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Jun 23
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I can understand how A Year of Rest… could be polarizing. I appreciate books that demand a strong response, and it sounds like you do, too!

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Your Bookshop.org list is a brilliant idea. All these titles are new to me. I reserved Piglet at the library. It was already on my list and I’m ready to be pulled into some fast fiction. Thank you!

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Yay for Piglet! I hope you like it.

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A truly excellent list and I love the Claire Messud response. I am not looking for myself in books. I know myself (for the most part). I am looking for ways to expand my sense of the world, to encounter different ways of being, to feel things I haven't felt.

I am reading Miranda July's 'All Fours' right now and I think it would be a meaningful addition to this list.

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I love the way you approach reading. That’s so smart. I also just started All Fours and think it’s great so far.

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Great recommendations! Andrea, have you read Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman? I read it two years ago and loved it.

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I haven’t read that one, but I’ve heard many positive things about it.

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You’re so right that the “unlikeable” label always goes with women characters. Now that I think about it, most men in fiction are ‘unlikeable’, too - but no one is calling them that!

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Exactly. It seems male characters get the antihero label instead.

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This Messud quote you found is so good.

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Love this list! I would add the book Treasure Island!!! by Sara Levine to it. (Yes, the three exclamation points are part of the title 🤣)

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I read that one years ago, but I don’t remember anything about it now except for the cover. Oops! 😅

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Oh jeez, that is me with so many books! I feel ya!!

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