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charl08

charl08

Joined October 2016

"Then practice losing farther, losing faster..." Lost without a book. ❤ penguins both ??
blurb
charl08
No Title | None
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Not enough definition to see what's on Rick Astley's shelves... 😕

tpixie 😂 19h
thegreensofa It almost looks like he has faced them all backwards with the page edges facing outward to hide them. But we want to know, Rick! 😁📚 19h
Christine If I had a nickel for all of the Zooms and TV interviews that I‘ve screenshotted and tried to read the book titles…😆 9h
See All 6 Comments
TheKidUpstairs I do love that it looks like a legitimate reader's book collection, rather than a beautifully arranged collection of unread books curated for camera. Some of the shelves we've gotten to see over the past few years of zoom interviews are just too perfectly staged. 8h
charl08 @tpixie @thegreensofa @christine @TheKidUpstairs🎶🎵 #I just want to see the books you're reading... 🤔🤣 6h
tpixie @charl08 yes!! I love trying to get peaks of books in movies, zoom, etc - or in person when I see someone reading!! 5h
40 likes6 comments
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charl08
Continent | Jim Crace
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Such an odd book. His first, seven linked stories called a novel, apparently about a mythical 7th continent.
But is it?

Nice to relax and read it after a browse through an eclectic and small secondhand bookshop (on the Scotland/ Northumbria border).

julesG Oh, lovely pictures. 2d
59 likes1 comment
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charl08
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It was one of those things that simply weren't done. You weren't supposed to cross your legs in the presence of elders, smoke in front of them, or return borrowed plates and bowls empty to friends and neighbours. Women weren't to curse, at least in mixed company, or go out in the street half-naked, and you weren't supposed to break wind in public.

Sonja laughed when she saw the face Gül was pulling.

51 likes1 stack add
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charl08
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New winner of the Dublin literary award.

Join Katja Oskamp & Jo Heinrich, winners of the prestigious 2023 Dublin Literary Award, for an in-depth look at the winning title, Marzahn Mon Amour, in conversation with Rick O‘Shea.

Fri 26 May, 18.15, Speranza - Merrion Square Park
Sign up to join online or in person.

https://ilfdublin.com/whats-on/festival/programme/main/in-conversation-with-the-...

review
charl08
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Pickpick

Fascinating history of witches, or rather, one case where a couple who fell out with each other and their New England community, and were accused of being witches. I could have done with a bit less "imagined" feelings.

But he does acknowledge this in the afterword as a deliberate narrative device, and the depth of historical detail here is fascinating.

63 likes2 stack adds
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charl08
No Title | None
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Is this my favourite? Maybe? 😍😍😍

#bookmark #childrenillustrator #charity

anita_bozi_illustration
https://www.jumblebee.co.uk/bookmarkproject2023

ju.ca.no 😍 2w
55 likes1 comment
quote
charl08

Early that morning, Pynchon guided Jonathan Taylor, Mercy Marshfield and the others through the already busy streets into the square between Treamont Street and Cornhill. Boston awed them as a metropolis of confidence and grandeur - and of varied sounds and smells and colours - compared to the more roughly hewn environment of Springfield. Nervous now, they passed the hulking prison...

Did they? ? I'd have liked a few more "may haves" I think.

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charl08
No Title | None
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Dragon The struggle is real 💚🐉 2w
charl08 @Dragon always! 2w
55 likes2 comments
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charl08
Chick Magnet | Emma Barry

Aw, I liked this. Romance, but with chickens, lockdown legacies and a welcoming small town.

I feel like the publishers missed a trick to photoshop a cute kitten on the cover though. 🤔

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charl08
The Book Case | Dave Shelton
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squirrelbrain Oooh, cute! 🧡 2w
49 likes1 comment
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charl08
Giraffes Can't Dance (Anniversary) | Giles Andreae, Guy Parker-Rees
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Wow! Someone really wants an original giraffe!

#Bookmark #Charity

https://www.jumblebee.co.uk/bookmarkproject2023

RaeLovesToRead Oh wow! There are some of these I totally want! 😍😍 2w
charl08 @RaeLovesToRead me too. Dangerous! 2w
38 likes2 comments
review
charl08
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Pickpick

Beautiful book. So sweet, but so sad.

