#stewart o'nan

[rains-of-words]

You couldn't relive your life, skipping the awful parts, without losing what made it worthwhile. You had to accept it as a whole--like the world, or the person you loved.

Stewart O'Nan, The Odds

#quotes #rainsofwords #usermaximoff #books #stewart o'nan #the odds

[spaceorphanssecondbreakfastclub]

SO's US Tour Round-Up

I'm pretty behind in doing reviews for these books, so I thought I'd write up some smaller reactions and put them all in one. It seems easier, so I may try this way for the next batch as well.

****

California : The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Look, I know that California is a big place, and there are a lot of things that could represent it - but I think nothing screams California more to an outsider than Old Hollywood. Plus, I had been wanting to read this book for a while.

I'll be honest - I have some mixed feelings about this one.

On the one hand, it's an interesting read. The premise is a young woman listening to the story of aging Hollywood Starlet Evelyn Hugo - and the story of her having seven husbands. You can tell that this was inspired by someone like Elizabeth Taylor -- and the book is broken up into various parts - each documenting the story behind each husband.

It's incredibly engaging, and I can say the book kept me captivated the whole way through. I think those who are interested - if they pick up the book, they'll probably, overall, have a good time with it. The problems I, personally, had was when you started to dig a little deeper.

First of all -- I was slightly disappointed that I don't think Reid fully captivates the Old Hollywood atmosphere. Everything reads as if it were happening in the present, and I never get that full sense of what Hollywood was like back then. I guess I wanted more from that. (Honestly - though, when this inevitably gets turned into a miniseries - I think seeing it on screen might help with some of the atmosphere issues.)

Secondly - the book deals with three main themes -- women's issues, queer identity, and (tangentially) racial issues. I think it's awkward with all three, and there were aspects of the book that just didn't settle well with me. Added into that - there was one element (the main character's central romance) that just did not work, which tied into the above elements, and why I don't think the book succeeds the way I think the author intended.

Overall, I think if you take the book for what it is -- an entertaining riff on Old Hollywood and its scandals and stereotypes, I think you'll enjoy the book. I just don't think it's the literary genius that social media (TikTok) has been making it out to be, and while I recommend it, I would advise going into for the enjoyment value and not thinking about it too hard.

Rating : 3.5 Stars

****

Colorado : Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew J. Sullivan

When I started this project, and was looking for a book for Colorado - all signs pointed to me to Stephen King's The Shining. Which I've read! And enjoyed! And wouldn't even have minded reading it again -- but I've been trying to go with books that I haven't read before.

So - I took a chance on this one. I like books about bookstores, and this one had a mystery imbedded into it, so I thought - hey, why not?

It's not a bad little book - but I can't say it's all that memorable (save for one thing) either. The story revolves around a woman named Lucy who works at an Indy bookstore in Denver. When one of her coworkers commits suicide, she starts looking into it, and finds out that it intersects with a horrific incident in her own past.

This is another one that was pretty easy to read - and the central mystery around it was pretty captivating. I finished it rather quickly. And even if I didn't really love the ending, I think it still works relatively well for a thriller.

Lucy's a likable enough character -- though the book does spend a good amount of energy exploring her relationship with her live-in boyfriend that ultimately doesn't go anywhere or have much plot relevance. The other characters serve their purpose well, though I wouldn't say this book digs in deep by way of character development.

As for atmosphere - I think it both works and doesn't. The whole idea of the bookstore was fun - but the mystery doesn't do much with it other than kick of the premise. The setting of Colorado works for a story that wants to remain in an isolated place, but it's by no means the feature of the novel.

One thing that I do think worked really well for the book was a sequence where it transcended genres and slipped from thriller to horror. There's an entire section that depicts a young girl witnessing some gruesome murders - and it is haunting. It's by far the biggest thing I remember from the book. I wish the rest of the book's writing lived up to this sequence.

Overall - it's a solid recommend. Again, I think if you go in wanting a couple of hours worth of engaging entertainment it's worth the read, but I don't think it's something you'll remember much about a year later.

Rating : 3 Stars

****

Connecticut : Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O'Nan

The premise of this one is fairly simple - it's a slice of life from the POV of a Red Lobster manager named Manny. The restaurant is having its last day -- a cold day in late December, and it really showcases what it's like to be service worker in the lower working class of suburban America.

I was kind of expecting this one to be a comedy at first, but it's really not. It's more of a drama and a character study. And you know what? I really, really enjoyed it. It hit a bit close to home -- and it will for anyone who has ever had to work in a service industry. But I think where it really excels is just capturing what life is really like, and how there are these bittersweet beginnings and endings in a world that trudges forever on.

I think there's also a conversation about class baked into the story. All of the staff have unpretty lives. They aren't poor and it's not a horror show in the way I think other media often portrays the working people, but I think it's a commentary about how many of us lead outward sad lives but are so entrenched on making it through the day that we don't even notice. I'm painting a bleak picture here, I know -- but there is some silverlining, in that the staff is able to remember good times, too, and even at the end of their tenure, it's not all bad. It's a book about finding the good stuff even when everything around you is falling apart.

