This very engaging book that reads like a folktale is not what I expected going in, and I really enjoyed it. Sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking, I was pulled into this meandering story of Chunhui‘s life. I‘m very glad the Booker put this one on my radar.

Pictured here with the oregano and tarragon that are very happy about how much it‘s been raining here. 🌱

Pretty jazzed about this stack from the library. One more I want to read from the Booker shortlist and two from the TOB camp list. Plus a new Lennon recommended by @vivastory . The Adult was in the weekly Bookshop.org email, which never fails to add to my TBR.

I really enjoyed this one. The writing is beautiful and the style fits perfectly to the story of remembering a past love affair. Melancholy and bittersweet. I think you may have put this one on my radar @squirrelbrain 💙💙

This book was just so, so good. Its perspectives on motherhood and mothering resonated with me so deeply I was blown away. The book doesn't romanticize or minimize the choice and the weight of being and not being a mother. Thank you again @cinfhen for sending this book my way - I agree with you that I hope it wins the Booker based on the ones I've read!

A low pick. I had high hopes for this one and it started out strong, but some of the threads didn‘t carry through for me. I liked pieces of the story and I think Tate did a good job of capturing the agony of being a teenage girl in many ways.

Thank you so much Cindy for sending me your copy of Still Born, along with this really cool card and bookmark! What a fun package to get in the mail today!! 💙😃📖 I can‘t wait to read this one.

@Cinfhen

A great read! I went in expecting an entertaining romp, and it was that, but it‘s also a page turner with social commentary on the caste system and gender. Looking forward to discussing this one at #camplitsy! Pictured here with the dog that lives in our house and who has a lot in common with Bandit in the book. 😁

An inventive and deeply unsettling book. It delves into the impact of time on us as individuals and our desire to slow it down, as well as ways we have nostalgia for the past. In the second half it takes a dark turn that feels very close to home these days, looking at how dangerous a collective desire for the past can be. A very interesting read. #booker2023

I seem to be on a kick of reading books about mothers (am I working through something? 😂) and this was another great read. The MC‘s mother is one of the most bizarre characters I‘ve encountered in awhile. The awkwardness and discomfort in their relationship was so palpable that I often felt like I wished I could intervene in these scenes.

The story is so compelling and the narrator so horrifying, I couldn‘t put this book down. I‘m still processing my thoughts about this one - it would make for great discussion. I thought I knew all the ways I was being misled by the narrator and still he didn‘t fail to shock me.

This book brilliantly documents the painful journey of a woman coming to terms with her relationship to her mother, as a child and now as an adult. Along the way, more and more of her mother is illuminated. It all comes to a boiling point at the end. It is infuriating and heartbreaking and also a story of peace and redemption. I wish it had made the Booker shortlist.

This slim book really packs a punch. Dark in a way I enjoy, it tackles different perspectives on motherhood in a way I found very compelling. Plus an ending that has Nightwood vibes. I‘m glad to see it on the Booker shortlist.

One of my favorite breweries has the perfect combination of a bookish vibe and great beer. I came here to do some work but I brought this book so….

Excited for #CampLitsy23! Thanks so much @BarbaraBB @Megabooks @squirrelbrain for hosting again! It‘s hard to choose, but here are six books from my current TBR. 📚

Such a bizarre story, but I liked it! A unique take on the nature of relationships, loosely defined to include people we‘ve just met, people we‘ve known but who no longer know us, or people we‘ve never *actually* met. Combined with the element of how humans gravitate toward celebrity or curated versions of people, this made for an interesting read.

A beautiful gem of a novella, really a short story. Exquisitely written - I found myself whispering lines to myself while I was reading it. And a truly heartbreaking story captured perfectly in this slim book. I will now officially read anything Keegan writes.

Wow wow wow. The brilliance of Lacey‘s new novel really cannot be overstated. After finishing it I still feel immersed in the story, walking around in a fog. The bending of fact and fiction, both in the story and as a trait of X, the physical and psychological journey of her widow as she writes her book, the spine-tingling feeling of X being slowly revealed, to her and to us. Just wow. Could not recommend more highly.

A good day for library holds. I‘ve been waiting for some of these to come in for awhile. 📚

The first book to come up at the library for me off the Booker longlist. What a quirky read. It definitely got slow in the middle, but I was hooked at the beginning and by the time things started to come together in the second half, I was in it until the end. It‘s a long book and certainly felt that way in parts. But, in the end, I liked it. It‘s just a bit of a commitment.

This exciting news in my bookshop.org email today! Newly translated work out from Magda Szabo! 💃🏽

Fantastic! I loved The Luminaries and was so impressed with this book. A page-turning literary thriller written in Catton‘s impeccable prose. I think I remember @squirrelbrain feeling torn about the ending and I have to agree with that sentiment. I‘m going to be thinking about it for awhile. Highly recommend.

After a couple of meh reads, I am loving this one so far! 🍷📖

A few friends recommended this to me and I know it gets good reviews, but I wasn‘t feeling it. Parts of the book were engaging but it felt too plotty and obvious in many parts and I found myself rolling my eyes more than once. 😬 Maybe it just wasn‘t for me.

This sounded like the kind of book I would love. A fictional account of part of the book publishing world, a book about books and people who love them. But the execution was a bit of a miss for me. There was enough here to keep me reading until the end, but it often felt disjointed and two dimensional.

