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Vegetarian
Vegetarian | Han Kang
Winner of the 2016 Man Booker International PrizeNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review - Publisher's Weekly - Buzzfeed - Entertainment Weekly - Time - Wall Street Journal - Bustle - Elle - The Economist - Slate - The Huffington Post - The St. Louis Dispatch - Electric Literature A beautiful, unsettling novel about rebellion and taboo, violence and eroticism, and the twisting metamorphosis of a soul Before the nightmares began, Yeong-hye and her husband lived an ordinary, controlled life. But the dreams--invasive images of blood and brutality--torture her, driving Yeong-hye to purge her mind and renounce eating meat altogether. It's a small act of independence, but it interrupts her marriage and sets into motion an increasingly grotesque chain of events at home. As her husband, her brother-in-law and sister each fight to reassert their control, Yeong-hye obsessively defends the choice that's become sacred to her. Soon their attempts turn desperate, subjecting first her mind, and then her body, to ever more intrusive and perverse violations, sending Yeong-hye spiraling into a dangerous, bizarre estrangement, not only from those closest to her, but also from herself. Celebrated by critics around the world, The Vegetarian is a darkly allegorical, Kafka-esque tale of power, obsession, and one woman's struggle to break free from the violence both without and within her. -- New York Times Book Review, "10 Best Books of 2016"-- Huffington Post, The 18 Best Fiction Books of 2016-- Economist, Books of the Year 2016
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review
Graywacke
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Pickpick

Working through Han‘s novels. They‘re short! And only 4 in English. I started with her International Booker Prize winner. Ok - you might know the theme, the wife who turns vegetarian driving everyone crazy. What you may not know is how fun this book is up front, and how opaque is becomes. We never get her view. Only those around her, and these narrators have serious issues. But also it always undermined what I expected. Thought provoking.

BarbaraBB Great review of the book. I‘ve read it such a long time ago I had forgotten it‘s written that way. 2w
Graywacke @BarbaraBB it came out a long time ago. I‘m really glad I finally read it. 2w
46 likes2 comments
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Graywacke
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I requested Han‘s four English-translated book from my library the morning I found out she won the Nobel. I picked them up today and started The Vegetarian.

Kitta It‘s so intense! But so good! 3w
54 likes1 comment
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ChaoticMissAdventures
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This is so incredibly exciting!!

I absolutely love Han Kangs work, a big congratulations to her for this award!

Centique I am so so thrilled! Human Acts is one of the best and most original books ive ever read. 🙌 4w
ChaoticMissAdventures @Centique amazing book!! So hauntingly gorgeous. The Vegetarian is my favorite, I think it literally changed my brain. I love her writing so much! 4w
26 likes2 comments
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AnneCecilie
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Just announced

Ham Kang is the winner of the Nobel Prize of Literature in 2024

I‘ve not read any of her books, so no is probably a good time to start.

Dilara Great minds think alike! I've just posted about this and wrote more or less the same as you. 4w
sarahbarnes I liked The Vegetarian, but it‘s the only one of hers I‘ve read. 4w
Suet624 I liked The Vegetarian too. 4w
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Liz_M The Vegetarian is a favorite of mine! But some may find it deeply weird and/or disturbing. 4w
youneverarrived I was going to comment the same @sarahbarnes 4w
BarbaraBB I read The Vegetarian and Human Acts. Both were super weird! 4w
46 likes6 comments
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Dilara
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The 2024 Nobel Prize winner is Han Kang. I wasn't expecting it: I'll have to read her now 😁

Suet624 It was definitely a surprise. 4w
Dilara @Suet624 It was! 4w
Jari-chan Well deserved! 4w
Dilara @Jari-chan 🎉 4w
31 likes1 stack add4 comments
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TieDyeDude
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Pickpick

This was a very quick read as it was easy to get lost in the prose. So well written/translated! Originally published in three novelettes, it is interesting to experience the titular character only through the eyes of others.

dabbe 🖤🐾🖤 1mo
AnnCrystal ✨😸💫. 1mo
51 likes3 comments
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rachaich
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Pickpick

Hmm. Really unusual. Such an unhappy story yet wonderfully written.
The individual perspectives are all bleak and the ending is uncertain... May be researching!

