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#12Booksof2025 August

Slow but engrossing and beautifully written. I loved it.

Thank you so much, @Cathythoughts , for this lovely birthday parcel!!

The Jenny Packham memoir sounds fascinating and I‘ve been intrigued by the sound of Our Evenings ever since reading your (and @CarolynM ‘s) reviews. It will be my first from this author.

You are so thoughtful, my dear friend! 😘😘

Low pick. The writing as always with Hollinghurst is gorgeous, but he has an old fashioned way of writing that makes me question what decade or even century we are in.
This is deeply a character study. It feels very slow moving but you go through most of this man's life He is bi-racial in England, a student an actor and a writer
It was a big too slow for me but I appreciate the beautiful writing.

Back home and back at it!
#WeeklyForecast

I am 3/4 through Our Evenings
Want to tick off this Kundera that I dragged through Austria and Czech Republic and didn't open. Then Patricia Highsmith and I grabbed the audio of The Storm We Made which has been on my bookcase forever.

#BookReport for August

A pretty good reading month. Our Evenings was my favourite, honourable mentions for Everyone and Everything and Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont.

The memoirs of David Winn, English in every way but his appearance, covering the period from the 1960s to the present as he navigates life as the son of a single mother, as a scholarship boy at a posh boarding school, as a student at Oxford, as an working actor and, always, as both biracial & gay. It is beautifully written, slow but engrossing & a thoughtful portrait of the changing times. I loved it.

Last nights #FridayHappyReadingHour … it turned into a busy evening later , but I did relax and have a glass of vino earlier. White wine , and Pringles, and still reading Our Evenings for Bookclub. I find it‘s a book I can‘t read quickly. It‘s a lovely book so far.

Starting for Bookclub. We‘ve been told to read it in a slow and relaxed way, savouring it. I think the wine will help with that 👍🏻😁

Was very happy with my scores from the Little Free Library on the way to ballet last night. The 2 kids books are super cute and I didn‘t get to see the tagged author at the Sydney Writer‘s Festival this year so this book was a very pleasant surprise. It was pointe class last night and my big toe nail is dying making everything extra painful however I don‘t look as though I‘m in pain in the video. Ah the ballet illusion! 💛

Just finished this sitting in the precious winter sun. What a wonderful story. David tells us of his life in the 60s to Covid times. It seems to me a life well lived . The writing is beautiful. Set in England it also chronicles changing attitudes to gay people and dark skinned people. I heard the author on the radio and. Knew I wanted to read this book. I also loved his book The Line Of Beauty. Both ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Hollinghurst, the gay author, is a beautiful, elegant, paced writer. And this audiobook is read perfectly. But, whoa, slow. David Winn has many layers of separation between his single mother home, half-Burmese appearance, gay sexuality, and those of wealthy, elite-school classmates. The book keeps going through his 1970‘s acting career, many relationships, and on to covid. A little too much too slowly for this listener. But I liked the style.

I‘ve been picking away at this since Dec 27. I‘m sort of mostly done, but just wanted to share what I‘m actively listening to.

This is my first Hollinghurst, so I‘m just learning what an elegant prose writer he is. Everything is beautiful. It‘s also really long, patient and slow. The life a gay actor on an Oxford scholarship.

This book started strong but completely fizzled out 40% in. I bailed at 60%—life‘s too short for boring books, and I‘ve hit my limit on privileged, elite British society.

All the feelings of a big classic novel. This is old-fashioned storytelling, complete with lush prose, layers of characterisation, and a context that lives as much as the characters do. A really immersive story about struggles of class, race, sexuality, and family in post-war Britain. I wish I‘d been able to submerge myself in this more completely, a drawn out reading let me miss a bit of nuance I‘m sure. An excellent read.