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It was a close run thing between this and Butter for my favourite read of September, but Booker long-listed Enlightenment edged it for me. Sarah Perry back on form with this tale of friendship, unrequited love and obsession with a hint of historical mystery.

Day 9
#12BooksOf2024
@Andrew65

Glad I persevered but sorry to use such a word where reading is concerned.
My FIL was a Baptist minister and I've good memories of comet Hale-Bopp (I was pregnant), so there's that.
I did enjoy it in the end but it's a qualified pick: the vibe was more 1897 than 1997, which was disorienting, and several minor characters, along with the whole Maria Vaduva story arc, didn't quite come into focus.
I did like Grace and Thomas's complex friendship.

Hate to bail on this as I really liked The Essex Serpent and Melmoth but I‘m just over 100 pages and I don‘t feel invested at all and I‘ve sort of been just putting off reading it.

Have to say I'm relieved to have finished this book. The synopsis was just what appealed but I found much of the story quite dreary and struggled to keep motivated. I liked some of the characters driven sections but overall it didn't entice.

I seem to be in the middle of a bunch of titles that I would describe as "meditations." This one is relatively interesting, spanning the course of 20 years and dealing with events that happened well earlier, but it's also rather slow and kind of frustrating in the way that life is often frustrating...a whole lot of tedium punctuated by getting sort of what you want but not quite. So, a qualified pick for me.

Hhhhmm, I found this quite irritating on a few levels. I didn't connect with any character, didn't feel the enlightenment. It was a disappointment as I adored her other 2 books.
However, the writing is good. I think this is a bit of a hit and miss with a lot of people.
#Booker #Longlist2024

A book mostly about unrequited love, but also about how choices effect your life, faith, being different, astronomy and friendship.

Thomas is an older journalist and writer who gets interested in astronomy and a female astronomer that supposedly hunting a house. Grace is several decades his junior falling in love for the first time.

Another #Booker book read

I feel this is a Marmite book, people will either love it or hate it.

I‘m definitely in the “love” category.

After reading in fits and starts around work and other commitments during the week, I devoured the last 200 pages this afternoon. The writing style won‘t be too everyone‘s taste, but I loved the slightly old-fashioned vibe to it. I loved the characters, I felt their pain, their loss, their happiness.

My top read of ‘24 so far.

“It was the restless period between summer and autumn, when it was never possible to guess the weather, or dress correctly for it.”

Describing Britain right now!!

#booker #booker2024 #longlist

Just finished my 4th. I‘m of different minds. One is to take it as a tale on its own terms, slightly removed from reality. The other is to be annoyed at how it simplifies relevant concerns of reality. Another is just to acknowledge it was ok and be done with it. And another is to embrace Thomas and Grace, give them a pass, and a hug. I am not enlightened, not wowed. Not carried away. Maybe slightly provoked.

The Booker judges are trying their best to kill me

Local newspaper columnist Thomas Hart is given a map of the stars + starts an obsession with a local woman who disappeared 100yrs before after recording an unknown comet. Sarah Perry weaves a story of unrequited love + loss of friendship, over 20 yrs from 97 to 2017, centered around the Bethesda Church Community of an Essex Town. I enjoyed this multi layered tale as T negotiates relationships including his yng friend Grace, + the long dead Maria.

My next book. At 24 pages in I can confidently say that whoever compared this with Byatt‘s Possession is nuts. ☹️🙂 It‘s told as a tale, complexities white-washed out. I‘m adapting, shouldn‘t be hard.

#booker #booker2024 #longlist

I am in love with Thomas Heart. Strongest novel of Sarah Perry's that I have read. I hated Melmoth and thought The Essex Serpent was interesting. This book took my heart. The exploration of different love and the nature of time. This is one I want to reread. The way she would blur timelines as if "all life happened at once." 4.5 ? This would be on my #booker shortlist. @squirrelbrain @JenP @AnneCecilie @charl08 @JamieArc @BarbaraBB @Graywacke

Mixed feelings about this #Booker24 longlisted novel. I've not read Perry before as the book blurbs didn't sound like my kind of book. After the early chapters, the archival/astronomical mystery pulled me into the story.

I assume she's reaching for deeper things about love and reciprocity given how much that came up, but this felt a bit forced and a stretch for me as a reader.
So not one I'd shortlist (but the panel may well! @squirrelbrain )

If I were her I should go home and take my papers with me.

What is Essex, when there is Bucharest?

(Wikipedia image)

'Not much of a party, either' - Lorna sighed and let out gusts of her powdery scent - 'does she have no friends at all? Still, where two or three are gathered together, there is Christ, in the midst.'

Nathan glanced quickly at the door, as if the Redeemer might have arrived in a taxi, delayed by the traffic, and ready to insist on good behaviour.

I was so torn as to whether to give this a pick or a so-so. I went into it expecting not to like it, as I didn‘t enjoy The Essex Serpent at all, which many say is the author‘s best.

There was nothing that I loved about it, but I didn‘t hate it either. I‘m glad I listened on audio as it just burbled away in the background whilst I was commuting, but then I could have skim-read more in print.

My biggest issue was that it still felt very ⬇️

With Booker-nominated Enlightenment Perry returns us to Essex and her winding language that almost feels nostalgic in itself, managing to encapsulate hope and sadness for unrealized dreams throughout. Our desires to “do some great thing before I die” illustrated by our looking to the heavens and contrasted against our worldly worries.

Expanded thoughts in my YouTube review:
https://youtu.be/7j3-SfA9osk

How many photos do I have of random Enlightenment quotes because it‘s a library book (not counting anything jotted in the reading journal)? No comment.

Started a new book last night; it was long listed for the Booker this morning

This book is quite different to Essex Serpent. If you loved Essex Serpent‘s raw vitality & personalities conflicting - think of this as melancholy, solitary souls looking for life‘s purpose amongst small tragedies. Its nowhere near as epic and there‘s a ton of philosophising. And i loved it, but in an entirely different way. Perry‘s writing and characters just appeal to me, even when the storyline isnt always smooth. ⬇️

I haven‘t read as much this year, but this is the best novel I‘ve read so far. The story mostly follows Thomas Hart, who inadvertently, becomes enmeshed in astronomy with the passing of Hale-Bopp and the history of a mysterious woman from the past. Like Essex Serpent that this has ties to, it combines science & religion to talk about life‘s greatest mysteries and relationships with each other. Beautiful novel.

I just love Sarah Perry's writing... It probably doesn't matter what she writes, it's just the way she writes... I loved this and I loved the connection with 'The Essex Serpent'. She writes so sensitively about religion and faith- her characters are so human and real. I heartily recommend everything she has ever written 🐍🐍💚💫✨🌘🌌🌠