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#Iceland
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IriDas
Burial Rites | Hannah Kent
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So, I checked this book out through Libby from the library. Libby uses Kindle. Kindle puts this effing stupid pink line through the entire book. I know it‘s all because I checked out a couple more just to see and, yep, this stupid pink line. What is the purpose?

ETA: I checked Kindle on my laptop. It is not there. Only my phone. :/

#kindle
#libbyapp
#ebooks

AnnCrystal Why? That can be distracting 🤔😐📚💝. 3d
willaful What on earth? 3d
15 likes2 comments
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LitsyEvents
Burial Rites | Hannah Kent
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Repost for @Librarybelle

Great discussion so far for The Chelsea Girls! Our next #LiteraryCrew #BuddyRead is Kent‘s historical fiction account of the last woman set to be executed in Iceland.

Read at your own pace. Discussion on July 31st. I will post periodic check-ins throughout the month. All are welcome to join! I know several are planning to join in for the discussion!

See original post at https://www.litsy.com/web/post/2879329

Librarybelle Thanks for reposting! 2d
32 likes1 comment
blurb
Librarybelle
Burial Rites | Hannah Kent
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Great discussion so far for The Chelsea Girls! Our next #LiteraryCrew #BuddyRead is Kent‘s historical fiction account of the last woman set to be executed in Iceland.

Read at your own pace. Discussion on July 31st. I will post periodic check-ins throughout the month. All are welcome to join! I know several are planning to join in for the discussion!

Sace Just put a copy on hold at my library! 3d
See All 8 Comments
julieclair Just picked up my copy at the library today! Also visited Iceland last month, so this timing worked out well for me! 2d
Teresereading I just finished The Good People for Bookclub. And currently listening to Always Home, always Homesick, so keen for a trifecta! I‘m in!! 20h
Librarybelle @Teresereading Perfect! I‘ve read The Good People and liked it, but not as much as Burial Rites. 12h
40 likes1 stack add8 comments
blurb
LitsyEvents
Burial Rites | Hannah Kent
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Repost for @Librarybelle

As we approach our June 30th discussion of The Chelsea Girls for #LiteraryCrew, July‘s #BuddyRead is right around the corner!

Burial Rites is dark, compassionate, slow burning and hauntingly beautiful.

Read at your own pace. Discussion July 31st. All are welcome to join. Let @Librarybelle know if you would like to be added or removed from the tag list.

45 likes5 comments
review
Robotswithpersonality
This post contains spoilers
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Panpan

Mostly mourning the lost potential in the premise.
Despite the extensive amount of the story delivered by an unlikeable narrator, I can see so much here that would have really worked for me if handled differently.
The author writes well, but seems to often choose to write in an attempt to shock the reader, but in ways I've encountered before, that only leave a bad taste in my mouth. 1/?

Robotswithpersonality 2/? Opening with post-WW2 tensions: white supremacy and eugenics still viable ideas to some people, so many who have suffered violence and trauma in war, the 'place of women'.
Then the story within the story of a second mate ostensibly transported from a place and time where he had a past serving aboard the Argo with Jason, in recounting his tale focusing on the Lemnos incident, parallels the fact that he and the listening passengers and crew are
(edited) 2w
Robotswithpersonality 3/? aboard a ship in the 1940s unexpectedly paused in its own journey.
One more layer is apparent in a Nordic tale recounted that foreshadows Jason and Medea's own dark endings, told both to the Argonauts and the 40s listeners.
The unlikeable narrator has the potential for farce, because he appears to have a Polonius/Mr. Collins level of clueless chatter that sucks up to his benefactor, and tells people things for their own good and criticizes
(edited) 2w
Robotswithpersonality 4/? everyone in the least tolerant manner possible.
There's also a strong theme of sexual violence against women and seeing women only as insatiable sexual objects, which is disturbing in itself, but also because it never really feels like the author did the work to explain the linkage between the problems with the latter and the perpetration of the former.
(edited) 2w
See All 7 Comments
Robotswithpersonality 5/? Perhaps the idea was that with such an unlikeable narrator, anything he said you'd understand to be distasteful and not an attitude the reader should take forward, but it's all the messier when Caeneus, the second mate, acting as the narrator for the story within the story is at once catering to the needs of a good portion of the women of Lemnos without valuing them beyond sexual desire, and recounting his own assault at the hands of Poseidon (edited) 2w
Robotswithpersonality 6/? when he was a woman who wished to become a man after this ordeal.
There's a single page that suggests a sci-fi/fantasy element that might explain why Caeneus from ancient mythic Greece is in the 20th century, but for the most part this is a bizarre mashup of historical and myth-retelling.
(edited) 2w
Robotswithpersonality 7/? It ends much too quickly for my taste plot-wise, with no real resolution, but too slowly considering some of the uglier discussion topics, and worse, the detestable narrator appears in better state than he started. Again, I've read books where these writing choices are made, before, and I remain baffled as to what the point was. I'm afraid my brain is pretty good at dumping the junk when it's in the realm of fiction, so if the idea was to make (edited) 2w
Robotswithpersonality 7/7 it memorable because it pushed buttons, it failed there too. 🤷🏼‍♂️

⚠️Racism, xenophobia, misogyny, dismemberment, SA, child death
2w
3 likes7 comments
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bibliothecarivs
The Icelandic Saga | Peter Hallberg
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Recent acquisition for our personal library.

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Librarybelle
Burial Rites | Hannah Kent
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As we approach our June 30th discussion of The Chelsea Girls for #LiteraryCrew , July‘s #BuddyRead is right around the corner!

Burial Rites is one of my favorite books, and I thrilled the group voted to read this one this year. It‘s dark, compassionate, slow burning, and hauntingly beautiful.

Read at your own pace. Discussion July 31st. All are welcome to join. Let me know if you would like to be added or removed from the tag list!

mcctrish I‘ve read this already so I will join in at the end and see if I can remember anything 2w
Cuilin @mcctrish same here! 2w
See All 14 Comments
Deblovestoread Same as @mcctrish and @Cuilin. Loved it! 2w
julieclair Sounds wonderful! I‘m in. 💙 2w
IriDas I‘d like to be added 2w
Librarybelle Of course, @IriDas ! Welcome! 2w
tpixie Thanks! 2w
Jess861 Such a good book! 2w
Librarybelle It truly is, @Jess861 ! 2w
53 likes1 stack add14 comments
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bibliothecarivs
Gunnar's Daughter | Sigrid Undset
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Recent home library acquisition

review
Yenya1954
The Girl Who Died: A Novel | Ragnar Jonasson
Pickpick

This is a novel which takes place on an island in Iceland. The island has only 10 inhabitants. The residents hire a young woman named Una to teach two young girls. There is a mystery surrounding the island. In an area where darkness is the norm during the winter, living can be depressing. I did enjoy the novel. The town residents were not very friendly and not characters I would want to have contact with. 4/5⭐️

review
Hooked_on_books
The Night Guest | Hildur Knutsdottir
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Pickpick

A woman is having some challenging symptoms and thinks increased exercise might be the key. But then he pedometer watch shows an amount of walking that seems impossible. Moving through the investigation of her own behavior is both interesting and steadily increasing in dread. I did find the ending a bit odd and too abrupt, but overall I liked this one.

49 likes1 stack add