🍒TOM LAKE by ANN PATCHETT // newest book obsession

Howdy! Howdy!
I wanted to talk to someone about Tom Lake but couldn't find anyone to engage with about this book. I LOVE Ann Patchett as an author and even though I am not the most eloquent of individuals, I wanted to try my hand at a discussion.
Also... my thumbnail is blurry... how do I get it to not do that...?
Books mentioned:
🍒 Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
🍒 Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
🍒 The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
🍒 My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
🍒 Adultery by Paulo Coehlo
Anyway, I wanted to link to the number of places I looked at when trying to find an outlet for my Tom Lake mania:
⭐️GOOD INTERVIEW W ANN PATCHETT⭐️
⚘ // www.npr.org/20...
⚘ // www.pbs.org/ne...
⚘ // Tom Lake' Author Ann Patchett Couldn't Read Until the Third Grade, So She Made Up Stories - WSJ
⭐️PARNASSUS BOOKS (NASHVILLE)⭐️
⚘ // www.parnassusb...
⭐️PAINTING/COVER⭐️
⚘ // www.mdig.fr/de...
⚘ // artsandculture...
⭐️TIKTOKS⭐️
⚘ // @/tellthebeees
www.tiktok.com...
www.tiktok.com...
⚘ // @/parnassusbooksnashville
www.tiktok.com...
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⚘ // @/reesesbookclub
www.tiktok.com...
⚘ // @/mainstbooksmonroe
www.tiktok.com...
(Not mentioned in the video but unique pov of the book!!)
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⭐️TikTok (not niche or nothin): ih8mars
⭐️Bookstagram: marzistarzibookishfrenzi
⭐️StoryGraph: marzistarzi
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[@kresselhousman743]

I'm a middle-aged Mom who related to the book on both the parenting and the meta level. The most interesting part to me was what Laura said about acting. She didn't "get in the way" of the lines. She didn't try to emote; she just read them and let them convey the emotion of the scene. It made me think that's how Ann Patchett likes to have her books read, and since she's got A-list actors recording her audio books, it made me wonder if that text-centered approach is theirs, too.

[@nataliegrace5594]

yesssss as another early twenties girlie I've been dyinggg to hear someone my age talk about Tom Lake! I def have noticed lots of fantastic books going undiscovered with younger audiences because the marketing has been so heavily towards older women... And then I feel insecure that I have the reading taste of a much older woman haha This was my first Patchett and I'm totally gonna read more of her work. Lara's inability to let go of Emily (from our town) and how it reflected back to her struggles with her daughter Emily was genius!! Patchett also got the 'actor experience' so well. That feeling that only you can do this part, that the character is within you, only to see someone do just as good a job and they are just as much worthy to be up on that stage... it's a humbling experience lol I totally fell in love with her writing and literally no one around me wants to talk about this damn book !!

[@marzistarzibookishfrenzi]

I feel like so many people are accepting this book as a ‘cozy read’ but everytime I pick up a Patchett book I am always overcome w emotions, even though she has such a gentle voice and way of writing, I’ll still be so in a frenzy over some aspect of the book!

[@toychristopher]

⭐⭐⭐ but the daisies are also in the graveyard on the cherry farm at the end, taking it over completely. What does that mean?

[@friendlybethany3795]

girlll as a fellow early twenties girl i sooo agree with you! tom lake is my latest obsession and there is literally no one in my circle who has actually reached for this book. it angers me !! sally rooney is not the only thing we can relate to!

[@mjcosgrove]

The almighty algorithm decided I needed to see your video because I’ve been on a Patchett kick recently. I met her at an author event in Cleveland that she did with Kevin Wilson last month. She is so sweet and down to earth! Anyway, I’m more than twice your age, so I won’t even pretend to get the TS connection, but it’s fun to find a video from someone who relates more to the younger characters of Tom Lake. It makes me think about how books strike us differently when we read them at different ages in our lives. I’m not usually someone who rereads books because there are so many books out there and our time on earth is so short, but I do love the perspective shifts that come with age. I don’t think I would have appreciated this book in my early twenties as much as you did. I wonder if in 30 years, you’ll feel more of a kinship to the older Lara. Totally okay if you don’t though. Kinda regretting starting this comment because it turned into one big ramble. Not sure what my original point was going to be! But anyway, nice video! Keep reading!

[@marzistarzibookishfrenzi]

You have made tons of sense! I def don’t appreciate Patchett books the way people with more life experience can. I am excited and scared for what it means to get older and identify with Lara because I know it will happen (mostly because Patchett is that good of a writer). Rereading is part of the joy for me, it keeps the magic of a good reading experience alive. I get nervous to reread books I loved from childhood though because what if I completely hate them now, ya know?

[@mjcosgrove]

@@marzistarzibookishfrenzi That’s a risk, for sure. I have read all of John Green’s books twice, and except maybe for The Fault in Our Stars, I think I liked all of them more the first time around. There’s just something about that feeling the very first time you’re discovering a book. You can never have that same feeling with that book again. Perhaps if you have severe memory issues!! I never looked forward to getting older, but I feel like I’ve really settled into it nicely. I really do feel wiser than I used to. I have enjoyed every phase of my life along the way, but I think the one I’m in right now (I’m 52) just might be my favorite, which seems weird when I say it out loud, because you’d think I’d want to go back to my 20s and 30s. Okay, if I could be in my 22-year-old body with my 52-year-old mind, that would be amazing!!!

[@jmp1262]

When i was 24 i saw Our Town at Northwestern and fell asleep. I saw it again at 65 and its impact on me is significant. Perhaps life's small moments become more precious when you are looking back rather than forward.

