"The night I watch Athena Liu die, we're celebrating her TV deal with Netflix". #firstlinefridays @ShyBookOwl
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"The night I watch Athena Liu die, we're celebrating her TV deal with Netflix". #firstlinefridays @ShyBookOwl
Caught up with the various threads of this speculative fiction novel at two-thirds of the way through. Hoping for a satisfying ending 💭
The Lorraine Motel, Tennesse
"It's a museum now", Jim said
"And it should't be", Ed said
"Why not?", Quip asked
"Its just a motel. That's what it is. That's all it is", said Ed. "People should rent out that room and sleep in that very bed and step through that very door and stand on that balcony and realise what happened there".
I always think of James Baldwin when I read Black voices and realise how much of my world view is perspective ?
"
Reading on a summer night. At 67% and eager to see how this all plays out...
...but here's the thing, kiddo, there's no full picture, the picture is always filling, filling, let it, don't try to order it or organise it, listen to it, watch it fill.
Beautiful story of individual struggle and the communities that build us back up. A neurodivergent teen mourning his mother, an English teacher longing for a child & a carpentry teacher relocating to a new place. Feeney brings her poetry to their story and it is just gorgeous
I think this might break my heart but absolutely loving the first third...
pickNot at all what I was expecting but I enjoyed this quick read. It felt a bit too plausible to be dystopian, but universal in terms of social inequality and the framing of motherhood. I was initially just drawn to the cover so it was a nice surprise to find a thoughtful novel.
Loving this story of an extended Turkish-Armenian family despite their painful history. Wonderful characterisation, quirky contexts and genuine hurt spanning generations. About two-thirds through & hoping it ends as strongly as it began.
“And you, you do not feel old, despite being as old as God?
I feel as I am. A queen.“
A fascinating portrait of a woman who was banished from her marriage, children and life. Telling her own story in the aftermath of the death of Lear, Goneril, Reagan and Cordelia. A remarkable character rewritten into literature.
“They weren't just on the same team, they were the same player. Their victories doubled, their losses halved; loyalty was as given as gravity.“
“The first time I went in, he didn't notice me because of reading a book. Not regular reading. I mean gone. He and that book were not in this house, nor maybe this world.“ Such a quotable book!
pickNot finished reading for 2022 yet! But confident in these picks. What a great year for reading #readingbracket2022
Brixton Hall / L Moggach
Lamplighters / E Stonex
Record of the Spaceborn Few / B Chambers
Glory / N Bulawayo
Raptures / J Carson
Amusements / A Flannery
Queen of Dirt Island / D Ryan
Small Things Like These / C Keegan
Theres been a Little Incident / A Ryan
Satsuma Complex / B Mortimer
Snowflake / L Nealon
“When I arrived I noticed a colourful red and white striped bicycle leant against the wall by the entrance. It crossed my mind there might be a pissed juggler inside the building throwing his skittles willy-nilly at the light fittings. I would enjoy watching the repercussions of that sort of incident.“
As BobMortimery as it is possible for a novel to get - LOVED that Bob read the audiobook. So good!
You don‘t have to have a reason to be tired. You don‘t have to earn rest or comfort. You‘re allowed to just be.
I suppose at one time in my life I might have had any number of stories, but now there is no other. This is the only story I will ever be able to tell.
Author's note: Some of the dates are misleading; some of the names are lies. I'm not trying to protect the innocent. I'm trying to protect the guilty. You'll understand soon enough.
Great opening - I'm in!
"My name is Mosscap", it said, sticking out a metal hand. "What do you need, and how might I help?" -- I expected to love this and then I DID ☕?
We're both loving today for different reaaons. This is proving to be a gem of a read 🌼
After a busy month, it's bliss to read a good whodunnit with a tiny tiger pinning you to the couch 😁🐾
“What is building, and rebuilding and rebuilding again, but an act of faith?”
#alphabetgame #letterZ
Last day! Thanks @alwaysbeenaloverofbooks , really enjoyed this month 🙂
Completely cheating for Letter X...
“Murder isn't the most logical way to escape a difficult situation. It only leads to a different difficult situation.”
#alphabetgame #letterX @alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
“Every moment happens twice: inside and outside, and they are two different histories.”
#alphabetgame #letterW @alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
“The problem with learning the truth about things is that you lose the confidence that comes from being dumb.”
#alphabetgame #letterV @alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
I remember reading and loving this many years ago. So I read it again and loved it again!
I waited months for publication day and so was quite surprised to find myself telling the audiobook to f**k off on page 2 - I was invested early. I had to put the book away for an hour, but then I listened the rest in a single setting. Beautifully told story of four generations of Nenagh women and their shared lives. Queens all ❤ And written by a poet.
