Kenci > Recent Status Updates

I loved this book so much and already looking forward to revisting it.

"At night your thoughts have an unpleasant way of slipping their collars and running free."

"When an imaginative person gets into mental trouble, the line between seeming and being has a way of disappearing."

"He knew the country he knew, and had never been lost in it, but the country he knew stopped at the Arkansas River. He had known men to speak of the Yellowstone as if it were the boundary of the world; even Kit Carson, whom he had met twice, had not talked of what lay north of it."

"He loved clear nights and hated clouds—when it was cloudy he felt deprived of half the world."

Is it too soon to say I love Augustus? He cracks me up! I can't help but picture Sam Elliott. I've never watched the old series so I have no idea what to expect. I love the writing and colorful characters. The dialogue is fantastic.

"That was what Augustus wanted: argument. He didn’t really care what the question was, and it made no great difference to him which side he was on. He just plain loved to argue."

"That’s how you identify the dead here in Derry..."

"There had to be a scrubbing after a death, she said, even if the death didn’t happen in the house itself."

"It was true that the air smelled of fish and seaweed, but everything on Moose-Look smelled that way. You got used to it, Stephanie had discovered, and then a beautiful thing happened—after your nose dismissed that smell, it went and found it all over again, and the second time around, you fell in love with it."

“Ayuh, the story of the Colorado Kid is a confusing tale, all right,”

"It was that kind of story. The kind that’s like a sneeze which threatens but never quite arrives."

"Evening took a long time getting to Lonesome Dove, but when it came it was a comfort. For most of the hours of the day—and most of the months of the year—the sun had the town trapped deep in dust, far out in the chaparral flats, a heaven for snakes and horned toads, roadrunners and stinging lizards, but a hell for pigs and Tennesseans. There was not even a respectable shade tree within twenty or thirty miles."

This has been on my TBR since first watching 1883 a few years ago!

"I suppose people like stories that are good for a shiver or two on a winter night, especially if the lights are on and the fire’s nice and warm. Stories about, you know, the unknown.”

"My name is Hig, one name. Big Hig if you need another."

I'm so glad I reread this! I loved it so much this time around - the sparse, beautiful writing, I loved Hig and Jasper. I know I'll revisit them often.

"It caught me sometimes: that this was okay. Just this. That simple beauty was still bearable barely, and that if I lived moment to moment, garden to stove to the simple act of flying, I could have peace."

"Grief is an element. It has its own cycle like the carbon cycle, the nitrogen. It never diminishes not ever. It passes in and out of everything."

"This was our ritual while we waited for our lives to truly begin and I think now that maybe true sweetness can only happen in limbo."

I have no idea why I went into this thinking it would be a Western Adventure. That's on me.

I really loved the writing—it’s beautiful—and my heart absolutely went out to Daiyu. That said, this is not an easy read. It’s very realistic and often brutal. I don’t want to say too much and risk spoiling anything, but while I can appreciate what the book is doing, it just wasn’t the right read for me at this moment.

“We move in and out of cottonwoods which make a deeper darkness. Thickets of willows. Up the grassy slopes going pale, into a short rock canyon echoing the spilling water. Then a ponderosa forest, smelled before seen, the scent carried downstream: redolent of vanilla, like a sweetshop. These still living.”

“On this afternoon in late April I worked slowly, enjoying the warmth of the day and letting the sun soak into my winter bones. I talked to Jasper the whole time.”

“Were life that simple, I thought, as I had many times before. Simple as a dog’s life.”

"Mostly I just want to go up there. It feels like church, hallow and cool. The dead forest swaying and whispering, the green forest full of sighs."

"I asked him if he ever thought there was anything more than this, than just surviving day to day. Recon, fixing the plane, growing the five vegetables, trapping a rabbit. Like what are we waiting for?"

I feel like I'm in a reading rut and I don't know why. It's not any of the books. It's me. Ughhhh. Hoping this one will help get me out of it. Emma and friends are always a delight.

I did end up enjoying this! Nevill's references to some of his other books has me wanting to read more. I love when authors set their books in the same universe! If there were spoilers mentioned (I'm not sure), I will never remember them. lol

Switched to the audiobook to try and get back into this one. References to Nevill's other books have got me really curious since I've only read Cunning Folk. I definitely want to read more!

I read this 5 years ago, listening to the audiobook in the week leading up to a hiking trip to Colorado. This time around I'm taking the time to sit and read. I already know I didn't give it the attention it deserved before. I love the sparse yet lyrical writing style. I'm picking up on so much that I didn't catch before.

I honestly don't remember the ending, but there's a dog, so I know it will break my heart.

Cozy and British!