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“It's barely any difference at all, and the profoundest difference in the world.“

It made me think, choice and chance. A choice, ever so insignificant, can change the whole course of a life. The same with a chance, being at a certain time in a certain place by chance can change everything. The outcome might be of little difference, but choice and chance differ greatly from each other.

A light pick for this #tob25 entry and Booker prize winner. The writing is gorgeous but I have incredibly limited patience for meditative, not-quite novels right now. I probably would have liked it more if I‘d read it at a mentally quieter point in my life.

#TulinCat is again a wonderful book prop! I‘m pretty sure he ate a hair tie earlier so I‘m really on edge about it, please wish us luck. Kittens, ugh.

Page 39 / printed copy
“You have your life and it can't be moved.“

Page 38 / printed copy

If I imagine being high up and seeing our earth as a marble, would my views on life change?
We're mere specs of dust in the grand scheme of things, our life is a blink of an eye. The universe is vast and we have explored only a fraction of it. But exactly that, this rarity and fragility, it makes our lives seem so peculiar and special.
If you could see the earth from afar, what do you think you would feel or reflect on?

Samantha Harvey's “Orbital“ was a book that instantly caught my eye in one of Berlin's small bookstores. It's a book on the thinner side, but sometimes the most profound ideas come in compact packages. The premise sounds promising. I'll report back once I've finished!

Given the mixed reviews here, I liked this better than I expected to. I think Harvey used the premise of the astronauts on their mission to capture well feelings of powerlessness and insignificance in the face of enormous forces, and feelings at times of the pointlessness of it all. And yet, we continue to believe in the purpose of our lives in spite of it all - it‘s what makes us human. Not the kind of book I look for on the #TOB shortlist tho.

While I absolutely adored the writing style, there's something not quite dreamy about the way this story was told that didn't fully gel for me. At 207 pages, it's a short novel that tried to say too many things and at the same time, was content to meander in doing so. A novella about fifty pages shorter would be a meditation on the perspectives of astronauts, their links and separation from humanity, 1/?

I would never have read this , only for a friend praising it highly. I listened on audible and I found it a beautiful far away poignant meditation on life on earth. It sent my mind in all directions. There are certain parts that will stay with me. I don‘t know how I would have felt if I had read it, but I listened to it on my walks, and also one evening with a glass of wine. Very special book.

Not sure what was missing but I found the pacing to be very slow, adding on to the feeling of introspection and meditation that I wasn't expecting every chapter, every page but there it was time and time again, slow and methodical but it's beautifully written nonetheless just not for me.

@Lauredhel #pantone2025 #popsugarreadingchallenge #25in2025

The most awe inspiring prose.

DNF - Unfortunately, this book did not take off for me.

I loved Orbital. A very poetic thoughtful read…I wasn‘t sure how any book could beat James for the Booker, but now I understand.
Loved Clear also.. another beautifully written thoughtful book.
Every year I read a classic…a chunkster…this year it‘s Middlemarch! This is my second attempt and I‘m determined to finish it..
Happy reading everyone
#fiction #classic #awardwinner #bookerprize

A YA book.

Wow! Beautifully written and extremely timely. This is a love song to earth with well executed verse and subtle warnings about climate change and the hubris of mankind. Admittedly, it took me a few pages to get into the style of the writing, but in the end I was won over by the gorgeous delivery. Must-read brilliance by Samantha Harvey.

Oh goodness, what do you say about the Booker Prize winner? This is beautiful writing and an interesting premise, I get it. However, purely based on what I want from a book, it was a skim read for the main part with my focus being on the rare moments of character and their narratives. I‘d have read a longer book about the astronauts and their back stories but 135 pages about what they can see of Earth from their spaceship was enough for me.

I would have bailed on this if it were not so short and a book club pick. The writing style is the type that gives me a headache. At times it was like reading a list.

#25Alive! Day 21: My #FaveWinterFood is seafood ramen - or any kind of soup, really. 💕

With this, I decided to bail. It‘s too painful for me I wanted to cry. My issue with this novel is the delivery. “Its beauty echoes - its beauty is its echoing, its ringing singing lightness.” 🤨 What?! Is she a disciple of Lawrence Durrell?

Buddy-reading this with my colleague. I‘m about 20% in and I feel that the author is trying hard to impress the readers with her sentence structure. I‘m not impressed at all 😭

#25Alive! Day 13: #Memory of her mother is what Japanese astronaut, Chie, had to remember as her mother died while she was on orbit. Finished reading this novel over the weekend for #ToB25 and will hopefully share my thoughts soon over at GatheringBooks.

Rotating above the Earth in their spacecraft they are so together, and so alone, but even their thoughts, their internal mythologies, at times convene.

#firstlinefriday
#currentlyreading

A short book that felt really long.

Orbital has poignant moments, but, unfortunately, I've already forgotten them.

My final read of 2024. It didn‘t grab me. I can do no plot if the character development is excellent or the subject of interest. It was beautifully written and there were moments, just not quite enough of them for me.

