Subtle work that continues to work on you the more you the more time you give it. I usually fly through novels of this size but I took my time with this one to savour the slow burn. Definitely pushing its way into my top picks of 2018.

P.S. I cannot belive Sally Rooney is 27. What have I been doing with my life....

Had a productive study day at the library so I rewarded myself with a mini book haul 😉

Despite having an extra ordinary life - living in fascist Italy and having her husband tortured to death in prison for his political beliefs - Ginzburgs essays look at the every day with an artful and critical eye, and with sharp, sparse prose that demands your attention.

Her story "He and I" is the best thing I have read in my post break up period. It forced me to confront my relationship in a way I had not been brave enough to do before.

Excited to start!

I lost a lot of sleep last night reading the Seas, but this guy just slept right through it.

This is off to an amazing start. Respect.

This weeks bookmail!

Book mail making the week slightly better (well, a lot better actually) 📚📚📚📚📚

Sundays are for books and dogs

Life changing

Accidental trio of film/tv covers.

A very good account of growing up as a migrant in Australia, set against the backdrop of the Yugoslav Wars.

Im loving this. Such an important contribution to gay fiction.

This is Lale and Gita the way I like to remember them. An important story and a love story to rival all the greatest ever told.

Yasssssssssssssss I'm so excited! Best ending to a long week

Christopher Knight is such a fascinating human, and a life worth immortalised in writing. However, i couldn't help but feel that Finkels approach was at times insensitive and a bit voyeuristic. I was quite put off by the end and felt like an intruder. Any thoughts?

Book mail! Finished Freshwater last night and was wondering what to start next. Looking forward to digging in ;)

https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2018/mar/01/translators-vanguard-lit... A great article about the worth of books in translation with some recommendations. Happy Friday!

I started a new job this week and my new @thereadingwomen bag is giving me all the luck I need!

Before we get too far into February, my top pick of January: Rabbit Cake! No blurb can do justice to the feelings this book will give you.

Special mention for top Jan reads:
Little Fires Everywhere
Human Acts
Tin Man

Bought myself some exciting reads to make it through what I already know is going to be a crappy week at work. Thinks are looking pretty good now 😉

My best books of 2017! All of these left a lasting impact & thoroughly unputdownable! My literary firsts this year include Margaret Atwood (late to the party, I know), Douglas Adams and Ann Radcliffe, as well as reading in South Africa, Rwanda and Italy! In 2018 I hope to finally finish Harry Potter (I really am late to a lot of parties , hey?), read more Australian lit & be patient while waiting for the new Alexander Chee.

Happy New Book Year!

I loved the Good People so much that I bought it in Greek!

I'm in Greece and I'm sick :(
My partner has been bringing me tsoureki (sweet bread) with nutella and medication while I binge read/watch. Here's hoping nutella cures me!

Rome is book heaven! This is a row of stalls near the main station that sells books all night long, heavenllyyyyyyyyyyy
#bookishholiday

I'm reading the Secret Radial and loving this refreshing take in Austen. Its very in line with the way I studied Austen at uni as a Romantic.

Bookish Holiday Alert! I just visited the Keats-Shelley House in Rome, dragging my travel companions along with me. This is the room in which Keats died, just 25. Because Keats had tuberculosis, it was ordered that all materials in the room be burnt. This painting shows what the room would have looked like.

It was emotional to see this room and read original handwritten letters of some of my fave poets. It was my own bookish pilgrimage

I'm in Florence! And everything is so very Ann Radcliffe!

I'd love some Italian reading recommendations while I'm here from my Litsyians

Alexander Chee writes a gut wrenching essay about Kevin Spacey. https://www.them.us/story/what-do-we-owe-kevin-spacey

When asked by a friend of Chee's whether he was gay, Spacey replied "Just because you scuba dive, doesn‘t make you a scuba diver.” Chee responds to this idea in this memorable and powerful essay.

I'm in a reading slump thanks to law exams 😠😠 But today I ate pancakes and read some short stories and felt ever so slightly better

Adebayo is an artist and Stay With Me is a masterpiece.

