Utopia Avenue | 
I am posting one book per day from my extensive to-be-read collection. No description and providing no reason for wanting to read it, I just do. Some will be old, some will be new. Don‘t judge me - I have a lot of books. Join in if you want!
#ABookADay2023
pickI enjoyed it, but it won't henceforth be known as my favourite David Mitchell. I think his skill in executing this book about music, writing lyrics, and describing songs is absolutely superb. Maybe I would have simply preferred spending more time with Elf or Jasper and not ending with Dean - although I did like him better by the end. Whatever I think about it, it's still recommended reading for any die-hard David Mitchell reader. ⭐⭐⭐ and a half
A few months ago, I didn't even know who Jimmy Savile was. Thanks to the Netflix documentary, these references in Utopia Avenue are definitely interesting 🙂
pickElf,Dean,Griff,and jasper make an unlikely band in the heady days of 1967/68 i imagined a pink Floyd/ Fleetwood mac/fairport convention combo. Told with the author's wonderful imagination+ with nods to previous bks (Dr marinus appearing at a crucial part) this is a great evocation of the 1960's it's music and history. Great characters, remarkable cameos great storytelling. A perfect gift from last years father's day.
pickDavid Mitchell tells a great story and as always, weaves in surprising and engaging fantastical elements. It feels like an elevated beach read.
pickUtopia Avenue is the name of Mitchell's fictitious rock band - a sort of Floyd/Cream/Traffic amalgam fronted by a Sandy Dennyish girl singer whose struggles in the cutthroat world of sixties London are recounted with loving attention to detail and a wealth of celebrity cameos. Clunky in parts but very readable.
From D Mitchell‘s article in the Cork Examiner..
I saw Steven Spielberg‘s ET in Malvern Winters Garden cinema in Worcestershire , the month it came out. The bit when you think the big eyed spindly fingered fellers dead sure enough .. but then the flower comes back to life, the protagonist Elliot , you and all the other surreptitious weepers in the cinema realise all is not lost
I remember thinking but it‘s only a story ! It isn‘t real
Then 👇🏻
Update on Utopia Avenue .. just had lunch out ( Bank holiday here ) and talked about Dean Moss , the guitarist in the band & how he is seeing a girl .. but maybe he should treat her like a real girl … anyway , no spoilers ! But it was so fun because I know the characters now ( via husband ) .. and I‘d say neighbouring tables were listening like we were gossiping ( I‘m not a gossip ) about real people, so invested in conversation were we 👇🏻
#BookReport Nothing to report , no finished books 😬… it‘s ok , all will pick up soon
#WeeklyForecast
1. Words To Shape My Name .. I need to finish this week
2. My husband is reading Utopia Avenue. So I don‘t think I‘ll need to read it as I‘m getting a blow by blow account of every page ( literally #MarriedToATalker 😂) and it‘s brilliant, I‘m really enjoying it , such a good book ! David Mitchell is a dynamo
Happy Reading week All 😘
Just received this book of Utopia Avenue … a gift for my husband.. I went with the hardback & I‘m so glad , it‘s a handsome book … He has met the author, a lovely man … Utopia ❤️
pick5 ⭐️
First…
One of these years, I‘m going to read all of Mitchell‘s work from first to latest, to fully immerse myself in the world he builds, and catch ALL the overlaps…
Second…
I am a sucker for fake rock band bios, and this is one of the best I‘ve ever read. The characters come completely alive. And Mitchell‘s skill at constructing a story is at its peak.
I savored reading this. I only sped up toward the end, to see if I guessed Dean‘s fate.
1. Update on #cbbc #coffeebeanbookclub bingo! Just a couple more and I might get that Bingo!
2. Struggling, guys, with the tagged book. It‘s well-written, no doubt... but I am finding the commitment too much for my scattered pandemic brain! I‘m about 30% done... does it start to move?
