After much hype and fanfare (and waiting on the library hold list), I finally got my hands on Station Eleven. I purposefully didn’t read many reviews on this book so I wouldn’t be influenced by others’ take on things. All I really knew was what the publisher provides as a preview…that an orchestral and theatric troupe travels around what is left of Michigan after a devastating illness has decimated the world population. I wasn’t quite sure what to think of that. I’m happy to report […]
Survival is insufficient
Once again, I find myself having to catch up with the rest of the universe, finally picking up Station Eleven (2014) by Emily St. John Mandel after its been reviewed, discussed and bookclubed by the Cannonball crew more times than I can remember. I guess it’s not surprising that I first heard of Station Eleven on Cannonball. And despite some doubts and disinterest when I initially heard it was a dystopian story about a traveling Shakespeare Company, which sounded weird, it was the positive Cannonball reviews that convinced […]
I’m Not As Far Behind As Usual
Usually I’m at least a year behind on these things (I read the Hunger Games trilogy maybe two months before the movies came out; I read Gone Girl about six months prior). When I saw this in a book shop while on vacation I mentioned to my husband that I thought it had been reviewed a bunch this year, and was the subject of a book club, but that I knew nothing about it. I feel lucky to have come into it without any realy […]
It’s a bittersweet Symphony
I came across this book due to all the metaphorical trumpets heralding it via Pajiba, and dove in, excited to see what all the hubbub was about. As a big fan of post-apocalyptic literature I am both the target audience, and a cautious critic, and I think this book is absolute perfection. When a virus wipes out 99.9 percent of the world’s population, the survivors must carve out an existence for themselves, and live with the echoes of those who were lost. Station Eleven follows the lives of […]