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The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet
The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet: A Novel | Reif Larsen
Discover The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet for iPad.A brilliant, boundary-leaping debut novel tracing twelve-year-old genius map maker T.S. Spivet's attempts to understand the ways of the worldWhen twelve-year-old genius cartographer T.S. Spivet receives an unexpected phone call from the Smithsonian announcing he has won the prestigious Baird Award, life as normal-if you consider mapping family dinner table conversation normal-is interrupted and a wild cross-country adventure begins, taking T.S. from his family ranch just north of Divide, Montana, to the museum's hallowed halls. T.S. sets out alone, leaving before dawn with a plan to hop a freight train and hobo east. Once aboard, his adventures step into high gear and he meticulously maps, charts, and illustrates his exploits, documenting mythical wormholes in the Midwest, the urban phenomenon of "rims," and the pleasures of McDonald's, among other things. We come to see the world through T.S.'s eyes and in his thorough investigation of the outside world he also reveals himself. As he travels away from the ranch and his family we learn how the journey also brings him closer to home. A secret family history found within his luggage tells the story of T.S.'s ancestors and their long-ago passage west, offering profound insight into the family he left behind and his role within it. As T.S. reads he discovers the sometimes shadowy boundary between fact and fiction and realizes that, for all his analytical rigor, the world around him is a mystery. All that he has learned is tested when he arrives at the capital to claim his prize and is welcomed into science's inner circle. For all its shine, fame seems more highly valued than ideas in this new world and friends are hard to find. T.S.'s trip begins at the Copper Top Ranch and the last known place he stands is Washington, D.C., but his journey's movement is far harder to track: How do you map the delicate lessons learned about family and self? How do you depict how it feels to first venture out on your own? Is there a definitive way to communicate the ebbs and tides of heartbreak, loss, loneliness, love? These are the questions that strike at the core of this very special debut.Now a major motion picture directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and starring Kyle Catlett and Helena Bonham Carter.From the Hardcover edition.
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GatheringBooks
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Pickpick

#ArtfulAugust Day 1: This one definitely #IncludesAMap. I don‘t know if it is because the protagonist is a young science genius and brilliant mapmaker that made me appreciate the novel, despite its daunting thickness. I find myself naturally gravitating towards stories of outliers, particularly those in the farthest-high-end of the bell curve. My review: https://wp.me/pDlzr-7rA

Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks I love a book with a map 🗺 2y
Eggs Love the visuals❣️ 2y
44 likes2 comments
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ErickaS_Flyleafunfurled
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Beatlefan129 I loved this book! I actually owned a copy of it until my dog decided to tear it to pieces 😪 5y
ErickaS_Flyleafunfurled @Beatlefan129 Ack! No! I loved this book so much. I bought it on a whim at a used book store based on the cover! I have his other book in my TBR - have you read it? 5y
Beatlefan129 @ErickaS_Flyleafunfurled I have not read any of his other books. My favorite thing about T.S. Spivet was the illustrations, so I wonder if I‘d enjoy his other books based on his writing alone 5y
49 likes2 stack adds3 comments
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GatheringBooks
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Pickpick

#LilithJuly Day 1: Tecumseh Sparrow Spivet is not a typical 12yo. He is a mapmaker. #GetOutTheMap. He is a collector of data and documents them fastidiously in his color-coded notebooks: red for insect anatomy, blue for his sociological observations of people doing things, and green for his zoological and topographical maps. There is no information perceived as trivial. My review: https://wp.me/pDlzr-7rA

KarenUK Wow! This sounds wonderful..... 💕 5y
57 likes1 stack add1 comment
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khooliha
Bailedbailed

I vowed to make a good faith effort and immediately realized that I COULD NOT with narrative voice for nearly 400 pages. Related: the word "precocious" means nothing to me anymore - that circuit is burnt out (and after only 16 pages!).

khooliha Also, it's officially Pride and I don't have to live like this. 5y
3 likes1 comment
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khooliha

This has been sitting on my tbr for approximately a thousand years, and while the marginalia aspect still has me intrigued I'm not sure I'm gonna stick with it. (They say after reading just 4 pages.)

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DarcysMom
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Here are the books for your consideration for Round 5 of #LMPBC #Round5GroupY
@leslieseidel @grumpygirlbooks @BridgetteM
The untagged books are tagged in comments.

