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COVID and Traveling Gave Me Time to Read

Normal People by Sally Rooney

The Fairy Godmother by Mercedes Lackey

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I had started reading Normal People quite some time ago but put it down for long enough that when I was ready to start reading it again, I decided to just start over, and I think that helped my enjoy the book more. The re-read of part of the book helped me understand the characters in a way that I hadn’t the first time I started reading it. At this point, probably most people know the plot. Marianne Sheridan and Connell Waldron grew up in the […]

Love Languages

Normal People by Sally Rooney

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Like many, I bought into what Sally Rooney was selling here hook, line, and sinker. It’s not just because she tells quite a story in a beautiful way. It’s because, like few writers I’ve read, she engages in the subtleties and nuances of human emotion. It’s hard writing any book but without question, there’s a higher degree of difficulty in telling the “how” of it. Romantic novels are familiar in structure: two lovers, frequently star-crossed, try to find peace amidst the many challenges. But to […]

oh Sally, I don’t know about this one

Beautiful World, Where are You by Sally Rooney

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At times transcendent, but at others cringe-worthy. In Beautiful World, Where Are You Sally Rooney crawls so far into her own butthole that she manages to shout out of her mouth “do not look at my talking butthole! You don’t know me!”- and once in a while she says something so beautiful that you wind up saying “thank you so much, butthole!”. Reading this book was a journey, to say the least. Originally, I picked it up on Pub Day and tore right in; I adored Normal […]

Oh just talk to each other, wont’ you?!

Normal People by Sally Rooney

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Connell and Marianne are classmates in high school. He is cool; she is not. He is popular; she is not. She comes from money, he does not. They both are bright. Despite their many differences, they are drawn to each other. And no matter what happens, they seem to always return to each other. Throughout Normal People, we get glimpses of their lives cycling through periods of coming together and drifting apart. This book was infuriating. Author Sally Rooney did a phenomenal job (maybe too […]

Are you Longing for some Longing?

Normal People by Sally Rooney

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This was one of Faintingviolet’s top reads of 2019, and I also desperately wanted to watch the Hulu show, especially after Dustin’s review.  They were both right- this book was great. If you haven’t seen the Hulu trailer, this is a teenage/college age lovestory, set first in Sligo, northwest Ireland, and later in Dublin.  The two main characters are flawed but compelling- Marianne is smart, witty, not particularly pretty and uninterested in what other people think about her.  She also has the fortune/misfortune of being […]

He stares out the windshield and pretends not to see.

Normal People by Sally Rooney

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In this novel, we begin with Connell and Marianne, two teenagers from Sligo on the western coast of Ireland, beginning to know each other in high school. In school, Connell is among the more popular group of kids, who don’t know that in his private life he’s a consummate reader and in spite of his reticence, a smart and thoughtful boy. Marianne on the other, while also being thoughtful and smart and a similar reader, is not popular and in fact is considered uncool and […]



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