#20booknotes

A, Molly

@mollyambersky.bsky.social

11 months ago

Blue book cover with feather turning into birds. Author: Celeste Ng, Title: Our Missing Hearts. Quotes on cover read: "Impossible not to be moved," - Stephen King. "Deeply suspensful," - Reese Witherspoon. "Stunning," - Mail on Sunday. "Deeply moving," -Stylist.

Why I chose my #bookchallenge picks.

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💙📚 #20booknotes

Day 20: This is one of those books that is eerily close to reality, far too easy to believe. Banned books, children relocated due to parent's politics, racism, and a mom turned rebel when her poem became a rebel rally cry.

A, Molly

@mollyambersky.bsky.social

11 months ago

Tan book cover with swirls on top and a desert city with swirling sand in front. Title: The Alchemist, Author: Paulo Coehlo

Why I chose my #bookchallenge picks.

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Day 19: This book is allegorical and spiritual, but you can read it to enhance your spiritual beliefs and journey no matter what your religion is. Quotable, deep, and yet also a plot that kept me engaged. Rereadable!

A, Molly

@mollyambersky.bsky.social

11 months ago

Sparkling blue-green water background of a book cover. Title: My Name is Memory, Author: Ann Brasharws, New York Times bestselling author of The Sisterhood of the Traving Pants

Why I chose my #bookchallenge picks.

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Day 18: Although fiction, this book both shapes and aligns with my own spiritual beliefs about reincarnation. I am intrigued by the birthmark hypothesis and love the souls drawn together again and again.

#MyNameIsMemory

A, Molly

@mollyambersky.bsky.social

1 year ago

Why I chose my #bookchallenge picks.

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Day 17: This book is just amazing. Gives you a whole new perspective on the philosophy of war. Psychological thriller with a twist.

#OrsonScottCard
#Ender'sGame

A, Molly

@mollyambersky.bsky.social

1 year ago

Blue and gold book cover with moth silhouettes. Title: Strange the dreamer. Author: Laini Taylor. "The New York Times bestseller and Michael L. Printz honor book."

Why I chose my #bookchallenge picks.

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Day 16: A few years ago I was in a terrible reading slump, and this book snapped me out of it. I was hooked from the opening line, and the story only got better. It was just such a unique and fascinating new fantasy world.

Charlie 🏳️‍🌈

@charlie-hughes.bsky.social

1 year ago

💙📚 #20booknotes
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Book about the railroad monopoly’s stranglehold on water in California as told through the story of farmers. Sprawling and epic. It was supposed to be a trilogy on the story of wheat but unfortunately he died.

A, Molly

@mollyambersky.bsky.social

1 year ago

Why I chose my #bookchallenge picks.

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💙📚 #20booknotes

Day 15: This is an interesting anti-thesis to The Handmaid's Tale. What if women did, basically, rule the world? Men & older boys play war games, women & children run civilization.

#TheGateToWomen'sCountry
#SheriTepper

Charlie 🏳️‍🌈

@charlie-hughes.bsky.social

1 year ago

💙📚 #20booknotes
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Day 19: I chose Hamlet over other’s of Shakespeare’s plays because of its philosophical themes. I first read it in my senior year of high school and was immediately taken by it.

Steve Lohengrin

@slohengrin.bsky.social

1 year ago

#20booknotes on my #20bookchallenge picks
I'm a retired cop, a writer, a historical fiction & Hemmingway fan, & been to Havana (a hot mess of a city). Det Conde is a great character. Loved the Four Seasons in Havana book & movie series. Adios is well translated and closes out the set perfectly.

Charlie 🏳️‍🌈

@charlie-hughes.bsky.social

1 year ago

💙📚 #20booknotes
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This is billed as girl Lord of the Flies, which is so limiting. It’s a girl’s school on an island. Illness has shut them off from the world. It captures a certain type of almost obsessive friendship in girls this age.

A, Molly

@mollyambersky.bsky.social

1 year ago

Why I chose my #bookchallenge picks.

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💙📚 #20booknotes

Day 14: This was one of my first post-apocalyptic read, and I was fascinated by the idea that one brilliant scientist could destroy (and save?) the world in one go. Almost an environmental science fight club.

#Oryx&Crake

A, Molly

@mollyambersky.bsky.social

1 year ago

Why I chose my #bookchallenge picks.

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Day 13: A more recent read, and one incredibly, scarily relevant to current events. Depressing but also uplifting. I love our heroine and all she does to build community and survive.

#ParableOfTheSower
#OctaviaButler

Charlie 🏳️‍🌈

@charlie-hughes.bsky.social

1 year ago

💙📚 #20booknotes
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I read this in a class on colonial & post-colonial literature to mark a line between stories of colonial superiority and stories by indigenous people. It offers a nuanced critique of colonialism from a British writer.