[@megandohm6843]

Oooo the idea of Laura as an unreliable narrator is interesting, particularly in relation to the more rosy-cottage-core scenes. Tom Lake and Commonwealth are definitely siblings - they’re not at all the same, but reading one gave extra depth to the other.

[@marzistarzibookishfrenzi]

Ahh I’m working my way through all of Patchett’s works, I haven’t read Commonwealth yet!

[@AvAlanchian]

Great video. Start making them again please. Love the Zoomer perspective

[@marielee6443]

.We all have a blind spot, right? That bit of incorrect information from childhood that mysteriously never gets updated, the person who makes it to thirty-five believing that unicorns had been hunted into extinction.” “Wait, unicorns weren’t hunted . . .” He smiled at me, tipping his head to one side as if to say I was adorable, as in, I was to be adored. Hi. How would you interpret the play-word i.e. " was adorable. as in, I was to be adored. " Please

[@CGyog]

I need to find a good description of meta fiction; what does it mean?… I enjoyed your review more than the book, tbh. (I know, I’m the problem it’s me). I do love the comparison between Ann P & TS - that is spot on! I do love all the other Ann Patchett’s books that I’ve read, which is at least 5. My favorite at this point is State of Wonder 🌟. Which are your favorites (besides Tom Lake)?

[@marzistarzibookishfrenzi]

Hiiii!! omg you have no idea how happy I am to see your comment! I think of meta fiction as self-aware work/ story within a story/ story about a story. The example I always refer to is the play within a play in Hamlet, or Don Quixote. Thank you for agreeing w my TS and Ann P comparison! Ever since I thought it, I can’t unsee it! Patchett has such a huge body of work! I know it’s basic, but I still love Bel Canto. I haven’t read any of her nonfiction works. I just listened to the audio book for the Dutch House and… opinions. Thank you again for commenting!! ✨✨ Seriously, I have talked the ear off of everyone I know about this book.

[@malucrisostomo3621]

AMEI sua opinião baseada em ser uma garota de 20 e poucos, pois também sou, concordo com tudo

[@marzistarzibookishfrenzi]

who is this girl and why did she make a chaotic video talking about mother ann patchett’s newest book???

[@Antineii]

Every once in a while, the godlike KZbin algorithm opens up my life. You, marzi starzi, are brilliant and adorable and wicked smart. I work hard to get out of my own point of view so your review is a gift. Things we have in common: My Name is Asher Lev, reading books in high school that we didn't really understand, loving the meta, being unafraid to have a contrarian take and Opinions! I am dying to know about Baltimore. I can't read this book for the third time trying to find it. Give me a hint. Love the Maisie lipstick call. Don't you think that Anne Patchett's lack of children gives her a slightly sinister take on motherhood? Finally, how do we reconcile sweet Emily/Lara's casual willingness to sleep with someone to get a part? Inquiring minds want to know.

[@marzistarzibookishfrenzi]

LOVE ASHER LEV 🫡🫡🫡 Okay so it’s been a couple of months since I read the book and made this video (thank for being the comment I was waiting for 🫶🏻)- so in Baltimore she goes and sees Mr Big Shot and sleeps with him while he is in rehab!! And that moment for me was so poignant because she goes and has dinner the BROTHER AFTER AND PATS HERSELF ON THE BACK FOR NOT SLEEPING WOTH HIK AND HOW THEY BOTH ARE PATTING THEMSELVES ON THE BACK FOR NOT SLEEPING TOGETHEr. And I am still jaw on the floor at this moment because it feels like such a low point to hold the torch for this guy and then sleep with him in rehab and he doesn’t even remember you years later. And I think the lipstick of Maisie and how Laura will never understand why she wears it when there is no one around to impress is what makes it click for me, that Laura thinks of appearance and love as something that validates HER and wearing lipstick for Laura would be about male attention. I don’t think this is a ‘bad thing,’ I just think this is how the character thinks and is maybe even a generational difference in thinking. I do think there is something to be said that Anne Patchett chose not to have children herself and how to speaks about motherhood. I don’t know how much I could speak to this tho because I’m not a mom, I’ve only seen MANY mom readers talk about how they relate to Laura… which prompted me RUNNING to my mom and asking how she felt lol! I feel like Emily is portrayed so irrationally by Laura but idk… if I was named after my mom’s defining moments of life when she COULVE been famous, I’d feel sometype of way too. I think that the instance of her willing to sleep w that Broadway producer for the role is an instance of her being an unreliable narrator. She down plays it ALOT! The same way she downplays sleeping w her best friends boyfriend and how it’s all “just memories now.” (Okay I feel like I’m coming off like I don’t like the character, I do, but I think I read the book from a similar stand point of ‘holy crap my mom had a life before me.’) I def have my own moral beliefs on sleeping w someone to get ahead (I would not do it). And I think this story would be completely different if Laura had someone along the way take her up on the offer. Sorry I wrote you a novel lol!! I hope I have made some interesting points (it has been a bit since I read it)

[@Antineii]

Found Asher Lev by using MIT's Ringo, one of the very first recommendation engines. Think how much better the world would be if the New York Met was still free! Why doesn't some billionaire do that? Baltimore/Boston, what's the difference? I think our Annie was riffing on a very famous celebrity mental hospital/rehab place - McLean in Belmont, Massachusetts. Sylvia Plath (I saw your Bell Jar review) was just one of the famous writers who spent time there. That sex in the bathroom incident still bothers me - Lara is like a robot - my theory is the reason she won't tell her daughters the story is not wanting them to know her capacity for humiliation - but I could be wrong. Still on a high from discovering your review - any author that gets you to have a memorable conversation with your mother has my thanks.