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@bowie
Bowie Rowan
@bowieΒ Β·Β 2:05

Buddy Read: LONG BRIGHT RIVER πŸ“–

article image placeholderLong Bright River
Hey, everyone, I am so excited to share that we are going to be starting a buddy read in January for the novel Long Bright River. So a few of us here on sale have have already agreed to be part of this buddy read in which we'll be chatting about the book here on Swell as we read it, and I wanted to post about it a bit in advance, so if you're interested, you can join us

Join us in reading & chatting about this acclaimed thriller! https://s.swell.life/SSKZgLu0xAB3FXm

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@bookishpodcast
Shahnaz Ahmed
@bookishpodcastΒ Β·Β 4:35

57% done on audio. Starting The Roundhouse isn’t the official name.

I think what the issue is that it's just crime. It's a crime drama, right? So that's just not my genre. I just don't enjoy police solving a crime. And I know there's a sister involved and all this. It did just get interesting, because great. I've just been listening to the soul book. What's the name of her?
4
@bookishpodcast
Shahnaz Ahmed
@bookishpodcastΒ Β·Β 3:24

Book finished! @bowie, @loribpalmer, @NamelessJournal

I don't know why, but I know something about her that I like, that was the only character that just felt some semblance of something. Everyone else is just, I don't know, just plain annoyed in general, throughout. So welcome to my first book of 2021. I'm done Yay
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@bowie
Bowie Rowan
@bowieΒ Β·Β 0:32

Starting tonight!

So I'll be kind of leaving little messages and things I'm thinking about and seeing and questions I have as I go along. I'm really excited, excited to start tonight and hope you had a good New year
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@bowie
Bowie Rowan
@bowieΒ Β·Β 1:30

pg 87 love this section

I just came across this quote and I had to read it because I absolutely love this description. So it's on page 87, and it goes, Every pal officer in the facility was a pleasing combination of authoritative, funny, and kind. It changed for most of the other adults in our lives around whom we were mainly expected to stay silent. Each child had a favorite officer, a mentor, and small lines of children could often be found trailing after their chosen idol
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@bowie
Bowie Rowan
@bowieΒ Β·Β 0:39

pg 89

In just a couple pages after that, this paragraph also really stood out to me. But if I was selfconscious about my appearance, I was proud of my intelligence, which I thought of in secret, as something that rested quietly inside me as I sleeping Dragon guarding a store of wealth that no one, not even key, could take away a weapon I would one day deploy to save us both myself and my sister
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@bowie
Bowie Rowan
@bowieΒ Β·Β 1:01

the first 100 pgs!

And really I now feel much more invested with this revelation that Officer Clear is Simon, who I'm assuming from what we know in the first 100 pages is who Mickey or Mikkela goes on to have her kid with and be involved with, which is just wows up, because I think what he's like more than ten years older than her, met her when she was a kid, so very complicated, that's for sure. And I really want to see how this is going would develop for sure
@bookishpodcast
Shahnaz Ahmed
@bookishpodcastΒ Β·Β 1:16

@bowie NO spoiler question/comment

Hey, Boey, that was my question to see if you liked it so far. And I'm guessing you're beginning to like it because in the beginning it was like world building. You said you were are in the first 100 pages. How many pages are in this books? I know. I did it as an audio, so it's so tricky when you do it as an audio. There's no page numbers. It's just a percentage of how much of the book you've read
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@bowie
Bowie Rowan
@bowieΒ Β·Β 1:35

@bookishpodcast Audiobook good?

I think because of the voice of Mickey, the narrator, her voice is so like, straightforward and calm and direct that it has this kind of lazy river sort of quality to it. Like I feel like I'm just floating along. It still is moving quickly for me. So the book is I think I have the hard back version and it's 480 and I'm at 170 right now, and I only just started it last night
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@bookishpodcast
Shahnaz Ahmed
@bookishpodcastΒ Β·Β 0:28

Audiobook thoughts. No spoilers! @bowie

Hey, Bowie, I like the audiobook, but I don't have a preference. Like, it's not like I'd be like, oh, my gosh, you gotta do Long, Bright River on Audio. I can totally see reading the book and getting the same effect. I don't know why, but that doesn't mean the audiobook wasn't good. I mean, I liked it. It was just your run of the mill, your regular old audiobook
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@TheologyCentral
Trevor H
@TheologyCentralΒ Β·Β 1:59

A thank you for the book suggestion and a suggestion of my own. 0% read

This sounds like a great book. So I am so grateful I stumbled across your suggestion. I'm definitely going to be getting the book and reading it, but I would like to offer a suggestion to you that may add to people following you and following along with whatever book you're currently reading. You should create an Amazon Book Club very easy to create. It's absolutely free
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@Swell
Swell Team
@SwellΒ Β·Β 0:15

Welcome to Swell!

