Alone With You in the Ether

Product Information

I LOVED seeing their friendship develop and, as I mentioned above, seeing Eloise opening up and becoming happier was so amazing! And Austin just cared sooooo much about her!!!! He was always so sweet and caring and lovely and aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!! Once again: WHEN’S IT MY TURN?! 😩 but on the other hand, i cant stop thinking about this? as unlikely as it sounds given the negatives i just listed, there are some true moments of beauty in this. most of them coming from aldo and how his brain works. the way he views the world and describes how things fit mathematically is really quite something. i could listen to him talk about bees all day long. Academic achievement doesn’t cut it anymore, Eloise. You know that. If you want the full-ride scholarship, you’re gonna have to round out your application—with something nonacademic.” Usually we see couples,” Vivian said, covering for her blunder. She reminded herself to be polite and not optimistic. She didn’t want to lose her job. Amelia Coombs has such a fun writing style. The story is absolutely endearing, with great pacing, wonderful characters and quirky wit.

overall surprisingly really enjoyed this! Eloise and Austin had believable chemistry and cute moments! it even made me cry in the third act! Content Warnings: depression, anxiety, death of a parent (past), grief, car accident (past, mentioned) This reading group guide for Alone With You includes an introduction, discussion questions, ideas for enhancing your book club, and a Q&A with author Marisa Silver. The suggested questions are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for your discussion. We hope that these ideas will enrich your conversation and increase your enjoyment of the book. Eloise realizes she’s made a huge mistake—especially when she’s paired with Austin, the fellow volunteer who’s the sunshine to her cloudy day. But as Eloise and Austin work together to keep Marianne Landis—the mysterious former frontwoman of the 1970s band the Laundromats—company, something strange happens. Eloise actually…likes Marianne and Austin? She isn’t sure what to do with that, especially when her feelings toward Austin begin to blur into more-than-friends territory.

Beyond the Book

Marisa Silver’s novel The God of War, earned great acclaim and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Read it as well, and discuss the differences in her style and language. Is her writing different in the novel than it was in short stories? You don’t have to worry about that,” he said, brushing a strand of hair from her cheek. “It’ll all come out in the end.” The title story, "Alone With You," opens with Marie walking with a camel across the Sahara. She has had mental health issues and has come on this trip with her husband, son, and son’s girlfriend, ostensibly as “an adventure,” but actually so she can work out some answers to questions of her own. My parents have stressed, ad nauseam, that they don’t want me taking out loans for college. Especially with a solid school like University of Washington fifteen minutes from our house, in-state tuition included. And I get it—my parents still have outstanding student loans—but USC is my dream. I’ll gladly go into debt until my forties for my dream, but a scholarship would probably be less devastating to my future credit score.

For Regan and Aldo, life has been a matter of resigning themselves to the blueprints of inevitability—until the two meet. Could six conversations with a stranger be the variable that shakes up the entire simulation? Eloise was supposed to be a flawed and kind of unlikeable MC, but honestly I really liked her! I had such a soft spot for this girl, but perhaps that’s because I was a little too similar to her. 😳😅 The author did such a great job portraying Eloise’s depression and social anxiety. Her being too nervous to hang out with people and always thinking the worst in social situations hit a bit too close to home, ngl. I related a lot to Eloise having no friends and always hanging out just by herself.Mom and Dad handled the situation well—considering Ana was an accident, a fact I can’t wait to rub in her face when she’s older—and made sure I found my banishment fun and exciting. We remodeled the old office space into my bedroom, decorated it and everything. Now, at seventeen, I’m glad I don’t share a bedroom wall with my parents.

