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“We knew it was coming, but we behaved inconsistently.”

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

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Reading Emily St. John Mandel is like falling asleep to the sound of rain: The words wash over you and a steady drumbeat of beauty lulls you into something like perfect contentment. Just reading the loveliness of her sentences would be enough, but then she continues to dazzle by leading your thoughts into new possibilities about the universe, as your mind is apt to drift to questions of cosmic import in the moments before sleep, while those steady drops beat against your windowpane. It’s hard […]

A quietly thrilling side-quel to The Glass Hotel in the key of Cloud Atlas

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

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I would list the HBO Max adaptation of Station Eleven as one of the few adaptations better than the book it came from. I loved that mini-series and thought it both illuminated and improved the source material. I do not feel it is a slight to Emily St. John Mandel to say that, as she was heavily involved in the adaptation. Mandel is one of the most interesting authors working right now. She is enormously talented at world-building and tight, beautiful prose. However, her characters […]

MASTERPIECE.

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

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I was originally tempted to just post this whole novel as one giant (and perfect) quotation. We knew it was coming but we behaved inconsistently. We stocked up on supplies-just in case-but sent our children to school, because how do you get any work done with the kids at home? (We were still thinking in terms of getting work done. The most shocking thing in retrospect was the degree to which all of us completely missed the point.) One day, when we look back at […]

Is life really just an AI simulation?

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

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I have been reading Emily St. John Mandel since her much praised Station Eleven, (I know there are many Station Eleven fans on Cannonball as it was a book group selection.)  I was eagerly looking forward to her latest novel, Sea of Tranquility, and it did not disappoint. Sea of Tranquility is told in a non-linear fashion, like Cloud Atlas and Cloud Cuckoo Land, but since this novel is about time travel, it makes perfect sense to be told that way.  I saw St. John Mandel being interviewed […]

If you haven’t already but you are able to do so, please get vaccinated. And get a flu shot.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

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BINGO – Book Club (CBR Book Club selection for 2020) A pandemic has wiped out most of the population of Earth. Very few survive to see the world collapse, but there they are. Some go wild. Some dive head first into fringe religious belief. Some take refuge in music and theater. Everyone, though, in one way or another, is trying to do more than just survive. Told through a multiple timelines, points of view, and narrative styles, Station Eleven tells the story of how people cope with […]

“I’m no expert, but I remember reading somewhere, every time you retrieve a memory, that act of retrieval, it corrupts the memory a little bit. Maybe changes it a little.”

The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

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In one word: Unexpected Cannonball Read Bingo: Rep I was a huuuuuge fan of Emily St. John Mandel’s “Station Eleven” (I mean, weren’t we all?). It was truly perfection, a triumph in storytelling in my favorite genre of post-apocalyptic literature. And so, I was equal parts excited and nervous to read her new book. Would I be disappointed? I talked to a few people before I read it and they all echoed the same exact thing: this book is NOTHING like the other book, and […]



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