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grumpygirlbooks I‘m good with any of those! I‘ll happily read just about anything 6y
DarcysMom @grumpygirlbooks @leslieseidel @BridgetteM Unless anyone hates it, I am leaning toward 6y
leslieseidel Sorry I didn't respond yet. Dragon's Lair sounds interesting. I usually end up reading out of my comfort zone in these groups, which is why I join them! 😉 6y
BridgetteM @DarcysMom Dragon‘s Lair sounds amazing! 6y
DarcysMom @grumpygirlbooks @leslieseidel @BridgetteM Yay! I adore Sharon Kay Penman and have been eager to get started on it! 6y
75 likes8 comments
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GatheringBooks
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#QuotsyOct18 Day 21: A #Map to a novel is a #Map to one‘s heart.

Crazeedi 💖maps in books! 6y
Andrew65 @Crazeedi Me too! 😍 6y
75 likes2 comments
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Jobe
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Love, Love, Love books full of MARGINALIA!
This one has it throughout! ✅ #prettybooks #illustrated #marginalia

rockpools That looks really fun! 6y
Suelizbeth I have this book. Time to move it up the stack. 6y
Bookishlie Right me too! 6y
81 likes5 stack adds3 comments
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DarcysMom
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I suppose it is a victory that I came home with only two books from the Dollar Tree.

DarcysMom @robinb That is good to hear - it was a total impulse buy. 😁 6y
robinb @DarcysMom This is the first of a pair (the second is tagged), and I liked both and was hoping for more but haven‘t heard of any on the horizon. 😔 Obviously I need to be checking out the deals at Dollar Tree! 😊 (edited) 6y
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DarcysMom @robinb I will have to see if I can find the second book too. 6y
robinb @DarcysMom 👍 It felt to me like it should have been a longer series...not sure what‘s going on with the author. 6y
robinb I just went to her website and YAY there is a third and final book coming in November! I had almost given up hope! 6y
DarcysMom @robinb Yay! 😁 6y
55 likes1 stack add7 comments
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GatheringBooks
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Pickpick

#ReadingResolutions Day 15: For #BookishMap this is the first book that came to mind. One of my fave quotes from the book “there was never a map that got it all right, and truth and beauty were never married to one another for long.” The story revolves around a 12 year old prodigy navigating his way around the Asymptotes, Longitudes and Latitudes of Human Relationships. Full review here: https://wp.me/pDlzr-7rA -this has now been made into a film!

75 likes2 stack adds
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UnabridgedTomes
Pickpick

Worth reading for the marginalia alone, this book within a young naturalist‘s journal is a delight from beginning to end.

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BarbaraJean
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Here's my #JanuaryTBR, including two in-progress that I want to finish, one more Wheel of Time volume, two for #LitsyAtoZ (Q and Y), and the start of #hpchapteraday! #readjanuary

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B.Reader
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Diagrams are pictures, right? They are when they're this pretty. #bookswithpictures #seasonreadings2016

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Snakes6atx
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My lovely husband brought this one home for me after he had an unexpected stop at the used bookstore. It looks really interesting! If you've read it, let me know what you thought 😀

MrBook I have "I Am Radar", so now I need this one too. ??? 8y
5 likes1 stack add1 comment
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BarbaraJean
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One of my current reads fits quite nicely into today's #childprotagonist photo challenge prompt. 😊 I've just started reading this one, and I love the diagrams and notes in the margins... the products of a child genius cartographer. Has anyone else read it? Let me know what you think! #photoadaynov16

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Chelsey
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#booktober #debutnovel I just loved this novel! A 12-year-old genius cartographer wins a prestigious award from the Smithsonian Institute and rather than share the news with his folks, he runs away from home. Divide, Montana to the nation's capital he hobos East and creates an extraordinary journal of his journey.

Spiderfelt The illustrations and marginalia really made this story exceptional 8y
beccaeve I picked this up not too long ago at a used bookstore just because it looked so cool. I'm excited to getting around to reading it! 8y
Texreader Added to my tbr on your review! Thanks! 8y
KelseyCB Great book!! 8y
Chelsey @Spiderfelt Absolutely! I loved that part. @beccaeve I hope you love it. 😀 @Texreader Yay!! That makes me super happy ☺️🤗 8y
33 likes7 stack adds5 comments
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ErickaS_Flyleafunfurled
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ErickaS_Flyleafunfurled
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I just bought this on a whim at a used book store because it's filled with drawings, illustrated graphs, and maps. I've read 4 pages and am completely smitten.

Riveted_Reader_Melissa It looks beautiful! 8y
ErickaS_Flyleafunfurled @Riveted_Reader_Melissa It really is a beautiful book, which is what make me pick it up in the first place (and the bird skeleton on the cover, of course) 8y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa It's very cool! 8y
31 likes2 stack adds3 comments
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Pen_Meets_Paper
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PrincessTamara
Pickpick

Totally captivating - this marvellous book remains the only one I've ever started reading again as soon as I'd finished it.