I can read books like I‘m in vacation but how I miss the summer, warmth and chill vibes of summer.
I can read books like I‘m in vacation but how I miss the summer, warmth and chill vibes of summer.
I listened to this purely because I'm in love with this narrator but even she could not make me love this book. I hated 90% of it. There was a fleeting bit of inspiration almost at the end but that's it. Otherwise, I felt the protagonist was a selfish individual, especially to her children, to whom she put in harm's way many times throughout the book. Then it ended abruptly and left me highly annoyed. Blech. I do NOT recommend
I fell in love with a narrator for the first time and now want to read everything she narrates. This one has been on my TBR for a bit so I'm excited to start it! 🎧📖
Dave Eggers is one of my favorite authors and this one was no exception. His descriptions of Alaska and the events in general made me feel like I was there, that I was part of the journey. This one was so well written and definitely one I‘ll have to revisit down the line.
4.5/5
Started this one yesterday on the drive in to work. Really enjoying it so far.
This book was wild and crazy, heartfelt and suspenseful. It should not have worked! But it absolutely did. I loved it, every minute!
I liked this book, some good humor that is so true. Mom quits her dental career and takes her kids to Alaska to start over. The only item that made me think about the wrongness in this scenario is that the kids seemed like they just wanted their normal school going life back. Kids are kids and they adapt but maybe parents need to think what's right for all involved?
The core of this novel is about the relationships between Josie and her two young children and how she navigates the need to provide safety + guidance for them when her own sense of self is profoundly shaken. The Alaskan wilderness was the perfect backdrop to this haphazard, terrifying, beautiful, and brave journey that the most vulnerable of us will relate to. Josie doesn't have all the answers, yet we can watch her continue to create them.
You can see where my priorities are: 🥓!
Lazy brunch + reading time before heading off to see Spider-Man!
Arugula + lentils + halloumi! YUM.
"She went to Panama, and felt briefly vital, but then tired of shitting in a hole and sleeping under a net, and wanted to be in London. In London, she wanted to be in Oregon. In Oregon she wanted to be in Ohio, and in Ohio she was sure she needed to be here, in Alaska, and now, she wanted to be where? Where, for fuck's sake?"
Does this resonate with anybody? Where did/do you want to go to change your life?
Lunch + Book!
Liking this book so far. The main character in the book, Josie, wants to escape her messy and overwhelming life and so she takes her two kids on a road trip through the state. I think Alaska holds this ideal of wildness, isolation, and simplicity for me, and so I can relate to the urge to flee somewhere completely different for a while to explore myself and put things back together again.
Seriously one of my favorite meals ever. Brown rice + curried lentils w/ coconut milk + halloumi. With A TON of cilantro. Also we are slowly working on a coconut and vanilla stout as well 😋.
Again, I want to rave about this cover!!
New day, new run, new book!
Added another 3 miles to my week's mileage today. I'm feeling good! Here's my lunch: arugula and pickled red onions, with some cornmeal pizza. I also tried cutting a mango - IT'S SO HARD!!
I don't really know why I picked this book to read next. I had a lot of other ones I've been eyeing on my shelves, but this cover and the promise of Alaskan wilderness and a family road trip won me over today.
Bin in Alaska, mit Josie und den Kindern! Unser Aprilwetter ist genau richtig für dieses Buch ?! *brrrrrr*
I love Dave Eggers' ability to create such wonderful characters in his novels. The two children (Peter and Ana) in this story are absolutely delightful - and very funny. They are with their mother, Josie, who is running away from her mess of a life and doesn't know what to do going forward. Being together and growing together does have a way of healing things for this small family though...
I enjoyed this more than other reviewers I have read and more than I thought I would. I thought it really captured being lost on a personal frontier, not an epic frontier, but one in which one has to narrow down what one is meant to be doing "now".
Text from me to friend on meeting up to see a movie: "Dan is meeting me at the library in 10 and we'll get an Uber from here to the theater to meet you."
Response from friend: "Is this another two stacks of library books situation?"
Me: "Nooooo...but, well, I do have 10 minutes."
"The father of her children, an invertebrate, a loose-boweled man named Carl...". I read that and I said to myself , I must read this book.
Love this idea for giving back to the community. Plus, cute 📸
If you are on the Atlanta area, sounds like fun!
I've always liked Eggers but he's flipped the travelogue narrative and made it stressful. Engaging and interesting characters pile on bad decisions as they traverse Alaska during the height of wildfire season. That's one way to grow, I guess.
Really struggling to get into this one. Anyone else read it and have thoughts?
Oh no. A leaf blower. Nice to discover this paragraph in Dave Egger's novel.
So far so much of his writing about a single mother has registered as true.
Went on a shopping spree today and ended up with these two lovelies!
Picked up two holds at the library today. My library has a flawed book locker system and it recognizes that I pick books up, but they rarely move to my checked out list, so they end up dropping off my account completely and don't produce a due date for me. Way to go, MoCo. Oh well - excited to finally get the latest Dave Eggers! 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻
i may give this one another shot in the future... The writing was great but the story itself was hard to get invested in, I think because it seemed bogged down with so many tedious details; where they went for lunch, what they each ate, what they each drank, how much it cost, on and on. I started avoiding the book instead of being excited to read on. A sign that it's time to bail 😖
Been a fan of Eggers for yonks. I didn't particularly enjoy The Circle, but he's such a wizard with language that I'd happily read anything he puts out.
I found myself HATING Josie. What kind of mother does this to her kids? Completely uproots them from their lives, forces them to commit crimes with her and seemingly neglects them at every opportunity. Leaving them with strangers and putting them into dangerous situations all because her life is messed up...Get a grip lady! I didn't feel like she learned anything and I didn't really get much out of this.
2⭐️'s
"She was the purest sort of materialist: she wanted things, but didn't care about things."
Difficult to read this book when I just want to keep staring at the beautiful cover!
Finally it's Reading Week! I've survived six years of second year at uni, which has proved harder than the last, and after a train journey with Egger's newest novel as my company I'm in a tiny cottage in Cornwall with my family for a week of long windy beach walks and seaside villages - and reading of course! So glad to have started the week with this beauty: it's a wild and raw story, which is exactly what I need at the moment. A stunning tale.
Kind of slow start. Finished today, on the beach, in October, in Michigan! Beautiful, warm, breezy day!⛱🌤
that delicate balance of using my tiny amount of free time to read but also give my middle child the attention he wants 😊
I really enjoy Dave Egger's style of writing. He writes the women's POV so well. I thought this was extremely fast paced and I definitely rooted for the main character.
I love Eggers and have liked all of his books, but I'm not gonna lie, the first chapter of this was all kinds of sloppy. Hope it improves.