Another Country | 
pickTHICK WITH LANGUAGE. Rich fare, had to read in dips. Fluid flashbacks, analysis, intensity. Characters talking and KNOWING, observant & well aware. Skin & sexuality, bias & prejudice. Sensual & snarky. Anger and passion crowding out affection, friend circle running towards each other and away, making mess and melodrama. NYC. 1961
P 199 “The aim of the dreamer, after all, is merely to go on dreaming and not to be molested by the world.”
This week has been kicking my butt…but how you doin‘? (Please say this in the voice of Joey Tribbiani)
pickI enjoyed this novel the look that it takes on various topics of the Harlem Renaissance from race, to politics of the time and sexuality. I especially enjoyed following the friends as they deal with the suicide of their friend Rufus. #AuthorAMonth #BookspinBingo
pickThis book is beautiful. It was my first James Baldwin so I have nothing to compare it to. But I am excited to delve into his others.
The #audiobook is really well done. There's something magical about a narrator that can do a southern accent, sing, and speak passable French.
#AuthorAMonth with @Soubhiville
#BookSpinBingo square 5
@TheAromaofBooks
pickVery good!
“She smiled, but the smoke she inhaled was bitter. When she had been safe and respectable, so had the world been safe and respectable; now the entire world was bitter with deceit and danger and loss; and which was the greater illusion?”
“People don't have any mercy. They tear you limb from limb, in the name of love. Then, when you're dead, when they've killed you by what they made you go through, they say you didn't have any character. They weep big, bitter tears - not for you. For themselves, because they've lost their toy.”
“The trouble with a secret life is that it is very frequently a secret from the person who lives it and not at all a secret for the people he encounters.”
Vivaldo sat at his work table, struggling with a chapter which was not going well. He was terribly weary – he had worked in the bookstore all day and then come downtown to do a moving job – but this was not the reason for his paralysis. He did not seem to know enough about the people in his novel. They did not seem to trust him....the pattern he wished them to describe was clear to him. But it did not seem clear to them.
“If the world wasn‘t so full of dead folks maybe those of us that‘s trying to live wouldn‘t have to suffer so bad.”
“I‘ve always thought of you,” she said, “as a very nice person.” She gave his arm a little tap and pushed a crumpled bill into his hand. “It might help if you thought of yourself that way.”
#7days7books: 7 books that have left a lasting impression
so-soThe writing was fabulous of course but it wasn‘t my kind of story or at least not the story I needed right now. How depressing.
I've found the cutest cafe in Hastings with wall to wall bookshelves. The perfect place for breakfast with a book #hastings #books #jamesbaldwin
pickFinished on my way out of town. Seems Baldwin aims to shock and had bought into Freud. Often called pornographic, there is a lot of sex in detail... sometimes it‘s beautiful, but it‘s always uncomfortable and it‘s never the point. He‘s looking at sexuality, race, psychology, and at the loneliness within the unnatural landscape of the heart of Manhattan. The books a mash, too much. Runs and sputters, fades, returns, irritating and powerful.
“The life you think you should want is always the life that looks safest.”
(If it helps, Vivaldo is mostly straight and Eric is mostly gay, but neither is entirely certain of that. But the line might apply universally...)
Working through Another Country and 1960‘s NYC. It‘s been both beautiful and awful. I‘m enjoying the characters and the atmosphere and moral ambiguity, and I‘m interested in the various perspectives of racism and racial tension, but for the moment it‘s become a bit relentless and humorless.
Walked twice and did stretch class today, got over 11,000 steps, and got 12 active hours for the first time since getting my FitBit. Also finished Another Country. 😊 It was a good day for fitness goals and book goals! 🎉 #BFC
Got my gum graft touched up at my appointment and will hopefully be getting my stitches out in 2 weeks, but in the evening the roof of my mouth started bleeding again. 🙄 At least books and walking are keeping me busy!
Another 30 min morning walk around the YMCA park before 30 min stretch class. 😊 Now I'm at my periodontist office for my first post-surgery appointment!
