A True and Honest Reaction: Exploring Station 11 with HBO Max

I just finished watching the first two episodes of HBO Max's adaptation of Emily St. John Mandel's novel Station 11, and I'm still reeling from the experience. As someone who has read the book multiple times, I was excited to see how the show would bring the story to life. But what really surprised me was how well they adapted the book into a visually stunning and emotionally intense television series.

One of the things that struck me most about the show is its unique blend of different narrative perspectives and timelines. The novel jumps back and forth between different characters' experiences, weaving together a complex tapestry of stories. Similarly, the show employs this same technique, using overlays of flashbacks and shifting forward and backward in time to create a sense of urgency and fragmentation. This non-linear storytelling style really adds to the overall sense of intensity and unease that pervades the novel.

The show's use of visual effects is also noteworthy. In one particularly striking scene, the camera pans over a desolate landscape before cutting away to reveal a bustling cityscape, only to return again twenty years later when the city has been reclaimed by nature. It's a powerful metaphor for the cyclical nature of time and the resilience of human connection in the face of trauma and disaster.

As I watched the show, I couldn't help but think about how it parallels our current reality. The pandemic that ravaged the world has left deep scars, and many of us are still grappling with the aftermath. But amidst all this darkness, the show finds moments of beauty and hope – moments of connection and community that remind us that even in the most desperate times, there is always a way forward.

One of my favorite aspects of the book is its exploration of art and culture as a source of meaning and survival. Kirsten, one of the main characters, is part of a traveling Shakespearean troupe that travels across North America, performing plays and finding community in their performances. This aspect of the show was also beautifully realized, with stunning scenes of the performers on stage bringing Shakespeare's words to life.

What I love most about this adaptation is its faithfulness to the spirit of the book while still offering something new and unexpected. As a reader, it's thrilling to see how the show interprets the characters and their stories in a way that feels both familiar and innovative. And as someone who has read the book multiple times, it was wonderful to experience Station 11 again through a different medium.

For fans of the book, I highly recommend checking out this adaptation – not just for its own sake, but also as a chance to see your favorite characters and stories come to life in a whole new way. And for anyone who hasn't read the book yet, I hope this article has piqued your interest – Station 11 is truly a masterpiece of contemporary literature that deserves to be shared with a wider audience.

