Blackout Read-along: Week 4 (Pages 379-491) & All Clear Read-along in August!

For all of you who are participating in the Blackout read-along that Carrie and I are hosting this month, don’t forget that this week’s final discussion is happening over on Carrie’s blog, Books and Movies. Even though I had been forewarned, I’m a bit disappointed in the ending that’s not an ending, but I’m looking forward to continuing the story in the next book, All Clear (which I just got out of the library). In the meantime, head over to Carrie’s discussion post to read her thoughts on the end (as well as mine, which I will share soon) and contribute your own!

If you’ve finished Blackout then you know we must now read All Clear, which concludes the story. Carrie and I are therefore going to be hosting the All Clear read-along from August 1 to 27.

Here’s the schedule:

August 1 to 5 (post to go up on August 6): pages 3-123 (stop when you get to the chapter headed with this quote: “Don’t leave it to others.”)

August 6 to 12 (post to go up on August 13): pages 124-300 (stop when you get to the chapter headed with this quote: “That won’t be there in the morning.”)

August 13 to 19 (post to go up on August 20): pages 301-470 (stop when you get to the chapter headed with this quote: “Just waiting, waiting, waiting till your number came up…”)

August 20 to 26 (post to go up on August 27): pages 471-641

To join us in this read-along, head over to Books and Movies and sign up using the Mr. Linky at the bottom of Carrie’s post. (Note that the dates for this read-along have been changed; we decided to spread it out over four weeks in the end, rather than six.)

Blackout Read-along: Week 3 (Pages 254-378)

Welcome to the third discussion post for the read-along of Blackout by Connie Willis, which I’m co-hosting with Carrie at Books and Movies. (If you missed them, please go back and read the discussions for week 1 and week 2.) How are you all doing? I found it especially hard to stop reading at the end of our section this week. For those of you who didn’t participate in last week’s discussion—I hope you haven’t given up on the book! Note that there are spoilers in this post.

Finally finally this book has taken off for me! I think it’s mainly because this part focuses on only three historians who are almost in the same time period, so it’s much easier to keep track of what’s going on. And what’s going on is pretty exciting and mysterious: neither Eileen nor Polly can get through their drops and Mike is injured and far from his (and no retrieval teams have shown up). Their situations seem fairly dire, especially Eileen’s: Imagine being stuck in the past and having your only home taken away from you, so you have nowhere to go, barely any money and only a vague recollection of where the other historian in your time period is—and to make matters worse, that historian is somewhere in London during the Blitz!

I think the fact that Mike is in Orpington must be significant: this is at least the second, if not the third time this town has been mentioned in the book. (Lieutenant Mary Kent gets charged with transporting soldiers to Orpington Hospital on page 123, and I’m pretty sure that was not the first time we’d heard of Orpington. Does anyone else remember?)

I also can’t imagine that we’ve seen the last of the Hodbins, though I can’t quite see what role they will play in the rest of the novel. I am worried that Eileen has changed history somehow by not giving them that ticket!

Finally, I’m very curious to see how the new characters that were introduced in part 2 will fit into the story. At least one of them was a historian...

Those are my thoughts for this week. What about you? Please share your thoughts in the comments! Please don’t comment on the book beyond page 378, though, as I haven’t read any further yet.

Next week’s discussion post will appear on Carrie’s blog at Books and Movies. I will also post a spoiler-free review at the end of the read-along.

Blackout Read-along: Week 2 (Pages 124-253)

For all of you who are participating in the Blackout read-along that Carrie and I are hosting this month, don’t forget that this week’s discussion is happening over on Carrie’s blog, Books and Movies. I’m still feeling pretty confused by the story—there are even more characters and time periods to keep track of now! Head over to Carrie’s discussion post to read her thoughts (as well as mine, which I will share shortly) and contribute your own!

Blackout Read-along: Week 1 (Pages 3-123)

Welcome to the first discussion post for the read-along of Blackout by Connie Willis, which I’m co-hosting with Carrie at Books and Movies. How are you all doing so far? Have you read the first 13 chapters? I must confess that I read them a week in advance, but I’m determined to keep to the read-along schedule for the rest of the book. Note that there are minor spoilers in this post.

Much like To Say Nothing of the Dog (which I re-read recently), I found the beginning of this book quite confusing: there are so many characters and time periods to keep track of and so many details that don’t make sense yet. This is both a strength and a weakness of Willis’s writing. I like that she just throws the reader into the story without too much explanation—we have to trust that it will eventually all fall into place and make sense. But at the same time, the first 120 pages of this book all felt like set-up to me, and I haven’t really gotten into the story yet. Plus I don’t like feeling that I should be taking notes to make sure I don’t miss anything!

One thing I realize when I read Willis’s Oxford Time Travel novels is how shaky my knowledge of history is. I’d never heard of the Phoney War before, for example, and must admit that I don’t know much about the Battle of Britain or the Dunkirk evacuation either. But I get a kick out of the fact that I can read SF and learn actual history, although it can sometimes be hard to tell where the real history leaves off and the fiction begins.

Anyway, what’s most intriguing to me so far is that so many drops are being rescheduled and so many historians are experiencing significant slippage—what does it all mean? And I’m pretty sure Colin’s outburst about Dr. Ishiwaka’s theories is important too, especially since Dunworthy then takes off to see Ishiwaka...

Those are my thoughts so far. What about you? Let me know if you write your own post and I will link to it in mine. Otherwise, please share your thoughts in the comments! Please don’t comment on the book beyond page 123, though, as I haven’t read any further yet.

Next week’s discussion post will appear on Carrie’s blog at Books and Movies.

Official Start of the July Read-along of Blackout by Connie Willis

Today marks the official start of the July read-along of Blackout by Connie Willis, which I’m co-hosting with Carrie at Books and Movies. You can join us at any point during the month: head over to Carrie’s read-along announcement post for more details and to sign up.

Carrie and I will alternate posting discussion starters every Saturday, starting on this blog on July 9. I can’t wait!

Happy Canada Day to all my fellow Canadians!

July Read-along: Blackout by Connie Willis

I recently had an unfortunate experience with my real-life book club and To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis (long story short: I recommended the book and it turned out to be a bad fit for the group—we ultimately decided to abandon it). So when Carrie at Books and Movies mentioned on Facebook that she’d recently become a Connie Willis fan and was working her way through all of Willis’ work, I jumped at the chance to read Blackout with someone who loves Willis as much as I do.

We will be reading the book for the whole month of July, so I’m hoping a few of you will join us!

Note that Blackout is part one of a story that continues with All Clear (which is unfortunately only out in hardcover at the moment). I’ve been told that it’s a good idea to get your hands on the second book right away!

Carrie (who is way more organized that I am) figured out the reading schedule; she and I will alternate leading the discussion each week.

As Carrie discovered, the book’s chapters are not numbered, but the page numbers in her paperback match those in my hardcover book. So here’s the schedule:

July 1 to July 8 (post to go up on July 9): pages 1-123 (stop when you get to the chapter headed with this quote: “Coughs and sneezes spread diseases.”)

July 9 to July 15 (post to go up on July 16): pages 124-253 (stop when you get to the chapter headed with this quote: “Wars are not won by evacuations.”)

July 16 to July 22 (post to go up on July 23): pages 254-378 (stop when you get to the chapter headed with this quote: “Is Your Journey Really Necessary?”)

July 17 to July 29 (post to go up on July 30): pages 379-491

I just picked up the book at the library yesterday and I’m itching to start it right away! To join us in this read-along, head over to Books and Movies and sign up using the Mr. Linky at the bottom of Carrie’s post.