June 2021 Book Club - A Long Petal of the Sea

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 June is A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende. 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.

    Spoilers are fun... I know who dunnit... it was the butler!


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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. djp332

    djp332 She sells seashells down by the seashore

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    This was available on Kindle without a wait from the library. That never happens! >>>> I learned a lot from this book that I didn't know before. I never realized that concentrations camps were a thing before WWII. And I didn't know that there were camps in Chile, too, all those years later.

    I was hoping that Victor and Roser would fall in love, but wished it would have happened sooner than it did. I was really mad at Victor for having the affair with Ofelia. i figured out while she was in labor, that they would hide the child from her, and disappointed in the priest and her mother, Laura for being a part of the scheme
    .<<<< This was a really good book and I enjoyed reading it.
     
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  3. janedee

    janedee Is a craft project ever really finished?

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    This came in at the library much sooner than I expected. yay!
     
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  4. dailydwelling

    dailydwelling Confidently cooking and creating

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    I listened to this one on audio last spring (while working on a puzzle) and absolutely loved it!!
     
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  5. Karen

    Karen Wiggle it, just a little bit!

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    I started this one a few days ago and I'm really enjoying it. I've had a few nights up past bedtime reading! That's always a sign of a good book for me. :agree
     
  6. cookingmylife

    cookingmylife Pizza would be my last meal, except ...

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    I thought I'd put this one on hold but seem to have missed adding or picking up books these past few months! 6 came in at once this week so it will be later this month for sure for this one.
     
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  7. Karen

    Karen Wiggle it, just a little bit!

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    I finished this one a couple weeks ago and I forgot to come here with my thoughts:

    I really enjoyed the first portion of this book. I got really invested into Roser, Guillem, Victor and their family and their struggles through the conflicts in their country and exile from Spain. Then the story abruptly switched to Laura and Isidro del Solar on some fancy ship and I had a really hard time ever connecting with them, probably because I just wanted to get back to the other storyline that I had been invested in. Overall I felt the whole story was really disjointed. There was too much detail and not enough character development after the first three chapter. It just started to ramble for me after that.

    My problems with this book:
    When Carme disappeared while trying to flee to France from Spain, they made it sound like she was dying, but then she reappeared years later. When Guillem was missing in action they all but implied he'd return from the dead as soon as Roser and Victor got married, but he never reappeared. Aitor (who helped get them out of Spain) seemed like a main character and then he disappeared except to be mentioned as a lover of Roser. Roser and Victor lived as friends for decades raising Guillem's son and then when they finally fell in love, I just didn't feel it at all or even care at that point. And I knew when Victor and Ofelia got together and she got pregnant and was sent away, I knew that her baby didn't die and waited until the very end for that weak twist to be revealed.

    I did enjoy the history of the conflicts in Spain and learned about the concentration camps for those refugees. I never knew those existed. The only concentration camps I ever knew about were for the Jews in WW2. I also enjoyed the portions of the book set in Chile and how people were brought there for their talents and abilities and how they truly became Chilean.
     
  8. bestcee

    bestcee In love with places I've never been to

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  9. navaja77

    navaja77 Well-Known Member

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