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charl08
The True Deceiver | Tove Jansson
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Safe in her room, Anna drew up the coverlet, turned on the lamp as the daylight began to wane, opened to her bookmark, and read on. And as she read ... her tranquillity returned, as she had hoped it would

Liz_M I loved this book 2w
Sparklemn Lovely quote (edited) 2w
63 likes1 stack add2 comments
quote
charl08
The True Deceiver | Tove Jansson
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Later she retained a single, grimly valued memory of the children's caricature - the paper they had covered with numbers and driven into the snow woman's heart on a wooden stake. It was, after all, a token of respect from the village. The children listened to their parents' talk and knew she was good at maths. They knew her heart was riddled with numbers.

BarbaraBB Such a wonderful book 🤍 2w
charl08 @BarbaraBB bookclub discussion tonight, looking g forward to hearing more. 2w
51 likes2 comments
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charl08
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Glad not to be around in 17c New England, where spending time by yourself was apparently a suspicious behaviour!

47 likes1 stack add1 comment
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charl08
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Purple book matches the early flowers...

batsy Pretty 💜 2w
Cathythoughts Nice post 💜 2w
53 likes2 stack adds2 comments
quote
charl08
The Pachinko Parlour | Elisa Shua Dusapin
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Low tide. Ducks paddle in the shallow water. The red boardwalks of Itsukushima Shrine flow out over the sand like a carpet of blood. At the entrance, visitors are funnelled past an orange box. A white plastic horse's head sticks out above the box, empty-eyed. I stand on my tiptoes, trying to see the rest of its body, but all I can make out in the gloom is a manger filled with coins.

42 likes2 stack adds
review
charl08
Doughnuts and Doom | Balazs Lorinczi
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Pickpick

Cute GN aimed at YA audience. One of the characters had exam anxiety so hopefully useful for readers going through the same thing, too.

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charl08
No Title | None
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Sadness, I have been outbid. 😭😭😭
Insta is foxandthemagpie

https://www.jumblebee.co.uk/bookmarkproject2023

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charl08
This post contains spoilers
show me
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You little bitch.' He grabs her hair and yanks her forward. The headscarf comes off and lands in the dust. You try that one more time and-'

Something slams into his side. It's Lauren. Dwayne staggers backward, wide-eyed. He faces her and in one swift, powerful movement, she punches him in the jaw.

Dwayne yelps. He raises an arm, but Moonbeam grabs him from behind, unbalancing him. He stumbles, then falls into the dust.

charl08 Joanna feels herself being pulled up: it's Lauren, hoisting her to her feet. Then she stands between her and Dwayne, fury made flesh.

Piss off,' she yells. "This a haven of peace, you dick.'
3w
dabbe 😯 3w
9 likes1 stack add3 comments
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charl08
Lost | Mariajo Ilustrajo
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All about the bookmarks.

This one by Mariajo Illustrajo.

https://www.jumblebee.co.uk/bookmarkproject2023

dabbe 🤩🤩🤩 3w
54 likes1 comment
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charl08
The Things to Do Book | Jennie Maizels
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I want all the beautiful bookmarks, it turns out.

https://www.jumblebee.co.uk/auction/detail/auction_id/6760

TheBookHippie I have a bookmark addiction 😅. 3w
charl08 @TheBookHippie I think at this rate several friends are getting original bookmarks as gifts... Too pretty. 3w
39 likes2 comments
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charl08
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Oh come on, solve the murder already! ⏰️

Deifio 🤣🤣 3w
44 likes1 comment
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charl08
No Title | None
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Charity bookmark auction featuring children's book authors and illustrators.
All too tempting!
https://www.jumblebee.co.uk/auction/detail/auction_id/6760

Magpiegem Just spent lots of time scrolling through these 😂 3w
charl08 @Magpiegem I've been outbid. Probably for the best! 3w
ElizaMarie ooo these are so so cute! 3w
Larkken That kitty! 😻 3w
35 likes4 comments
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charl08
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New word (to me).

