pickDoig‘s language is rich and poetic and usually calming. But there‘s a lot of death in this slim novel, so while it occupied my mind, it didn‘t distract me enough on this fraught night. #bookspin @TheAromaofBooks
pickReally liked this book about the relationship between two sisters and the bear that comes into their lives on an island off the coast of Washington. As the bear becomes the defining feature of their lives, truths and secrets come out and change their very existence. Very unlike anything I‘ve read and a real page turner at the end.
so-soWould not have read this except my irl book club picked it so here we are. I get why critics like it (this is exactly the type of book that shows up on the NYT bestsellers list) & it has some interesting things to say about sisterhood, our relationship to the environment/nature, the cost of living, caring for parents, dreams & reality, BUT I didn‘t like the characters (they don‘t grow) & the end is…not good.
“A third of their household had dropped away; so many of the tiny beloved disruptions that Sam had come to rely on…were absent.”
pickI think Julia Phillips is a phenom. I loved Disappearing Earth and I loved Bear. I understand why others might feel differently. It‘s a difficult read. Two sisters, Sam & Elena, are beaten down by their circumstances: poverty, childhood abuse, and acting as caretaker for their terminally ill mother — but they‘ve always had each other. When a bear shows up on the Pacific Northwest island where they live…👇🏻
“When Sam and Elena were children their mother used to take them on temperate evenings to play by the fairgrounds. She sat at a picnic table while they occupied themselves on the swings. She wore sunglasses. She could‘ve been their big sister. If they asked, she‘d push them, her hands firm and flat against their backs. She made them more powerful every time she touched them.”
August wrap up from StoryGraph, best one for me was Bear 🐻 (tagged).
Keeping up a good pace, I‘ve already met my reading goal for the year (oops). So I doubled it. Let‘s see if I can hit 52!
And our last question of #camplitsy24 for this year…. Let‘s talk about the ending of the book - what did you think?
Tomorrow we‘ll vote between Bear and The Alternatives and then Barbara will post shortly asking you for your #camplitsy24 favourite.
We hope you‘ve enjoyed August‘s books - thank you all for your valuable and insightful contributions! ❤️
#camplitsy24
This part of the discussion is all about the 🐻.
We looked at fairy tale elements last week, but do you think that the bear is ‘just‘ a bear or is it an allegory for something else or a particular message to the reader?
Do you think the events surrounding the bear would have actually played out like this in real life? (note that we'll discuss that ending in Q3)
#camplitsy24
Well, here we are in our last week of camp! 😢 Time to think about rolling up your sleeping bag, and exchanging friendship bracelets before we leave.
But not before we have a few more questions about Bear.
A few of us touched on this one last week - we only saw Sam‘s perspective throughout the book. Did you wish you could have seen Elena‘s POV too- and how would it have differed?
