Juliet, Naked | 
7-31-23: My July 2023 Book Wrap Up! Only 5 books this month 😢 Between our move to Philadelphia, helping out at my daughter‘s doggie daycare, and getting used to being in a city again, I just didn‘t have the usual time to read. I‘m ahead of schedule to meet my goal for the year but I was hoping to surpass it. We shall see!📖📚💖
pick7-29-23: My 77th finished book of 2023! I enjoyed this although nothing really happens. It‘s a story about a couple whose relationship has run it‘s course. The husband is more interested in being a fan of a recluse recording artist. After an album is released and a review is posted the actual recluse contacts the wife and a new relationship blossoms. Soft and sweet with no big reveal or surprises. ⭐️⭐️⭐️📖#️⃣7️⃣7️⃣
so-soI had high hopes for my second selection by Hornby. Tucker the reclusive rock star is hiding from the world, Annie is only slightly happy about her life with Duncan, a Tucker super fan. A newly released unfinished album, and an unexpected email is the catalyst for new beginnings. I didn‘t really like the main characters. I did finish but there was little satisfaction. Interesting story, some humor but all in all it was a one note novel. 2+ ⭐️
pickI loved rereading this. The characters are so well captured, everything feels so realistic and relatable. I love how Hornby is able to tell a story about ordinary people and show the drama in their ordinary lives. The ending may be a bit anticlimactic, but I appreciate the realism in that.
#manicmonday #letterJ I'm posting late, but my whole week is manic, so 😁 @CBee
📖 Juliet, Naked
✍️ Jókai Mór
🎞️ Jurassic Park
🎤 John Paul Jones
🎵 Jailhouse Rock by Elvis Presley
bailedWhile I'm usually taken with Hornby's witty, comic style of writing & his plentiful quirky characters, I couldn't help feeling underwhelmed as I shut this book for good. Juliet, Naked is a typical Hornby novel, humorous & mellow, with sharp-witted observations & interesting characters, but something was missing. Annie's character was a little two-dimensional & I found myself deliberately skipping parts. Marmite! You either love it or hate it!
so-soI liked Nick Hornby a lot when I was younger. I thought his newest was pretty mediocre, but decided to read this one...which has been on my shelf since 2009. It wasn't great either, but it made me laugh a couple of times.
Okay; I‘d best get cracking on my IRL book club read as our meeting is this week. Nick Hornby is always a speedy read, though. 👍
Happy Thanksgiving!I hope it's a lovely holiday with good weather, great food and family!
1.Cheating a bit and naming 4-Pratchett,Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie,Jane Austen, Nick Hornby
2.I love Serafina Pekkala!And Stelmaria,from His Dark Materials.
3.Will Smith's memoir sounds interesting!
@Eggs
so-soThis book felt pointless and maybe that was the point and I missed it? It‘s basically three adults making bad decisions with no real character growth at the end. I did enjoy certain parts but overall combined with the ending it just fell flat.
1) Loved this book AND the movie.
2) Anywhere if I have a heated blanket, a coffee, and some cats!
3) Kim K memes give me life
4) Probably baby yoda because hot choccy cracks me up, but I would throw both away to keep Smudge the cat
#friyayintro @howjessreads
so-soWell written, entertaining, definitely not a must read, but a good call when you are looking for an occasional subway read.
pickI've liked other books by Nick Hornby better but I enjoyed this one. The movie is more charming - it stars Ethan Hawke and Rose Byrne after all - and hopeful than the book but it stays fairly true. There's a few more ideas about art and fandom that are explored a little more in the book and the end is a little messier and open to interpretation.
I really enjoyed this book. Haven‘t seen the movie yet. The part of the book that I related to the most was the description of the pretentious fans on the website for Tucker‘s music. Hornby did an excellent job of capturing the contempt the “super” fans have for casual fans. How they want to flaunt their superior knowledge of the subject but are deathly afraid it will get too popular and be subsequently ruined.
so-soI enjoyed it but probably spoiled it by seeing the movie first. The movie is fairly close to the book, so not great surprises there. However, I preferred the ending in the book as it seemed more realistic to me. I think if you haven‘t seen the movie, read the book first! Hornby writes of men behaving badly quite well 😀
So a few years ago, I read How to be Good by Nick Hornby and I could never fully express how much I hated it. So much, with passion. But then Juliet, Naked was turned into a movie and they cast my unrequited teenage crush, and I broke my solemn vow to never again read a Nick Hornby book. I haven‘t even seen the movie yet but I am loving the book. So thank you Ethan Hawke.
so-soI enjoyed this book for the most part. Similar music-obsessed, man-child character that we are used to seeing from Nick Hornby. The story was pretty good and I actually did laugh aloud in a few places. And then in the last 30 pages or so it was as if the author got bored and just wrapped it up with a ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and an “I don‘t know, how do you think it ends?” If you like Hornby in general, you‘ll probably like this one, too.