3. And I‘ve taken up No. 3 in the crime series set in what might be my favorite cozy mystery setting ever.... 🌲🌲🌲
pick🎧 none of my library holds are moving 😖 so I listened to this. Like Cloud Atlas it had me reading nearly strait through. The narrator was good. It‘s a story of a fictional British 60‘s rock band. The 4 bandmates each have a story. In a small way it reminded me of Daisy Jones. The “knock knock” storyline was a bit odd. I really enjoyed the writing & slice of life this book portrayed. There were plenty of pop references & name drops. Fun. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Does anyone (US based) want this? I got 2 so want to give this to someone who would appreciate it. Hopefully a David Mitchell fan who has read his other books. I will mail it to someone in the US. The book is brand new.
David Mitchell might be my favorite living author and while I like some of his other novels better, I really enjoyed Utopia Avenue. Mitchell's novels form a meta-novel and Utopia Avenue brings in characters from his other books. At its heart, though, Utopia Avenue is about rock music and coming of age.
pickTrippy! A little longer than necessary, but I was really attached to the characters and their outcomes and I had no problem sticking to the story. It was very evocative. I enjoyed the 1960s music scene along with some unique and unexpected challenges that kept me guessing.
There's always a link, of course.
pickI really enjoyed this story of a British band, from its conception to its demise in the late 60‘s. Loved the time period and all the relevant references. It‘s been a few years since I‘ve read a David Mitchell novel. Some of his books are kind of “out there” & leave me scratching my head a bit. But this one had only a mild element of oddness, with some ties to previous books. I was sad to see this one end.
pickI loved this book, the story of four musicians brought together to form a genre-bending band in the late 1960s. It's a deeply human, beautifully written exploration of art, music, creativity and connection. I do wonder what readers unfamiliar with Mitchell's other work will make of Jasper's struggles, but if you've read The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet and The Bone Clocks, it's a fascinating continuation. Loved the characters, loved the book!
Thanks for the tag @Book_Fiend_Melissa
1) Many. Right now, it‘s one from Big Basin State Park in the Santa Cruz mountains where it‘s kept us cozy on many a great camping trip. Sadly the park was devastated by wildfires this year😥 We hope to return some day.
2)Too many. I‘ve been hitting “borrow later” on the tagged for weeks, so I should probably stop putting it off.
Want to play @slategreyskies @Leftcoastzen @CaliforniaCay
#TwoForTuesday
She has to touch at least a little bit of the book. 😉
I think this might be too lit fic for me, but I loved Daisy Jones and the Six so I‘m going to give it a go...
pickFinished this! So, so good! So glad I finished it before Readathon. No reading tonight. Will start fresh at 8 am tomorrow morning!!!
pickI've listened to much longer audios than this one, but this one took me longer to finish than any of the others. There are parts of it that I really liked, and other parts that kind of dragged. I was never in a rush to get back to the audiobook, so I would set it down for days at a time. It's one of those novels that I like better now that it is over. The book is above average, and I'm still glad I listened to it. Overall rating: 4.09 stars
so-soI was expecting so much more. A great detailed snap shot of the mid-60s music scene in Britain and U.S. But little character development until the last 80 pages or so. Not enough for a nearly 600 page novel. But a few more points towards #TeamSlaughter and #Scarathlon! @Clwojick
#kindledailydeal
City of Girls and Utopia brought today 👍🏻
I did pretty well on reading considering my focus was hiking and fishing on Idaho‘s Selway River this past week-end. Posting now that I‘m back in cell service! I managed 5 hours of reading for #Scarathlon #Screamathon, #October20in4 and finished as #bookspinBingo book. Got 4 hours in on #outstandingOctober. I‘m calculating 640 points for #TeamSlaughter. @Clwojick @Bookgoil @Andrew65 @TheAromaofBooks @4thhouseontheleft
1. It's a Long Way (to the Top if you want to Rock'n'Roll). Cheating with parentheses in the tradition of my signature Karaoke song by AC/DC, sung once every 5 years or so. Alcohol is involved. 2. Coffee. 3. 1921. Women could vote. I would have explored Western natural landscapes, rivers before dams. I could have seen a free flowing Columbia River, Celilo Falls, Snake River. Thanks for the tag @LitStephanie and @MoonWitch94 ! #WondrousWednesday
I‘m beginning to wonder if David Mitchell has a thing against pants.
