was a lovely, quick read about found family and finding yourself, and pushing back against a society that forces people into conventional pigeon holes. I enjoyed it, and loved catching up on everyone's discussions from last weekend!

I wanted a light crime novel to bring to the cottage, and Thomas King didn't disappoint. Great lead character, intriguing secondary characters, an interesting enough murder to solve, and a nice sprinkling of humour (to be expected from King!). Will definitely return to this series!

This was very different than I expected, but it left me questioning (in a good way)!

Faced with an unexpected inheritance and some strange accompanying rules, Cerys moves to an isolated house in Wales and is forced to contend with everyone's views on her windfall, including her own. I was expecting a lighter comedy, but this one goes to some darker places. Would be an interesting one to read with a group!

Such a lovely read, perfect cottage book. Sybil is such a fabulous character, and I loved getting to know her through her correspondence. The ups and downs of life, the difficulties of aging, and the power of connection 💕📫

This was one of my reading spots for the past week. We were at a cabin in Ontario's Near North, with essentially no internet or phone connections to the outside world. I spent a lot of time on the lake, and a lot of time reading on rocks. 6 books down for the week, all great reads, tagged was one of the best. Reviews to come!

Love love loved this! From start to finish, I loved all three different layers and levels. This is one that will stick with me for a long time. I'm packing for a cottage trip, will try to be more eloquent at a later date!

#CampLitsy25
@Megabooks @BarbaraBB @squirrelbrain

“Hope, even a small, new hope like mine, can be a heavy weight to carry when you've grown unaccustomed to its heft.“

I'm trying not to spam your feeds with quotes from this one, but some are just too much not to share.

I am two essays/stories into this collection and I just pre-ordered a paperback copy because I just know I'm going to want to revisit this on the regular. I'm reading it through Libby and my fingers are itching to underline and annotate. It's beautiful. Thanks for bringing it to our attention @JamieArc and for seconding that with your review @Chelsea.Poole

Meh. I skimmed the last 1/3. I'm all for this being widely read, if only because they tried to stop it being published. But really, while there's plenty of vile behaviour, there's not really anything all that revelatory. I'm not at all surprised that Meta/FB is run by a bunch of power-hungry children with little to no concept of tact, morality, or diplomacy.

Cont'd in comments

Cutest bookstore ever? It just might be! A really good selection, too, for such a small place.

This one is tough to rate, I keep bouncing back and forth between pick and so-so. I loved much of this book, the sense of found family, finding community and healing after trauma, and the beautiful healing power of nature and the sea. But some things were just so frustrating, they take away from my enjoyment. And in the end the frustration wins out. I'll put further thoughts in the comments under spoiler warnings!

Can someone help confirm for me that I'm not Mandela-effecting my brain right now? I've just started the tagged, and she's recounting the shark attack she survived at 13 (I don't think it counts as a spoiler here, it's in the first few pages). I SWEAR I've read/heard this exact story before. Has she told it elsewhere? In an article or on a podcast or something? Does anyone know?

I'm reading ahead for #CampLitsy25 as my holds on this one all came in early! I had a physical, digital, and an audio copy of this one at the same time 😂 Audio is definitely the way to go (if you can do audiobooks and have an option) - Ariel Blake is the narrator and she is fantastic. I didn't find it as effective in digital or print formats. Cont'd in comments