From the Bookshelf of Constant Reader…

Deacon King Kong

James McBride

Start date: February 15, 2022

Finish date: March 1, 2022

Discussion: Reading List

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Reading List

* The Schedule for July through Dec. 2025
By Lynn · 1 post · 43 views

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

Aug 29, 2020 Linda rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, 2020, audio, own, booktopians, historical-fiction, libro-fm

What a story! I loved, loved, loved this. Excellent narration. I felt as if McBride was weaving a story just for me.

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Jan 22, 2021 Tensy (bookdoyen) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: kc-book-club, fiction

A complex, endearing, funny portrait of a community living in the projects of Brooklyn at a pivotal time, 1969, when neighborhoods were beginning to be impacted by the drug trade. This novel is a mash-up of The Sopranos, Dickens and Twain. It is uniquely the voice of an experienced storyteller who recounts details of growing up in the same neighborhood. The cast of characters is huge (I even created my own list at the front of the book in order to keep them straight) but by the end you come to l ...more

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Apr 21, 2020 Debra rated it liked it

Shelves: audiobooks

As others have commented, this book is quite difficult to get in to. Very well written, with excellent characters, I still do not know why I actually finished it. Definitely a book for that certain reader (who just was not me.) YMMV

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Nov 30, 2021 William rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2021

A brilliant example of humour in the service of a serious message. The cast of characters is huge, eclectic and odd. It tells us that there is some good n everybody and we just need to look for it.
The tone of the story is almost that of a fairy tale. Not quite fully believable but at the same time relatable. Things appear and disappear mysteriously, there are conversations with the dead. All of this against a very serious backdrop - the slums and dockyards of New York where drug dealers, smuggl ...more

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