We Were the Mulvaneys | 
Next bookclub pick by my friend Leigh. This has been on my shelves for years glad to finally read it. I have another friend who told me this was his favorite book so looking forward to it.
This book was so heartbreaking but I do love a good family saga even as dysfunctional this loving family turned out to be.
pickThis book started frustratingly slow - you know something terrible is going to happen and you just want to get it over with, enough with the wool gathering. But it all forms a full portrait in the end, how people can be so strong of character and of body yet emotionally weak, terribly, catastrophically weak. More common in that earlier generation, I think; I recognized echoes of some of my own family‘s hurts in the tragic arc of the Mulvaneys.
This book started off intolerably slow, or perhaps I was just impatient, but I‘m glad I stuck with it. I‘m almost halfway through now, and it‘s quite a bit different than I expected.
1.) Connie Willis or Andy Weir
2.) We Were the Mulvaneys
3.) Plodding. Tedious. Overwritten.
#wondrouswednesday
Ugh I'm so ready to be done with this book 😑
I'm not entertained
Reading We Were The Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates. This is my 2nd attempt at this book, but I'm 100 pages in this time around, so hopefully sticking with it.
pickHow can I be so emotional about such an unemotionally written book!? This idyllic family of 6 slowly ripped apart by a poorly-addressed 1976 date rape, the daughter sent away so as to protect the sensitivity of her father. When completed, I listened to an interview with the author, and I couldn‘t disagree more with her takeaway - I wish I hadn‘t heard it.
Coffee and books on a Sunday morning. ❤️
I am taking a break from my Book Spinner & reading off my Mother's Day book haul. First up, We Were The Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates. I remember watching the movie many years ago, I'm glad to have come across the book now.
pickI would say this book is interesting in the family drama way. I must say I agree that some characters are just teeth-grindingly annoying, but there is growth, character development, progression and emotional drama packed tight in this book. And that did make it memorable. #recentlyread #familydrama #trauma #nospoilers
so-soThe book was fine. I read to the end. The characters were interesting and had depth, but I never felt myself carried away by the story. I never got lost in it and was always very much aware I was reading a book.
#youresovain #MarchIntothe70s
I'm taking @TrishB 's lead and going with wordplay.
They probably thought this book was about them. 😉
@Lizpixie @Cinfhen
Book and ginger matcha latte and pork katsu and an apricot raspberry tart this morning!
I have been waiting to try this new matcha bar around the corner and finally I‘m here! A perfect place for Sunday morning reading 📖❤️.
Lunch + coconut water + starting this new book by my favorite JCO ❤️. Yay Friday!
#TBRTuesday stack📚
🔖TCV a friend‘s loaner book
🔖TCP a re-read for 192019 challenge #1982
🔖WWTM mount TBR and 192019 challenge #1996
🔖Circe last month‘s #botm pick
🔖COB&B shiny new B&N buy
#192019challenge @Marchpane
#mounttbrchallenge @DivaDiane
Happy Tuesday everyone!!!! I haven‘t been as active the past week due to an overwhelming amount of school work I had. So be on the lookout the next few days for loads of bookish posts and even some fun giveaways! After my test today I treated myself to this book for $1!!! What can I say, I‘m a cheap date!!! 😂😂 What did you all think of this book?
Summing up March - a pretty decent month for reading ☺
pickExcellent. Made me want to punch quite a lot of its characters, but the book was brilliant.
Good morning!🌞 Breakfast and books, is there a better way to start the day?
#MarchIntoOz #CryInShame 2 books in which shame is a dominant feeling.
🙏🏻on a separate note , I think I‘m making heavy weather of getting a pic of a book from Litsy data base ( I did look up Litsy on internet, but no wiser) is there a simple way to get the book picture alone from the Litsy data base ? Please & thankyou.
My kids‘ school has a Feed the Body & Feed the Brain drive each year for the food shelf. I love that they include book donations! This gets me back to my culling project. 👍🏾 Except my kids can only carry so many at a time. 😆
pickThe story of the downfall of the perfect family. Or were they ??
