Bel Canto

by Ann Patchett | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 0060934417 Global Overview for this book
Registered by lonerunner of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania USA on 8/10/2007
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This book is in the wild! This Book is Currently in the Wild!
8 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by lonerunner from Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania USA on Friday, August 10, 2007
Fabulous story. Available!

My review is here.

Journal Entry 2 by wingHendrickjewing from Amsterdam, Noord-Holland Netherlands on Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Bel Canto was sent to me by lonerunner. I have sort of won it, because I was the first one to announce in a thread I'd like to read it. I am very grateful for it, thank you lonerunner!

Later, 18 oktober 2007:
Bel Canto has won several prestigious prices, and quite rightly so. It is a moving, romantic and impressive book which deals with some serious issues, but still has a lot of humour in it. I wish though, the ending could have been different...

Because kizmiaz asked, I will make a Ringbook out of Bel Canto.

Journal Entry 3 by wingHendrickjewing from Amsterdam, Noord-Holland Netherlands on Tuesday, October 23, 2007
The shipping-order of this Ring will be:

1) MicheleReads <--- who passed it along December 12th 2007
2) UnwrittenLibra <- Who mailed it off January 15th 2008
3) Wandering-B < -- who received it January 21st 2008
4) kizmiaz < -- who wrote a wonderful review 0n March 10th 2008!
5) onniManni <---who finished reading Bel Canto March 29th 2008
6) Hendrickje. Bel Canto arrived 'home' on the 5th of April!

Journal Entry 4 by MicheleReads from Cincinnati, Ohio USA on Sunday, November 18, 2007
Thank you for sending me this book. It has come at a good time, as I am spending a great deal of time these days in the hospital with my mom. She has open heart surgery tomorrow, and the book will be my reading companion. (Thank you, Hendrickje, for your kind personal note to me when I e-mailed you to explain my delay in registering the book.) I hope to be posting another journal entry soon, and to have this book moving to the next reader in the next few weeks (if not sooner!). Thanks again, for allowing me to share this book.
MicheleReads

Journal Entry 5 by MicheleReads from Cincinnati, Ohio USA on Wednesday, December 12, 2007
A beautiful book that I must pass along without completing. My mom remains in the hospital (3 1/2 Hours away), and with driving back and forth my reading time has diminished, and I don't want to hold it up for the next readers. It is definately a book that I will look forward to picking up at another time. (Thank you Hendrickje for sharing this book, and for your kind message during my mom's initial illness. Things for her are slowly but surely improving, but a long road awaits.) Tomorrow I mail the book to UnwrittenLibra.
MicheleReads

Journal Entry 6 by UnwrittenLibra from Middleton, Wisconsin USA on Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Book appeared here today in Amherst, MA...thanks Michele! Lots of bookrings here so it'll probably be 2008 when I get around to it.

Journal Entry 7 by UnwrittenLibra from Middleton, Wisconsin USA on Tuesday, January 1, 2008
A pretty good read. I didn't like the ending, but other than that it was a very entertaining read. I have already PMed Wandering-B and am waiting for her address.

Journal Entry 8 by UnwrittenLibra from Middleton, Wisconsin USA on Monday, January 14, 2008
Mailed off to Wandering-B in HK today from Baltimore, MD. Go book go!

Journal Entry 9 by wandering-B from Tai Po, Tai Po Hong Kong on Monday, January 21, 2008
Arrived today. Thanks to unwrittenLibra for sending it along - it made really good time. Wish my Christmas cards going the other way made it in half as good time! By the way, cute artwork! Look forward to reading it.

Thanks, too, Hendrickje for doing the ring.

Journal Entry 10 by wandering-B from Tai Po, Tai Po Hong Kong on Wednesday, January 30, 2008
No, no, no! That's not the way the book was supposed to end!! Very moving book and thought provoking. What good qualities lie beneath all of us if someone just takes the time to look? Interesting! PMing the next for an addy.

Journal Entry 11 by kizmiaz from Belém , Lisboa (cidade) Portugal on Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Got it today, thanks Wandering-B and Hendrickje.
Still have a couple to go before I start on this one but it shouldn't take long.

