Jessica
5 full stars. Loved all the points of view. Other times I might find it distracting or become impatient for the plot to move forward, but like [b:Night Wherever We Go 61054121 Night Wherever We Go Tracey Rose Peyton https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1658243344l/61054121.SY75.jpg 96220119], the multiple viewpoints insists that you see everyone as central to their own story. The righteous hatred of the toubab is never trivialized, but just lives and breathes right next to a desire to live. Recommend.
A depressing, juvie version of Shawshank where the innocence and hopefulness of children is used against them and “twist” just makes everything that much more depressing. So hard to read stories like these and know that none of this is in the past AT ALL. But important to read them and carry them with us anyway.
My terminal online-ness for the last decade made it so there were very few of the modern anecdotes with which I was not already familiar. There were some historical stories that were new. The story about Onesimus blew me away. I will try to forever remember his name in place of Edward Jenner's. So many POC and women (Rosalind Franklin, Vivien Thomas, Katherine Johnson are the ones I know simply because their stories have been popularized) whose contributions have been suppressed because of caste. I wonder if we will ever escape it?
Which is the question that is never quite answered. Can we escape it? Or is the in-group/out-group drive (which (I think) underpins the creation of caste) ultimately inescapable? I hope not.
Really a 4.5, rounded down. I usually do not go in at all for books with no plot. And I don't think I could have finished this book if I wasn't reading and listening at the same time. For the graveyard scenes, I would read and listen at the same time. The narration adds a lot to these sections. For the historical part, I would turn the narration off and just read those parts. The narration was really distracting there. Felt very Neil Gaiman to me. But overall it was like nothing I have ever read before. I think I will think about it quite a bit.
Really, really good. Going to read [b: The Candy House 58437521 The Candy House Jennifer Egan https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1642351487l/58437521.SY75.jpg 86707532] soon for sure. Winesburg, Ohio-like collection of stories/vignettes/snapshots. Each one definitely stands on its own, but is tempered by what has come before.
Short for a King book. I am just not the target audience for this book. Feels like it was written for all the people that live near King that he has watched become FOX-ified in an attempt to snap them out of it. But fails at that because it just is too short, you don't invest in the characters and so it just doesn't ring true. Only lost a couple of hours to read it. Definitely would not have pushed through if it was a standard King tome.
There was a time (a thousand years ago) when I could claim to have read everything that Stephen King had written. Generally, horror is not my genre, but his writing is so clear and easy and even though the stories are sometime monstrously long, you never seem to get bored. As a writer, King does not ever waste your time. Fairy Tale is no exception. You forget (if you ever knew) just how fine a line there is between horror and fairytales. Fairy Tale will remind you. A nice follow up to Starling House. 4.5 stars really. Definitely a very satisfying read. If you don't read King because you think of him as only horror, but you do love modern fairy tales, this book was written for you.
I thought is was going to be religious when I started it and thought it would be too much for me, but it is more spiritual than religious. It is about the vanishing beauty of the natural world in our backyards. It is poetry in the form of prose. Really lovely meditations. Audiobook narrated by the author. Deepest southern accent in the world. A+
Rounding up from 4.5. I honestly would view this, Station Eleven, and The Glass Hotel as a triptych of stories. Recommend reading in order. They share a common structure of weaving stories away and then together again. Characters float from one book to the next – the same but different. The three together are lovely. Also, I want to go to Vancouver Island.
Took me quite a while to finish this. Very contemplative. I thought I would be put off by the religiosity that is inescapable as a preacher writes a letter for his future son knowing that he is dying, but it was literally never preachy. And the reflections really transcended any particular religion and asked only that you appreciate the beauty and gift of life. Really lovely. Not sure I will rush to read the follow-ups, but definitely parts of this book will stick with me as I strive to have more gratitude and peacefulness in my own life.
