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    Winter

    Winter

    Ali Smith

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    The dazzling second novel in Ali Smith's essential Seasonal Quartet -- from the Baileys...

    Bete

    Bete

    Adam Roberts

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    A man is about to kill a cow. He discusses life and death and his right to kill with the compliant...

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Alice (117 KP) rated Salt to the Sea in Books

Mar 3, 2021  
Salt to the Sea
Salt to the Sea
Ruta Sepetys | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry, History & Politics, Young Adult (YA)
10
8.8 (12 Ratings)
Book Rating
Where do I begin! I love a character-driven book and this was character-driven fiction at it's finest! It's so rare to find a multiperspective novel where I actually care about all of the perspectives being told and truly care about all the characters which is made all the more heartbreaking when you obviously know from the start what's awaiting them all by the end. This is by no means a novel about the Willhelm Gustloff but a story of love, loss, and finding your inner strength set against the backdrop of the worst maritime tragedy in history (but one that not many people even know about due to it happening to the other side). This is one of those books that I just know I'll keep thinking about long after I've read the last page (I stayed up til 1am to finish it) and I honestly couldn't recommend this more.
  
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston | 2013 | Fiction & Poetry
7.8 (6 Ratings)
Book Favorite

"This is a deeply soulful novel that comprehends love and cruelty, and separates the big people from the small of heart, without ever losing sympathy for those unfortunates who don’t know how to live properly. Hurston is a lyrical writer, and lyricism is not usually my cup of tea, but there are talents that go beyond genre and taste. Her greatest claim over me is that she never was ashamed of the novel as a form—she believed in the transformative power of storytelling, and she took risks with sentiment that few contemporary writers are prepared to make. This book is a part of my character now—that’s how many times I’ve read it. I don’t look to fiction to find heroes, but I have to admit that Janie has meant more to me than any other character. She’s singing my song, somehow. And you realize the breadth of Hurston’s talent when you find out how many other people feel exactly the same way."

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ClareR (5879 KP) rated The Truth in Books

Sep 24, 2019  
The Truth
The Truth
Naomi Joy | 2019 | Fiction & Poetry, Thriller
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
So what is the truth?
If you like unreliable narrators, then this is the book for you. The Truth is in fact questionable - not the book, the narrators version of events. What can I say without giving the game away? Well, no one in this novel is someone that you’d want to know, they all do immoral, unpleasant things, and I enjoyed it 🤷🏼‍♀️

I do like an unlikeable main character, and even though when I was reading this, I was telling myself that I should give her a chance, and that circumstances had made her the way she was, I still found her thoroughly unfriendly and rude.

The last third of the novel was particularly good, and really made the book for me. Everything is explained, and it was utterly fascinating: the fact that this is based on a true story blew my mind!

Many thanks to The Pigeonhole and Naomi Joy for reading along.
  
Z For Zachariah (2015)
Z For Zachariah (2015)
2015 | Drama, Sci-Fi
Earnest, very loose adaptation of Robert C O'Brien's novel. A young woman growing up alone after a nuclear holocaust must adapt to the appearance of two men in the valley where she lives.

I say 'very loose' because after a while this essentially bears no more resemblance to the source novel than it does to any of a number of other films in a similar vein: the movie adds a new character (which is a big deal in a story which originally only had two). What follows is thoughtful and well-made, clearly favouring Robbie's attempts to display her range, and the performances aren't actively bad. Even if you haven't seen other films dealing with this kind of scenario (and there have been a few!), the slowness and solemnity of this movie may get a bit wearisome after an while; others may baulk at the lack of an actual proper ending. Passes the time, though.