@Wordsmith
Sreeja V
@WordsmithΒ Β·Β 0:19
Hey Babi, thank you for this review. I just got the book recently on Kindle and I started reading last night and I'll keep you posted on how it goes. Excited to be doing a review after a while. Thank you for this
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@Ramya
Ramya V
@RamyaΒ Β·Β 2:00

Initial thoughts... @bowie @bookishpodcast

The lives of people devastated by addiction, poverty, and the deprivation of the human condition. I'd like to delve into specific aspects of the book I loved, but I think I'm going to do that in my next as well. Overall, it's a dark, disturbing and at times Apache read, but one that redeems itself in its final pages. So these are my initial thoughts on long, bright river, and I think I'll be back with more
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@bowie
Bowie Rowan
@bowieΒ Β·Β 0:55

@TheologyCentral bookshop.org & librofm! πŸ“š

So I personally will not be using the Amazon Book Club feature, although that's really cool that they have that. And I'm glad that it worked for you, but if you haven't checked out bookshop, I definitely recommend it. You can choose to support your local bookstore with every purchase. Also Libre FM as well, which Shahnaz got me into, and I love that I can still get audiobooks but also support my local bookstore too
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@bowie
Bowie Rowan
@bowieΒ Β·Β 1:15

@NamelessJournal Setting & character - no spoilers πŸ™‚

Bob tearing your initial thoughts here, Ramya, I completely agree with you. Part of why I was really excited to read this book is because knowing the bit I know about this writer, I had a feeling that, you know, this is wasn't just straight up genre fiction, but was going to be more literary fiction using elements of genre like thriller, crime novel, mystery. I think what you're saying is totally spa and I agree with you
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@TheologyCentral
Trevor H
@TheologyCentralΒ Β·Β 3:00

@bowie my apology and explanation:)

I have the book club so that people will find my podcast. I use Amazon for my own evil agenda. That's what I try to do, right? I'm going to manipulate the evil Corporation to benefit me. Okay, maybe that sounds kind of sinister, but all right, you get the idea. So all right, I'll stop talking
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@bowie
Bowie Rowan
@bowieΒ Β·Β 1:52

@TheologyCentral Talking books is the best!

And you were just making me laugh because I've just been trying to promote bookshop more partially because I am close to some local book owners. And so it's just like a passion of mine. But it has taken me a while to wean myself off of Amazon when it comes to books, because it's so fast. Right. But then once I started ordering from bookshop, I realized like, oh, this maybe takes like a day or two longer. It's fine
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@loribpalmer
Lori Palmer
@loribpalmerΒ Β·Β 1:03

Also at 57%:)

I don't want to make too many more comments until I get a little bit further and or finish it, but I am definitely enjoying it so far. Have a great day, friends
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@TheologyCentral
Trevor H
@TheologyCentralΒ Β·Β 3:14

#buddyread #long bright river #book A question to start 3%

But this is who they really are internally. Does that set up any keys to interpreting the message of the book? What do you think? How important do you think the opening few paragraphs of a book really is in film analysis? It's super important. But what do you think those of you who are experts about books and reading and interpretation would love to get your thoughts. All right. I look forward to. I'll probably finish the books book in the next few minutes
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@bowie
Bowie Rowan
@bowieΒ Β·Β 2:18

@TheologyCentral Beginnings & endings!

I love this question so much, and it's partially because I also love studying films and just stories in general. And I think thinking about the way books, particularly novels, work through the lens of film, is super useful and really helps from a writer's perspective to figure out, like, Man, how does this work? And how can I do this myself? So I love that you ask this question because I think it's hugely important
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@bookishpodcast
Shahnaz Ahmed
@bookishpodcastΒ Β·Β 4:18

Beginnings and ends... hmmm

And I think that is essentially a good, solid structure to follow, whether it's a book or a novel or anything, because for whatever reason, when you do it that way, I think people like it for the introduction to introduce other to tell you what's going on, where this book is going or where this movie is going. Yeah
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@TheologyCentral
Trevor H
@TheologyCentralΒ Β·Β 4:55

@bowie #long bright river #buddyread a look for interpretation clues 6%

Thank you so very much for taking the time to offer a reply and for offering some very interesting thoughts. Now I know in your reply you asked me to provide a list of books that I think have the perfect beginning, but I'm not not going to do that, and I have a good reason for not doing it
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@bookishpodcast
Shahnaz Ahmed
@bookishpodcastΒ Β·Β 0:29

@TheologyCentral

Since I've listened to the whole book, I think it's very unfair for me to comment but I will say it's very enlightening. I really enjoy your take on the opening and your perspective on it. So I just want to say thank you for it and yeah. Alright. I'll catch you later. Bye
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@TheologyCentral
Trevor H
@TheologyCentralΒ Β·Β 3:05

@bookishpodcast. Here is hoping I didn’t make a fool of myself:)

So usually I'm pretty good at I think finding what the director or writer really was trying to say. But I think I'm better at doing that with music and movies, and I cannot say I'm an expert at doing it with books, and it's risky when you're 6% to throw out some crazy theory where everyone can laugh at you who's read the book and go, Man, he is so far off, he doesn't know what he's talking about
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@bookishpodcast
Shahnaz Ahmed
@bookishpodcastΒ Β·Β 3:01

@TheologyCentral thank you for joining in!

