48 likes1 comment
So-so
You get almost the whole book from the blurb.
The first 75% was like a middle-grade Shawshank Redemption.
The last 25% was full of unrelenting, unredemptive despair.
My favorite character was the dog. 😕
Work Like Any Other **LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2016** | 
so-soSo-so
You get almost the whole book from the blurb.
The first 75% was like a middle-grade Shawshank Redemption.
The last 25% was full of unrelenting, unredemptive despair.
My favorite character was the dog. 😕
pickThe premise sounds like it could be either sappy or depressing. It is neither. Though there is no character that I would want to invite to dinner (except maybe Maggie) they were complex, interesting people dealing with complicated relationships.
My current #audiobook. Anyone else read this? I think it‘s a #blameitonlitsy, but I can‘t remember who posted it.
pick@BarbaraBB I enjoyed this novel! I appreciated how the characters & situation are morally ambiguous and no sappy ending. 👏🏾 😆 My favorite is Maggie. 🐶
pickI‘ve had this on my TBR since it was long-listed for the Man Booker in 2016. So it‘s possible I‘ll get to the 2018 noms by 2020. 😆😆
It is a thoughtful look into the choices we make, the ramifications they have, and how they affect our relationships. And how even the most intricate relationships can unravel instantly. Very well done.
Couldn‘t have said it better myself.
#5towatch
Great idea @Cinfhen to promote some debut authors! I‘d like to read more by these five:
- Virginia Reeves
- Fiona Mozley
- Nathan Hill
- Yaa Gyasi
- Brit Bennett
About the tagged one: this book is fantastic, it deserves more Litsy love!
pickLOVED. I've been trying to find words for this book since I finished it yesterday. I could talk for days. There's a raw vulnerability to Roscoe's story that this author just nailed. She also nailed the South at some of its worst and best.
Roscoe did a wrong thing and he had to serve his time. But there is so much to this character aside from being a convict. I understand why he did it. And I understand him on the other side. Beautiful work, this.
"This is Kilby Prison. We exercise in a dusty yard. Around it, a high wall is strung with wire, and in that wire is electricity..."
THIS BOOK IS SO GOOD.
pickThis is the very sad story of Roscoe Martin who ends up in jail after a man is electrocuted partly by his responsibility.
Roscoe's time in jail, his dignity, his dreams and frustrations are being told so well, without being too sentimental, it really touched me.
The way the story is build up, the chapters and the storyline: all these aspects make this a really special read, which I won't easily forget. #booker #manbooker
"The State will have their chair." The casual cruelty of the death penalty & how it was ingrained in Southern culture
Southern literature is typically garbage but this is reading well & compelling in its earnestness
#TBRtemptation post! Wow! What an interesting premise, which may be why it's been nominated for awards. Roscoe sees the importance of electricity in the future & immerses himself for a career in it. Then his wife inherits her father's farm & he changes course. But not before tapping into the grid unconventionally. A State inspector finds what he's done & dies by electrocution. Now in prison, he uses his wit. Intriguing! #blameLitsy #blameMrBook 😎
pickDebut novel about guilt and redemption. 1920s rural Alabama. Poverty. Prison. Character-based. Shifting narrative. Vivid. Elegant. Tender.
I didn't realize when I started listening to this that I would have concurrent books about family men in jail. Work Like Any Other is set in the 1920s and is mostly from his point of view. The Best Kind of People is contemporary and (so far) only shows things from the point of view of his wife, daughter and son. Both are good!
Here‘s what our Man Booker Prize 2016 judges have to say about Work Like Any Other by Virginia Reeves…
‘Work Like Any Other is one of the most exciting debut novels of 2016.‘
Will it make the shortlist?
#ManBooker2016 #FinestFiction
Here‘s what our Man Booker Prize 2016 judges have to say about Work Like Any Other by Virginia Reeves…
‘Work Like Any Other is one of the most exciting debut novels of 2016.‘
Will it make the shortlist?
#ManBooker2016 #FinestFiction
pickI started out thinking Roscoe was a hard man to like: single minded and cold; and feeling sorry for his wife. But by the end of the book, I felt sorry for Roscoe and thought Marie was the cold hearted one. Interesting premise and well told.
pickI started out thinking Roscoe was a hard man to like: single minded and cold; and feeling sorry for his wife. But by the end of the book, I felt sorry for Roscoe and thought Marie was the cold hearted one. Interesting premise and well told.
Starting ManBooker number 5!
👯📚📖
Roscoe just has a very straightforward way of looking at the world. 😆
pickOur shadow panel man Booker reviews are up on the blog. Check out how we rated it and where it ranks on our Longlist:
https://thereadersroom.org/2016/08/24/2016-man-booker-work-like-any-other-by-vir...
Really enjoying this, can't believe it's her first novel.
so-soStory is told by a husband and wife in two time lines and everything revolves around electricity. In the story, the writer touches several themes (rural life, social stratification, court rulings, punishment, racial issues, illiteracy, prison, the death penalty, moral dilemmas...)which are only implied and they remain unaccomplished. The main theme is interesting, the story is easy to follow, transitions between past and present are clear, but ...
so-soI did not feel the magic of this book.
I'm done with the first book. Is it cheating if I start with the next today?
#bookisholympics #rioolympics #day1
It's 7.00am and it's time for #bookisholympics #day1 with @TheSpinecrackersBookClub
This book is also for my personal goal #TheManBookerPrize longlist.
Happy reading to everyone 😘
pickWhat defines a man? Is it his vocation? The worst thing he's ever done? His guilt? His redemption? These are the questions at the heart of this somber, poignant, understated story. Throughout, Reeves confronts us with a sense of life's futility and unfairness, but she doesn't strand us there in the darkness. Instead, she offers a glimmer of hard-earned hope. Very impressed with this beautiful, heart-breaking debut novel. #ManBooker2016
This book is slow going so far. And Luna keeps distracting me with her cuteness! 😻 (I think she had just spotted a moth when I took this picture 👀)
One from the Man Booker Long list with jailed electricians and prison librarians.
so-soI love reading historical fiction, and although the narrative of this was decent, I found it lacking in the historical perspective I anticipated. However, I did enjoy the switch between perspective of characters and past and present.
