Bellevue Square | 
The day after watching Everything Everywhere All at Once, I came across this passage in the tagged novel: “it‘s everything everywhere all the time.” 🤪
pickIf you are up for a wild ride, this one is a lot of fun. A warm, witty logic puzzle made up of doppelgängers, autoscopy, murder, transdimensional cookery, and a large number of people with varying degrees of mental health. Bookshop owner Jean is an unreliable guide through the mayhem, but I loved her anyway. #CanadianAuthor
“No-mind is administered in small doses at first. That allows the subject to acclimatize to super-high doses before they get any of the negative side effects like death or sporing.”🤪
When Ian gets home, he encourages the kids to go downstairs and play a board game. This is like asking them to wear top hats, but their father has a convincing way.
May was on its way, thank god. We were getting inoculations of sun. Winter here arrives, stays, persists, goes away a little, then comes back and people start leaping off the bridges. That‘s approximately March, when jumping is at its apogee, but even then, winter isn‘t over. What it likes to do is go away for a week in April and then return for three days and finish grandpa off.
pan4/10
First half of the book is a snooze, last half a lot happens but I felt it was an unfinished or rushed ending. If the intent was to blur the line between reality and hallucinations, the author definitely succeeded. Not something I would read again,
pickBook 82? 3⭐️
I won‘t lie, I‘m still a tad confused by this one? I think if I read it again, a lot more would make sense now!
Jean has been told she has a doppelgänger, but has never seen her. After countless stakeouts, things begin to take a very real and strange turn..
pickLoved this book. Definitely a great read. Some parts we hard to understand, but it is a book that takes you on an in depth look and journey into mental illnesses. I also loved reading a book that takes place in the city I live in, in an area that I adore. It gives me a whole new look into Toronto!
" Navigate a world where half of everything you know is a reflection, a refraction, or a memory"
so-soPhotos from Pinterest and Google Images
Bellevue Square was an ok read. It was well written and had some good twists but I found the middle portion of the book to be somewhat confusing. It brings up a great discussion about mental health and awareness. Just wasn't what I was expecting - which doesn't necessarily mean it is a bad book.
pickI read a few reviews before starting this one and didn‘t think I‘d enjoy this, but I did! Edit: this is my 5th book of 2019!
pickI really enjoy reading novels set in my home city of Toronto. It adds a layer of reality to the story because I know where events are happening. Which for this book it resonates even more. I know the streets Jean walks on. I'm with her as she crosses Dundas into confusion. I knew the park she sat in and wondered what's real. The actual Bellevue park is gone now erased by the city. I wonder if Ingrid had something to do with it?
Putting a pause on this one, to read a few more comics and graphics. Thanks to a quiet house, and some good quality headphones, I am able to tackle these audiobooks at 3x the speed. That‘ll help me get through more of my stack this weekend.
My current time is 10hrs 4mins #24B4Monday
@TheReadingMermaid
Starting the tagged audiobook while I tackle a project I‘ve been wanting to do for a while. I‘m creating a notebook specifically to organize and document my #NetGalley arcs. I have been approved for over 700 books since March, and I‘m finding it hard to track what books I have, when I‘ve read them, and which ones I‘ve already reviewed. This will take me a while to write out, but I‘m hoping to list all the ones I‘ve already #readandreviewed
pan⭐️⭐️ It was ok. Didn‘t really understand the point of it or what it was about.
I love order. I also like shelving and cataloguing books. My first paid job after university was cataloguing books for a school district.
Starting this today #bookclub #canadianfiction #summerreads #ebook
Starting this today #bookclub #canadianfiction #summerreads #ebook
so-soConsuming and confusing! Redhill does a great job of making the reader feel as off kilter and unsure about the nature of reality as his protagonist. I loved a lot of it. Sometimes I felt like skimming through overly dense passages to find out what happens... The end left me searching the internet for other reviews to try to understand what I might have missed. I'm also not totally convinced of his writing from a female perspective.
so-soThis was one of the weirdest books I have ever read. It makes you think like you have a mental illness. I could never tell what was real and what in the main characters head. I couldn‘t even tell you with certainty what her name was. It made me think about mental health and homelessness in a new way. I have a new understanding of how they impact one another. #24in48 #secondchallenge
so-soBetween a so-so and a pan... I just don‘t understand what happened - did any of the events of the book actually happen? Who was real and who was a figment of the imagination? Can anyone explain it to me?
Beautiful night for some outdoor reading. This book is so weird, though.
Oooo! Found this at the thrift store for $3 today, and couldn‘t pass it up. Have any of my fellow Littens read this? Did you enjoy it? Please let me know. ☺️ #thriftshopping #thriftstore #greatfind
bailedI just could not get into this one and found the writing really hard to follow. Just too many good books waiting to be read to waste my time.
bailedA couple months back, I read a novel I initially liked, then admired sans affection, then hated. I wish I'd bailed on it.
BELLEVUE SQUARE has almost nothing in common with that book, plot-wise, but as of the 100-page mark I've got the same vibe off it.
So goodbye, CanLit that seemed to embody several of my literary preoccupations but never spoke to my soul. Others will love you the way I couldn't.
Gonna tackle a loaner book on this Easter Monday afternoon. BELLEVUE SQUARE came from my poshest aunt, who writes her marginalia with a fountain pen.
I must know: HOW do you keep the oils from your skin staining your cloth hardcover books? It is driving me crazy. 🤯 HELP.
pickThis was a really engaging read. The twists in the story were unexpected and confusing at times. It's hard to say much about the book, aside from the evocative description of Kensington Market in Toronto, without spoiling the plot. I'd be really curious to hear from those of you who read it. What did you think?? What even happened in this book? (You could mark your comments with spoiler alerts)
On the streetcar passing through Kensington Market as I listen to a book set in Kensington Market. #cheapthrills #eternalbooknerd
#audiobookwalk. This book is so quirky - I like it but I'm still not sure what's going on! Bonus points for being set in so many familiar Toronto locations.
This quotation got me where it hurts. I‘ve been having some problems with my memory lately and even though I am super passionate about reading I don‘t retain much for long afterwards besides general feelings.
Drinking coffee, listening to my audiobook and watching the snow fall in my backyard before my first client comes. ❄️☕📚😍
Audiobook at the optometrist. I *hate* that machine that puffs air in your eyes! I'm distracting myself with this quirky narrative set in very familiar Kensington Market (Toronto) locations!
#audiobookwalk Can't get enough winter trees! Also - I'm enjoying this kooky book while wondering where it is heading!
I love that the Bellevue Square in this book is an actual park that I've spent a great deal of time in so it's extra fun to picture all the hijinks going on there. Here's the statue of the King of Kensington in the park. He's always in the middle of people's conversations.
#truth "It's much worse."
1. Got my son to bring home donairs. Thanks @MinDea for the prompt to have an interesting (yummy) lunch.
2. I like commenting and getting comments, even better when this leads to conversations that lead to genuine connection.
3. Narrative poetry. I think the one that made me fall in love with the genre was called Life on the Refrigerator Door.
4. Sardines.
5. Coffee
#HumpDayPost
"His philosophy is that as soon as something bad happens, it's already in the past, but good things reach into the future. So he ignores the bad things. I accuse him of toxic positive thinking; he says he's making his own reality to counteract the odds."
Coffee and audiobook before my first client arrives. Watching the rain and feeling grateful that I work from home today ☔☕📚
pickWhat a weird, weird, weird book. I don‘t know what to say about it without including spoilers like crazy. I wish I was in a book club so I could hear other people‘s take on the ending. I would definitely recommend this one, but it is probably not for everyone.
