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When the World Was Steady
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4 out of 5 stars
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5 out of 5 stars
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Loved this!
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A bracing, hypnotic, coming-of-age story about the bond of best friends, from the New York Times best-selling author of The Emperor's Children. Julia and Cassie have been friends since nursery school. They have shared everything, including their desire to escape the stifling limitations of their birthplace, the quiet town of Royston, Massachusetts. But as the two girls enter adolescence, their paths diverge and Cassie sets out on a journey that will put her life in danger and shatter her oldest friendship.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Meesud is a brilliant wordsmith but her storyline is too weak to support the complexity of the narrative.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,430
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Greer Kadetsky is a shy college freshman when she meets the woman she hopes will change her life. Faith Frank, dazzlingly persuasive and elegant at sixty-three, has been a central pillar of the women's movement for decades, a figure who inspires others to influence the world. Upon hearing Faith speak for the first time, Greer--madly in love with her boyfriend, Cory, but still full of longing for an ambition that she can't quite place--feels her inner world light up. And then, astonishingly, Faith invites Greer to make something out of that sense of purpose, leading Greer down the most exciting path of her life as it winds toward and away from her meant-to-be love story with Cory and the future she'd always imagined.
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4 out of 5 stars
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4.33 stars....great writer
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In his commencement address to the graduating class of 2016, James E. Ryan, dean of the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, offered remarkable advice to the crowd of hopeful men and women eager to make their marks on the world. The key to achieving emotional connections and social progress, he told them, can be found in five essential questions.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Not enough meat of material.
- By Larissa on 05-18-18
Publisher's Summary
Originally published in 1994, When the World Was Steady is award-winning author Claire Messud's first novel.
Life isn't all Emmy and Virginia Simpson anticipated. When Emmy's marriage to an Australian man ends, she flees her home in Sydney to "find herself" on the island of Bali - only to become embroiled with a crew of international misfits and smugglers. Her prim and pious sister, Virginia, meanwhile, has never wandered far outside of London. Struggling to find meaning, she follows her aging mother's advice to vacation on the Isle of Skye. On these two islands halfway around the world, the middle-aged sisters confront the costs of self-knowledge and their destinies with unexpected consequences.
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