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Carolyn finished reading this one. While she was not enthusiastic about the characterization, she found the plotting really compelling. She also pointed out that there were some really nice things said about libraries by the main characters!
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Speed round: Kathy
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Pat said she never would have read this had it not been loaded to her by Bonnie. She has never had a pet bird or thought of them as a pet she'd like to had, but that she found this book really compelling. Each chapter is about a different bird, but it is also a memory.
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Kristin notes, after the fact, that this is also a novel (teen, but appropriate as a cross-over adult title) about Francoist Spain.
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Wendy didn't think she liked this quite as much as she remembers Bonnie having liked it but she enjoyed this memoir all the same.
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Speed round: Claudia. This had clearly been loved by some attendees before. Kristin mentioned the "sequel"/companion title, A God in Ruins, linked below.
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Amy finished up this new one from Allende and really enjoyed. She also commented on how the extremist leaders in the book were interesting to read about in the current environment.
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Maisie Dobbs novels volume 1
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Kristin mentioned that reading about the end of WWI was helping her think about how a larger community comes out of a traumatic historical event.
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Amy has also been reading and enjoying the lush prose of Brian Doyle. Other attendees remembered his visit to Ashland through Chautauqua.
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Kristin is in the process of reading this book with thematic content similar to Atwood's Handmaid's Tale (linked below). Women mysteriously gain a power that allows them to flip the world power dynamic. It's fascinating and uncomfortable to read by turns.
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Kathy read this recent book by a young author. She was leery of trying another young author after not being a fan of Normal People (linked below). She was pleasantly surprised by this novel about a twenty-something woman that deals frankly with the the prejudice involved in the relationship between a wealthy middle-class white woman and her African American nanny.
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Speed round: Kristin
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What belongs to you volume 1
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Sandra took a risk in reading a debut novel and she really enjoyed this one. She compared it to On This Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous for subject and The Sympathizer stylistically (both linked below).
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