The Glass Hotel - May 2023 Book Group discussion thread
11 watchers
Jun 2023
7:19pm, 18 Jun 2023
13,631 posts
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Little Nemo
As promised, my review. My second book by this author and although it's very different I think I liked this even more than Station Eleven. I didn't have any idea of what it was going to be about so it took a while to get used to the structure and different narrators. But almost from the start I knew I was going to enjoy it. I like the way she writes, it feels lyrical to me and sweeps me along. I thought it was a good way to tell the story with little snapshots of lives that were loosely connected. Different parts reminded me of previous book club choices - Then We Came To The End for the financial section and Down To The Sea In Ships for the boat sections so this was a happy bonus  I can guess that the fragmentary nature might be irritating for some and that the story can be seen as slight but for me these were a positive. It felt like something that was broken and reassembled, it's not complete but you have enough of it to know what the whole thing is. I liked the unfinished aspect of everyone's stories. My major criticism is that I read it on Kindle and I think it would have been better as a physical book. It didn't lend itself to short pages as that slightly ruined the reading experience for me. I'm giving this book an 8 and I'll definitely be looking for more of her books. |
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Jun 2023
7:30pm, 18 Jun 2023
13,632 posts
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Little Nemo
I've read back now and I think that everything that Dio hates about this book is why I love it Thank you to quimby for choosing it! |
Jun 2023
7:45pm, 18 Jun 2023
6,255 posts
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quimby
Nice review, LN. I hate reviewing books, it feels like homework (am I going to get kicked out of book club for saying that?), but I agree with what you've said, apart from I read it on Kindle and didn't feel it suffered for it.
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Jun 2023
8:48pm, 18 Jun 2023
79,690 posts
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Diogenes
I didn’t hate it, I just didn’t think it was very good. I gave it a 6.
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Jun 2023
8:59pm, 18 Jun 2023
13,633 posts
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Little Nemo
It's just that sometimes I feel that I read too fast. It's not a problem for most books but when it comes to one I'm really enjoying I want to slow down slightly. Because I'm using my phone for the Kindle edition the pages are very short so this makes it feel worse. Totally just a problem for me
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Jun 2023
7:04am, 19 Jun 2023
13,634 posts
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Little Nemo
Missed your comment yesterday, Dio. Fair enough, you didn't hate it. McG - did you not finish it for similar reasons? It would be interesting to see if there's an overlap in the books you both enjoy. |
Jun 2023
8:20am, 19 Jun 2023
146,287 posts
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GregP
There's always an overlap - on many (most?) books - including this one - Dio and I have opposite views - we still have a bunch of common ground though.
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Nov 2023
1:28pm, 1 Nov 2023
7,833 posts
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westmoors
Finally got this through the library. Really enjoyed it until the final stages; just didn't like the 'ghost' narrating the last part. Didn't mind the loose ends although I would have liked to have known more about what happened to Paul.
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