Steve Lohengrin

@slohengrin.bsky.social

1 year ago

#20booknotes on my #20bookchallenge picks
Dave Barry fan for decades, but this one really resonated with me. You can learn so much if you just pay attention to the right teachers.

A, Molly

@mollyambersky.bsky.social

1 year ago

Why I chose my #bookchallenge picks.

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Day 12: This book left an impact because *trauma* rats eating faces... but also because of how scarily I could equate it to our US government. And that was reading it 20 years ago...

#nineteeneightyfour
#GeorgeOrwell

Charlie 🏳️‍🌈

@charlie-hughes.bsky.social

1 year ago

💙📚 #20booknotes
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My day 17: I read this book as a high schooler. A Native American man struggles with his identity after he comes home from WWII. It was my first experience with a non-linear narrative, which, in this story, I loved.

Steve Lohengrin

@slohengrin.bsky.social

1 year ago

#20booknotes on my #20bookchallenge picks
Learning about lives you haven't lived is good for your soul, especially if those lives faced challenges and choices you'll never experience. This life was beautifully written.

A, Molly

@mollyambersky.bsky.social

1 year ago

Book cover for The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. It depicts a child and a polar bear looking at a city in the sky surrounded by northern lights, with a large compass with symbols on the bottom of the page.

Why I chose my #bookchallenge picks.

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Day 11: The daemons in this book were a dream come true. The fantasy was unique, but the critiques of religion and the magic of witches and science meant a lot to me, too. A childhood favorite I've reread again and again.

Charlie 🏳️‍🌈

@charlie-hughes.bsky.social

1 year ago

💙📚 #20booknotes

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My day 16: I saw this comedy with a friend at Tufts university. The absurd situations were a riot and the greater message around the hypocrisy of those that use religion as a guise for their own gain was meaningful.

Steve Lohengrin

@slohengrin.bsky.social

1 year ago

#20booknotes on my #20bookchallenge picks
So, anyway . . . if you want to be a writer, read. If you want to see how one of the best in his field did it, read this. Clear, no bullshit advice without being all preachy. And do get that Elements of Style book he recommends.

Charlie 🏳️‍🌈

@charlie-hughes.bsky.social

1 year ago

#20booknotes I enjoy the details that spark book love!

Charlie 🏳️‍🌈

@charlie-hughes.bsky.social

1 year ago

💙📚 #20booknotes
Posts on why I chose my #bookchallenge picks. PLEASE PLAY ALONG!

15:The book’s raw violence and visceral decay echo a very real lived experience for the most vulnerable in rural America. Some of my students come from that same world and Ree echoes their tenacious grip on survival.

Steve Lohengrin

@slohengrin.bsky.social

1 year ago

#20booknotes on my #20bookchallenge picks

Once upon a time I played an online air combat game, AirWarrior. The more realistic it became, the more you needed to understand actual air combat. Shaw's book was the bible.

-)salute--- from an old musketeer (iykyk)

A, Molly

@mollyambersky.bsky.social

1 year ago

Why I chose my #bookchallenge picks.

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Day 10: As a child, I loved Redwall. This classic was mentioned on its cover. It was a lot darker and heavier than I'd expected, but it definitely stuck with me. (The allegory went over my head)

#WatershipDown
#RichardAdams

A, Molly

@mollyambersky.bsky.social

1 year ago

Why I chose my #bookchallenge picks.

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💙📚 #20booknotes

Day 9: I read When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit pretty young and it shook me... loved fictional diary books so this non-fiction tragedy was both so good and so upsetting. Huge part of shaping my world view.

#TheDiaryofAnneFrank

Charlie 🏳️‍🌈

@charlie-hughes.bsky.social

1 year ago

💙📚 #20booknotes
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14: My mother and I read this book together when I was 14. The fictionalized story of the last empress of China’s rise in a brutal court system. It was riveting. Now days, I live about a mile from Buck’s birthplace.

Steve Lohengrin

@slohengrin.bsky.social

1 year ago

#20booknotes on my #20bookchallenge picks
This one required a lot of attention, but was written so well and convincingly. I confess a little 'confirmation bias' on the whole, and though there were a couple of items that I had doubts about, I might be wrong about them (incredible as that sounds).

Charlie 🏳️‍🌈

@charlie-hughes.bsky.social

1 year ago

💙📚 #20booknotes
Posts on why I chose my #bookchallenge picks. PLEASE PLAY ALONG!

Day 13: I discovered her work in Women’s Lit in college. The grotesque characters, the violent situations, and her tragic humor give her work the unique quality of feeling at once authentic, outlandish and spiritual.

A, Molly

@mollyambersky.bsky.social

1 year ago

Why I chose my #bookchallenge picks.

PLEASE PLAY ALONG!
💙📚 #20booknotes

Day 8: Read this as a choice book project in 5th grade, very stubbornly finished despite its darkness & difficulty. Animal experimentation is heavy stuff. Probably allegorical, too.

#PlagueDogs
#RichardAdams