panI hate to pan a David Nichols book but I was just bored. That‘s how I felt through the 2/3rds of the book I slogged through. Until I finally skipped to the end.
I loved his writing but this story just didn‘t work for me. The characters felt real but the synopsis made it sound like a life changing romance. Was it? Not really. It was a teenage romance, first love, & a boring one at that, but not what I‘d call life changing
pickGreat book. Felt surprisingly emotional about the way it ended.
"My twenties - they were brutal. I thought that would be my time. I had all these hopes and expectations of how it was going to be..." - pg 383.
And I wondered if this was the great peril of reunions: the discovery that we aren‘t as essential to other people‘s memories as they are to ours 🌾🎭✨
These two will be my next reads, I will be on holiday from 24th Dec to 3rd Jan, so plan to get in some more books before the end of the year! #tbr
pickJust a sweet, enjoyable book about first love, the power of friendship and people's ability to change. I love David Nicholls! ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I'm not used to having to own garden to sit in! Made myself have coffee and a read before finishing getting ready. It's summer and gorgeous outside, after all. I'm really enjoying this David Nicholls.
so-soI really wanted to love this book, based on the premise (British teens put on summer production of Shakespeare) and the author (Starter for 10, One Day), but it was just okay. I didn‘t care for the framing device at all, and I think the book would have worked better if it had a more chronological plot, without the adult looking back aspect.
'...I wondered if this was the great peril of reunions: the discovery that we aren't as essential to other people's memories as they are to ours.' - pg 376.
"The last night. I always get a bit sad. All that work and it sort of... evaporates." - pg 348.
[last night performing the play]
"...many of the young people I work with, they know they're good, they're told they're good and they will continue to be good. Good, competent and able. Well, bravo to them but really, what's the point in that. To be no good and then to get so much better - that's why we do it. You are why we do it. Without you - what's the point?" - pg 330.
'I felt a sharp twist of panic so strong that I broke into a run... pounding up the stairs and into Dad's room, my father face down and half naked on the bed... feverish and clammy... The air from his lungs was hot and foul with alcohol... Should I call an ambulance?... I recoiled, sat with my back to the wall, hot tears in my eyes. It wasn't right; it wasn't fair to have to deal with these things.' - pg 323-324.
"You can't see it at the moment, 'cause all these things have just gone wrong, and you're nervous and angry about things you can't control and which aren't your fault. But if you... hang on, Charlie. I don't know. I just think there's something inside you and I love it. And you. I love you, Charlie." - pg 298
'We were silent after that. Her intentions were sincere, I knew, but it was undignified to be the subject of a pep talk and I resented it." - pg 297.
' "You've got to stop, the whole education, confidence thing. These people, they don't have special rights or powers... they have advantages & privilege, and money's important, 'course it is. And even if the exams have gone wrong, I know you can still do something brilliant, something that makes you happy... You've got to work it out. But there's a... potential. Stupid word, school-report word, but it's what I mean." ' - pg 297.
' "I just want enough money not to worry about money."
"Me too."
"And a job I like doing."
"Famous?"
"God, No. I mean, famous as a by-product of the work, not for its own sake... Who wants that? I'd much rather just be doing good work. With lots of friends, and in love and having lots of sex. There. Put it like that, it sounds really easy."
"I know." ' - pg 295.
' "... when you make pancakes, the first one's always a bit of a try-out."
"Oh, Christ... I'm the bad pancake."
"it's not bad, it's still delicious, but the next one's better. What I mean is, everyone makes a fuss about the first time, but it's the 2nd or the 4th or the 12th that matters."
...To be lying in a bed with the whole length of our bodies pressed together was, in its own way, just as intimate and startling as the sex itself...' - pg 289.
'She's smiling - is smiling good, or is she trying not to laugh? What's my face doing? Are we allowed to talk? Am I to heavy?... But despite all the anxieties, the overwhelming sensation was amazement; that I should be permitted to do such a thing & with such a person, that she should not just allow it but urge it on. Gratitude is too weak a word... imagine an intense, active passionate gratitude, then that is what I felt." - pg 288.
'On this warm, bright summer's morning a lifetime' s worth of New Year's resolutions were being made at once. An entirely new way of being - it was not something to take on lightly, an overwhelming project really but one I couldn't wait to start...' - pg 245.
'I would be wise too, brave & loyal, a champion against injustice... I'd read more and better books... brush my teeth with zeal and flair, devise a daily fitness regime and stick to it, carry myself differently, confident and straight, and get up earlier so that the days were as full as they could possibly be. I'd buy new clothes, get a smarter look... I'd eat salad. Fish. Water - I'd drink a lot more water, two litres a day...' - pg 245
'I walked through the summer morning with a new conviction... I would become a better version of myself... I had not been the person I wanted to be, but there was no reason why this couldn't change.' - pg 244.