#HumpDayPost @MinDea
1. Boots are posted
2. I never ever win 🙄
3. I prefer retail. Cork is a small compact city , so everything is nearby. And it‘s fun to walk around the town.
4. I‘m only on Litsy. It‘s enough for me 👍
5. Only that the bus was an hour late 😡. But I read my kindle. Not too bad really.
Thanks @MinDea & Happy rest of the week Littens ❤️
I have been minding the small girl last 2 Days 😀😵😴😴. Haven‘t read a page , too tired. She is full on , inquisitive four year old ! Why ? Why ? Why ? And so on .. ❤️ So , back to the books .....relaxing time. We Were The Mulvaneys, 👍
Update on We were the Mulvaneys. So far I haven‘t been able to put this book down. The writing is amazing. Now, I am meeting the characters, not as they were at the start , all cutesy cute, and Buttons & bows. & I feel the anger @Centique spoke about. I‘m in a fury 😡. I‘m so mad I may not be able to sleep if I keep reading, But I‘m going to keep reading, because it‘s a really good book. What is wrong with these people . @Cinfhen
Sunday morning reading time. Just started We Were The Mulvaneys!! Off to a good start, but I believe the characters get a bit nasty & unbearable after a while. I‘m giving it a whirl anyway. It‘s good so far
This book recently reviewed for #TuneIntoNovember by @Centique is €1.49 on kindle. ( just saying) I purchased 👍We Were The Mulvaneys. By Joyce Carol Oates
#tuneintonovember #overpowered
This novel is about a seemingly ideal, quirky and sweet family and how they are #overpowered by an awful event. I ended up absolutely hating a couple of them! It‘s beautifully written but tells how families can be awful which might be hard going depending on your head space. Still lots to think about in terms of feminism here. Made me reassess some assumptions for sure 😳
so-soGoodbye Mulvaneys! By the end I disliked all of you.
This book has probably the worst use of narrative point of view ever devised. I'll let you figure out for yourselves what it is. Or maybe it is the best use of a really badly devised technique, since it allows you to forget about it / not notice it and just get on with reading the plot.
@Booksandcooks I present to you the inside of my purse!! 😂😂 I'm a little here and there with my reading, switching between books depending on my mood. Currently I have 4 going (one on audio). When I got my first Kindle years ago I thought I would never carry a paper book again. Alas, I love them too much so now I have them side by side. It's a toss up for me. I love this giveaway idea!! Thank you for doing it!! #6666giveaway
I so look forward to these Sunday mornings when it's just me and my books. The rest of the world isn't up yet. Today is nice enough (aka not hell hot) to sit outside! 😁📖💜💜
Work week is over and I am about to sit right here for a good while and do nothing but read. Finally!!
When you go on vacation and the first thing you go to find is a place to sit and eat dinner while you read. This place is a bookstore with a cafe!!
Beginning this book today. I'm one page in and already want to start highlighting. Have you read it?
"But I believe in uttering the truth, even if it hurts. Particularly if it hurts."
There is no love like the love you have for your first horse but that love is so easy to forget, or misplace-it's like love for yourself, the self you outgrow.
Started this a couple years ago...I really need to get on it.
Joyce #Carol Oates
#12DaysofXmas #Carols @LibrarianRyan
I read this book years ago. It is definitely an example of dysfunctional family! A seemingly perfect family is destroyed by one despicable act of violence. I think it is relevant today as we have seen recently with young men getting away with rape. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it for your TBR. #booksfromthe90s #dysfunctionalfamilies #photoadayNov16
#photoadaynov16, Day 23: Dysfunctional Families
This was one of the first adult literary novels that I bought for myself when I was fourteen and not obligated by school. I still count it as a favorite, and I still think it's JCO's best. The Mulvaneys seem like the picture-perfect family until an unspeakable crime destroys the façade and each member of the family has to find a way to cope.
Opening line:
"We are the Mulvaneys, remember us?"
#bookgnome #Dumbledwarf #wewerethemulvaneys #joycecaroloates
pickJoyce Carol Oates always impresses me with characters that are so well-rounded it seems like they might walk out of the text at any moment and be living breathing humans. The book follows a family over a period of years surrounding an unexpected and tragic event. Oates shows each characters' reaction to the tragedy and how the sum of their responses permanently alters the family dynamic. Oates knows how people work. This book is incredible.
pickJoyce Carol Oates always impresses me with characters that are so well-rounded it seems like they might walk out of the text at any moment and be living breathing humans. The book follows a family over a period of years surrounding an unexpected and tragic event. Oates shows each characters' reaction to the tragedy and how the sum of their responses permanently alters the family dynamic. Oates knows how people work. This book is incredible.
My#TBR shelves are slowly going down. I vowed to get them down to 100 books before I can buy anymore. Right now there's about 121. (I have to get them down because the local college has a book bazaar to raise money and books can sell for $.25 and more)
HBD to Joyce Carol Oates, one of my favorite authors, and one of those authors whose work haunts me, ever lingering at the edge of my work and memory, ghostly, terrifying, challenging. Over 100 books. Writes 8 hours a day. Still doing it at 78.
pickDramatic and sweeping, this book makes you root for a family that struggles with secrets and things unspoken, even when you want to shake them. I love the way JCO writes. Her lovely prose makes this novel less oppressive and more hopeful.
Started this morning. I am not a fast reader. This will take several weeks. But I am always excited when I start a new story.
pan
