From the Bookshelf of Constant Reader…

Normal People

Sally Rooney

Start date: September 15, 2020

Finish date: October 1, 2020

Discussion: Reading List

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Reading List

* The Schedule for July through Dec. 2025
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last updated Jun 20, 2025 08:37AM

In Winter I Get Up at Night by Jane Urquhart Spoilers/Discussion
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What Members Thought

Feb 06, 2020 Jane rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: coming-of-age-novel, family-story, womans-story, psychology

I have to admit, as different as these characters teen and young adult lives were from mine, I absolutely loved the simple language, the connection between the two main characters, the intensity of the parenting of these two characters...and the effects of that parenting. I think the plainness of the telling and the seeming casualness of the sex may put people off. But I loved the intensity of the emotion and both Connell and Marianne's awareness of their issues.

Connell "blithely makes remarks ...more

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Nov 26, 2021 Laurel Bradshaw rated it liked it

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, love-stories, ireland, coming-of-age, color-rating-yellow

I don't have a lot to say about this book, because I am not the audience for it. If you are in your twenties you can maybe relate, but I am well past that, and have no desire to be reminded of the awkwardness of my college years. There's an awful lot of sex going on here, so I have no idea how this might translate to TV, and I doubt I will ever watch it anyway. I'll give it three stars with a "yellow" caution, because I think there IS an audience for this book, and it had a satisfying ending. I ...more

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May 10, 2021 Lisa rated it it was ok · review of another edition

This book was hard to stay engaged in. The characters were all over the place as far as gaining any empathy with me. They were all consumed with what is “normal”, are they “normal?”, they wish they could be like “normal”people. If I started to see where the story was going or feel like I might understand the motivations or start to root for a character the next I know....the time, setting changes. The time line is linear (four months later, one month later etc) but I feel like the story jumped a ...more

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