'... a thought that I'd been suppressing all night had finally gate-crashed its way in and, close behind, another, darker thought and I suddenly felt as sober as I'd ever been. The anxiety was physical, as if realising that I'd left a bath running for the whole week...' - pg 241.
'... for some reason I mentioned that I'd screwed up all my exams except maybe Computer Science and Art and he said, hey, well do that then, do Computer Science and Art, why not, if that's what you're good at, if that's where your talent lies, everyone's got a talent, you've just got to find out what it is and go for it and use it...' - pg 235.
'The dancing had made me light-headed and light-hearted so at the bar I found that I could talk to complete strangers, something I had never done before. I talked to a nice woman in her twenties who was training to be a nurse, and I said my Mum used to be a nurse, and we talked about nursing for a while and mothers too...' - pg 235.
'... the greatest lie that age tells about youth is that it's somehow free of care, worry or fear. Good god, doesn't anyone remember?' - pg 163-166.
On understanding Shakespeare...
'"Don't worry if your head hurts sometimes... That's normal. It's like when you exercise and your muscles ache." - pg 127.
'... swore to myself, never again, I would no longer live like this, I would start afresh tomorrow... I would find a way to move through this world, present and alive, find a way to be.' - pg 119.
"We're going to talk about how we carry ourselves, about how we hold ourselves, independently and in relation to each other, how we breathe, how we move through this world, present and alive..." - pg 76.
'We contemplated new professions in the same way that children do: train driver, cowboy, astronaut, could we fit our faces to the role? The answer was invariably no and the exercise was both dispiriting and deeply uncomfortable.' - Pg 68.
' "Being married - it's not as simple as loving one person all your life -"
"But that's exactly what it is! That's what marriage is meant to be. Look -" I grabbed at her hand, peeling her finger back to show the ring was still there...
"Yes, yes, meant to be, yes, but... it's messy and painful and you can have strong feelings for different people..."
... "I'm just very, very tired... I feel too young to spend my days just stuck." ' - Pg 61
'It wasn't just love fading away. Respect and understanding were going too, with nothing we could do to stem the flow...' - pg 57.
'I knew from science fiction, rather than from science lessons, that time behaves differently depending on your location...' - pg 25.
'The notion that these had been the best years of our lives suddenly seemed both plausible and tragic and I wished that school had always been like this, our arms around each other, filled with a kind of hooligan love...' - pg 22.
'I'd also inherited his tendency to stoop and round my shoulders in order to take up less space in the world.' - pg 7
#augustwrapup
I really enjoyed all my reading this month.... so many fantastic books, which makes it hard to pick favorites!
No duds and no DNF‘s so I‘m super happy.
Also it was my first full month on NetGalley - I really enjoyed both Mayflies and The Other Mother.
Had an awesome #zoombookclub discussing Tiny Beautiful Things, and the #bunnyread was so fun!
pickCharlie has just written his GCSEs when he meets Fran and gets blackmailed into taking part in a production of Romeo and Juliet. Over one summer, as his parents‘ marriage falls apart, his father sinks into a dark well of depression and Charlie‘s life spins out of control, he and Fran fall in love. Twenty years later, he revisits that summer in this glorious, funny and heartbreaking novel. Highly recommended. #covid19readathon
pick#popsummer20 #nostalgia
My favorite Nicholls yet. I love that perfect blend of funny, cringy, sad, snarky and sentimental that he has, this one particularly full of nostalgia for first love, capturing that summer between school and college, so bittersweet and life changing.
It‘s 1997, in an unnamed commuter town in Sussex (it could be my hometown.) Charlie is both lonely and bored, and has a pretty troubled home life...(continued in comments)👇
#bookreport & #weeklyforecast
A fun week of reading....
- Pew was subtle and strange, with beautiful language.
-Bunny was 🍌👖 in a really fun way!🐰💕
- Loved the brother sister story of The Dutch House... did a print/audio combo and Tom Hanks was outstanding as a narrator...
-In progress on a nostalgic David Nicholls for my #popsummer20
- My #litsytravellingbook and a Matthew Dicks #ARC up next (whose 2 previous books I‘ve really enjoyed) 👍
I think I‘ve found my nostalgia pick for #popsummer20 😊💕👍
The Guardian review says.... “Sweet Sorrow is typical Nicholls: a little bit funny, a little bit sad with lashings of nostalgia” so it sounds perfect. 👌
I‘ve just started the audio and already loving it... and the era is perfect. It‘s ‘97 and the last day of school at a school disco, where “the Spice Girls playing is a kind of musical water-cannon to get the boys off the dance floor” 😂
This one comes out next week (with a different cover)!
#QuotsyAug @TK-421 #Internet
Interesting view of internet encouraged nostalgia!
Sweet Sorrow | 
