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This is a tough one for me to review as it was so gorgeously written that I really enjoyed reading it ... that being said it was sllllooooowwwww! I love a slow burn but this was so slow it was fizzling out. Also, the parallel story of Hadley the actress wasn't present enough to make any real impact... although I did like the ending! Also, does anyone want to come sort out these bookshelves for me!?

This book was way too long and there‘s much too much trauma in it. It could have lost the modern day Hollywood storyline and been stronger. It gets better about halfway through as it starts focusing more on Marion, the pilot who is lost on an around the world flight. Even though there were too many side stories, my favorite part of the story was about Marion‘s artist brother who like his sister seems ahead of his time.

I just didn't love this. It's well written but it's far too long to just be okay.

#SheSaid @Riveted_Reader_Melissa

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

Summer reading has started 🌻🌞📚

Hello #SheSaid! How‘s everyone doing today? I‘m a bit late here, sorry thunderstorms in our area and service a bit spotty. I hope you are all doing well.

My update is… I finally made it halfway through this book, and you are right, it is getting better. I will definitely be finishing it now. How are all of you doing reading-wise with this month‘s pick? Finished? Still chugging away?

I finished this one up early for #Shesaid, and I absolutely loved it! It's epic, and the cast of characters and settings can be overwhelming, but it's beautifully written, and I became incredibly invested in the characters. @Riveted_Reader_Melissa

Hello #SheSaid! How‘s everyone doing?

I‘m sorry to say this one has stalled for me, and I‘m actually considering DNFing it. 🫠.

Does it get better? For those of you reading on schedule.

This a medium to low pick. Told in 2 different time lines about 2 different women. I really enjoyed the Marion Graves storyline about her wanting to learn to fly and attaining her dream. The current storyline of a Hollywood starlet cast to portray her in a movie didn‘t quite work for me. #SheSaid

Hello #SheSaid!

I‘m still behind, but plugging away with this one. How‘s everyone else doing?

Hello #SheSaid! How‘s everyone doing this weekend?

It‘s a nice change of pace to get into a fiction book this time….how‘s everyone doing so far.

repost for @Riveted_Reader_Melissa:

Hello #ShesSaid! The schedule is up for our June fiction read! Sorry for the delay!

original post:
https://www.litsy.com/web/post/2594025

Hello #ShesSaid! The schedule is up for our June fiction read! Sorry for the delay!

Repost for @Riveted_Reader_Melissa

#SheSaid schedule for the next 12 months. See original post for details https://litsy.com/p/YWhuT1hvTEpp

And coming up in June…Great Circle, our first fiction of the year.

Plus an updated schedule going forward 😉

I have to admit I‘m really looking forward to the last one just added to that list, we started this group with a great Carol Anderson, and after this week… her newest book seems more timely than ever.

#SheSaid
#SheSaidSchedule

I tried but just didn‘t like this one.

It has taken me actual months (six of them I think) but I have finally finished this. And despite the time it‘s taken me, it‘s a pick. I‘ve done about half of it over the last few days - because once the war gets going it really picks up. I cared more about Marian‘s story than Hadley‘s, but most of it is Marian so that is fine!

The above are my very favourite reads this year. Highlights✨accepting I can read and love Bridgerton as much as I want✨yet still finishing and loving the Women‘s Prize for Fiction shortlist - a huge achievement for this girl who has always been afraid of #booksthatwinprizes✨being part of my first book group; this year‘s choices have brought vampires, Japanese work culture, time travel, flesh-eating and more, and I‘m all for it!✨Happy New Year✨

#12Booksof2022 On the fifth and sixth days of Christmas, my reading gave to me...a pair of multi-linear reads.

Multiple characters and timelines can be confusing if done poorly, but fantastically engaging when done well. And both of these were done very, very well.

@Andrew65

The storyline, the characters and the brutal honesty that makes up this book are just a few of the reasons it enticed me so much. Marian Graves is an extraordinary brave woman who‘s tale is one I recommend everyone reading. This is definitely a book that I will think about for a long time coming … 🧭

Question for those who‘ve read this… I‘m a quarter of the way through the book and there‘s been more than enough abuse and neglect of the female characters for my liking. Marian is just meeting the benefactor for the first time. Should I be bailing? I‘d rather not listen to 450 more pages of women being treated like objects and shown no actual care…

Great Circle follows two women who are separated in time but have a connection. Marian is an orphan of sorts who strives to be a pilot in an age that found this unacceptable for women, and Hadley is an actress in the current era. I thought this was great with a superb ending to Marian‘s story, though I would have liked to see a bit more for the ending of Hadley‘s.

This is an amazingly complex book that endeared me to the characters. Marian Graves is a strong female protagonist and I loved her twin brother Jamie. So many concepts about identity, sexuality, gender roles and a great read overall. Highly recommend!

