A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel | 
It has been a while since we have visited our favorite flea market #usedbookstore. I found 2 for my #tbr. The tagged and Moon Shot. I really need to start The land of Stories series. Lois Lowry is a big yes for us. Felt good to go out and just be in the bookstore.
pickFirst book of the year and once again I‘m pretty sure it will be my favorite of the year. (Happened last year, too with Leave the World Behind) In fact this one is going on the FAVORITES OF ALL TIME list! What a book. I hated for it to end, as evidenced by the 10 days it took me to complete it.
Special thank you to @TheSpineView who sent this book to me in a special Litsy swap package.
“It is the business of the times to change, Mr. Halecki. And it is the business of gentlemen to change with them.”
“Fate would not have the reputation it has if it simply did what it seemed it would do.”
“I suppose a room is the summation of all that has happened inside it.”
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#CurrentlyReading #Bookstagram #Fiction #AGentlemanInMoscow #AmorTowles #FiveStars
January bookclub read and what a treasure this book is only 105 pages in and so many favourite passages already ! Happy 😃 new year folks
What books do you recommend the most?
Mine are:
✨The tagged book. It‘s probably my favorite book!
✨The Calculating Stars
✨Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk
✨Good and Mad
✨The Handmaid‘s Tale
✨The Night Circus
✨Educated
✨Daisy Jones and The Six
✨The Sun Down Motel
✨The Island of Sea Women
#SundaySoapBox @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
Can you play? @andrew61 @Bookworm54 @Reggie @catebutler @LokiDokey
pickThis was my husband‘s choice for a couple read, but I got obsessed and finished before him. I really enjoyed how Towles incorporated Russian history around the Count‘s story. I definitely will read Rules of Civility by Towles next, which is on my Kindle.📚📖
so-soI have read this somewhere.....an unshakeable thought throughout my reading experience of Amor Towles' A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW. That "somewhere" being a style of prose attempting to evoke Ishiguro. Now....that doesn't mean I dislike the book.... I'd rather say...... I'm underwhelmed. Because, the book itself is alright, in fact, more than alright. (Continued in the comments)
For eventually, We come to hold our dearest possessions more closely than we hold our friends. We carry them from place to place, often at considerable expense and inconvenience; we dust and polish their surfaces and reprimand children for playing too roughly in their vicinity-all the while, allowing memories to invest them with greater and greater importance.
Finally starting the tagged book today. I can‘t wait. The Hopefuls was good. I love behind the scenes politics stuff, even fictional. #TBR #FirstBookof2022 #lastfirst @BookNAround
Ok, this was not easy to narrow down - I read some stellar books this year! Here are my #Top21of21, although there are quite a few others that could be on this list as well. It's been a great reading year, and yesterday, I read my 90th book, which makes it my biggest reading year ever. @Cinfhen
Thanks for the tags @Liz_M @Nute and @Graywacke
pick5 💫 This novel demonstrates how an author can use anything as creativity. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and included some holiday back drop of Scrooge. Now the Count a man of gentlemen is jailed in a hotel. He tells stories about different characters that enter his life while he lives there. I found multiple quotes that I'm keeping for personal use. #BookSpinBingo #WinterGames2021 #TeamGameSleighers @TheAromaofBooks @StayCurious #LMPBC #GroupK
panThis book dragged on and on forever. I don‘t see what the appeal is. I‘ve heard of this book being book club picks and I don‘t get it. I was so bored it took me a year to get through.
pickI knew from the first chapter that I was going to adore Count Alexander Rostov! I don't know how Towles makes 462-page book feel so expansive when it all takes place within the walls of a single building, but he does. The characters are endearing, and the humor is smart and often unexpected. This is my 2nd Towles, having read and loved Rules of Civility. I am officially a fan. This was my November #bookspin @TheAromaofBooks
pickI‘m VERY late to the party here and just got around to reading this book. It was indeed as delightful and charming as I had been told. And hopeful. After spending the last year and a half with Covid reducing my outings and altering my world, maybe the Count‘s circumstances resonate in a different way. It feels timely.
I'm a little irrationally excited about this month's bookspin 😆. These 2 have been on my shelf for quite a while and I've wanted to pick them up SO many times, but my tbr piles are SO big, and my reading challenges and book club selections usually take priority. Now, they are up! Woo hoo!