Journal Entry 12 by kizmiaz from Belém , Lisboa (cidade) Portugal on Monday, March 10, 2008
Once again thanks Hendrickje for starting this Bookring, BC generosity never ceases to amaze me.
I guess I’ll start by saying what I didn’t enjoy about the book and then move on to what I absolutely loved.
It really bugged me that the author was so lazy in her writing, and this surfaced all the time while I was reading this book. First she kept mistaking terrorists with revolutionary/liberation army soldiers (as if there hadn’t been too many of this sort of “mistakes”, all over the world, in the last few years), then it was the recurrence of that expression “godforsaken country” when referring to the country the action takes place (which, by the way, is Peru. A great country even under the crummy politicians it usually gets for leaders). And finally there was the thing that really kept nagging me all through the story, until I could nail it, and that is just too bloody obvious to let it go. A few years ago, more than a few probably, the Japanese embassy in Peru was taken, during some high profile ball/gathering, by soldiers of the Sendero Luminoso movement (revolutionaries, not terrorists) who took everyone as a hostage and remained there for a few days/weeks (I can’t really remember the details but you can always google it up), now if you add to this the fact that the president of Peru at the time was that corrupt low life Mr. Fujimori and that the president in this book looks a lot like Mr. Hosokawa (a distinguished Japanese)…well, need I say more?
It’s not the fact that the author got her idea from an actual news item; it was just that she was too lazy to cover it up and too arrogant to mention it in the authors note.
Now for what I loved about this book (and it will sound precious little when compared to the rest), the focus on the music and the power it proved to have over all events, music brings all those different people together and creates such a strong bond that surpasses all the language barriers, becoming indeed the universal language we all know it to be (and if you don’t you probably aren’t listening to the right sort of music).
It was also interesting to see how quickly all the characters adapted to their new condition, I guess it really shows that you do what you have to in order to survive, but it went a bit further than that since all of them were subdued by the routine and boredom.
I found the epilogue a bit lame but I won’t go into that.
It was a good experience regardless of its ups and downs and I’ll be sending the book along as soon as I get an address.

Journal Entry 13 by wingmyrtilluswing from Pori, Satakunta Finland on Monday, March 17, 2008
The book arrived today to Pori, Finland. Thanks kizmiaz and Hendrickje! Try to read it asap.

Journal Entry 14 by wingmyrtilluswing from Pori, Satakunta Finland on Saturday, March 29, 2008
First I found this book dull and a little hard to get into.But later it was interesting to see how the relationships between the hostages and the terrorists developed (compare with Stockholm Syndrome) and how Bel Canto, “beautiful singing” brought them together. But maybe all was too neat.

I think the author should have found out about the concepts more carefully before writing and I didn’t quite like her narrow-minded attitudes. But yet the book was worth reading. Thank you Hendrickje!



Journal Entry 15 by wingHendrickjewing from Amsterdam, Noord-Holland Netherlands on Sunday, April 6, 2008
Bel Canto arrived home on the 5th of April, still looking quite good, so thank you all for being so careful with it, and thank you all for sending it on in time. You were a wonderful 'ring'!
Thank you onniManni for your review, and for the handy book-box you have sent the book in, which I will definitely use again - and for your pretty Finnish Card.

And last not least, thank you very much lonerunner, who, when it comes right down to it, made this ring possible!

Journal Entry 16 by wingHendrickjewing at on Sunday, February 21, 2010

Released 14 yrs ago (2/22/2010 UTC) at

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Are we BX-ers, or aren't we? Time for this wonderful book to continue its travels through the world: to da wildchildz in the UK!

Journal Entry 17 by da-wildchildz from Nuneaton, Warwickshire United Kingdom on Friday, February 26, 2010
I arrived home from university to find a parcel waiting for me. Upon opening it I found this wishlist book, which was nice surprise. Many thanks Hendrickje for the rabck!

Journal Entry 18 by da-wildchildz at Leicester, Leicestershire United Kingdom on Thursday, September 22, 2016
Review coming soon.

Released 7 yrs ago (9/22/2016 UTC) at Purple Pumpkin Patch OBCZ in Loughborough, Leicestershire United Kingdom

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Left on the shelf.

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