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IuliaC
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Pickpick

A very powerful novel about mental illness, childhood trauma and women's condition.
Further to repetitive nightmares, Yeong-hye turns vegetarian. This triggers immense pressure from her family, which determines her to stop eating completely. This original, unsettling and expressive story is organized in three chapters, each showing the drama of her deteriorating condition.

batsy Such a good book! 7mo
IuliaC @batsy it really is good; I liked your review about it! 7mo
The_Book_Ninja @IuliaC @batsy doesn‘t do naff reviews 7mo
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IuliaC @The_Book_Ninja @batsy does some of the greatest reviews on Litsy 😊 Other people's reviews (me included) might look or sound really naff mainly because English is not our native tongue and this complicates things :))) 7mo
batsy @IuliaC @The_Book_Ninja Thank you both so much 💜 You guys always write thoughtful, un-naff reviews ☺️ 7mo
The_Book_Ninja @IuliaC well you‘re doing ok if I may say so…I love reading reviews…it‘s why I‘m here. 7mo
69 likes1 stack add7 comments
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hissingpotatoes
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Pickpick

4/5⭐ Interestingly, I grew to appreciate this book more after finishing it by reading (and disagreeing with) many of the reviews written about it.

Full review: https://hissingpotatoes.com/2024/01/24/review-the-vegetarian-by-han-kang/

DocBrown This was a pick for me as well. 9mo
Librarybelle It‘s probably not a book for me, but someone else I know read it and just could not stop thinking about it. 9mo
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Hooked_on_books I actually love it when that happens. It suggests this would be a good book club or buddy read book. I haven‘t read it but have considered doing so. 9mo
TheAromaofBooks Sometimes I don't really like a book. Then I read the reviews and get annoyed because other people don't like it for the wrong reasons 😂 9mo
hissingpotatoes @Hooked_on_books Yes exactly, this is definitely a book club book (as long as everyone is okay with the content warnings). 9mo
41 likes7 comments
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Hilary427
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Pickpick

I liked it. I have no idea what it was trying to say, but I liked it. The story is told in three parts - I enjoyed the first two. The third dragged on a bit. Very strange, odd book, but worth the quick read! (4)
⭐️: 3.75/5

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kaysworld1
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Finished my reading challenge 🎊

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Staci
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Mehso-so

This is the weirdest book I have ever read and I'm not sure how I feel about it.

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NataliePatalie
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I read some weird stuff in August 😅

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Night_Reader
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Pickpick

3.5/5 🌟

Very weird, graphic and disturbing book. Not for everyone.

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ChaoticMissAdventures
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Pickpick

March Reread (I am rereading 12 books in 2023 to see if they hold up)
I absolutely love this complicated book. Han Kang's writing is immaculate. This is not a book for everyone, reviews are very divided, but I consider this a modern day Yellow Wallpaper. It is brilliant.
The main character has an unnamed mental illness, and symptoms begin with her going vegetarian. The symptoms progress and we get a view of how her family & society treats her.

DimeryRene I have a beautiful tattoo in honor of this book! Women turning into plants!! 2y
ChaoticMissAdventures @DimeryRene amazing 😍😍 I love a literary tattoo. 2y
22 likes1 stack add2 comments
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Shemac77
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Pickpick

Story in three parts told from three different perspective and all entwined. Evocative.

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Shemac77
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Onto the next.

33 likes2 stack adds
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The_Book_Ninja
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Pickpick

This book is beautiful & evocative. The story is small in scale but says so much, powerfully. Especially about mental health. Kang writes men better than many male authors seem to write women. She even writes men better, more honestly, than men too.That‘s important because this novel is,in part, about how men impose themselves on women. Woman who can‘t be what they want to be.Men can stunt growth and brutalise. This is patriarchy vs Mother Nature.

batsy Such a good book. I can still recall certain vivid, disquieting scenes. 2y
The_Book_Ninja @batsy yeah, this will stick with me for a long time 2y
30 likes1 stack add2 comments
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RaeLovesToRead
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#manicmonday #letterV @CBee @The_Penniless_Author

📖 Can I have Love Virtually by Daniel Glattauer? No? That's cheating? OK, then. The Vegetarian it is.
✒ Brian K. Vaughan & Jeff Vandermeer
🎬 Vicky Christina Barcelona
🎤 The Vengaboys
🎶 Va va voom (Nicky Minaj) & Video games (Lana Del Rey)

Stop pretending that you all don't love The Vengaboys too! 😉

vivastory Video Games 👏 2y
39 likes1 comment
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Zamyah
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Measuring Up - ?⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ super cute YA graphic novel about a young Tiwainese immagrant who loves to cook when she discovers Julia Child
The Vegetarian - ⭐️⭐️⭐️ I honestly don't know if this is a pick for me or not. It left me with a "What did I just read" feeling. But I did keep reading. Mostly to find out what happened.

