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Good Lord that was beautiful.

Emily St. John Mandel gives zero shits about the rules of literature. She just does what she does, paints vivid worlds, dances from vignette to vignette and lets it all play out.

Station Eleven took me quite a while to read, whereas I breezed through this spellbound.

Usually I hate it when a plot wanders haphazardly, but this was such a gorgeously written and captivating read that all is forgiven.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 stars

Thanks for the tags @Yuki_Onna @JenReadsAlot @BrittanyReads 💕💕💕

#thoughtfulthursday @MoonWitch94

I'm hoping to finish The Glass Hotel which is a physical book 😊 It's heading for a 4 stars, although I'm thinking I perhaps should have given Station Eleven 4 stars too because they're about on a par.

I don't mark my books, but I have been known occasionally to dogear select quotes so I can come back to them later. Don't hurt me!!! 😅😅

"Begin at the end: plummeting down the side of the ship in the storm's wild darkness, breath gone with the shock of falling, my camera flying away through the rain -"

#firstlinefridays

"It wasn't the romance of the century, but it didn't have to be; if you genuinely enjoy someone's company, she'd been thinking lately, if you enjoy your life with them and don't mind sleeping with them, isn't that enough? Do you have to actually be in love for a relationship to be real, whatever REAL means, so long as there's respect and something like friendship?"

(Vincent is a lot more pragmatic than I am when it comes to "love" ?)

"What I'm suggesting," Caroline said softly, "is that the lens can function as a shield between you and the world, when the world's just a little too much to bear. If you can't stand to look at the world directly, maybe it's possible to look at it through the viewfinder..."

@squirrelbrain @Caroline2 Was there anyone else buddy reading The Glass Hotel?? I'm about to get started but I can't remember who else was reading along 😅

#two4tuesday @TheSpineView

1) I'm going to say The Glass Hotel & Sea of Tranquility because I need to get better at my buddy reading / book clubbage ☺
My heart is in the realm of the elderlings though. Once I start a Robin Hobb book everything else takes a back seat!

2) Not really - although "general café ambience" can be nice ? Also, you know what I really hate in the background? Whatever Dad is watching on telly ?

Tags below ⬇️⬇️

I read this in advance of our #gladstonerds #bookclub read of Sea of Tranquility. It was a good pick, but nothing like as good as Station Eleven.

When it first came out I read reviews that said the Ponzi scheme storyline was rather impenetrable but I didn‘t find that at all. It was more the characters; they were all unlikeable, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but there was no real back story to make you care about them.

This is a #BlameItOnLitsy read & I completely enjoyed it.
~
I didn‘t enjoy having my tire stabbed six times resulting in a blow out on the way home from work on Friday. However, I‘m a pro with flats & had a donut on in less than 10 minutes. I was at the part where Johnathon calls Vincent into his work, so of course I kept listening.

A story about a Bernie Madoff type character and the affect he has on the lives of Vincent and her brother Paul….both just trying to “get by” and live their lives. Excellent book. So much to think about.

Well, it turned out that my Litsy chums were correct on how spectacular this is. I recall when The Glass Hotel was released that it had received somewhat mixed reviews. This along with reading that it was about a Ponzi scheme, which seemed somewhat boring, led to it lingering on my TBR for the past 2 years since its release. Ostensibly The Glass Hotel is about Jonathan Alkaitis, a wealthy investment manager, at the middle of said Ponzi scheme.

Me finishing the tagged book 😭💙

Miranda had left the meeting ahead of him and was sitting some distance away on an industrial sofa, writing something on her legal pad. No, not writing, sketching...

Not only did Mandel write about a pandemic years before the pandemic, here she is on shipping & supply chains.

Devouring this while waiting for my copy of her newest to arrive.

41/150 It's probably not fair to compare books, but this is no Station Eleven. I enjoyed it for the most part, but I wasn't blown away like the previous novel. The non-linear story timeline was annoying at first, but it quickly grew on me. I liked the diverse viewpoints, even when describing the same events.
4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
14th book for #KickTheSlump @DieAReader @GHABI4ROSES
3rd book for #20in4 @Andrew65

Meh 🤷🏻‍♀️

We did a little shopping today, and naturally that included a book store stop... Can't wait to read these! @LittleMouse5708

'Why don't you swallow broken glass' written on a window of a hotel in rural Canada. A chance meeting with a investor and a new opulent way of life for troubled young women. A ponzi scheme revealed. Lives intertwining. I read this because I vaguely remember reading Station Eleven some years ago.

I struggled a little to get into this novel, but soon I was hooked and flew through the last 2/3! It was interesting how some storylines engaged me more than others. Very reminiscent of Station Eleven (5/5⭐️)with evocative writing and shifting narrators, settings, and time periods woven together to create a multilayered tale. It left me feeling pensive as I considered how even the most insignificant choices shape our lives. #LMPBC #GroupV
3.5/5⭐️

Oh. I. love. it.‼️😍
There are so many layers that it‘s hard to say what it‘s about. It‘s about a girl and the story of her life. That might fit. But simultaneously it‘s about financial transactions and sea-faring. About guilt, decisions and living on the edge of society.

But it‘s never boring because the author intertwines her plot lines cleverly.

The whole art of narration reminds me a bit of Elisabeth Strout but “St.-John-Mandel-style”. 😉

Oh, I love it when there is a circle in a book that closes without you restlessly sitting on the edge of your chair as you read, waiting for this closure of the gap, because at some point you forgot that this one scene, this one sentence, is a loose end whose denouement is actually still pending and open.