Lots of good one liners in this. 👖
My goals for #cyoreadathon are to read/audio 12 hours and make progress on book club reads and library books including the tagged and The Night Watchman. Then I can do a deep dive into murder mysteries and thrillers for #Scarathlon and #TeamSlaughter!
pickI finished this a couple weeks ago, but with life being crazy and my need to process, I never posted. This book has so many great things to love: music, pop culture history, mental health issues, fantasy elements, changing relationships, and more. It starts with the formation of rise of the band Utopia Avenue in the 1960s, and follows their rise as it alternates points of view between the band mates. David Mitchell‘s writing is lovely as always.
I can always count on one fantastically hilarious name in a David Mitchell novel 😆
Book mail! This was supposed to be an Early Reviewer via Library Thing, but they kind of missed the boat on that, since it‘s been out for a while now. HOWEVER! It‘s a hardcover *signed* copy, so I‘m not complaining!
Anyone read this yet?
“I saw the Jackson Pollock retrospective at the New York Met,” said the Duchess of Somewhere. “Do you rate him?”
“I rate him most highly,” says Francis. “As a lacemaker.”
pickCan a song change the world?
“If a song plants an idea or a feeling in a mind, it has already changed the world.”
If a novel plants feelings in me, feeling that I care so much about the characters that I‘m outraged when they are betrayed and weep when they suffer, I have been changed. I loved all 25 hours of this stupendous, mind-altering #audiobook, read by Ralph Lister.
“Who killed them?”
“The chain of events would fill a hefty novel.”
(Ha! David Mitchell, I like what you did there. Signed, Lindy.)
“So, would ‘why doesn‘t he play the damn tune the way it goes?‘ be a silly question?”
“Only if ‘why doesn‘t Van Gogh just paint the damn sunflowers the way they look?‘ is a silly question.”
My niece is helping out in the garden because I broke my two big toes last week. It‘s apple picking time. I‘m indoors on a stool, cutting up and juicing the fruit while listening to an audiobook. 🍎
pickThe lyrics, the music, the war, the drugs, the Haight, the Summer of Love, The Grateful Dead, the Eight of Cups, the Third Planet, the end. Wow- to a child brought up by her mother on this time, San Francisco in the 1960s, the music - it is all here- plus David Mitchell‘s time and space bending characters from here and now and then and yet to come. I loved this and it felt like the story of a real band in a real place. Mitchell does not disappoint
9-8-20: My 67th finished book of 2020! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #utopiaavenue #davidmitchell 👍🏼📖#️⃣6️⃣7️⃣
I just love how David Mitchell always creates connections to his other novels. A young Crispin Hershey (from The Bone Clocks section set in 2015) makes a cameo in Utopia Avenue (in 1968).
Read the rest of section 4 today, and excited that section 5 has two Jasper chapters—they are my favorites! The Italy parts were suspenseful, and I loved the Marinus connection and more ‘60s stars.
This is terrible to keep reading! Knock it off with the "yer". I get it's what they would have sounded like, but for the love of all that is holy this is irritating to keep reading / seeing repeatedly used.
Other than that I'm enjoying it so far, but only a few pages in to be honest.
Mitchell readalong anyone?
I haven‘t gotten to Utopia Avenue yet, mostly because I want to start at the beginning and read/re-read all of Mitchell‘s previous books.
I‘m swamped with ARCs and book club books at the minute so am not likely to start this until maybe October but would anyone like to join me in a readalong?
If we include his 2016 novella then it‘s 9 books so would be quite long and people could always dip in and out.
Book club unanimously picked this one for our September meeting. She's a chunky one so I thought about starting it....but I don't know?! 😜
