Welcome to Litsy!

I had such high hopes for this book and was delighted when it was picked as part of my reading subscription. Have just found it such a disappointment, I‘m sure others will argue I‘m missing the point but for me it just one of those books that has no plot! It jumps about with no logical thought, I kept going in the hope that it would suddenly all come together. For me it never did!

2✨ There was a complexity to this book that I didn‘t have a lot of time for. It had a lot of deep thoughts and concepts to work through to see the big plot between the four sisters. On a logistic level all siblings having PhDs in different fields doesn‘t seem very likely. I like that they were in all walks of life and dropped everything to help their sister who was struggling.

I loved this novel about four sisters living different lives but coming together in rural Ireland. Intimate, engrossing & beautifully observed, each character comes to life. The details of their lives, interactions & landscape make it a rich, textured book. I loved the tone, warm & compassionate but unsentimental with a dry sense of humour. Explores family dynamics, found families, and wider issues of philosophy & climate change, in a fresh way.

Well…..I did listen further. I‘m 80% in and bailing because I have other audio books in the queue that are calling.

Overall this did not connect on a human level & felt pretentious. The the mini lectures, both formal & informal, were boring. 🤷🏾‍♀️

On to the next! 😄

🤔 Halfway mark and I‘m going to keep listening, but I‘m not feeling a connection with the characters; they aren‘t very relatable to me.

What is it that philosophers celebrate?

#RecoveringAcademic

....so she let herself be guided by whim and misanthropy.

I agree that philosophy should be accessible, Nell says. But writing's not the same as teaching. And anyway, I'm an immigrant. One of the many functions of an esoteric writing style is to protect myself from the retribution of the regime.

Which one? There's more than one regime to worry about.

I‘m ready for a book I can really sink my teeth into and LOVE. It‘s been a while. I couldn‘t connect with these characters. I tried to listen to the audiobook, but would get lost in the conversations. Having said that, I don‘t regret reading it. I may be thinking about it for a bit (or maybe not, considering the ending irritated me 😆).

Three sisters reunite on the hunt for the fourth sister who dropped off the planet, or so it seems. Found rather quickly, this is a story of their lives dealing with their past and current traumas. Each has her own strengths and issues for the telling. Though odd, the forays into script-like plays, didn‘t bother me and in fact seemed to make sense for the conversations taking place. What bothered me was that the sisters‘ interactions were ⬇️

I did it! I reached my most important goal for #fortheloveofbooks and finished the tagged book today. I was way behind reading it for #camplitsy and really wanted to start September fresh. Thanks for the incentive @TheSpineView

I‘m joining the readathon #fortheloveofbooks this weekend. I really hope to finish the tagged book tomorrow for very very late #camplitsy24. I‘m less than 100 pages from finishing so it‘s kinda possible. I‘ll also squeeze in time for my audiobook and ebook the rest of the weekend.

Thanks for hosting @TheSpineView

Back home after a trip and catching up on Litsy!

I definitely feel “meh” about this one. Part exploration of the relationships between four sisters, part commentary on academia, climate change, and activism—but honestly, I felt like I didn‘t get a lot of what the author was trying to communicate. I didn‘t dislike it, but overall: mostly unlikable/frustrating characters, interesting structure, kinda preachy, unsatisfying ending. I really enjoyed⤵️

I'm not very far into this one, but there's a part in chapter 1 that reminds me of this display at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, showing all of the elements that go into making a cell phone. "Fancy rocks. Rocks plus time...We're Stone Age people still" (9).

#ReadAway2024

Read for #CampLitsy24 & finished a while ago but got behind forgot to post. This book was just so-so for me, I didn‘t hate it (except the ending) & didn‘t love it. I just didn‘t feel connected to any of the characters . It was hard to follow along on audiobook so that could be part of the problem, but I felt like the author had some good ideas but they fell way in the execution. The camp discussions as always were interesting.

I enjoyed the first part of this one, got a bit bored through the middle section, then started enjoying it again towards the end. It was a good choice for #CampLitsy24 I loved reading all the campers‘ takes on it. Thanks camp leaders!