All of this is juxtaposed against the customers - who, while being not so great people themselves, regard themselves (intentionally or not) above everyone else. The irony being that they're living in New England and choosing to go to Red Lobster instead of somewhere local for their seafood, and yet still feel above people who go to, say, Long John Silvers.

I definitely recommend this one. Out of the books that I've read lately for this challenge, it's the one that's stuck out to me the most, and the one that's held the most weight, even if it's a somewhat simple story.

Rating : 4 Stars

****

Delaware : Cure for the Common Break Up by Beth Kendrick

I'm sorry Delaware that you don't seem to have any great American novels tied to you. I'm sorry that you don't seem to have much of anything written in your state. Because this book kept coming up on lists for Delaware - and while I'm totally fine with a Hallmark-esque, breeze romance novel. This book was terrible.

If you've followed me at all lately - I keep posting excerpts from it. Because it's just so unfathomly bad. Look - I can do fun campiness. The author does write for Hallmark, and even if they aren't the best pieces of literature around, at least they're often fun. This was not fun.

The story revolves around a woman named Summer who literally crashes and burns (she was a airline stewardess whose plane crashed) and when she's dumped, makes it to Black Dog Bay - where the main attraction is the fact that everything in the little town has to do with heartbreak. It's actually a kind of cute premise - which is why I initially picked it up - but the execution is just terrible.

Summer is wholly unlikable a good amount of the time. Her life is a mess, and yet she's perfect at just about everything. Her love interest is a guy named Dutch Jenson (omg the names) the mayor of the little town who kind of lucked into the role. The romance is kind of pathetic - there's zero build up, zero reason why the two should be together, and zero payoff.

The book really isn't interesting in being a romance anyway. It's more concerned with Summer's attachment to Dutch's teenage sister (where she's supposed to be a mentor) and Summer's dealings with an older woman named Hattie -- who is so bitter after a broken love affair that she's planning on taking the town down with her. Of course, Summer is able to save the day and the town and, everyone lives dully after after.

This book is stupid. It's just. So. Stupid. The characters are flat when they're not being annoying. The dialogue is incredibly forced - it's painful the people talk in this book. There are a ton of pop culture references that make me wince more than anything. The 'humor' is bad sitcom level of bad. And the plot is entirely bland and unoriginal. I think the whole thing makes those ridiculous Hallmark movies feel like groundbreaking art forms.

I think there's some fun to be had with cheesy things like this -- if you have fun characters and do interesting things with them. But this one just kinda fails in a whole lotta ways.

Not a recommendation from me.

Rating : 1.5 stars

#so's us book tour #the seven husbands of evelyn hugo #taylor jenkins reid #Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore #Matthew J. Sullivan #Last Night at the Lobster #Stewart O'Nan #Cure for the Common Break Up #beth kendrick #books #book review

[thatwritererinoriordan]

July 6, 1944: A fire at the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus in Hartford, Connecticut, kills an estimated 167 people.

#Hartford Connecticut #The Circus Fire #Stewart O'Nan #u.s. history #nonfiction

[joshcockroft2]

Last Night at the Lobster – Stewart O’Nan 

18.2.2023

This is what I want more of from cinema! A really contained story, yet so much happening for the author to explore.

#Last Night at the Lobster #Stewart O'Nan #book #books #read #reading #fiction #contemporary fiction #booklr #bookblr

[liz-not-bennet]

I wanted everyone to be happy, despite our actual lives.

- Ocean State, Stewart O'Nan

(p. 4)

#books #quotes #book quote #ocean state #stewart o'nan

[bettsfic]

Tag 9 people you want to get to know better

tagged by the amazing and talented @naryrising!

3 Ships: rexsoka, hellcheer, hualian

First Ever Ship: honestly? anidala. but johnlock was the ship that got me reading fanfic

Last song: "the beat goes on" by sonny and cher

Last movie: rebel without a cause

Currently reading: the vietnam reader: the definitive collection of fiction and nonfiction on the war, edited by stewart o'nan

Currently watching: alchemy of souls, one piece

Currently consuming: coffee

Currently craving: i think this is referring to food but i have story cravings and i'm desperate for like a really dense, slow novel (or long short story/novella) about a character struggling with mental health issues who falls in love with someone who is not daunted by them and who is preferably a little sleazy

tagging @lunarriviera @valkyrhys @volturialice @significationary @iocococo @waffilicious @renee-mariposa @n-talia-a @maple-clef

#sns

[morganadiavalon]

"A volte l'amore non richiede molto tempo. Devi solo essere lì quando arriva."

Stewart O'Nan, Mi chiamavano Speedy Queen

[angela-miccioli]

A volte l'amore non richiede molto tempo. Devi solo essere lì quando arriva.

(Stewart O'Nan)

[littleblondesoprano]

11, 15, 28 63?

