City of Girls | 
pickVivian was a character so far removed from me and her story was so different from my own. Yet, I grew to like and appreciate her as she grew to like and accept herself. The whole story is told to an unknown person named Angela, this kept me from enjoying the story as much as I could have. But, I did like the way Angela was revealed in the end.
At each of our book club meetups, everyone brings 1-4 books to swap and whatever‘s left over is donated to a Little Free Library. This was my pickup from todays event. 💖
It‘s so fun to find out through social media later whose swap you ended up grabbing. 🥰
pickI enjoyed this story from start to finish. Elizabeth Gilbert captured the essence of Vivian Morris. Reading about New York City and its charms was interesting. There was very little if anything I would change in this novel. 4.5/5
pickI loved every minute of this story and all of the strong female characters. I also love reading about this period in time and especially NYC!
April snuck up on me! I haven't done a photo challenge in a minute but this month's prompts kept catching my eye so I'm gonna give it a go 😊
#SpringSkies Day 1 #BkClubRead 📚
We read this for my book club last year and had a great discussion!
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Eggs
I‘m posting one book a day from my massive collection. No description, no reason for why I want to read it (some I‘ve had so long I don‘t even remember why!) Feel free to join in!
#ABookADay2023
pickRead this with my bookclub last month and we all loved it! (A rare accomplishment) It was full of complicated characters, lush settings, and interesting historical bits. It is Vivian's story as a young adult moving to NYC in the 1940s, living and working with her eccentric aunt in her rambunctious world of theater. She learns hard lessons along the way and reflects on decisions and mistakes, looking back now as an old woman.
April's update to my fiction #readingbracket2023
This was the hardest month yet!! Ugh so difficult. But City of Girls was such a great historical fiction story with interesting characters, it won the month's spot.
Peter Darling is still leading for the year because I can't stop thinking about that wonderful trippy story.
pickI very much enjoyed this book. That Vivian, she was a bit of a one, wasn‘t she!! 😄. I loved the era it was set in, the theatrical side and I just thought it was well written. I usually enjoy stories written in the first person, I feel like I‘m getting in their head! I‘d recommend it as a great read. Highly recommended. 5⭐️
bailedI was a fan of eat pray love. But 10%... 20%... into the book and it wasn't catching my interest.... after getting about 50% through the book, realized I didn't care about finishing it. Stopped listening and over a week went by without giving it a thought until the library due date reminder came in.
More #audiocrafting today. Trying to wrap up the projects I started in 2022 before beginning new ones. This design is by Hook Line & Tinker. I‘m absolutely obsessed with this little gnome. It‘s giving me nostalgic David the Gnome feels.
How many littens are on #storygraph ? I apparently created an account a ways back and completely forgot about it. It‘s pretty great though! Being able to mark a book as owned was life changing for me. If you‘re there, come find me!! I am planning to keep goodreads going too. Double the work, double the fun in this case.
Check out my book review of City of Girls on Book Interrupted‘s Manuscript Mondays. https://www.bookinterrupted.com/post/manuscript-monday-city-of-girls
pickI really enjoyed this book. I loved how the book was narrated through a letter and you only find out what relation the person has to Vivian until the end of the book. I also loved the picture of the 1940‘s that is painted in the book. I was transformed into Vivian‘s life. The relationships in the book have so much depth and complexity. It made each character lovable with all their faults, mistakes and regrets. Each one could be their own novel.
bailedBailed 29% in I tried but just not the book for me😣
First book of #20in4 special #readathon
But I am also reading The House at the Cerulean Sea
Loving that one!
pickEnjoyed this very much! I am a fan of Gilbert‘s writing. I enjoyed the fashion, the drama, and the walk through history from a NYC perspective from WW2 on. Should be a great book club discussion. (Wise choice on my part to pitch my #BookSpinBingo spin book 😉) BINGO! 4th row, BINGO! 3rd column.
@TheAromaofBooks
“Resist change at your own peril. When something ends, let it end.” LOVING this book, so many wonderful characters.
Happy Birthday Pie! 🥳 #CaresPieShow #PecanPie #OldFashionedPecanPie (Quote not really related to birthday festivities, just needed something to justify a pie post!)
My next up now starting: City of Girls for bookclub, Chouette is my BookSpinBingo. And, I found my favorite bookmark so I am happy about that, too.
“There were other obstacles, as well.
I had all these cigarettes to smoke, for instance.
In short: I was busy.” Absolutely no judgement to any smokers here, but this line made me giggle! I have several smokers in my personal and professional life (I‘m married to a former smoker) and it definitely does seem to be how they spend a lot of their free time.
pickA story about morality, privilege, promiscuity, femininity, and the art of human connection and female friendships through the eyes of Vivian Morris, a woman ahead of her time and so pleasantly and unapologetically herself. 4/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
pickI had not heard much about this book before reading it but loved the story! I liked the pace and how it switched gears which seemed to start a new storyline. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
pick#DoubleSpin this month was one that's been on my tbr shelf a very long time. The first half was fun to read with lively characters and a Gatsby-esque parade of parties, alcohol, and careless behavior. The second half, though, turned it into a story with depth and heart. I love a book that examines the definition of a life well-lived. @TheAromaofBooks
pickThis is a sprawling epic of a novel looking at nearly 70 years in the life of one woman as she comes into her own. It feels a bit like two different books in tone and is a bit overly long but still a good read. Full review at https://booknaround.blogspot.com/2021/06/review-city-of-girls-by-elizabeth.html
Love like that is a deep well, with steep sides. Once you fall in, that''s it...
The world ain't straight. You grow up thinking things are a certain way. You think there are rules. You think there's a way that things have to be. You try to live straight. But the world doesn't care about your rules, or what you believe. The world ain't straight...Never will be. Our rules, they don't mean a thing. They world just happens to you sometimes, is what i think. And people just gotta keep moving through it, best they can.
After a certain age..time just drizzles down upon your head like rain in the month of March: you\'re always surprised at how much of it can accumulate, and how fast.
[SO TRUE]
...when women are gathered together with no men around, they don't have to be anything in particular; they can just be.
Anyway, at some point in a woman's life, she just gets tired of being ashamed all the time. After that, she if free to become whoever she truly is.
Nothing will uproot your life more violently than true love...
I like to go there in the late afternoons, after my long days of working, and sit at one of those window-side tables, reading a novel and enjoying a martini.
[so much yes!]
I relished the sensation of being one small dot of humanity in a larger ocean of souls.
Once i got the hang of it, I found that eating alone by the window in a quiet restaurant is one of life's greatest secret pleasures.
[YES! Just add a book and its heaven!]
But what's the use of being twenty years old, if not to make gross errors?
[i wholeheartedly agree]
And so I slid toward marriage, like a car sliding off the road on a scree of loose gravel.
But maybe the young are just feral animals in the way that they shift their affections and allegiances so capriciously.
...but it's best you learn now: most marriages are neither heavenly nor hellish, but vaguely purgatorial.
😂
Youth is a irreplaceable treasure, and the only respectable thing to do with irreplaceable treasure is to waste it.
so-so