Hello. So earlier up, if you scroll up, I have given my thoughts on the whole book. However, my caveat is this. I just read a book, just kind of take it for what it's worth. I'm not going to psychoanalyze. It like you do, which is great. I love it. I love that you can break elements down like that. A good friend of mine does that too. And I'm kind of like, what? Really?
@bowie
Bowie Rowan
@bowieΒ Β·Β 3:29

@bookishpodcast lol at your thoughts at 57%! I'm 66% in - pg. 319 πŸ™€

I didn't want it to happen. But the fact that she took the risk and took us there, I mean, that is dark. The fact that Casey or Mickey was preyed upon by this guy has his kid. And then at the point I am in the book, the scene at McDonald's just like, broke my heart for Thomas. So far, I'm really rooting for Thomas and Mickey. I don't know what's going to happen to Casey
2
@bowie
Bowie Rowan
@bowieΒ Β·Β 5:00

Finished! Rating & thoughts πŸ’™

And as some of you know, four stars for me are books that I really enjoyed was invested throughout. I am happy that I spent some of my time here on Earth reading them, and I would recommend it to someone else, not everyone, but there are some people that I would recommend this to, and I think would enjoy it. But I doubt very much that I would read this book again or feel drawn to picking it up again
@bowie
Bowie Rowan
@bowieΒ Β·Β 0:37

What did you think of the final scene?

Like, did that work for you? Did you feel like it was too much have an opinion on that and thoughts. But I want to hold off until I hear what you all have to say. Really excited to talk about this bookmark
@bookishpodcast
Shahnaz Ahmed
@bookishpodcastΒ Β·Β 4:56

@bowie

But even with that book, I was just like, okay, well, I don't know. Again, I don't have a family member who is having that issue, but I will tell you that I do know of a family friend whose son just recently, like, two months ago, was found in his apartment. We don't know what happened. I mean, he could have overdosed whatever. He'd been going on and off drugs for a long time
@loribpalmer
Lori Palmer
@loribpalmerΒ Β·Β 1:49

Just a meh 3 stars for me

I can see why people liked it, but it wasn't for me, I think, because I was expecting a thriller and because it was more of a crime drama and mystery that's just not my typical genre. True crime, any kind of crime or anything like that. I just don't get too excited about. So it was all right. It wasn't for me, but I'm so glad I read it because I got to learn what all the hype was about
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@bowie
Bowie Rowan
@bowieΒ Β·Β 2:55

@loribpalmer @bookishpodcast Reactions to your ratings ☺️

I did feel like I was in other world, but it's not like it changed my life or anything. But I am so glad that you read it because like you said, I wanted to know the hype around it. I wanted to see what it was about. So I am really glad that we still read it. And then last thing to Shahnaz. Oh, my gosh. Yes. You're so cold. I'm just kidding
@bookishpodcast
Shahnaz Ahmed
@bookishpodcastΒ Β·Β 3:02

@loribpalmer @bowie

It. Oh, yeah. February. I am going to do a classic. And I think I've already called it the Dorian Gray book, The Picture of Dorian Gray because I wanted to do a classic classic. And also I have not read The Picture of Dorian Gill. Great. Now I will give both of you an option to switch that to the book that I know both of you have, which is the one that Libra gave out Frieda Zorino, whatever the last name their eyes were watching
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@bowie
Bowie Rowan
@bowieΒ Β·Β 1:56

@bookishpodcast @NamelessJournal Feb Classic pick?

I feel like I've just been reading so many dark depressing books that yeah, I definitely need to start listening to The House and The Cerulean Sea soon because I need more joy in my life when it comes to my books. As far as the buddy read for February. Very good question. So I have already read Picture of Dorian Gray twice, actually
@bookishpodcast
Shahnaz Ahmed
@bookishpodcastΒ Β·Β 2:28

@bowie Madame Cold Hearted signing in

So in my podcast, you have a book club episode, which all the book club, or maybe a mini book club or a book talk or those kind of things or author interviews, author conversations, little segments right in my podcast. So what if I did a Madam Coldhearted segment and then just take a book and repetition? I mean, it wouldn't be anonymous. Obviously not. This would be people would know who it is because it is my podcast and all of that. Yeah
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@bowie
Bowie Rowan
@bowieΒ Β·Β 1:56

@bookishpodcast 😹

And I feel like out of any person I know you are someone who could pull that off, and it could be funny and fun and not just seem like mean spirited or something. I think the only thing with that to consider is like, will that at all affect how authors feel about potentially coming on your podcast or something like that? Yeah, I think that's the only thing I would consider, but I think that would be an awesome segment or it could even be like a reoccurring
@bookishpodcast
Shahnaz Ahmed
@bookishpodcastΒ Β·Β 1:39

@bowie Happy medium for Madame Cold Hearted?

Hey, Bowie. So I think I have a happy medium. I know Coldhearted and Happy medium. St sentence doesn't go, but I think I have a happy medium. So let's say do a month and review every month, right? On my podcast, where it's a mini review of books I have read. So, for example, month in review. January, the first book I read in January would be Long Bright River
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@bowie
Bowie Rowan
@bowieΒ Β·Β 0:08

@bookishpodcast πŸ₯Ά

I think this is a great idea. And I am very excited for more Madame Coldhearted to be around. That's all I have to say
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