I nearly screamed in joy when I picked this up from the library!! Another Sally Rooney book, sounded like the perfect October/Fall read despite the lack of spookiness to it.
Like Normal People & Conversations with Friends, Beautiful World also follows a few millennials as they try to define love, sex, relationships and the world around them.
The book is centered around Alice and Eileen, long time best friends, and the slow
simmering love affairs they have with Felix and Simon respectively. Most of the book interchanges between Alice & Eileen, interspersed with long emails between the two best friends.
After a faculty member is accused of sexually assaulting an alumnae years ago, we see into the lives & perspectives of young girls in the Atwater Boarding school, as they face this news, & also contemplate their girlhood.
While this book is about sexual assault, imbalanced power dynamics between students and teachers and the establishments that fail to protect these young girls, it’s also really about girlhood. About being a teenage girl in a world that seems so much larger than her,
on the cusp of breaking into the real world, while also living when your emotions are most strong and raw and real. The uncertainty, the unbridled hope.
#SEXEDUCATION episode 4 thoughts:
Aaaah why did they end Ruby/Otis so soon? I was really enjoying their arc and dynamics. Also, I’m so glad that the relationship pushed Ruby to open up to Olivia and Anwar and deepen her friendships with them.
This episode was so interesting to me. It shows us all the ways in people connect romantically (or do not) depending on interests, views etc. like Jean/Jakob: no common interest, yes connection. Maureen/Sr. Groff: yes common interest, no connection.
Ruby/Otis: no common interest,
Slight connection. Isaac/Maeve: yes common interest, yes connection. Eric/Adam: no common interest, yes connection.
An exploration of a year in the life of the Alvarado family, as they undergo divorce, separation, deception, disease and drought. Set in Los Angeles, this book goes month by month as the Alvarado’s lives are tested
by the different conflicts thrown at them.
I found the bond between the family really good. Loved seeing adult children maintain & have such a close bond with their parents. The cultural bonds & nuanced elevated it for me.
While exploring the effects of drought and climate change, the book felt like a love letter to the city of Angels, it’s nooks and corners, and cultural mash-up which has different cuisines and nationalities in different streets and blocks.
What I absolutely love about #NancyDrew is how the Drew Crew interact EVERY episode and are involved in the A plot together. You can actually see that they’re really close friends and are involved in each other’s lives. I love it.
Also Ace has a brother 👀
Ryan and Carson spying on Nancy was so great. I love Carson helping Ryan be a father. And Nancy telling Carson I love you 😭😭😖