As someone who partnered up with HBO Max to bring you this reaction video, I want to express my deepest gratitude to the network for their support. It was an absolute blast to work on this project, and I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity to share my thoughts and feelings with all of you. If you're as excited about Station 11 as I am, be sure to check out HBO Max's streaming service to catch up on the show – it's available now!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi guys it's regan and welcome to the start of another reading vlog and this is actually another challenge-based reading vlog which is sponsored by i still can't believe this hbo max but let's sit down and chat about that a bit more hi so as i said this video is sponsored by hbo max but the challenge component of it is completely uh my choosing but that's right this video is sponsored by hbo max for their recent release of station 11 which is a book to show adaptation that is now available to stream on their platform the sponsored part of this video is going to be happening later when i actually watch the first two episodes of the show and kind of give you guys my initial thoughts and feelings about it but in true reader fashion i've decided i cannot watch one of my most anticipated show releases without first re-reading the book i read station 11 right when it came out um i want to say four or five years ago now it made my top books of the year the year i read it i loved this book so much it continues to be one of my favorite books of all time i actually made clay read it over the summer and he loves it too and he has been begging me to hurry up with this reread so we can watch the show together so i thought you know let's make this say reread a fave and watch an upcoming most anticipated show release sort of reading vlog so i am going to be attempting to reread this book in about a day or so because i promised clay that i would be done so he could watch the show tomorrow when he finishes up work so that's where we're at and the inspiration for this challenge-based reading vlog i honestly cannot wait to get to this book i've been meaning to reread it for a few years now just because i loved it so much the first time i picked it up emily st john mandel is one of my favorite authors she actually has a new book coming out early next year which i already have pre-ordered i cannot wait but yes thank you guys so much for watching that is the book i'm gonna be reading over the course of this vlog and let's get started because clay has me on a tight schedule i said tomorrow so it's gonna have to be tomorrow speaking of clay uh while i was doing some work this morning he made me a delicious smoothie which i'm now gonna sit down and drink and actually get a little bit of reading in i am actually about to leave to meet up a friend for lunch who is in town um for the holidays she's back in texas so i can't wait to see her but then today i'm really going to be hanging out with matilda where is she of course on the couch and just getting my read on so cheers clay got a fancy blender for the holidays and so he has dubbed himself the smoothie king so that's where we are in this household also if you're curious if i was in fact wearing a dress in the midst of december the answer is yes it is 76 degrees outside in texas i'm concerned but at least my dress is cute that's sort of my thought process at the moment hi so about 20 minutes until i need to read so i'm gonna sit down and just go ahead and start my reread of station 11 but if you're not familiar with the story um just to give you a bit of an overview it is a multi-point of view book that basically chronicles the before and after of a humanity altering event which is actually a pandemic so obviously there are some parallels um that i didn't have when i first read this book to our current world in reality which i do feel like is going to very much alter my reading experience of this story that being said i don't want you to think that this book is like harrowing or i don't know like depressing because while it definitely has some very significant and difficult problems emily st john mandel in this book definitely kind of keeps humanity and like perseverance very much at the center of this book it also has one of my favorite narrative devices that i just love to encounter in stories and that is the sort of small sort of vignettes of a variety of different characters and kind of told in a disjointed fashion and then slowly begin to see the web of all these different narratives come together in a really satisfying way she does this particular device so well she does it in her other books that i've read too and i just personally love that style and i'm really curious to see how that component is going to be adapted in like a show adaptation so that'll be something i will personally be looking out for but if you're not familiar about this book yet it's basically set before and after a global pandemic but it also follows a shakespearean theater troupe as they travel around the united states performing so it's a really interesting concept obviously has some direct parallels to our current world and life i remember being very emotionally moved by this story i feel like it's going to hit me even at a higher emotional place this time around so looking forward to reading it now i'm going to try to read like 30 or so pages before i meet up with my but i shall check it no this is how you holiday i'm back from eating way too much cheese back from lunch it was so lovely to see um my good friend she's in town from her phd program she doesn't live here anymore but anyway i'm rambling i and luckily only planning to read today because i need to put on comfortable clothes immediately um and just lounge to digest all of that burning cheese i just ate which was also delightful um but it's time for me to post up back over there and uh just get get some reading in i read about 30 pages before i was able before i needed to leave um but now i'm going to get a decent chunk of the way through because again i'm on a time limit clay has already come out and been like so how far are you so gotta get back to it much better now this is proper reading attire am i right ladies someone dm'd me to let me know that there is a calcifer you log basically you know one of my favorite characters from hal's moving castle that you can put on your tv obviously a fireplace well reading is very necessary and this just brings me so much joy wow and also don't ask me when i'm taking down my christmas tree because i have no idea but look at that immaculate vibes hey friends so i have been reading and i'm happy to report i have passed uh the 70 page mark and i basically entered into part three of this book and i'm happy to say i have fallen into this narrative immediately and i'm liking it not just as much as i