Starting this tonight! Housekeeping, also by Marilynne Robinson, is one of my favorites. It was the first book I finished this year, and still the best fiction book I have read so far this year. So I'm hoping I will enjoy this as well!
Starting this tonight! Housekeeping, also by Marilynne Robinson, is one of my favorites. It was the first book I finished this year, and still the best fiction book I have read so far this year. So I'm hoping I will enjoy this as well!
#WondrousWednesday @Eggs
1) Tana French, Louise Penny, Ottessa Moshfegh, Mona Awad, Kevin Wilson.
2) I am awful at picking favorites. I'll go with the tagged (genre: literary fiction), but I'm not sure it's my favorite-favorite.
3) Beverly Cleary.
Unpopular opinion incoming: Reader, I hated it. 2 stars because it‘s objectively well written but this was an absolute snooze of a read for me. Let‘s chalk it up to a book-reader mismatch. Live, laugh, love fellow readers.
Enjoyable book that shared the life reflection of an old pastor to his young son. A friend recommended it to me and I enjoyed reading it. It was a beautiful slow moving thoughtful story.
#ManicMonday #LetterG
📖 Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
✍️ Diana Gabaldon, John Green, Neil Gaiman
🎥 Goonies, Gladiator
📺 Game of Thrones, Good Omens
🎤 Gorillaz, Grateful Dead, Green Day, Guns ‘n Roses
🎵 Georgia (Vance Joy), Ghost of You (My Chemical Romance), Glycerine (Bush), Goodnight Rose (Ryan Adams), Golden (Harry Styles), Golden Years (David Bowie), Good Riddance (Green Day), Gunslinger (Avenged Sevenfold), Gypsy (Fleetwood Mac)
A book about an aging Iowan minister writing a letter to his young son doesn't sound like it would be good. But it is. It's really, really good. ❤️
#LetterG #AlphabetGame @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
So I read Gilead finally. I thought it was mostly really good. Very warm and humane. Lots of reflections on life and faith and such. Very poignant as well. Kinda lost steam in the 2nd half though I thought. Still, I liked it pretty well. Give it a B+. For my full review, see here:
https://youtu.be/mOQzHaZWa14
A gentle, meditative read. Many reminders to notice & be thankful for all the beauty in the world. Just the ticket 🌅🌿🙏
✨ I have several! One is to finish books that I‘ve started reading previously.
✨ ACTIVE
✨ Gilead is one of those languishing books. It‘s very meandering! That makes it perfect to dip in and out of while I wait for holds.
#ThoughtfulThursday
Gilead chronicles the thoughts of the fictional Reverend John Ames through letters to his son. Now at the end of his life and hoping to leave behind something meaningful, Ames reflects on the clashing ideals bestowed in him by his father, grandfather, and his wiley namesake, the prodigal son John Ames Boughton. This is a story that considers religion and atheism, war and peace, principle and forgiveness, and creates a town where all bear witness.
Beautiful, meditative read. An elderly pastor, dying in the small town of Gilead, Iowa, 1956, begins to write letters to his 7-year old son, who he hopes someday will read them. The letters discuss his background and beliefs, the turbulent history of his preacher grandfather, and his doubts about a troubled neighbor man who moves back to town. Great theme: appreciate existence in all forms, for existence, in itself, is a sheer wonder.
Just a beautiful book. Through an elderly preacher‘s letter to his son we observe a thoughtful contemplation of the breadth of the human experience - loneliness, faith, joy, heartbreak, awe, anger, helplessness, love. A rich and rewarding read.
Funnier then I expected. The musings of an old preacher. This feels a bit like The Alchemist, one of those books that can feel deep if you read it early in your life. I am too bitter, or jaded, and much to atheist for it to impact me in that sort of way. The writing is good, though the meandering of thought the storyline went through wasn't for me.
Sidenote when the character Glory came up all I could think of was the demon from Buffy 😆
"I'm a traditionalist"
So.. jokes about drunk housewives secretly drinking? That is unexpected.
Is this book supposed to be funny? Maybe my dark humor is at play but so much of this book is a bit ridiculous and I keep hearing myself do one of those phsss laughs ?
Talk about the Flu Epidemic of 1918-20 is surreal now after the last year and a half. It is interesting to stumble across it in a book from almost 20 years ago, and to see masking and social distancing discussed.
I told you last night that I might be gone sometime, and you said, Where, and I said, To be with the Good Lord, and you said, Why, and I said, Because I'm old, and you said, I don't think you're old.
Well. That first line was a choice 😆
#FirstLineFriday @ShyBookOwl
Challenging book club disc. on this one today. It was my fault for not being focused enough with my questions. This is a dense, meditative book without a plot, really. You cld spend an hour talking about just a few pages.
Most interesting to me were the oblique looks at race in 1954 America & the tension between acceptance/appreciation & complacency. Though I was ambivalent for much of the experience, it would be a good book to re-read.
Tagging my next read in a hope that it is picked for #bookspin and I can get #bookspinbingo off to a good start!
July List
27-30 May 2021 (audiobook)
A beautifully written book, superbly narrated. Robinson‘s writing is poetic and the slow, steady pace was a calming antidote to this week - Melbourne entered Lockdown 4.0 just hours after my husband finally sat his last specialisation exams.
For an atheist, the theological sections were hard-going and I am uncertain whether to continue the series. Are the sequels, given they centre on other characters, less religious?
This book takes the form of a letter from a pastor to his young son. He intends for it to be read by the son after he has passed away and the son is grown. I loved the feeling of imparting wisdom, the family history is interesting and I liked the characters. It understandably strays into philosophical and theological ponderings (which on occasion lost me) but I did like it overall ⭐⭐⭐
Part 2 of my splurge at the OP shop recently.
Loving how big and diverse my collection is getting now but I must stick to reading my own books and stop borrowing from the library in order to chip away at my stacks.
So excited about all the possibilities I have to choose from though!
Gilead is a gorgeously written, tender, and rigorously thought out novel, a Pulitzer Prize winner about religion, fatherhood, loss, and forgiveness—all through a meandering letter an elderly Congregationalist minister in 1950s Iowa is writing to the young son he won‘t see become a man. While I appreciated this novel, I was also put off by its theological focus. At its best, this book reminded me of the poetry of Mary Oliver and Wendell Berry.
Today‘s #bookmail made me so happy! I treated myself to the whole set because I loved the covers. Don‘t get me wrong. I‘ve always wanted to read them, but pretty books...
A quiet, contemplative masterpiece! This has been on my #TBR for 9 years but, somehow, this was the perfect time for me to read it. A minister‘s letter to his son for after he is gone may not seem like a groundbreaking work of art but this manages to be just that. It made me think, tear up, ask questions and want to argue with the minister but ultimately listening was enough. If this is on your #TBR , move it up! #BookspinBingo @TheAromaofBooks
Deserving of all the awards it has won! Beautiful writing, wonderfully told story of the main character‘s life - just enough rambling and wandering from topic to topic to give you the feeling you are being told this story. This is a brilliant character study that also gives a real sense of time and place.
Christmas Eve reading! Hank is cozy in his holiday sweater!
Here's 13 of my #20best2020. Seems a fitting number for the challenge.?I did have 20 but was undone by collage making ? But these capture my favourite and most lingering reads of the past "year."
What didn't make the collage: Angle of Repose, Real Life, Know My Name, Housekeeping, A Mercy.
And two rereads: Emily of New Moon, Tam Lin
Thanks for the tag @Centique and @sarahbarnes
Up for the challenge @Graywacke @GingerAntics @Lcsmcat