“Darkness had already descended on New York, but it was only three o'clock in the afternoon in Las Vegas, where shipowner Leon Prevant, who had had the colossal misfortune to meet Alkaitis in the bar of the Hotel Caiette, was stuck in a meeting that had long outlived its natural lifespan but refused to die.” (p. 259)

⬆️⬆️⬆️ This. 😁

“Since she was seventeen she had been paying her own rent. How could she have become so dependent on another person?
The answer was depressingly simple: she had preferred dependency. She preferred dependency because dependency was easier.” (p. 201)

⬆️⬆️⬆️ That‘s true. And when you realise it, it might be guaranteed to not be a nice finding. On the one hand. On the other hand, you can't always be daring and risk-taking. 🤷🏽‍♀️

“In the kingdom of money, as she called it, there were immense periods of time to fill. immense periods of time to fill, and she had a vague fear of drifting and letting a day pass without a set routine or plan.” (p 78)

⬆️⬆️⬆️ I feel her. I felt the same when watching “Downton Abbey“. I always wondered what they are filling their time with except constantly changing for meals. If you have no job, no chores to do, what do you spend your time with❓

This was my all time favorite reads for #2021. I love this author and I am blown away by the lyrical prose. This comes highly recommended by me because I want to know your opinions! #alltimefave #loved #highlyrecommended How can I encourage people to pick this up?

“I don't hate Vincent, he said silently to himself, I've only ever hated Vincent's incredible luck, being herself instead of me. I just hate that Vincent can drop out of school, move to such a ghastly neighbourhood and then somehow, miraculously, she still manages to be excellent, almost as if the laws of gravity and bad luck and misfortune don't apply to her.”

⬆️⬆️⬆️ If I were more reflected I would feel this instead of jealousy, I think. 😂

And no, I absolutely have no idea, what it‘s all about, I refused and still refuse to read the backside.

I am still a bit sad and frustrated by my last three book experiences but I decided that there must come something better. It can‘t always be flops.

So I will now boil some water, slip under my blanket and start “The Glass Hotel”.

I very much like the front picture although I think they could have done something nicer with the lettering.

Can you believe it❓They finally decided to go and find someone to translate more of St John Mandel‘s books. I absolutely loved “Station 11” and ever since that audiobook was looking for more in every book shop I entered.

As I now needed to stock up anti-pandemic supplies I habitually looked for her books. And see what I found. Okay, it‘s a hardcover, something I usually avoid but I decided “Come on, it‘s Emily St. John Mandel!”

St John Mandel writes interweaving stories about characters that seemingly have no connection but are brought together in random ways. Likewise, TGH is a story about consequences and how our actions inevitably connect us forever. There‘s a lot to unpack from TGH - decisions that haunt you, the act of haunting itself... And while TGH seems to have no clear plot in the beginning, this story escalates and ends in a way that leaves you with chills.

Another of the in-progress books I want to clear from my list this year. #beginswith #glass

Completely unrelated, but just because I like it, here‘s “Glass” by Thompson Square. https://youtu.be/tPd1GIwjRFM

Starting to get good

Hurray! The Glass Hotel has been on my tbr forever! I loved Station Eleven. Looking forward to this one!

Thanks @Littlewolf1 ! Hope life calms down its attack a little and you find some moments to catch your breath soon, my friend. *hugs*

@Alfrazier21 @Readergrrl

#Lmpbc #round13 #GroupV @suvata

We discussed this Bookclub read on Monday night. I haven‘t read Station Eleven, despite it coming highly recommended by @Rissreads . I feel I might have to now that I‘ve read this one. I really liked her writing: well drawn characters, setting & story. 👍🏼

Book club pick. I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would . Great discussion. I‘m going to look out more of her books. Went to library this morning as I saw they had Station Eleven but it wasn‘t on the shelf and they couldn‘t find it!
#joysbooks2021
@MrsMalaprop

A book about a Ponzi scheme and it‘s eventual financial fallout? Yes, please! (Said no one). But…. Both books I have read by this author - this and the brilliant Station Eleven - have had a blurb that did not entice me in AT ALL. Yet her writing! I fell for both completely. This could be a contender for one of my best reads this year…And the cover 💙

Diffused rain.
This is the only way I can describe this book; it covered multiple stories over many years in a jumping fashion and the whole story seemed understandable from the beginning and yet something foggy hung around it all. It is a story that goes along quietly, there is a hush to it. I felt no flares, no passions, no great urgency. I neither liked it nor hated it.

She'd never believed in love at first sight but she did believe in recognition at first sight.

Ding ding ROUND TWO!!!!

I may have gone back into Waterstones and made a couple more purchases... I don't know what happened to "don't buy any more books, read the ones you have"... I think I borked it ???

Oh well...

I enjoyed Dan and Sam by Mark Watson and Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel was very atmospheric... let's see what these have to offer.

I really loved it—Mandel is a wonderful writer. She takes all these various narrative strands and weaves them together so beautifully. They seem so disparate at first, but she gradually pulls them together until they form a seamless pattern and it all makes sense. Highly recommended!

I thought this one was even better than Station Eleven. Nuff said.

I didn't really like this one all too much. I was confused a lot of this book, it kept jumping around a lot. And there were so many characters that I didn't think really fit and I just didn't really care about them. I didn't know where this was suppose to go? I felt the plot lacked, and there wasn't really any where it went, no moral? 2/5 stars

This was weird, is all I can say. #BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

I loved this novel! Even though this is very different from ‘Station Eleven‘, there is common ground. Both move back and forth in time between a variety of characters, both have a disaster at the center and both ask: who are you when everything is taken away? In this timeline, the ruinous effects of financial crime branch out as several mysteries are brought to light. Themes of responsibility, complacency, loss and guilt are explored.