A king fortifies himself with a castle, a gentleman with a desk.
pickI wasn‘t sure how a story about a man under house arrest would keep my interest, but it certainly did. Under one roof, the protagonist made the best of his circumstance and somehow still found lifelong friendships, family, and love. And it wasn‘t without drama too, because no matter where we are in life, we have to accept the good with the bad. The ending was perfect too, and I absolutely loved these characters.
“If one does not master one‘s circumstances, one can be sure to be mastered by them.”
“…life does not proceed by leaps and bounds, it unfolds…”
My next listen, whenever my heart recovers from the last one 😭
pickThis is my favorite book of the year so far. I already have plans to re-read it. My god is Towles a talented writer. That ending was so unexpected, and I admire the craftsmanship on the part of the author and his characters.
pickSomeone described this novel to me as “cozy” and I think that stands up. The principle characters are likable and the ambience of the story makes one wish to read by the fire while listening to the light rain of winter and the tide coming in (in other words great for Seattle weather). I liked it as much as I cringe to admit liking something endorsed by Oprah. Anyway, the plot has a bit of a Shawshank Redemption vibe if that‘s not too spoilery.
Diving right in on this cloudy Saturday morning. 🤓 I'm heading out to a Friends of the Library book sale in a couple hours! 📚📚
pickI love Towles‘ writing, his character-driven stories are so well drawn. This tale of a true gentleman under house arrest as a Former Person after the Russian Revolution appears at first to be a gentle tale, but scratch the surface and the effects of Soviet communism are revealed just beneath.
This was August‘s #BookSpin. I‘ve got a little behind!
so-soI belong to that distinct minority who did not love this book. It was long and tedious for the most part. The sociopolitical commentary flew right over my head, made my eyes glaze over, and my attention wander. It wasn't a bad book per se, it just didn't hold my interest. The Count's philosophical musings often felt like I needed to have quite a bit of a background on Russia's history to be able to understand half of what's written on this book.
pickI was given this book. Once I started reading I was drawn in completely. The structure was elegant, the characters compelling, the prose beautiful. It is not a stretch to say I loved it. Towards the end, the gears in my head began to turn and I was able to put together several clues and hints that had been innocuously scattered throughout the book. I wanted the story to continue on forever.
#WondrousWednesday
1. A Gentleman in Moscow
2. 👍👍
3. I definitely read more historical fiction than any other genre.
@Eggs
pickThis is my 4th time trying to read this, and I even thought about bailing again. Then I got to the end and wow, I want to read it again. #FoodAndLit #Russia #OneDayLate
pickThis one took me a while, but it was soooo good. I will have to reread it sometime when I can devote my full attention to it. I can‘t imagine being sentenced to live in a hotel for the rest of my life. As a healthcare worker, I never even sheltered in place during the pandemic, but I can only imagine how stressful that was for some! #booked2021 #setinunpeacekeeperscountry #litsyatoz #t #doublespin #january
For what is more versatile? As at home in tin as it is in Limoges, coffee can energize the industrious at dawn, calm the reflective at noon, or raise the spirits of the beleagured in the middle of the night.
#CuriousCovers Day 7: Gray
This was one of the best books I read last year, coincidentally right before the pandemic started in the US. Reading about the Count‘s experience of being imprisoned in the Metropole Hotel in Moscow during first 30ish years of the Soviet Union, was especially prescient going into a period of stay-at-home/shelter-in-place orders and work from home.
This is my plan for #FoodAndLit for June. I love borscht, so I'm looking forward to making it later in the month. @Butterfinger @Texreader
pickIn the last few weeks, this book made me feel warmer during my tea times. and made my lot of evenings less boring
In this journey, while enjoying this beautiful plot of the story, you will also learn to be a Gentleman!!
so-soOkay Littens, what do we think of this book? I‘m struggling through, at 60%, and the only thing that keeps me pushing forward is the bookclub discussion we are having in a few days. There is nothing bad about this novel...it‘s just not very engaging either. But maybe I‘m missing something?
I so agree- my favorite restaurant 🤍
https://www.russianteatime.com/
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"Manners are not like bonbons, Nina. You may not choose the ones that suit you best; and you certainly cannot put the half-bitten ones back in the box.”
― Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow
#MayChracters 8* #mannerly
@Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