Historical fiction about a badass female aviator in the first half of the 20th century, and then a later storyline featuring the train wreck actress playing her in a biopic in 2015. I liked the historical storyline better but the whole novel came together well. A high recommend.

I really didn‘t like this at first. I didn‘t feel connected to the main characters and was irritated by the tangents and very long description and background for everyone and everything. But as the book progressed I did start to really invest in the two leads, I cared for and worried about them. By the end i loved these characters and the book. I accidentally adored it.

#AlphabetGame #LetterG

I signed up to read a book about a daring aviatrix and instead I got a boring Twilight actress character written with every Hollywood cliché the writer could think of, so much child sexual content that I question how this book is even legal, and tired, trite prose. And it‘s like eleventy billion pages. I refuse to finish. There are other books out there. I will read literally any other one. The Booker committee, it turns out, is not infallible.

Current favourite word: "...lolloped..."

Wow! An EPIC Book! I enjoyed everything, except for the actress that was playing Graves. Don't expect a quick read. It's not.

I spend my reading life searching for books like this one. Books that completely consume me and I can‘t put down. Marian Graves is our main character; an aspiring aviator in the 1930s, who has a complicated and troubled background. Her story is interspersed with that of film star Hadley who is to play Marian in the biopic of her life. That little summary doesn‘t do the epic scope or intensity of the story and characters justice; I loved it!

This book was epic, all 670 pages of it but I‘m so glad I chose it to be a holiday read so that I could be fully absorbed in it. A book with layers like this needs to be given the time it deserves to be truly loved. Marian Graves dreams of being a pilot and to circumnavigate the globe. So the story is set in motion as the author traverses the 20th century through the lives of 2 women predominantly but many other beautifully written characters. 5🌟

What a recommendation this was. If you are looking for where to start with the nominees for the women‘s prize for fiction this year, then I can think of no better place to start. This book is a gem!

Not going to arrive in time to drink out of this during watching the shortlist events this week.

New challenge to see if I've read something by all the winners 🏆?

Manipulation, heartbreak, adventure, love. This epic has it all. I got so lost in the reading, I could swear it was Ken Follet. And Jamie. Swoon. Reminded me of Anne Blythe's Walter. Interspersed between the chapters, you are treated to historical snippets of real aviators. This is my favored contender for #WomensPrize2022 No, wait. I forgot about The Sentence.

Okay, I‘m done with what feels like a very long book. I usually love historical fiction, but I just could not get invested. It‘s beautifully written though.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️,75/5

#WomensPrize #novel #historicalfiction

#airplane #Savvysettings

@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Eggs

Pretty good book. The last hundred pages were really well written. Beautiful writing.

Happy Sunday!

The epic story of a fictional female aviator Marian Graves. I really enjoyed traveling through history over such a great length of time with characters who became so familiar to me. I loved many sections of the book but there were others I thought were not entirely necessary. It is a long book but it does span a long and interesting life. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I have mixed feelings about this book which contains dual timelines. As is often the case when I read this type of book I am usually drawn to one storyline over another. The story of fictional pilot Marian Graves was compelling as I enjoyed reading her journey and learning of the role of women pilots during WWII. The secondary timeline of a modern day actress playing Marian in a movie about her life was less engaging and felt unnecessary to me.

Such a beast of a book! Marian Graves, fictional female pilot, has a difficult go of things from infancy (1914) and throughout most of her life. Not only do we get the intricate details of her life from birth to the end of her life, but also her parents‘ lives and others in her orbit jump off the page. The time periods and sense of place, just amazing! This epic journey is pierced by present-day chapters about an actress playing Graves in a film.

I‘m giving this one a pick but I have to say that of the 600 pages, it was the last 200 pages that finally connected me to the characters. They had felt very distant before that. I think I‘ll appreciate it more after it settles in a bit. Well researched with great detailed storytelling.

‘Circles are wondrous because they are endless. Anything endless is wondrous. But endlessness is torture, too. I knew the horizon could never be caught but still chased it. What I have done is foolish; I had no choice but to do it.‘

This was extraordinary: spanning continents and centuries, introducing distinctive, wonderful characters. I adored Marian and her twin Jamie, who are real, flawed, and who grow. Most of this novel is set in the past, so the film-making storyline is primarily to complement Marian‘s journey. This didn‘t bother me, as Marian was the character I cared about, but it could bother some. This is such a bold, sweeping novel and a careful character study.

#September #9thbookof2021 was another month with several amazing reads, but I landed on this as the best of the month.

Honorable mentions: Ace by Angela Chen, The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld

#12Booksof2021

Feels weird to still be dishing about 2021 but I‘m still sharing my #12BooksOf2021
This was my favorite read for September @Andrew65
An epic story of a fictional female aviator spanning 100 years. It was a chunky read but I enjoyed the journey. Audio narration was excellent.