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4.4 AVERAGE
4.4 AVERAGE
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
I don’t really have the words to wrap it all up in a review…. for my fellow neurodivergent homies, it might be hard to remember all the details that bring things together but most of the stories are captivating on their own. I feel like this is a book I’ll have on my mind for a while.
fast-paced
slow-paced
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
loved this so much more than i was expecting to. i finished it a week ago and have been thinking about it nonstop ever since. this is so rich! i preferred the stories that took place further back in time, but the puzzle pieces of this made it all work together in an inseparable way.
i listened to the audiobook alongside reading the physical copy because for some reason i expected this to be dense, but it was so simplistic and human and real. i highly recommend the audio as it is read by a wonderful cast (nick offerman a particular stand out). but this is accessible literary fiction. i’m a little bit at a loss for words to accurately describe my feelings about this book. it just felt so earthen and tangible to me.
my favorite duos were
August in the Forest : The Journal of Thomas Thurber
Radiolab: “Singularities” : The Auk
i am excited to see how this translates to film.
some of my favorite lines:
“Everything changes for the better with heat and time: onions go sweet with butter; potatoes soften.” pg 42
“If cooking is the funeral, eating is its burial, grace, eulogy.” pg 44
“I have such a sense of loneliness come over once in a while that I don’t know what to do. You were all the World to me and now you are gone.” pg 63
“Hope never wanted to be a mother. She only wanted to be in love and loved, to wake in the morning and put her leg across a man’s stomach and feel his strength and press her chest against his chest, to feel the warmth of the bed and not wanting to leave the bed because of it, to have a man’s beard on her neck, to have him kiss wherever her scarred cheeks were not - on her shoulders, on her calves; thighs. She spent nights thinking about how it would feel to be kissed on the backs of her knees.” pg 79
“It didn’t surprise her that the Bible started with an apple tree. A young tree, maybe no thicker than two fingers, will make apples just as heavy as those a hundred years old. Even the young trees are required to give up fruit.” pg 88
“In a way, nothing had happened. But her past had come so close to her life that it might as well have arrived.” pg 98
“Years out of college, he read that the part of the brain activated for love and the part activated for grief were quite close, physically. Love can be a type of euphoric grief, the author wrote. There are stages: self-delusion, understanding, and - most important - the obsession, in a different way than grief, with another person.” pg 139
“‘I want a home,’ Elizabeth said. “That’s all I think about when I’m lying in bed at night. Like, I want to be ten years old again, on the weekend, on a winter day, wrapped in blankets in my bed and hearing Mom and Dad puttering downstairs. The smell of pancakes. I can’t go back in time. So I have to make it for myself, right? He’e the best chance I have at that, I think.” pg 144
“Here is a question for the reader: Do you owe someone an explanation of a feeling that long ago left you? Does it feel like betrayal, distrust, anger? Or is there another word for that feeling? More here.” pg 155
“For the purity of wilderness to flush the soul as water cleans a festering wound.” pg 223
“Being with you is like putting down something heavy.” pg 223
“…history is personal, even when it isn’t.” pg 264
“The girl moved her foot to the boy’s legs and touched his shoe with her shoe. He drew his feet in, away from her.” pg 287
“She had a friend from the early days in New York, from the accounting firm, who said nearly the same thing about a new boyfriend who was a concert violinist — about his hands, how she loved looking at his hands, knowing how many years had gone into making those hands do something so rare and exact.” ph 287
“‘Yeah. Maybe that’s what fate is,” she said. “A reduced equation.” pg 289
“That feeling of not just being herself but being by herself and with purpose.” pg 304
i listened to the audiobook alongside reading the physical copy because for some reason i expected this to be dense, but it was so simplistic and human and real. i highly recommend the audio as it is read by a wonderful cast (nick offerman a particular stand out). but this is accessible literary fiction. i’m a little bit at a loss for words to accurately describe my feelings about this book. it just felt so earthen and tangible to me.
my favorite duos were
August in the Forest : The Journal of Thomas Thurber
Radiolab: “Singularities” : The Auk
i am excited to see how this translates to film.
some of my favorite lines:
“Everything changes for the better with heat and time: onions go sweet with butter; potatoes soften.” pg 42
“If cooking is the funeral, eating is its burial, grace, eulogy.” pg 44
“I have such a sense of loneliness come over once in a while that I don’t know what to do. You were all the World to me and now you are gone.” pg 63
“Hope never wanted to be a mother. She only wanted to be in love and loved, to wake in the morning and put her leg across a man’s stomach and feel his strength and press her chest against his chest, to feel the warmth of the bed and not wanting to leave the bed because of it, to have a man’s beard on her neck, to have him kiss wherever her scarred cheeks were not - on her shoulders, on her calves; thighs. She spent nights thinking about how it would feel to be kissed on the backs of her knees.” pg 79
“It didn’t surprise her that the Bible started with an apple tree. A young tree, maybe no thicker than two fingers, will make apples just as heavy as those a hundred years old. Even the young trees are required to give up fruit.” pg 88
“In a way, nothing had happened. But her past had come so close to her life that it might as well have arrived.” pg 98
“Years out of college, he read that the part of the brain activated for love and the part activated for grief were quite close, physically. Love can be a type of euphoric grief, the author wrote. There are stages: self-delusion, understanding, and - most important - the obsession, in a different way than grief, with another person.” pg 139
“‘I want a home,’ Elizabeth said. “That’s all I think about when I’m lying in bed at night. Like, I want to be ten years old again, on the weekend, on a winter day, wrapped in blankets in my bed and hearing Mom and Dad puttering downstairs. The smell of pancakes. I can’t go back in time. So I have to make it for myself, right? He’e the best chance I have at that, I think.” pg 144
“Here is a question for the reader: Do you owe someone an explanation of a feeling that long ago left you? Does it feel like betrayal, distrust, anger? Or is there another word for that feeling? More here.” pg 155
“For the purity of wilderness to flush the soul as water cleans a festering wound.” pg 223
“Being with you is like putting down something heavy.” pg 223
“…history is personal, even when it isn’t.” pg 264
“The girl moved her foot to the boy’s legs and touched his shoe with her shoe. He drew his feet in, away from her.” pg 287
“She had a friend from the early days in New York, from the accounting firm, who said nearly the same thing about a new boyfriend who was a concert violinist — about his hands, how she loved looking at his hands, knowing how many years had gone into making those hands do something so rare and exact.” ph 287
“‘Yeah. Maybe that’s what fate is,” she said. “A reduced equation.” pg 289
“That feeling of not just being herself but being by herself and with purpose.” pg 304