#25Alive! Day 9: This is a #FreshStart for me for the #ToB25 - it is the first time I am joining and I feel like I am crazy for even attempting. The books I ordered are arriving shortly, four have already arrived. This is really turning out more to be a reading tournament, lols. Let‘s see how much I ultimately end up reading. 🤣😂🤩

Can a bad story be beautifully written? This book unambiguously proves the answer is yes. There‘s no story here—which was undoubtedly the author‘s intent—it is simply 200+ pages of people marveling at the vastness of the universe, the wonder & fragility of human existence, seeing Earth from space, & the simultaneous mundanity/extreme risk of living on the space station. Gorgeous, contemplative writing but it‘s oddly lacking in emotional impact.

Read this one to close out 2024 and oof. This just really didn‘t work for me.

Today‘s reading when not working…

Brief yet astonishingly beautiful, this Booker Prize winner follows 6 astronauts from around the world, as they travel not to the moon or Mars or galaxies unknown, but around our own planet. Aboard the International Space Station, they witness 16 sunrises and sunsets over just 24 hours, reflecting on their lives, loved ones, borders, time, and space. Slightly less substantial or radical than I‘d like, but a worthwhile trip all the same!

Set this aside to read to year‘s end/the new year, it should have been the perfect, contemplative book full of descriptions. As mentioned often in the text, the experience of space is both mundane and magnificent and this slim book attempts to convey both. Vignette-style there are glimpses of the six space station astronauts, their thoughts, and even flashes of earth-bound incidents. Best read with a meditative mindset, which I could not obtain.

This is a beautifully written book, and I do understand why it won the Booker, but if you want a plot, don‘t look here. This is simply various descriptions of the Earth as seen through the eyes of 6 astronauts as they complete 16 orbits of Earth. Harvey also provides glimpses into their minds and lives, but nothing really happens in the book.

This book is beautifully written. Reading this you do feel like you are weightless as you float around the spacecraft observing earth.
And the descriptions of the earth are mind blowing. As we travelled over each country and each sunrise and sunset, I could picture them all vividly.
In a time when leaders are calling war on the defenceless over man made boarders, the dialogue around those lack of lines on the earth from outer space is poignant.

Lovely, just lovely. Don‘t expect high drama and fast plot; the writing is quietly powerful. It‘s a good idea to know what this book *is* before reading. #ToBShortList #Dec2024 Book115

Roadtrip to KCMO to catch a flight to New England. I woke up with the bother of a cold; going anyway. I‘ll keep my distance from people, I promise.

🎄#5JoysFriday @DebinHawaii 🎄

Just a few joys that topped my mind these few minutes as I get pretty toes and before I resume reading the tagged book.

I liked the message of this book but found the reading part so boring 😴😴

Just not for me I guess.
#ToB

Winner of the Booker Prize and a love letter to Earth. I enjoyed this quick read that somehow felt slow-paced.

I was looking forward to this one, and it might have been something I would've loved. If I had more time to read it. It's a slow and quiet book, and I should've given it that.

Sometimes we need to take a step back to see the whole picture. Just like we do here. Seeing the world from above, from far away. But we also have this distance when it comes to the characters, which was a miss, at least for me.

Thoughtful and poetic, a love letter to earth while questioning humankind‘s ability to take care of her. Seeing the world through the eyes of various astronauts and a cosmonaut from varying backgrounds was really illuminating and quite different from anything I‘ve ever read. Great on #audio! I will be thinking about this one for a while! #BookspinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

The Booker Prize winner for 2024, Orbital is a work of fiction that is a reflection on the world and how we need to treasure it. This novella follows six astronauts as they live in a space station orbiting around the Earth. Through 16 rotations, they conduct experiments, live together and find themselves drawn to thoughts about home. As they pass over Earth, they bear witness to the beauty, frailty and destructive forces that occur every day.

Sigh. It‘s not you, Orbital, it‘s me. But maybe it‘s you, just a little. (Also maybe audio was a poor choice for me with this one.)

I was enticed by the Booker win and an immediately available audio copy on Libby. This sounded like something I‘d enjoy: meditative and thoughtful. I like meditative and thoughtful. I don‘t need a page-turning plot, but I did want some semblance of a story. Halfway through I‘m still struggling to remember ⤵️

💤

https://youtu.be/FiLkv_JjbBg?si=3xVZFff79eQXeZKE

Introduction

Mystery guest

Weekly highlights

Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller

Orbital by Samantha Harvey

I know I wrote that if you won the Booker, I would give you another chance. So of course you won, but I‘m just not in the mood to do it right now. So maybe we‘ll meet again sometime in the future?

Little bit of a background change for me. I'm at a conference through Saturday. Today's pre-conference program focused on strategic planning. It was actually quite a great program. And the book I brought to read is this year's Booker Prize winner, Orbital by Samantha Harvey.