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Kitta
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Very intense and with a trigger warning for eating disorders, but I thought this book was amazing.

#alphabetgame #letterV @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

batsy I thought it was, too! Definitely one of my top V reads. 2y
11 likes1 comment
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Cazxxx
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Up next

StaceGhost I loved this book! Haunts me to this day 2y
Cazxxx @StaceGhost I hope I enjoy it too. It‘s meant to be weird and dark so it sounds like my kind of thing 😊 2y
39 likes2 comments
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cornfedwellread
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Taking inspiration from another #AsianReadathon pick, I made some Korean recipes from Cheap Lazy Vegan this morning. Unfortunately, the protagonist of this book doesn't have access to Rose's quick and filling recipes.

12 likes1 stack add
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RickW
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Mehso-so

I read this based upon recs & the International Booker prize.It is a compelling book with an interesting look into psychosis, PTSD & anorexia. It is a deep look into a dysfunctional family & obvious social inequalities. But there are issues. First there are no decent male characters. The concept of veganism appears to be born out of self trauma and unrealistic. The misogyny is over the top excessive. Not being mean, but it‘s a little over rated.

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samihan
Mehso-so

Strange but good

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she_she
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143

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she_she
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85

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she_she
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76

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cephellapod
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Panpan

I despise this book. I‘m not sure if I‘m too dense for whatever message this was supposed to convey but I cannot see any reason for reading this. It was incredibly disturbing and vulgar for no reason. I planned on finishing this book in a day because it is so short but it took me a few weeks to get though it because I could not get myself to pick it up most days. Just gross and seemingly pointless

RickW Although I didn‘t despise it as much as you, I had issues with it. The sexual abuse is horrific and the concept that there are literally no decent males theough the 180+ pages was insane. The male doctors are bad, the husband literally rapes his obtunded wife, the brother in law saves her only to have sex with her later. And on and on. The concept of veganism was also insanely inaccurate. The book is deep but the characters are shallow. 2y
7 likes1 stack add1 comment
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itsyvetperez
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Pickpick

This book is surprisingly good short read, disturbing and sad.

--4⭐️

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keepingupwiththepenguins
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Pickpick

“Before my wife turned vegetarian, I‘d always thought of her as completely unremarkable in every way.” Isn‘t that just… *chef‘s kiss*? It promises a fascinating story to come. The Vegetarian is “a beautiful, unsettling novel in three acts about rebellion and taboo, violence and eroticism, and the twisting metamorphosis of a soul”, and it‘s off to a strong start. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/the-vegetarian-han-kang/

52 likes3 stack adds
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natashalb
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Mehso-so

Yeong-hye decides to stop eating meat after experiencing a vivid and violent dream. The story follows her decent into madness, culminating in her desire to leave her physical body in its entirety, in 3 parts, through the eyes of her husband, her brother-in-law and her sister.

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Kiralyn
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✨existences briefly aligned✨ I love this little passage from The Vegetarian. It feels like one of those concepts only German has a word for, no? At the start of the pandemic, I began a quote book to house all the little moments that left a mark on me while reading. Trying to pick the habit back up. #thevegetarian #quotebook

Nute Such a cool idea!🤗 3y
10 likes1 comment
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Kiralyn
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Read this a while back. I was really excited because the review I‘d seen had described this book as a great work of feminist range- my interest was piqued. And I did like the book enough to follow through to the end but it felt less like feminist rage unleashed and more like women defeated. So maybe my expectations were tainted by the review but I walked away feeling a bit defeated.

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Victoria6
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sarahlandis
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Pickpick

Tw sexual violence.This book blew me away although I feel it would have been better to read rather than listen to. A sexual, violent story about a woman making odd life choices based on haunting dreams, a tipping point for an unstable family, and the family members whose lives fall into disarray. And perhaps it all symbolizes the silent rage and contempt women hold inside- people, the world, give us violence and sometimes madness is our response

rachelk Great review! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 3y
sarahlandis @rachelk thanks!! 3y
21 likes2 comments
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Thndrstd
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Pickpick

A disturbing story of a woman who, haunted by dreams and dark images, refuses to eat meat and becomes insane in the eyes of her society, particularly men. But her "madness" is a result of a domineering, violent, patriarchal culture. This short compelling novel is sometimes difficult to read, but beautifully written and realized.