Highly recommended. Adebayo treats humam relationships in a breathtakingly honest and human way. The story centre's on a couples struggles to conceive and the complexity of the emotions that follow. The plot is also incredibly well written and takes you places you cant possibly expect!

Pictured here is my very own priest(gran)daddy. Having a grandfather who is a priest means no one ever understands my family...until now! This book has made me laugh out loud maniacally most nights and my partner has taken to reading it out loud so he can join in the fun. 1000 points to Patricia Lockwood, you go girl.

P.S He is a Greek Orthodox priest so he's allowed to marry and have kids

I met Min Jin Lee today! #fangirl

I haven't been posting because life has been bonkers busy in Rwanda and South Africa, but recent reads have been:

The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
Fighting Hislam by Susan Carland
The Lake by Banana Yoshimoto
Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin
A Mouthful of Glass by Henk van Woerden
...and... Bitch Planet!

This is the Johannesburg night sky. I'm reading the Hate u Give while im currently in JoBurg and it's making me do a Iot of thinking about race. This book has definitely lived up to the hype.

Best party of birthdays: flowers and books! My sister spoiled me with all of these and a chocolate tart!

I have had a quite May/June on Litsy thanks to exams. But Leia and I still devoured: Salt Houses, Story of a Brief Marriage, Behold the Dreamers and Caraval.

Here is Leia swooning over Caraval.

Just finished this and loved it! Usually not a fan of fictionalized biographies of authors lives but this moved me and made me cry. As a lit nerd, I loved reading about the Shelley's literary friends: Byron, Polidori, Coleridge and so many more. Loooooveeed

Matilda is a novella filled with Gothic horror, incest, desire, despair. As with most Gothic romance, it's not for the faint hearted! But Shelley adds to the great line of Romantic Matildas: transgressive female characters subverting gender roles. The origins of the name (above) explains it all #girlpower

Another #bookhaul. More like #problems.

Hands down one of the weirdest books I've read. . It's the retelling of the Faust legend through Orientalism (make of that what you will). It is flamboyant, excessive and heavy. There are some genuinely distressing scenes in this book which I wish i had been warned about, so: WARNING!

This is wrongly labelled as "Gothic", so do not expect any Gothic tropes. Its 100% Orientalism (which I am not at all a fan of).

BOOK HAUL 📚📚📚📚

My chronic fatigue has been super bad this week so I decided to cheer myself up today with a shopping spree.

Hands down the best gothic novel I have read. So much romance, melodrama, blood and guts! Highly recommend for fans of the dark and gothic 🔪🔪🔪

I'm just so in love with Pachinko and Min Jin Lee. Here's Min Jin Lee explaining explaining the beautiful narrative voice.

This book is 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟.

Can't remember the last time I cried this much in a novel!

I'm glad at least one of us is asleep, because im losing a lot of sleep over Pachinko. Its refreshing to read a novel so driven by narrative after a satire. And the imagery is beautiful! Almost as beautiful as my sleping Leia.... ;)

Took me at least the first 150 pages to get into the rhythym of the satire and for me the prose is just too heavy and almost suffocating. I can't help but feeling this choice for the Man Booker was political and timely, rather than for the quality of the prose or narrative.

Regarless, the insight and critique into race relations in the Black Lives Matter and pre-Trump US is memorable.

This.

I'm absolutely devouring this, bought it only hours ago and can't put it down! Neil Gaiman has so faithfully collected and retold these myths, its a pleasure to read. As with all my Neil Gaiman experiences, the prose could be (a lot) better and the imagery could be stronger, but the subject matter is beautifully handled and always memorable.

This is easily one of the greatest covers I own.

The best part of being a uni student: books! This semester im beginning a subject on gothic literature. Dark, brooding mysterious heroes, here I come.

It has taken way too many years of sci fi fandom to finally get to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy but man was it worth the wait. This is easily the most fun I have ever had reading a book.