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pagetwoandsix Locked account

pagetwoandsix@ramblingreaders.org

Joined 1 year, 8 months ago

Novels, lit fic, sf/fantasy, YA, (trying to give up crime fiction) Full non-fiction range below

I'm a retired agricultural research scientist cum academic librarian cum IT tutor working on my allotment and writing novels in the hut when not helping with the washing up or visiting our three children and their growing families (seven grandkids).

I have shelves of books encompassing religion* ancient and modern, natural history, farming, ecology, geography, gardening, poetry, philosophy, literary criticism, Kent, Wales, Northumberland, history and archaeology, especially Romano-British archaeology.

I borrow novels from the village library. Favourite authors include Richard Powers, DE Stevenson, Joanna Trollope, and ... erm ... that other person whose name I can't remember.

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pagetwoandsix's books

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I've really come to appreciate the hard work of individuals that make the work by hosting and managing instances. As a big reader I really like so I can log all my books and reviews.

I've just financially contributed to the instance I use @ramblingreaders, run by @marcus, to show my support and to keep it going.

If you are a bookworm as well, do check them out, follow me at @robhardware@ramblingreaders.org, and consider supporting them too! https://opencollective.com/ramblingreaders

Powers  Richard: Bewilderment (Paperback, 2021, RANDOM HOUSE UK) 4 stars

First impressions: this is brilliant Sensitive treatment of father-son relationship starting with a trip to the woods. Big themes. Very funny encapsulation of father's autobiography. I'm on about page ~40

Somewhat odd arrangement of "chapters/sections", which are not numbered or given headings. Sections have new-page-plus-the-first-line-in-CAPITAL-LETTERS but no white space at the top of the new page. I'm not sure how that helps

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Emily St. John Mandel: Sea of Tranquility (Hardcover, 2022, Knopf) 4 stars

Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled …

Beautiful

4 stars

I didn't think I'd love this book as much as I did. It was a fascinating story, with very compelling characters. I love the references to Station Eleven (and I'm hearing that there's even more with Glass Hotel that I haven't read yet). The pandemic is woven into the story in a very sensible way that really spoke to me. My only criticism is that it's too short. Some characters and storylines really should have been more developed. Maybe in future books, as it seems that the author is slowly building a more or less shared universe.