August 2021 Book Club - The Book of Speculation

Discussion in 'Reading Pad' started by Karen, Mar 16, 2021.

  1. Karen

    Karen Wiggle it, just a little bit!

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    Yippee! Voting is done and we have another batch of great books to read together. I know I said it was for four months, but we had a three way tie so I'm doing the top five vote getters as the winners. This will give us books from April - August! :agree

    The book for August is The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler. Feel free to read our book club books in any order that you choose and when you've finished reading, come back here and tell us what you think. Please label spoilers. I even learned a new trick for hiding spoilers. Type whatever you want and then highlight the spoiler portion and click the + button above and select Spoiler.

    I'm a sucker for books with books on the cover!


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    Just a note, anyone can read these books at any time and join in the discussion at any time too! The more the merrier! :agree
     
  2. bellbird

    bellbird Pollywog

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    I'm about halfway through the audio of this. It's kind of slow & changes from past to present & back pretty quickly - was wondering if the real book version contained pictures/images, it sort of sounds like it should (images of tarot cards at least) but I'm not invested enough to bother seeking out a paper copy to check it out but maybe something to consider if you both listen to & read books
     
  3. Karen

    Karen Wiggle it, just a little bit!

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    Good to know. The only way I can get this book is at my local library (like a REAL book) so hopefully it'll have pictures for me. :)
     
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  4. Iowan

    Iowan Is this heaven? No, it's Iowa

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    Yes , the online (Libby) version had images to go along with the text. I already sent it back so I can’t show you screen shots.
    Pet Peeve: I don’t think the cover illustrator read the book. I just don’t see the connection unless I stretch my imagination.
     
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  5. bellbird

    bellbird Pollywog

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    Well there ya go, & I hate that too about the cover not being tied to the story! My only other pet peeve with audio-ing is not having a 'map'to refer back to when they're in a fantasy land & the book is full of journies or interactions of groups from different areas within some 'realm'
     
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  6. bellbird

    bellbird Pollywog

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    Got to the end, feels like this was a book with a cast of hundreds and i have problems keeping them all straight when i audio these sorts of books
    • Glad Simon was pulled from the waves, but kind of liked that it had been set up that Enola was in the firing line of drowning but then Simon in trying to save her and break the hold of the tarot cards nearly ended up being the fated to drown one
    • still wasn't sure if the Bookseller guy (?Churchman or something like that) really knew he was descended from the Raskova woman in the circus and was just pretending he wasn't to get closer to Simon
    • liked knowing how the horseshoe crabs were relevant after all their mentioning and finding out in parallel what happened to Evangeline but was not really sure what became of Bess and Amos (assumed they went the way of the rest of the circus in the flood/fire/whatever catastrophe separated the book from the circus in the first place but how were ENola and Simon related to Evangeline if Bess died? maybe i misunderstood half the family tree
    • was creeped out by the visual descriptions of Doyle orginally but he ended up my fave character and was kind of happy that it sounded like there was a happily ever after ending for Simon and Alice, & Enola and Doyle and maybe even Frank at the end of it all
    • about 3.5-4 stars - this felt very visual and i thought the author did a very good job of using imagery although i tend to not like heaps of that, it worked here maybe more so because it was audio
     
  7. jenn mccabe

    jenn mccabe She's OUR sunshine!

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    i speculate there's a frog running rampant around these parts ...

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  8. meganmecrazy

    meganmecrazy Caution: Randomly Breaks Out into Show tunes

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    I kissed the frog!!!
     
  9. JenEm

    JenEm Pollywog

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    I speculate Bart likes to read. His favorite book is the Frog Princess.

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  10. BevG

    BevG If I can't remember it, it didn't happen

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  11. djp332

    djp332 She sells seashells down by the seashore

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    I finished this book a few weeks ago, which was a few weeks after I visited Weeki Wachee, which was referred to several times in the book. This must be my summer of mermaids.

    >>>>>
    I agree with needing to see some pictures of tarot cards or even a family tree of some sort. I read with my Kindle, so pictures are few and far between.
    The descriptions of the horseshoe crabs made my skin crawl. I can't imagine stepping on one, let alone have them crawl all over me
    .<<<<<
     
    Last edited: Jul 6, 2021
  12. plumdumpling

    plumdumpling CT - Krista Sahlin

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    I totally agree with the comment about the cover artist not having a CLUE about the book. I wasn't even sure I liked the title after reading it. I thought the build up to July 24th was pretty effective, even if some of the parts leading up to it were kind of slow. But then when we got to July 24th, it just wrapped up so quickly with a happily ever after. I actually had to relisten to the ending chapters because I was sure I missed something. Nope. I also think Doyle was the best character.
     
  13. bestcee

    bestcee In love with places I've never been to

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  14. navaja77

    navaja77 Well-Known Member

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  15. janedee

    janedee Is a craft project ever really finished?

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    I read this a few years back and really enjoyed it at the time but, at this point, I don't remember that much about it. ITA the book cover is not relative at all!
     
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