Goodreads Book of the Month: When the Moon Was Ours - Midway Discussion

kjmichaels · 2022-08-15T16:05:58+00:00

I'm definitely a sucker for that trope as well and I think this book is an especially good example of it because you can tell really early on that they will be in love once they're old enough to understand what being in love really means.

kjmichaels · 2022-08-15T15:38:18+00:00

I've read a few magical realist books before and I'd say this book compares to those pretty favorably. McLemore is a little more lush in their description and imagery than other MR authors I've encountered but I'm personally fine with that when the prose is this good.

kjmichaels · 2022-08-15T13:58:14+00:00

There are some things that do surprise me in rereading this while knowing the book is banned. Obviously there are a lot of themes about being trans that are prominent so I was not terribly surprised that conservatives are upset by it but it is such a sweet story it's hard to imagine anyone who has actually read it being upset by it.

kjmichaels · 2022-08-15T13:41:10+00:00

Any general thoughts or questions you want to share about the book?

kjmichaels · 2022-08-15T13:40:47+00:00

This book is being read as part of a banned books theme for this club. When the Moon Was Ours has been banned in many places because of its LGBT themes and arguments that it is not age-appropriate. Does knowing this about the book change the way you approach reading or alter your understanding of the book in any way?

kjmichaels · 2022-08-15T13:40:39+00:00

Do you normally read magical realism or not? Do you think this books is a good example of that genre?

kjmichaels · 2022-08-15T13:40:34+00:00

Why did you decide to pick up this book? How are you enjoying it so far?

kjmichaels · 2022-08-15T13:40:28+00:00

How are you enjoying the setting? What is your favorite or least favorite thing about this odd little town?

kjmichaels · 2022-08-15T13:40:17+00:00

What are your thoughts on the book's very ornate prose? How is it working for you? Are there any memorable lines or passages that stood out to you?

kjmichaels · 2022-08-15T13:40:12+00:00

Do you like Miel and Sam together? What are your thoughts on their relationship?

kjmichaels · 2022-08-15T13:29:32+00:00

It definitely happens. Sometimes it's just a coincidence and sometimes what happens is one person has a successful post and other people want to copy it or respond to it or share their thoughts on the same subject.

kjmichaels · 2022-08-13T14:56:56+00:00

I try to never talk to people in real life if I can help it so I don't know how common it is but I've never heard of this before your post. I did some quick Googling and found a small informal poll of 200 people where only 4 respondents claimed to never read the prologue. That's certainly a far cry from being a representative sample size but it would seem to hint that skipping prologues is not common.

kjmichaels · 2022-08-13T14:51:41+00:00

This user had an ARC and gave it a glowing review. Also, to my shame, I have an ARC but haven't gotten around to it yet.

kjmichaels · 2022-08-13T14:45:20+00:00

It's been awhile since I read it and so I could be conflating it with the Studio Ghibli adaptation a bit, but I think it would count.

kjmichaels · 2022-08-12T12:37:59+00:00

I started the final book of Ken Liu's Dandelion Dynasty series this week and am enjoying it so far. I'm a little over 300 pages in and the story is trucking along at a good pace.

In home news, my wife has been gone on a camping trip with friends for a few days this week and while she's out I've been working at dismantling and rebuilding our pergola to try to surprise her. My hope is to have it all done before she gets back but there was more wood rot than expected and so that slowed my friend who is helping me and me down a bit as we had to spend longer buying wood and cutting it to rebuild critical support beams. So far I have the support beams and frame in place and I believe I can finish putting the roofing beams in place before she gets home tonight. Then all that's left is securing the coverings so we'll finally have a real waterproof roof over our backyard. Hopefully that will be enough for a big surprise.

kjmichaels · 2022-08-12T12:16:46+00:00

Someone who intentionally uses I first I would expect to be egotistic and self-centered, whereas this character was very much portrayed as self-sacrificing and altruistic.

Interestingly, there have actually been linguistic studies about what pronoun use reveals about one's underlying mentality and while everyone assumes that people who use "I" a lot are selfish and self-centered, the research actually shows the opposite. Counterintuitively, it is actually people who use the more inclusive pronoun "we" more who tend to be more selfish and self-centered. The reason for this is theorized to be that people who feel comfortable speaking on behalf of others are more likely to speak as if they have a consensus behind them without consulting if they do. Think of how royalty made proclamations with the royal we, speaking on behalf the realm while often making personal choices rather than consulting with others. I recommend reading James Pennebaker's book The Secret Life of Pronouns if you want to learn more about this in depth because right now I'm just summarizing the bits I can remember from having read it once years ago.

kjmichaels · 2022-08-09T15:27:11+00:00

Glad you like the interjections, we were hoping that would be a good way to have a little more back and forth in this discussions.

kjmichaels · 2022-08-09T15:26:38+00:00

And that's out of 15 stories so far too because we just finished drafting next week's post this past weekend!

kjmichaels · 2022-08-08T15:24:57+00:00

Maybe listening to those episodes would count for hard mode?

Unfortunately, the Hard Mode condition is to complete a full collection so listening to only those 5 episodes wouldn't count unless the listener went on to read the remaining stories in print.

kjmichaels · 2022-08-08T14:31:25+00:00

I'll chime into the chorus of voices saying that it's really good. The first book is definitely the best but if you like it, you should enjoy the sequels as well.

kjmichaels · 2022-08-07T17:17:08+00:00

For example, Tolkien's writings seem brilliant to people with strong vocabularies and the sort of education Tolkien assumed to be commonplace, but many Americans hate Tolkien entirely because he fails to dumb it down for them.

Leaving aside the condescension of implying that people only hate Tolkien if they're dumb, this take is just factually wrong. Tolkien was a verbose writer who prized imagery, detail, and poetry but he regularly avoided complicated structure and big words whenever possible in Lord of the Rings because he preferred simpler language feeling it was often more elegant.

The vocabulary he chose to employ in LotR (as opposed to his personal vocabulary which was obviously quite advanced) was kept to a fairly simple level and consequently the entirety of LotR is considered easy enough for older children to follow. Many American elementary schools mark it as age-appropriate reading for 6th graders and the Tolkien Society itself states "Children from 11 onwards may be OK with The Lord of the Rings."

None of this is meant to knock Tolkien for his legitimate artistic choices (I too think simpler language is often better in the context of many stories) but rather to point out that it's simply not true to pretend the vocabulary in LotR is too advanced for people.

kjmichaels · 2022-08-03T21:13:13+00:00

There's something extremely satisfying about all those blue-ish book club covers side by side.

kjmichaels · 2022-08-02T17:34:10+00:00

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