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Morr_Books
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Book club's in two days, so I should start the book, but I'm gonna do that poolside.

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britt_brooke
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Pickpick

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Yeong-hye aggressively embraces vegetarianism following a bloody nightmare. Told in three distinct parts, her previously mundane world slowly collapses. The men in her life are either patriarchal dicks or sexually exploitative. It‘s now her duty to defy. Sinking into illness, Yeong-hye becomes nearly plantlike herself, craving sun and water, barely moving. Very poetic at times; bizarre and brilliant.

Suet624 A great review of this book!!! 3y
britt_brooke @Suet624 Thanks so much! 💚 3y
Cinfhen This has been lurking on my TBR forever!!! I should FINALLY pick it up!! 3y
britt_brooke @Cinfhen It‘s a weird one, but an interesting style. I think you‘ll be into it! 3y
95 likes3 stack adds4 comments
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LostInSpace
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Panpan

What did I just read?

Cathythoughts Lovely picture 💫 3y
vlwelser 😂🤣 3y
Reagan Yep. 👏🏻 3y
37 likes1 stack add3 comments
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booksandsympathy
Pickpick

This book was dark. It is less than 200 pages, but the content meant I couldn't breeze through it in one sitting. It definitely makes you think. At times it was very jarring, I think because you never truly see anything from the main character's point of view, all you see are her dreams. It dealt with physical and sexual abuse, mental health, eating disorders, women's roles in society, and bodily autonomy. All in only 188 pages. It's quite a ride!

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booksandsympathy

"She was no longer able to cope with all that her sister reminded her of. She'd been unable to forgive her for soaring alone over a boundary she herself could never bring herself to cross, unable to forgive that magnificent irresponsibility that had enabled Yeong-hye to shuck off social constraints and leave her behind, still a prisoner."

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booksandsympathy

"It wasn't long before she realized something: perhaps the one she'd so earnestly wanted to help was not him, but herself. Was it not perhaps her own image - she who had left home at nineteen and gone on to make a life for herself in Seoul, always entirely under her own steam - that she had seen mirrored in this man's exhaustion?"

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booksandsympathy
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Next book in the #Asianreadathon. When Yeong-hye starts having bloody nightmares, she decides to renounce eating meat. It's a small act of independence, but it interrupts her marriage and sets into motion an increasingly grotesque chain of events at home. The prompt for this is read any book with an Asian protagonist. The country represented is South Korea.

cornfedwellread That one is on my list too! I'm such a slow reader though that I don't know how many I'll be able to finish. 3y
booksandsympathy @cornfedwellread I didn't finish all the books I wanted to for the readathon last year because they were longer books This year, four of my five books were shorter than 200 pages. There are a couple other books I wanted to add in if I could, but won't get them from the library in time. 3y
24 likes2 comments
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bookishly
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Right now, I am page 50 of this book. Currently, I am trying to digest the fact over how this book never came to me before. This book psychological eats you up. The characters are written genuinely that it makes you feel that they are amongst us.
I have tons of expectations from this book. I hope it doesn‘t disappoint me.

sudi Sounds good, Welcome to Litsy 😊 4y
11 likes1 comment
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nicpears

An entertaining read but I expected much more. It started off great and I was excited to see what would happen but as I got to the third chapter I realized that I wasn't going to get what I expected. Maybe it went over my head 🤷🏼‍♀️

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Tanisha_A
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Some used, some new! 🙂
#bookmail

meghathecloud The Vegetarian is on my TBR! The others look great too. 4y
BarbaraBB Great haul! 4y
LeahBergen Nice! 👏🏻 4y
See All 6 Comments
readordierachel Wonderful selection! 4y
Tanisha_A @meghathecloud @BarbaraBB @LeahBergen @readordierachel Thanks ladies! 😃. I got The Twin from your recommendation of Dutch novels, @BarbaraBB ! 4y
BarbaraBB I noticed! I hope you‘ll like it!! 4y
52 likes6 comments
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she.hearts.horror
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Mehso-so

This book left me with more questions than answers.

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coffees
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Both books I'm currently reading are at the store I'm working at today!! Time to dig in and finish at least one 😆😆 #teamharkness #scarathlon2020