Weird. Just finished a Dickens biography yesterday. And in the Nick Hornby I‘m currently reading, one of the characters has a thing for Dickens. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
pick
I just learned about this. Who has read this book? Thoughts? Are you excited for the movie?
It's never to late to make a new start (is that Paul Weller?)
Getting ready for the movie...
"For the better part of forty years she had genuinely believed that not doing things would somehow prevent regret, when, of course, the exact opposite was true."
#riotgrams 26. Set in your city or state - I haven't read this yet, but it takes place in PA. Bought used, and, flipping through, it looks like someone underlined and took notes. Not sure if I can handle that. Might need to get a different copy...
pickHornby on familiar territory exploring male obsessions with music, this time a reclusive Dylanesque figure called Tucker Crowe. Manages to be both very funny and sad and more perceptive about relationships than many weightier tomes.
This sort of thing annoys me much more than it really should, I know ;)
I'm in hour 9 of my @24in48 so I should probably be reading "The Ninth Hour" by Alice McDermott—but it's been a stretch of heavy topic books, and that one looks rather serious, as well. So I'm mixing it up with a lighter novel by Nick Hornby. This one was borrowed/recommended by my sister. Apparently apparently there's a movie adaptation coming out soon? #24in48
#🎼 #emojinov
As Annie‘s relationship with Duncan wanes she rebels by posting a critical review of the musician he reveres, Tucker Crowe. When Tucker emails her in response the two start corresponding regularly. I love the way Nick Hornby writes about music (and books and soccer and really anything at all) and this may be one of my favorite of his books.
pickI didn‘t end up liking this book as much as I thought I would. It took a while for me to sink into the story. But the audiobook was quite good and really added depth to the characters. 3/5⭐️
It's funny, bc we deliberately picked baby names with historical/literary references. (Eleanor and Juliet)
But it's CRAZY how often I see their names in book titles. Now racking my brain for any titles with "Jessica" in them... ???
She was trying to say that the inability to articulate what one feels in any satisfactory way is one of our enduring tragedies. It wouldn't have been much, but it would have been something that reflected the gravity and the sadness inside her. Instead, she had snapped at him for being a loser. It was as if she were trying to find a handhold on the boulder of her feelings, and had merely ended up with grit under her nails.
So it's not about what you do. It can't be, can it? It has to be about how you are, how you love, how you treat yourself and those around you, and that's where I get eaten up.
For the best part of 40 years she had genuinely believed that not doing things would somehow prevent regret, when, of course, the exact opposite was true.
Nothing moves books up to the top of the #TBR pile like finding out it's being made into a movie or series.
#TBRtemptation post 3! A humorous look at music, love, loneliness, promises. Annie and Tucker strike up an email correspondence and eventual relationship, two lonely people looking for more out life. Tucker's a reclusive singer-songwriter languishing in rural Pennsylvania. He's about to release a stripped-down acoustic version of his greatest album, "Juliet, Naked", and this may bring some purposeful redemption to them. #blameLitsy #blameMrBook ?
"That, my friend, was your moment in the sun. Nothing quite as good will ever happen to you again."
Coming back to give this one another try, while also soaking up some sun ☀️
Some book spines with #stripes. #day15 #junebookbugs
#riotgrams day 2 # yellowcovers - turns out I had a lot of yellow downstairs. Spines count too right? And so many great books are in this stack!
"...she wanted to be held by someone who would never question the embrace, the why or the who or the how long."
Catching up on some much needed literary world news whilst enjoying the beautiful library. If you are a university student go down to your library and find out what they have, you might just find something wonderful. Happy Sunday! 😊Also if anyone would be so kind as to explain how I could get involved with a book gift club, that would be spectacular!