I got this for #camplitsy but I was way late for the party. I whipped through this, partly trying to catch up but a lot because I was caught up in it. I did skim a bit of the gloom and doom geology end of times cli fi because my anxiety does not need anymore fodder. But I enjoyed all the sisters and their areas of expertise ( the ending though 😱)

Like many in #CampLitsy24 this didn't jive with me. I had an amazingly hard time concentrating on it, reading pages and having no idea what I read, I switched to audio and that didn't help. I am reading other books at the same time that I am having no trouble with, so this isn't a reading slump. The book just held no interest for me. The women were drawn as incredibly different but I had a hard time distinguishing between them 👇

A pick, but I didn‘t enjoy it quite as much as I thought I would. This falls in the middle of the bunch for me. I liked it more than Butter and All Fours, but not nearly as much as Clear and James. On to Bear! #CampLitsy24

A pick with reservations (that 🤬 end). This is the kind of Oprah book club, miserable people leading miserable lives that ends miserably contemporary fiction that I typically hate BUT I loved it until the last couple of pages. I was invested in the sisters, pulled into their interpersonal drama, and captivated by the whole story. I loved the writing. I don‘t know how I would have ended the novel, but Hughes‘s choice was not it. (1/2)

#52bookclub #atleastfourpovs #longjump
#aty24 #abookwithatwowordtitlestartingwiththe

I was somewhat distracted by LIFE while reading this and I while I liked it, I didn‘t love it like I thought I would. I found the script portions to be superfluous and was bored to tears with any discussion of Olwen or Nell‘s work. But I do love a “sisters have messy ass relationships” story so it ultimately worked for me. #CampLitsy24

Behind again…my Kobo says I have 2 1/4 hours left and I have errands to run this morning, so it will be late afternoon before I finish. Looking forward to checking out all the comments. That 32% Litsy rating has me a little nervous about the ending! 😳
#camplitsy24

#camplitsy24

That ending…! What did you think?! And what happens after that?

That brings to a close our discussions of The Alternatives. Thank you for joining Barbara, Meg and me.

We look forward to next week‘s book - make sure you don‘t leave any food about camp and keep an eye out for the BEAR! 🐻

#camplitsy24

Last week we explored each sister‘s background and working life.

Now that the sisters have met up and spent some time together how did you find them as a group? How did the family dynamics play out?

Did you change your mind about any of them as a result of learning more about them?

Hi all!

#camplitsy24

Welcome to the second week of our discussions on The Alternatives.

Some reviews have labelled the book as cli-fi - did you feel that? How big a part did climate or environmentalism in general play in the book?

How much of a role did worries about the climate or the future of the world have on Olwen‘s decision to leave? What about the other sisters - did it concern them?

My hold came in at the library, finally, so I‘m getting caught up. It‘s Happy Hour 🎉

I'm going to table what seems like an #UnpopularOpinion here - I loved this #CampLitsy24 selection. I loved the four Flattery sisters, in all their high achieving but emotionally stunted messiness. But mostly I loved how Hughes really made me grapple not just with the story presented, but with how it was presented and why. cont'd in comments

This was disappointing. I was initially intrigued by getting to know each of the four sisters, but I never really connected to any of them or their story. In the end, I still don‘t understand the point.

#CampLitsy24 #audiobook

#CampLitsy24 @squirrelbrain @Megabooks @BarbaraBB

Ohhh this is a struggle isn't it? I have switched to audio because I couldn't pay attention to the print (getting to end of pages and not remembering a thing), but I don't think the audio is helping my mind keeps drifting even as I search downtown #PDX for the #Coraline cats

I really liked the first third of the book and then as I continued I didn‘t connect at all. I couldn‘t keep track of which sister was talking (and I had a paper copy which I kept having to refer to) and somehow I lost the connection to the writing. There was so much to like and I‘m sorry I couldn‘t continue. It was just too frustrating.

I wanted so much to like this! I tried and hoped it would improve, but I‘m giving up. Made it a little more than halfway through. Why is even the play part boring? I don‘t like these women and they mostly don‘t feel like real, complete humans with true sisterly feelings for one another.
Sorry #camplitsy.
#hailthebail

I ended up skimming a lot of this so maybe my pan is unfair but other than a couple of pages in the last chapter I didn‘t enjoy this at all.