I'm not going to lie, I was definitely drawn to this book because of the cover. But I enjoyed it based on the fantastic premise too - the widow of a ruthless ruler is put on trial and one of her young lawyers tries to uncover the truth of her complicity in his crimes. A touch long but an intriguing read.
“But the relationship with an animal is so much more physical than a relationship with another person. You don‘t get to know a dog by asking how he‘s feeling or what he‘s thinking, but by observing him and getting to know his body language. And all the important things you want to say to him you have to show through actions, attitude, gestures and sounds.”
#alphabetgame #letterU @alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
🌸“The Chicken: As I was walking down Stanton Street early one Sunday morning, I saw a chicken a few yards ahead of me. I was walking faster than the chicken, so I gradually caught up.... At the fourth house along, it turned in at the walk, hopped up the front steps, and rapped sharply on the metal storm door with its beak. After a moment, the door opened and the chicken went in.“ Tales of America
#alphabetgame #letterT @alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
I finally have my hands on this! Waited all summer and very excited to read this next...
#alphabetgame #letterQ @alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
“I lie down and let life leave its footprints on me.”
#alphabetgame #letterS @alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
“If you want to understand any woman you must first ask about her mother and then listen carefully. Stories about food show a strong connection. Wistful silences demonstrate unfinished business. The more a daughter knows about the details of her mother's life - without flinching or whining - the stronger the daughter.”
#alphabetgame #letterR @alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
“There are people, she once wrote, who think that we cannot rule ourselves because the few times we tried, we failed, as if all the others who rule themselves today got it right the first time. It is like telling a crawling baby who tries to walk, and then falls back on his buttocks, to stay there. As if the adults walking past him did not all crawl, once.”
#alphabetgame #letterP @alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
“Teddy has been writing her lovesick notes that she suspects are copied from 100 Best Love Songs of the Past Twenty Years but she thinks that he should get credit for trying. Any man who reaches for a book when he thinks about you is a man you should think about.”
#alphabetgame #letterO @alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
“And in the deepest recesses of his being, Dorrigo Evans understood that all his life had been a journeying to this point when he had for a moment flown into the sun and would now be journeying away from it forever after.”
#alphabetgame #letterN @alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
pickAina and Whitney are nearing parole. After 12 years of living alone on a remote island, they have paid their debt to society and await the Warden's reprieve. But, on the annointed day, he doesn't show up.
Stark and dystopian, this novel uncovers the couple's responses to their situation as well as flashing back to their history and how it led them to this forsaken island. An engaging read...
“Perhaps one day someone from a distant land will listen to this story of mine. Isn't this what lies behind the desire to be inscribed in the pages of a book? Isn't it just for the sake of this delight that sultans and viziers proffer bags of gold to have their histories written?”
#letterM #alphabetgame @alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
“Izz, I've learned the hard way that to have any kind of a future you've got to give up hope of ever changing your past.”
#letterL #alphabetgame @alwaysaloverofbooks
The extreme capitalism seemed dystopian when I first read this. Less & less though
“America is the greatest group of countries in the world because we have freedom. In countries like France, where the Government isn‘t privatized, they still have to pay tax & do whatever the Government says, which would really suck. In USA countries, we respect individual rights & let people do whatever they want.”
#letterJ #alphabetgame @alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
“autumn of 1918, I had just started fifth grade when signs began popping up in windows and on doors, on broadsheets plastered on streetlamps around the neighborhood. Suddenly big public gatherings were being discouraged; taverns, moving-picture houses, soda fountains—even churches—grew empty. Nobody knew what it was exactly, except that it started quickly, with a cough and a fever.”
#alphabetgame #letterI @alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
“Red was the blood of the siblings massacred in the North, black was for mourning them, green was for the prosperity Biafra would have, and, finally, the half of a yellow sun stood for the glorious future.”
#alphabetgame #letterH @alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
Elvis Oke is one of my all-time favourite characters:
“He paid the asked price without haggling. Books, he felt, were sacred and should therefore not be bartered over.“
#alphabetgame #letterG @alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
“All of that will be gone by morning. Instead, they will dissect this last evening for years to come. What had they missed that they should have seen? What small gesture, forgotten, might have changed everything? They will pick it down to the bones, wondering how this had all gone so wrong, and they will never be sure.”
#alphabetgame #letterF @alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
“All of that will be gone by morning. Instead, they will dissect this last evening for years to come. What had they missed that they should have seen? What small gesture, forgotten, might have changed everything? They will pick it down to the bones, wondering how this had all gone so wrong, and they will never be sure.”
#alphabetgame #letterE @alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
I loved this memoir - genuinely heartwarming, brutally sad in moments and gorgeously told throughout.
“Joe O'Reilly is a wonderful man, and a doting father, but he will often side with mechanical objects over his children. If it comes down to a dispute between one of us and a six-foot metal door panel clunking to the ground in a shower of sparks, he'll take the door's word for it every time.”
#alphabetgame #letterd @alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