I‘d been waiting for this book to make it to my library since hearing it might be on the list for the Booker last year, and it was worth the wait. A truly beautiful telling of a story of a father coming to terms with his past while building a relationship with his daughter. I love that the book is written as though he is speaking to his daughter. ♥️

Just returned to the library the last ToB book I will likely get to before the tournament (and our tournament!) starts. I liked aspects of this one a lot, especially Olga‘s character and story. Some of the events in the second half of the book felt a little too heavy handed for me. But overall this was a pick and I‘m glad I read it. #ToB2023

I loved this book so much. Heartbreaking, enraging, heartwarming and hopeful all at once, and full of characters that will be with me for a long time to come. These women stood in their truth and with each other and built a life that is a thing of beauty and power. ♥️

I picked this up after enjoying Yu‘s new book Ghost Music. I really enjoyed this quiet story of a woman finding her way toward who she is and wants to be following the sudden death of her husband.

Wow, I‘m so glad I decided to read this despite my reservations. What a book. Unbounded creativity and an unflinching look at so many things we have to answer for, from climate disasters to transphobia. Sometimes I was definitely in over my head, but I couldn‘t put this one down. Thank you #ToB2023!

I finished this book this morning during another stretch of parking lot reading time. I really liked it, with its unresolved tensions, things left unsaid, and blurred lines between fiction and reality. The portrayal of the friendship between Agnes and Fabienne was powerful, especially the place it held in the memory of Agnes as an adult. A favorite from the shortlist for me. #ToB2023.

I‘d had this on my list since the Booker and I‘m glad I read it. Different from the style of book I usually gravitate towards, and I appreciated that. At its heart is a beautiful expression of love and friendship in the context of a culture of discrimination and a horrific civil war. #ToB2023

Like so many people on Litsy, I liked this book and am glad the TOB put it on my TBR. It was a compelling story and I think used the premise to do a good job of highlighting how systems of oppression operate, in a way that is still relevant today. #ToB2023

I finally read this book and understand all the love for it! It started out slowly and then suddenly in one page it was as if the story was lit with a match. I so loved the way Perrin slowly built the rest of the story from different perspectives, building up to an incredible ending. I will miss Violette. ♥️

When someone gives you an Amazon gift card, what else to do but order a few books you can‘t get from the library? Tomb of Sand arrived from a bookstore in Delhi, which was very cool.

Happy Birthday Virginia Woolf! ♥️ Tagging my favorite book of hers.

This short novel adeptly illustrated the fears, insecurities and flaws of two adult sisters coming together for a holiday at their family cabin. I felt deeply for both of them throughout the story while also cringing at the ways they often showed up. An uncomfortable and insightful read. #ToB2023longlist

I was quickly sucked into this psychological thriller where nothing is as it seems, from the very first page. Fact and fictions and identities layer on top of one another in multiple ways. With a fascinating main character of the most unreliable sort. In the end I‘m not sure what was true, but I really enjoyed the ride.

This was an incredibly strange book. I think I liked it? I really enjoyed the writing style. The story is so bizarre, though, and I‘m left with mostly questions about what happened. A soft pick for me.

My first book by Ernaux after she won the Pulitzer. I loved her sparse, raw writing in this short piece and definitely plan to read more of her work.

I really enjoyed this endearing book. Quiet and careful, the narrative style very much embodies the essence of the MC. I too was drawn into the lives of these characters. A win from #ToB2023!

This was my first book by Donoghue, and I was impressed by the quiet, tense prose. It was well-matched to the story, which was a slow burn and ended beautifully. #ToB2023longlist

I‘ve been making my way through this book for awhile and it‘s nice to have spent the first day of 2023 with it. I am a huge fan of Krasznahorkai and this is his latest. Dark, hilarious and brilliant as always.

One more book in under the wire for 2022. I was so stressed out reading this book - she did an incredible job of slowly building the suspense and tension in the story. I really enjoyed it, although I‘ll admit I almost threw it across the room at the end.

Well, what a year it was! A tough one for sure, but I read some really great books this year. It was hard to pick, but here is my #top22of2022. Cheers to 2023!

A bizarre ride of a book. The pieces didn‘t all hang together for me at times, but it was often a page-turner and clever. I loved the almost academic narrative tone. Another interesting book I wouldn‘t have read if not for #ToB2023.

I love a great book at the end of the year! I couldn‘t put this down and I‘m going to be thinking about it for awhile. An irresistible story brilliantly written. I loved the way Gunty built the story and characters gradually in connected segments, somewhat like the Rabbit Hutch apartments I suppose? One of my top books of the year. #ToB2023

Finished this strange book tonight. It is beautifully written. An illustration of the ways girls and women are held to societal expectations, told through a story of nine girls sent to work at an eerie hotel in the mountains.

This book poignantly captured the dynamics of family and adult siblings more than anything I‘ve read in awhile. I really enjoyed the threads of the story and how she wove them together. It felt authentic and not romanticized. I‘d like to have seen this one on the shortlist I think. #ToB2023

Did I offer to drop my daughter off for her show early so that I could sit at the bar and drink an Aperol spritz alone with this book before everyone else gets here? Yep. 🥸

I‘m officially a fan of Lennon after this book. An expertly crafted, psychological story that is so compelling because it feels just possible that it could happen. Deeply unsettling in a very satisfying way, if that‘s a thing.