Furrawn > Recent Status Updates

I get that maybe the “carton” is intentional to be witty, but then one would ideally use italics or quotation marks for the word carton or something to imply deliberate intent. My opinion, of course…

I LOVE the book so far…

“… contain a coffee can full of very fresh eggs, fresh enough to still have bits of chicken crap sticking to them, a big square of cornbread, and a jar of olive oil. “… Grandma waved a hand dismissively. “It’s spring and all the chickens are laying like anything. I sure can’t eat all the eggs. Just save the carton for me.”

Eggs were in a coffee can not a carton… Also where’s the coffee?

The letter from Daan- I’m inextricably held prisoner by this book now… I feel as though I see it all unfold… I’m there… Reading all of Sybil’s letters…

20 sentences on page 154.
19 sentences on page 155.

This is not a book. At best, it’s a novella.

"I smell it." Yana pulled on her tunic and shoes, and Pia did the same. She followed her mother out of the house, but then Mamma began to run, and Pia could not keep up.

Changing perspective like that? Seems like what I’d expect from artificial assistance. Not saying it was used… but this is poor quality writing.

Over 40 characters introduced and counting…

Awful. Did Follett really write this? About FORTY characters introduced so far. Also, the hardcover is huge print and margins. This isn’t 688 pages of story. Maybe 250? Maybe less. S t r e c h e d o u t

“The treehouse libraries were very beautiful—each was built to look exactly like a book had been placed, half-open, across the top, its spine creating the topmost edge. They were grand, with multiple stories, and decorated for their particular element. The water one, for example, had chairs and shelves forged in the shape of waves, and its walls were covered inside and out with paintings of water wielders…”

“Aristotle warned that inequality brought instability, while Plato believed that demagogues exploited free speech to install themselves as tyrants.”

Don’t go into this lightly. It hits hard. It’s not irrelevant to the current times we live in…

What a fantastic book. I began reading it yesterday evening. I will warn you… You will want to read Proust, eat French food, and run to Paris by the end of the book.

Frankly, running to Paris seems like a good idea… Books are sometimes our sanity and our peace in dark moments…

“This wizard, about twenty years ago now, started looking for followers. Got ‘em, too- some were afraid, some just wanted a bit of his power, ‘cause he was gettin’ himself power all right. Dark days, Harry. Didn’t know who to trust- didn’t dare get friendly with any strange wizards or witches… terrible things happened. He was taking over. ‘Course some stood up to him- ‘an he killed ‘em.”

I decided I needed the familiarity of a beloved group of books with a classic tale of an evil villain who wouldn’t go away and the goodness in people who refused to go dark.

“It wasn't till the people who'd declared themselves in charge decided to declare Saccobanda unverifiable and sent officials to take her away for being neither what they thought a person should be nor what they thought a horse should be, officials who looked appalled at what they'd been tasked to do, but still did it, determined, implacable…”

“Every classic old horse story I’ve ever chanced upon in this brave new UNLIBRARIED world deals with the bloodiness of humanity to other creatures as well as each other and more often than not ends in dutiful sadness as if the story, not totally broken, is at least broken in.”

I changed my reading challenge down to 50 books from 200 because I honestly don’t know if I’ll read more or less as my country falls apart and goes evil.

One thing I know is knowledge, truth, and reading are resistance… Keep resisting!

Ali Smith’s Gliff feels like it was written about my country… I feel both sad and understood.

“In times of war, people do not behave according to a normal code of conduct. Some will display extraordinary bravery, beyond what you’d expect of them. Others extraordinary greed, or cowardice or depravity. The war brings out the best or the worst in all of us.”

NEVER begin a book with an overwhelming glossary. That belongs at the back of the book.

“Her world existed in a series of squares and rectangles, and she was about to enter a circus of circles.”

Such a great quote!

The narrator uses homonym incorrectly. Idk if I can manage to read this book. I will try.

Clearly the author knows. The teacher corrects the child on page one, but she continues to incorrectly use HOMONYM for HOMOPHONE. A homonym must sound the same AND be spelled the same.

This book might drive me crazy.

As awesome as book one so far…

It isn’t very good so far… I’n sure the book will improve… the writing feels forced…

Live love LOVE this book. This is a book to read again and again.

Wow. I always have a book I love so much that I buy it for friends and family for Christmas. It looks like this year, it’s this book and Before the Coffee Gets Cold.

This book is stellar.

I want to know why I can’t order a new hardcover (or even a sad paperback) of this from amazon. Why do we let incredible books like this fall away from our national psyche? I only knew to read this because Pino was in Anthony Bourdain’s book. After reading what Bourdain wrote, I had to read Pino’s cookbook.

If we cooked a sauce down too much, Pino told us to add some liquid. We asked, “Broth? Wine? Water?” and he said, “How can I answer that? What do you want to taste more of? It’s a free country.”

“Most cookbooks give exact amounts of this and that, but I never learned about timing and quantities—I did everything by instinct. If you make a mistake in tablespoons, it’s not going to hurt you. You don’t need a prescription for cooking food; you’re the person in charge. Don’t be afraid to follow your feelings. Be flexible, be creative—abandon your inhibitions and have fun.“