Thank you!!! :D <3

11. What you have for breakfast on an average day?

I actually don't eat breakfast, normally! During the week I work out. But on the weekends, I love blueberry pancakes, and sometimes cheese eggs :3

15. Favorite book you read as a school assignment?

The Scarlet Letter immediately comes to mind for high school, but in grad school I read A Prayer for the Dying by Stewart O'Nan and was absolutely blown over! It's a masterpiece, for sure.

28. Five songs to describe you?

Good Thing - Barns Courtney

W.A.M.S - Fall Out Boy

I Like it Heavy - Halestorm

Crazy Babies - Ozzy Osbourne

I Wanna Be Somebody - W.A.S.P

63. Five songs that would play in your club?

Oh it's all Heavy Metal.

I Don't Wanna Stop - Ozzy Osbourne

Demon Alcohol - Ozzy Osbourne

Cum On Feel the Noize - Quiet Riot

Ride the Lightning - Metallica

Country Girl - Black Sabbath (Heavily debated Leather Rebel by Judas Priest here)

#littleblondesoprano

[filmes-online-facil]

Assistir Filme Anjos da Neve Online fácil

Assistir Filme Anjos da Neve Online Fácil é só aqui: https://filmesonlinefacil.com/filme/anjos-da-neve/

Anjos da Neve - Filmes Online Fácil

Duas semanas antes de uma tragédia chegar à pequena cidade de Northeastern, a vida do estudante Arthur Parkinson e de sua antiga babá, Annie Marchand, mudarão completamente. Ambos tentarão resolver seu caos pessoal e seus sonhos esquecidos. Filme baseado no livro de Stewart O'Nan.

[leser-hair-removal-blog]

Stewart O'Nan, The Odds #tiktok #short #lovequotes #life #lovestatus ...

#youtube

[matyldasaresta]

LŚNIENIE W CIEMNOŚCI. DLA UCZCZENIA DWUDZIESTOLECIA LILJA’S LIBRARY ANTOLOGIA "Daleko od domu skusił was dreszczyk, Bo fajnie się w strach zabawić, Lecz teraz, maluchy, kończy się wierszyk, Prawdziwy koszmar przed wami." Antologia powstała dzięki autorowi bloga, poświęconemu Stephenowi Kingowi - Lilja's Library - The World of Stephen King, prowadzonemu przez dwadzieścia lat. Dwadzieścia lat minęęęęęło jak jeden dzieeeeń... I z racji tej rocznicy właśnie powstał oto ten zbiór. "Sześć z tych dwunastu oppowiadań [...] nie zostało wcześniej nigdzie opublikowanych, a niektóre powstały nawet specjalnie do tej antologii." Opowiadania różnej jakości i treści. Niektóre dobre. Inne słabe. Wybitnego brak. Ogólnie nie jestem jakoś szczególnie zachwycona. Nie zasugeruję też, które opowiadanie najlepsze, bo każdy będzie miał swój własny odbiór. Można poczytać w jesienny wieczór. Spis treści: Stephen King - Niebieski kompresor. Opowiadanie grozy Jack Ketchum, P.D. Cacek - Sieć Stewart O'Nan - Opowieść o Holocauście Bev Vincent - Aeliana Clive Barker - Pidgin i Theresa Brian Keene - Koniec wszystkich rzeczy Richard Chizmar - Cmentarny taniec Kevin Quigley - Wciągnięty w ogień Ramsey Campbell - Towarzysz Edgar Allan Poe - Mowne serce Brain James Freeman - Miłość matki John Ajvide Lindqvist - Księga strażnika https://www.instagram.com/p/CkI9mW8thqv/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[willywaldo]

Close up, she's older than her mother, and smaller, her hair hennaed, her eyebrows dyed black. Her glasses are on a bead chain, like a librarian's.--Stewart O'Nan, Ocean State

Why are writers so lazy with the librarian stereotypes? They should know better.

#librarians #stereotypes #Stewart O'Nan

[ophelia-network]

It is not brilliance or facility that is necessary, but the determination to bear and even enjoy the dull process of wading into one's own bad prose again, and one more time, and then once again, with the utmost concentration and taste, looking for opportunities to mine deeper. Stewart O'Nan

Proserpina Ornitofoba by Agostino Arrivabene

#proserpina #agostino arrivabene #stewart o'nan #quotes #painting #surreal #skulls #ophelia net #obscure #art #portrait #brain #growth #self #mind #think #being #aware #consciousness #self work #spiritual #psychology #keep going #dark #eerie #open your mind #metaphysical #ethereal #strength #confidence

[liz-not-bennet]

Wasn't all love desperate?

- Ocean State, Stewart O'Nan

( p. 53)

#book quote #books #quotes #ocean state

[lastloversarc]

Happy bi visibility day 💗💜💙

#bi visibility #bi visibility day #hello i'm bi / pan #stewart o'nan #casey mcquiston #anais nin #rainbow rowell #stieg larsson #erwan ji #alan cumming