44 likes1 stack add
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charl08

Early book burning

...he was tasked with sweeping away Pynchon's dead, tangled arguments, much as the Indians opened forest trails with brush fires, leaving only the healthy trees. This analogy was to be taken literally. The court ordered that a copy of The Meritorious Price be handed to the city hangman. Four days later, on the Sabbath after the lecture, a crowd assembled in the market place to watch the hangman put Pynchon's words on a bonfire.

Suet624 😫 3w
32 likes1 comment
quote
charl08
Paradise | Abdulrazak Gurnah
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It was exactly as it would have been in the stories his mother used to tell him. In those stories the craziness would have been because of love gone wrong, or bewitchment in order to steal an inheritance, or unfulfilled revenge. Nothing could be done about the craziness until matters had been put right, until the curse had been lifted. He wanted to say that to Khalil. Don't worry about it so much, it will all be put right before the story ends.

46 likes1 stack add
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charl08
Crumbs | Danie Stirling
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Really cute magical coming of age GN.

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charl08
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Amazing art project in Buenos Aires: the books were given away at the end!

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/minujin-the-parthenon-of-books-t14343

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charl08
The Shutter of Snow | Emily Holmes Coleman
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Mrs Kemp had a badly used face. Her hair was pulled back from a red and uncomprehending forehead. Her mouth fell into her chin. She marched up and down the hall. Now she was no longer a symbol, she was a cello accompaniment to a dirge. She came like a tiger thieving and walked away from the theft. She came like a panther back and forth, raising a head at the end of the bars.

48 likes1 stack add
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charl08
The Shutter of Snow | Emily Holmes Coleman
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Just realised this might not be suitable for desk reading 😳
#ItsaSign #WorkLifeBalance

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charl08
Time Shelter | Georgi Gospodinov
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Well, if the quiz results say so, then I guess I should?

#InternationalBooker

BarbaraBB That‘s gonna be my next one too, from the longlist! 1mo
38 likes1 comment
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charl08
The Shutter of Snow | Emily Holmes Coleman
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I had to go back to the photo to check I'd added them to my LT catalogue.

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charl08

The ruddy-cheeked vicar came to shake my hand....

He had asked me to visit him the night before, but I told him over the phone that I didn't like meeting strange men. He reminded me that he had met me several times when I was a young girl when I used to go to church with Mum. I told him he still qualified as a strange man, so he agreed to discuss the arrangements over the phone...

Cathythoughts I really enjoyed this one. 1mo
34 likes1 stack add2 comments
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charl08
The Joy of Quitting | Keiler Roberts
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Which prayer has the words "gloryoryories" in it?

This reminds me of my childhood, when I had similar ideas about words we repeated each Sunday. (Or misrepeated, in my case)

dabbe I can only think of a hymn we sang in church, something like; “Oh glory, glory, glory, oh glory to the lamb. Oh hallelujah I am saved, and I'm so glad I am.“ 🤗 1mo
36 likes1 comment
review
charl08
A Fortunate Woman | Polly Morland
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Pickpick

This impressive book manages to acknowledge the enduring weight of Berger's writing. Morland uses her year with an NHS GP to communicate powerful things about healthcare through the life and choices of a family doctor in rural England.

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charl08
A Fortunate Woman | Polly Morland
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No more cinema nights at the village hall, or Pilates With Debs on a Tuesday. No impromptu encounters in the doctor's waiting room or over cider and peanuts at the pub. No Saturday market selling curries and jams, no parent and toddler group at the swings, no Open Mic Comedy or Notable Tree Walks or Weaving With Waste or Ecstatic Awakening Dance. No annual raft race, no spring fayres, no village cricket, no bonfire night, no Santa Fun Run.

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charl08
Trespasses | Louise Kennedy
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charl08
Black Butterflies | Priscilla Morris
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"No access, the soldier says, motioning with his gun that she's to turn around.

He's smooth-cheeked and pink-lipped, no more than sixteen or seventeen. His teeth are skewed. He's a village boy. Certainly, not from Sarajevo.

"Why not?" she says.

He scowls and draws himself taller. 'This is now Republika Srpska. Only Serbs here.'

I'm a Serb.'

He stares at her, seemingly confused.