After the critical acclaim for The God of War, did you feel pressure to live up to expectations with Alone With You? I also really liked Marianne! I didn’t expect to care this much about this old woman, but her dynamic with Eloise was also super enjoyable! I loved that they were so similar, but their dynamic ended up being kind of similar to Eloise and Austin’s: they pushed each other’s buttons, but always in a joking, friendly way. I also really liked seeing Marianne, Austin and Eloise hanging out all together. His clarity rendered her speechless. How could she have known that the bed thing she would never recover from would be love?" In the New World" a Polish immigrant to the U.S. and owner of a small construction company has problems negotiating relationships with his well-to-do clients and with his teenage son who has gotten a girl pregnant. Anticipating his son’s future reactions to unfolding events, he dips into the past, remembers his relationship with own father, his father’s grief at losing three other children, and understands the universality of parental fear for one’s children. Oh,” Vivian said, sleepily, not quite understanding. But then she found herself moving over in bed and lifting the covers as an invitation. Toby stepped into the room, took off his clothes, and slid in beside her. His skin was warm, and when he moved on top of her Vivian felt the thin tautness of his body. She put her arms around his narrow shoulders as if he were a log floating in a river on which she could rest to catch her breath.

Book Summary

I’m very close to my mother and I was so happy to dedicate this to her and my two sisters. My mother has been an incredible source of support and courage for me. She has had a wonderful working life as a film director. She took me very seriously when I was a little girl, allowing me into her own creative process and making me feel that my ideas were of value. She always asked me to read her screenplays and to watch cuts of her films and she really cared about my comments. I even got to sit in on casting sessions and weight in on what I thought of the actors! And she took me to the old movies. Some of my fondest memories are of sitting in art houses watching Italian films then discussing them with her. She cared about story telling and cared about what I thought about narrative. What a great gift to give a child, to let her know her ideas matter. My only downside was the cursing. It just felt too much, personally, for a young adult novel. I would have liked to see the characters not limit their language in that way. Silver masterfully uses descriptive details and imagery. Share a passage that impressed itself upon your mind, and discuss her use of language and metaphor. There's a true romcom energy to this book that I believe readers of Lynn Painter or any YA romance really would have a great time with (if you love YA romances, you need this book in your life). NOW I WANT A MOVIE ADAPTATION - this would be so cute as movie or tv show! ♡❀ The day before was nothing special. It was special only because of how unspecial it was, or perhaps by how unspecial it would very soon become. Things were always stranger in retrospect, which was a funny little consequence of time.

What I didn't love: entirely too much strong language for a YA book, and sometimes I don't love the I hate everyone but you. I hope Lou learns from her mistakes and starts reacting with more kindness towards others (mainly her family and siblings)...I just don't like when rudeness is justified. someone said this book felt like seeing god and they’re completely right. it felt like i was in heaven and hell at the same time too. In “Night Train to Frankfort,” Helen reads a poem by Pablo Neruda to her mother, Dorothy. Neruda is “the only poet [Dorothy] had gone out of her way to read.” Helen selected “Tonight I can write the saddest lines,” from Neruda’s Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair. Borrow a copy from your library, or look up more of his poetry online. What do you like or dislike about his poetry? Why do you think it he is Dorothy’s favorite poet?Alone With You in the Ether plays with narrative structure and linear time to weave a story of two broken people crashing together like comets, and we, as audience, are witness to their glorious destruction." — Tor.com Where’s your wife?” she said, imagining that the man had forbidden his wife to come this time, that he had decided that her presence was what stood in the way of their getting a child. The mechanics of his ritual were simple: Raise the joint to his lips, breathe in, breathe out, let his hand fall. This was the formula. Formulas he understood. He brought the joint to his lips, inhaled, and exhaled into nothing. But that’s what everybody says, of course,” the man said. Vivian could hear the tension in his voice. He must have stood up at that point because as he continued his voice grew distant and full of air. “You must hear stupid, obvious things like that every day,” he said. “ ‘We have a lot of love to give.’ It’s probably meaningless to you. But what else can we say? We want a child. We have enough money to offer a child a good life, all the advantages. We’re decent people with decent values. But it feels like we’re paying the price for some biological glitch we have no control over.” i can’t even put into words how much i not only loved this book but connected to it. olivie puts into words the thoughts and feelings i feel that i myself can’t find the words for. how tf can someone write something so captivating?!?