2025 & 2026 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss Commonwealth by Ann Patchett.

Pages: 322 pages

Length: 1 Month

Participants: Kindra and Joan

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.


Happy Buddy Reading!

I started this one this morning. I read the first chapter. It actually is taking a different direction than I thought it would and I'm more engaged with it than I expected.

Have you started it Kindra?

Well I finally finished this one. It wasn't my favorite that is for sure. I thought Bert was a horrible character. I rated it a 2 and that was like rounded down from a 2.5. The characters I thought were developed well but I didn't care about them as much as I thought I should. (view spoiler)[ I was interested in what happened to Cal but not enough to keep me turning the pages quickly. I thought it was interesting in the end that it ended up being a bee. I thought what happened was believable though and how they felt guilty about it.

I didn't understand the ending at all with Albie and Franny. What was the point of that? I guess that was part of my problem with the book is that I couldn't figure out what the point was. I'm in the minority though because the critics seemed to love it and a lot of other people did as well. I guess the book just wasn't for me. (hide spoiler)]