The Sparrow: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
Registered by 
SqueakyChu
of Rockville, Maryland USA on 7/10/2017
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
SqueakyChu of Rockville, Maryland USA on 7/10/2017 This Book is Currently in the Wild!
3 journalers for this copy...
This book arrived at the Little free Library of Twinbrook (#7720) from an anonymous donor on 06/30/17. Thank you!
I am releasing this book at the annual BookCrossing Holiday Party at the home of authorauthor. This book is a RABCK for Spatial who has had it wishlisted since 07/06/17.
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I'm releasing this book for the following BookCrossing challenges:
***The 2017 D for December Release Challenge hosted by hyphen8.
***The 2017 What's in a Name Release Challenge hosted by DragonGoddess . The title of this book contains the name SPARROW.
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Hello and welcome to BookCrossing ... where we make the whole world a library!
Now that you've "caught" this book, it is yours to do with as you like. Read it, keep it, or give it away. It's your choice!
I'd love if you'd enter a note here on BookCrossing about this book -- where you found it, how you like it, and/or where you release it. If you join BookCrossing (free and fun), kindly list me, SqueakyChu , or any other journaler on this thread as your referring person. Thank you so much.
Enjoy the book!
--------------------------------------------------
I'm releasing this book for the following BookCrossing challenges:
***The 2017 D for December Release Challenge hosted by hyphen8.
***The 2017 What's in a Name Release Challenge hosted by DragonGoddess . The title of this book contains the name SPARROW.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello and welcome to BookCrossing ... where we make the whole world a library!
Now that you've "caught" this book, it is yours to do with as you like. Read it, keep it, or give it away. It's your choice!
I'd love if you'd enter a note here on BookCrossing about this book -- where you found it, how you like it, and/or where you release it. If you join BookCrossing (free and fun), kindly list me, SqueakyChu , or any other journaler on this thread as your referring person. Thank you so much.
Enjoy the book!
Thank you, SqueakyChu!
This was a rough book to read. And just let me start this off by saying SPOILER ALERT! Because it is hard to say what is a spoiler and what is not a spoiler.
SPOILER ALERT
Let me just start off by saying the author did a fantastic job with this book! This is her first novel. Previously, she wrote scientific articles and technical manuals so this was quite a different beast to write. She did it well. The characters are engrossing, the story and plot move along really well, and the two sentient species she created for the planet Rakhat are well thought out. You could tell she did her research on every aspect of the book, she, after all, wrote scientific articles before so you know she knows her way around doing research. She even skipped back and forth between the various timeless really well (and I don't like reading multiple timelined stories). You start the story with 3 timelines. 1-before Emilio comes to Puerto Rico 2- Once he's in Puerto Rico and the eventual trip to Rakhat 3- After Emilio arrives back on Earth. Number one merges with 2 early on and Russell weaves 2 and 3 together really well. Most authors end on cliffhangers and you feel cheated and want to hurry through the next section so you can find out what happened. With 'The Sparrow', Russell's transitions seem natural and timed so you were ready to read about the other timeline. I enjoyed it.
The only thing that I didn't really like about the book was the passive storytelling aspect. Was this because Russell comes from a writing sphere where that was how you write research articles? Don't get me wrong there were times where it did have a more of an active feel. Especially at the end when Emilio is recounting what happened to him at the end of his stay on Rakhat. You feel all the emotions for/with him: sadness, desperation, pain, remorse, empathy, sympathy, futility, anger, etc. But...even though I was invested in the other characters, Russell failed to make me feel anything about their deaths. I should have been bawling and see my husband raise an eyebrow at me for crying over another book. But I didn't. I didn't even realize Anne had died when she did. It took two more sections before I realized it. Not because the words were not there. They were sparse and written in a way that my mind, that knew we were looking at DW's death, thought he had a sudden heart attack or something along those lines. I didn't know they both died.
I kind of warred with it -- Was the story supposed to be Emilio's testimony? I don't think so but sometimes it felt like it. But it couldn't be as we get the thoughts of Supaari's viewpoint and others. I could have understood the disconnect in the feelings if it was Emilio's testimony story after the fact but it wasn't. So, I should have felt it more. I guess in some places it was more telling than showing. But you don't notice it because the rest of the book is done so well. Anyway, that's my thoughts on the subject.
As you can see from my rating, I still really enjoyed the book!
END SPOILER
Let me just start off by saying the author did a fantastic job with this book! This is her first novel. Previously, she wrote scientific articles and technical manuals so this was quite a different beast to write. She did it well. The characters are engrossing, the story and plot move along really well, and the two sentient species she created for the planet Rakhat are well thought out. You could tell she did her research on every aspect of the book, she, after all, wrote scientific articles before so you know she knows her way around doing research. She even skipped back and forth between the various timeless really well (and I don't like reading multiple timelined stories). You start the story with 3 timelines. 1-before Emilio comes to Puerto Rico 2- Once he's in Puerto Rico and the eventual trip to Rakhat 3- After Emilio arrives back on Earth. Number one merges with 2 early on and Russell weaves 2 and 3 together really well. Most authors end on cliffhangers and you feel cheated and want to hurry through the next section so you can find out what happened. With 'The Sparrow', Russell's transitions seem natural and timed so you were ready to read about the other timeline. I enjoyed it.
The only thing that I didn't really like about the book was the passive storytelling aspect. Was this because Russell comes from a writing sphere where that was how you write research articles? Don't get me wrong there were times where it did have a more of an active feel. Especially at the end when Emilio is recounting what happened to him at the end of his stay on Rakhat. You feel all the emotions for/with him: sadness, desperation, pain, remorse, empathy, sympathy, futility, anger, etc. But...even though I was invested in the other characters, Russell failed to make me feel anything about their deaths. I should have been bawling and see my husband raise an eyebrow at me for crying over another book. But I didn't. I didn't even realize Anne had died when she did. It took two more sections before I realized it. Not because the words were not there. They were sparse and written in a way that my mind, that knew we were looking at DW's death, thought he had a sudden heart attack or something along those lines. I didn't know they both died.
I kind of warred with it -- Was the story supposed to be Emilio's testimony? I don't think so but sometimes it felt like it. But it couldn't be as we get the thoughts of Supaari's viewpoint and others. I could have understood the disconnect in the feelings if it was Emilio's testimony story after the fact but it wasn't. So, I should have felt it more. I guess in some places it was more telling than showing. But you don't notice it because the rest of the book is done so well. Anyway, that's my thoughts on the subject.
As you can see from my rating, I still really enjoyed the book!
Released 3 yrs ago (4/21/2020 UTC) at Book Box, A Bookbox -- Controlled Releases
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
Added to the Bookbox of Surprisingly Good Books.
✩ ✩ ✩ ✩ ✩ ✩ ✩ ✩ ✩ ✩ ✩ ✩ ✩ ✩
Taken from the bookbox.
I've been trying to read this book for the last week and a half, and have decided to pass it on unfinished. I pushed myself to keep going back, but it just wasn't engaging me the way I was hoping. There are some interesting characters and concepts that kept me trying to get invested, but for whatever reason, it just isn't clicking for me.
Hopefully the next reader will be a better match!
Hopefully the next reader will be a better match!
Journal Entry 8 by emmejo at Little Free Library #2086 in Ithaca, New York USA on Sunday, September 20, 2020
Released 3 yrs ago (9/20/2020 UTC) at Little Free Library #2086 in Ithaca, New York USA
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
Added to the Little Free Library