ChaoticMissAdventures This book is just so good. Heartbreaking, but so well told. 1mo
rmaclean4 I am excited to read this one. Hope it makes the short list. 1mo
50 likes1 stack add2 comments
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charl08
The True Deceiver | Tove Jansson
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Next up for the Lancaster international fiction bookgroup (online).

More info:
https://litfest.org/international-fiction-book-club/

Sapphire I enjoyed this one. 1mo
charl08 @Sapphire I'm looking forward to it, I enjoyed her memoir. 1mo
BarbaraBB This one is so good. My favorite by her. 1mo
charl08 @BarbaraBB looking forward to book and discussion. 1mo
49 likes4 comments
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charl08
A Fortunate Woman | Polly Morland
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She sometimes says to fellow bookworms (who she knows will find the analogy resonant) that her job is like picking your way through some wonderful library with extraordinary tales on every shelf. Reduce any one of your patients to their affliction, the tumorous breast, incompetent heart valve or lazy pancreas, and it's akin to regarding a book as nothing more than paper and ink.

50 likes2 stack adds
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charl08
No Title | None
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Korean bookshops / cafes. Where do I sign up for a tour?

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charl08
Memphis | Tara M Stringfellow
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45 likes3 stack adds
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charl08
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I discovered that if you pressed your face to Mary's face in the Nativity glass, you could peer right through her translucent eye and see New Orleans shimmering below like a moth wing....I saw Faubourg Delassize and Livaudais unfold to the left, Tchoupitoulas Street and the hypnotic ribbon of the Mississippi River to the right....

at dawn, I was astonished by the wattage of color that vibrated in the silken light.

42 likes1 stack add
quote
charl08

"Let's play a game.'
"Okay!" He stopped near the Amin home. "Ram Ram!" he greeted Mrs. Amin. Outside their shanty lay a bedsheet of desiccated chilis, the skins bright but shriveled. Mrs. Amin nodded, then squatted to sift the peppers. "It's not the quiet game, is it? Adults always wanna play the quiet game with me."

"I can't imagine why."

jlhammar That part cracked me up! 😂 Loved the humor in this one. 1mo
35 likes1 stack add1 comment
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charl08
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Karem extracted a squat bottle of clear liquid. A mixture of Hindi and English lettering crowded the label. The only images Geeta initially recognized were a drawing of a palm tree and the ubiquitous symbol reassuring Indians that something was purely vegetarian: a green dot housed in a green square. .... it was made in Bareilly, a city in a northern state of Uttar Pradesh, which was famous for the Taj Mahal, handicrafts and escalating drug abuse.

charl08 Image of Bareilly from Wikipedia 1mo
43 likes1 comment
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charl08
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Book #10 of my read the #Longlist attempt for 2023!

#WomensPrize

LoverOfLearning Incredible cover! 1mo
62 likes2 stack adds1 comment
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charl08
The Dog of the North: A Novel | Elizabeth Mckenzie
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I reached for the strange fixture in the shower that was too modern for its own good. It's my opinion that water taps should not be intelligence tests.

[This is me in almost every hotel I've been in recently!]

TrishB Same! Is there a degree in shower management? 2mo
BarbaraBB Lol, so relatable 🤣 2mo
Ruthiella OMG so true! 😆 2mo
59 likes1 stack add3 comments
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charl08
The Dog of the North: A Novel | Elizabeth Mckenzie
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I knew this beach well.... After one especially bad slick our mother signed us up to clean birds. We dipped hefty brown pelicans in tubs of soapy water, their poor beaks fastened with rubber bands, gently removing the tarry goo from their feathers. We helped with grebes, ducks, murres. You could feel their hearts racing inside their ribs. You could see them wondering if we were going to eat them.

ChaoticMissAdventures I am waiting for this one from the library it looks so good!! 2mo
charl08 @ChaoticMissAdventures I'd you liked her previous one I think you might like this! 2mo
39 likes2 comments
review
charl08
Trespasses | Louise Kennedy
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Pickpick

Fabulous book. Recommended.
(Something in my eye though.)

#WomensPrize #Longlist

Megabooks Definitely an emotional read. 2mo
ChaoticMissAdventures This is on my short list for this month! Happy to see people enjoying it. 2mo
61 likes2 comments