I'll probably finish Another Country today. It took about 7 hours for me to warm up to it, but by the last 5 hours (out of 16) I've been loving it! It was a little awkward though to walk by a bunch of other walkers while listening to a sex scene. 😂
#BookFitnessChallenge #BFC @wanderinglynn
First walk of the day! ☑️ I was going to take the tagged book along in my earbuds, but walked with my mom instead. It was lovely! The weather has been just perfect since the #BookFitnessChallenge started! On Friday it's going to hit 90°F and stay with highs around 90 for at least a week, probably the rest of the summer, but this last gasp of spring is charming. 💕 #BFC @wanderinglynn
Finished the first latch hook kit I had found (the sunflower) and on to the other latch hook kit (the horse). Both of these are very old and had been very abandoned. Now they'll get a second go, especially if I manage to turn them into pillows and give them to someone who would like them! Completely absorbed by Another Country, I can hardly hit pause to make this post. #bookfitnesschallenge #bfc @wanderinglynn #newyearwhodis @Emilymdxn
Rediscovered this latch hook kit recently, and decided it'd be the perfect distraction from the pain tonight. This is my starting point, I'll probably finish it up in one go. Listening to Another Country, at about the halfway point. Hoping to finish it for the Book Fitness Challenge. #audiolatchhooking #audiohooking #bookfitnesschallenge #bfc @wanderinglynn
Happy Black History Month! I wanted to post a little appreciation post for my very favorite writer-James Baldwin! His work perfectly sums up the complexity of how race, sexuality, and gender intersect and relate to one another in America! I‘m definitely going to be posting about his work more soon! ✊🏽🏳️🌈
Exhibition just opened of portraits of James Baldwin....
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/hilton-als-on-giving-james-baldwin...
My life: When you get the books for for bookclub mixed up and have less than a week to get a particular book finished!!! I can do this. 🤣🤣🤣
pickThis is another beautifully tragic, tragically beautiful novel from James Baldwin. His writing strips you bare and makes you face what he‘s telling you. Love, grief, suffering, need: these emotions don‘t care if you‘re male or female, black or white, gay or straight. Our emotions can take hold of us and show us for who we truly are, good or bad. I loved this book and he absolutely carried me away. #GreatAmericanRead
#Gimmegimmegimme more beautiful summer nights! #currentlyreading #25infive #ABBAinAugust
The impromptu book haul from my impromptu trip to the bookstore. Thankfully, the power had been restored 💡.
In addition to the tagged book, I bought:
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
Florida by Lauren Groff
American Eden by Victoria Johnson
#bookhaul #nosuchthingastoomanybooks
Guess who waited until the literal last minute to read their book club book? 200 pages to go, meeting at 7 tonight. Pray for me 😂😂
Sounds about right! Thanks for sharing @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/which-great-american-author-are-you/
From The Great American Read #GreatReadsPBS 2018
http://www.pbs.org/the-great-american-read/books/#/
6-25-18: Has anyone watched this yet? This is only the launch episode to discuss the books on the list, the rest of the show will start in the fall. This was a 2 hour episode and I loved it!!
Spent the week in DC and flew back to Anchorage last night. I am completely exhausted and have no other plans today other than going out to get food and then relaxing with books. These are the ones I picked up while in DC. I really need to take a break from visiting bookstores....
pickThis was my first James Baldwin novel and boy did I love this book in a such a soul crushing way. Even though this was written in the 60‘s it felt like this book was written recently. I can‘t wait to read more of his books.
This is my very first James Baldwin. I heard someone compare it to A Little Life and I said I am in. I have tissues handy.
Today‘s book haul on behalf of two bookstores.
The real book wasn't in the library. This is what I do at airports. Was so cross when we were called (and then had to stand in a line for half an hour when I could have been browsing books!)
Gaia: “I‘m from Mexico and have lived in the United States for three years. I want to know more about the culture and the writers of this country. I watched ‘I Am Not Your Negro‘ and it made me want to read James Baldwin. The way he writes and tells stories is astonishing and intimate. I just started ‘Another Country‘ but have already dug in. So far it‘s about a Black man who is homeless. I‘m just starting to get a glimpse of his previous life.”
"And because the taste for obscenity is universal and the appetite for reality rare and hard to cultivate, he had nearly perished in the basement of his private life. Or, more precisely, his fantasies." --ANOTHER COUNTRY by James Baldwin
"You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who ever been alive." -James Baldwin- ??
.
.
.
.
{#books, #bookaddict, #booklover, #bookquotes, #bookaholic, #book, #bookish}