As @squirrelbrain said, I‘m a latecomer to #CampLitsy this week! I didn‘t have the 1st half read by Saturday, but I‘ve finished now. The 4 Irish Flattery sisters are grown now, but were left to rely only on each other after a tragic incident during their adolescence. Readers just get a glimpse into their childhood in bits, but learn about their adult lives…especially when they come together in the second half. I had high hopes but it fell flat.

#AboutABook Day 5: our #CampLitsy2024 pick for the month is definitely a #NewToYouAuthor. Or rather, new to me. 💕🥰 Paired with guacamole freshly prepared from avocadoes imported from Mexico in front of us in one of the longest-running Mexican restaurants in Dubai.

⭐️⭐️💫

I‘m sorry #camplitsy24. I did not understand this book at all, although I feel like I got everything that happened in it - even the politics and scientific ramblings. But I wasn‘t captivated by it. Why was it a script partway through? What was the author trying to do?

It was definitely better for me than All Fours but I‘m still not inclined to give it a high score. It had a great premise & things I love in a novel! But it missed the mark.

I keep thinking about this line. How many times have I walked by someone and known they needed to talk to me without them actually saying anything? So many. This is a great way to describe the phenomenon.

Exciting day! After months of preparation, research, and practice, I recorded my first voiceover demos today (professional recording for commercials and animation; I record my own audiobook demos in my home studio). I still have some residual laryngitis from COVID, but with some cold water, hot tea, and careful vocal exercises, I got it done. Now to rest my voice, pet some cats, and catch up on my reading!

#camplitsy24

Our final question for this week…. We look forward to joining together around the campfire again next week, for the second half of the book, where we‘ll hopefully get some answers as to what is happening!

Without giving away spoilers if you‘ve read to the end, why do you think Olwen left, and why so suddenly? Other than being worried about her, why do you think the sisters travel to find her?

#camplitsy24

The book has had mixed reviews so far, but hopefully not as polarising as All Fours! 🤣

This section, with all of its descriptions and expositions, is certainly a part of the book that some of us weren‘t sure about, but some of liked and felt we learned a lot.

What did you think of all of the sisters‘ different work backgrounds? How did this play into their roles as sisters?

Welcome to August at #camplitsy24! Hopefully your cabins are still neat and tidy and you haven‘t run out of marshmallows yet!

As ever, if you‘ve read to the end of the book, no spoilers please for those who are saving the second half for the upcoming week.

The first few chapters introduce us to all 4 sisters - did you enjoy learning about them all?

I'm confused by this sentence. What is she worried about? Getting robbed? Assaulted? Gossip? What do council donations have to do with anything? What *do* council donations protect you from? And who lets strangers into the house anyway?! Why would a stranger even be at the door? Why is this a distinction worth taking up space in the character's head? 🤪

#CampLitsy

Slow reading week but have just finished 😁 not going to say too much as we‘re discussing!
What I will get off my chest is my boss is a philosophy Professor. Some of you know how I feel about my boss. These bits made me 🤮

Guys, I don‘t think I have the bandwidth to keep going with this right now. All of the geology and philosophy talk is flying right over my head and I‘m not feeling very invested 😢😢 I‘m also having a very difficult day/week/month so I‘m sure it‘s the whole “it‘s me, hi, I‘m the problem, it‘s me” 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ #camplitsy24

If you‘re like me, you‘re excited for discussing this book on Saturday for #CampLitsy24 with @squirrelbrain !! I finished earlier this week 🤐 and just saw the final questions from Helen. It should be a good time!

Up next! I wanted to read this while in Ireland but I was only there a few days and wrapping up other books. So reading it now. #campLitsy2024 @squirrelbrain @Megabooks @BarbaraBB

#CoverLove Day 30: Our #CampLitsy24 pick for August has #White as its background. Paired with basque cheesecake from where else but the Cheesecake Factory - in Abu Dhabi. Delish. 🥰

Having my tea and breakfast outside this morning so I can enjoy some fresh air before it gets stinking hot. And the kids are distracted inside so I get to enjoy my book, too!

I'm looking forward to our #CampLitsy24 discussions of this one!