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#twentiethcenturyfiction
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The_Penniless_Author
The Pornographer | John McGahern
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Pickpick

A deceptively sophisticated book about unrequited love, self-sacrifice, and the seemingly impossible task of trying to be true to oneself while doing right by others and becoming part of a community. The protagonist is a smut writer dealing with the impending death of a beloved aunt on the one hand and birth of an unwanted child on the other. Full of fantastic dialogue and insightful observations that feel wholly organic, never forced or tacked-on

30 likes2 stack adds
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AnneCecilie
The Sweet Dove Died | Barbara Pym
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Pickpick

I just love the way Pym describes characters and her writing.

At a book sale Leonora Eyre meets Humphrey and James Boyce, uncle and nephew. They get entangled in each others lives, while we also meets other people close to them.

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AnneCecilie
The Sweet Dove Died | Barbara Pym
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The first part of this sentence reminds me of the first sentence in Pride and Prejudice

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PaperbackPirate
Broke Heart Blues | Joyce Carol Oates
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Chipping away at this book, hoping I can review it in time.
Taken secretly by my dh today while waiting for the food to come.

I‘m trying, team #Flerken!

#HauntedShelf

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GerardtheBookworm
Pornographer | John McGahern
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Pickpick

The New York Review of Books usually hits it out of the park with their reprints and this novel by late author John McGahern is no exception. Set in Ireland during the 70's, a struggling writer publishes erotica to make ends meet while caring for his ailing aunt. Enter a one sided affair with an older woman and our protagonist drowns himself in drink as he reflects on his life in this literary book of love, loss, and longing.

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DebinHawaii
The Hotel: A Novel | Elizabeth Bowen
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Mehso-so

#ReadAway2024

Read as a chapter-a-day with the #HashTagBrigade or I probably would have dropped this one. A group in the 1920s on holiday on the Italian Riviera sounds good in theory but this was really a bunch of annoying & unlikable people who mostly whined & talked around things. There was no fun on this trip! Luckily it‘s a short book & @BarkingMadRead is good with entertaining hashtags. 😉
Would I read more from this author? Maybe?🤷🏻‍♀️

BarkingMadRead I‘ve heard that her other books are better, but I‘m scared 😱🤣 (edited) 1mo
DieAReader 🥳Great! 1mo
41 likes2 comments
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julieclair
The Hotel: A Novel | Elizabeth Bowen
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Mehso-so

Elizabeth Bowen‘s prose is exquisite. There are occasional sentences that are absolute perfection. Unfortunately, there were many more sentences (at least for me) that were absolutely cryptic. Even after rereading them more than once, I still had no clue what they meant. And the fact that I didn‘t like most of the characters in this book didn‘t help. ⬇️

julieclair I expected to love this book, thinking it would be similar to Anita Brookner‘s Hotel du Lac. Instead, it was just a disappointing “meh” for me. Of course reading with the #HashtagBrigade makes any book fun, but on my own this would have been a DNF. Thanks, as always, for doing a great job hosting @BarkingMadRead ! 1mo
BarkingMadRead It was definitely tough to get through at times! 1mo
rubyslippersreads For a book that I couldn‘t put down, set in a small hotel, I recommend 1mo
See All 7 Comments
julieclair @rubyslippersreads Thanks for the recommendation. I have never heard of it and it looks great! Stacked! 1mo
julieclair @BarkingMadRead That‘s why it was so fun to read it together! 😆 1mo
mcctrish A #hashtagbrigade book is always ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ but this was only great because of the company and universal confusion 🤣 too bad we aren‘t all rich like the characters and then we could have had it made into a movie 1mo
julieclair @mcctrish The universal confusion was so comforting! 😂 1mo
28 likes7 comments
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Librarybelle
The Hotel: A Novel | Elizabeth Bowen
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Mehso-so

Part of me loved the bits of humor in the book. Another part of me honestly had no clue what was going on sometimes—to be fair to the book, I was distracted a lot while reading, so may have missed info. I plan to read this again in the future to see what I may have missed. But, I leave this list feeling a bit let down. Oh well! #PemberLittens #HashtagBrigade #192025 #1927

rubyslippersreads I don‘t think I‘d reread this one, but I‘d definitely try more by the author. 1mo
Librarybelle @rubyslippersreads I‘d try another one of hers too, probably sooner than I would reread this one. 1mo
62 likes2 comments
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currentlyreadinginCO
The Hotel: A Novel | Elizabeth Bowen
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Mehso-so

A pretty read with the #hashtagbrigade but not my favorite novel. It felt like a play with strange vignettes of an odd vacation.

56 likes1 stack add
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mcctrish
The Hotel: A Novel | Elizabeth Bowen
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Mehso-so

Would have made a better movie! Where is Merchant Ivory when you need him? #hashtagbrigade makes every book awesome though

Bookwormjillk Agree 100% 1mo
32 likes1 comment