remember i mean i gave this book five stars when i read it the first time but i was right to say that i do feel like it's taking on a different weight um with the new reality and perspective i've gained but wow i'm really enjoying this story first and foremost i just love emily st john mandel's writing i feel like her style is just it really pulls you in it's not overly flowery it's not even like overly raw it's pretty like straightforward but it feels so comfortable to read and i think it just works so successfully with all of her shifting points of view i mean you're moving through not only different lives but you're moving through time and space shifting forward and back in time and kind of reading different vignettes and moments of people's life but once you're there once you're reading from their points of view you immediately feel connected to them and their life which just makes stories like this just very successful the book itself opens the first part is like pre-flu or actually the night that the flu is kind of sweeping the world and the book opens actually during a shakespearean performance of king lear and we follow one of our main characters jeevan and he's basically being told about this flu and is kind of figuring out what he's going to do and is kind of hunkering down with his brother in his house from there we get a quick chapter from another character who is on the other side of the world who was like loosely connected to one person that jeevan just happened to run into that night from there we shift 20 years in the future and we follow our i would say our main main character kirsten she is part of a traveling group of shakespearean actors posts kind of the world basically ending and they travel from town to town giving performances of different shakespearean plays i have to say i love this book's use of shakespeare and just kind of art being so prevalent to the story obviously it opens on a shakespearean play and again when you think of shakespeare i mean so many of those plays are written kind of off the heels of the plague in the 1500s and in a lot of ways it was kind of part of the rebirth of society in the west and like people going to experience this particular piece of art form and here it is so many hundreds of years in the future not only continuing to be celebrated in normal times but also kind of at the heart and is continuing to be a piece of art and solace for people at sort of the end of times where humanity is kind of picking itself up once again and is still turning to the arts for entertainment for peace and also inspiration so i just think as like a device within the story i just think it's a really smart use and also one that i think is really cool something else i wanted to say because this book kind of shifts from different perspectives and we're obviously pre and post this sort of world altering event it creates a level of intensity too because we've read chapters from two characters miranda and jeevan pre-episode and you really have no idea what has become of them in this new world um because again 99 of the population has died so i appreciate to this sort of shifting forward and back in time and kind of seeing the change in humanity but also what persists no matter the incredible weight that's put on them also say i've read 70 pages the writing style the characters the story i find to be very very gripping as i recall looking forward to reading more i'm going to read more i think i'm just going to go get a cup of coffee um the book itself i want to say is just under 400 pages but i'm reading it super quick the chapters themselves are also very short which in general i love the sort of staccato nature of just like shifting from scene to scene and from character to character i just personally find books written in that style i read so quickly and i really enjoy it but it's coffee time that's all i got it is time for coffee also peep my new stainless steel pan we've upgraded in this household and um i am also soaking some beans because i'm making red beans and rice tonight which i am very much looking forward to back to the point which was to grab a much needed cup of coffee the best reading sessions happen in the reading chair isn't that right matilda hi reading session over i have officially passed the 150 page mark uh and i am just re becoming memorized by this story so what's so interesting about this book is that yes there is a global pandemic that is part of the story but it's not really the point of this book it's kind of like a backdrop for characters to move in and around like before and after and obviously it adds this level of intensity that sort of drives you through because you know that there is this big moment and you're curious to see how characters interact after and then how they're going to interact like leading up to this event so yes it's there but i wouldn't say it's like the primary driving force especially because oftentimes you're reading perspectives that are in way before the event itself happens which again it just shows that the story is really about the characters and also the art they create and how everyone is sort of intrinsically connected which emily st john mandel just does such a fascinating way of like bringing unlikely people and connecting them in a really fascinating way but i'm rambling on to say i've read 150 pages so i'm almost 50 of the way done and again she introduces us to two new characters that we're getting points of view from and those two characters are first arthur who is like a celebrity film star and then miranda who we did run into incredibly briefly at the beginning of this book who is a artist herself like a comic book writer and it's funny because we've run into them already but we've really only seen like an outline of their character kind of a passing reference to them with other characters we've run into but what she does is like she brings us back to some pivotal moments of their lives and begins to fill in that outline with this character study by focusing in on a few different important vignettes that kind of make up this particular person again she also plays with outcomes really well in this book often you're given the fate of an individual before you even meet them so when you do finally run into them you're like it creates a very interesting relationship as a reader like consuming their particular story because you sort of know where it's going to end up but the pathway there is unknown to you which still makes it rather fascinating so you have that occurrence with a variety of characters and then obviously you also have this huge moment and you don't know how it's going to impact a lot of the people you're running into and then when you're encountering all these different vignettes you start to see these threads of connection that bring you back to other people you have already run into and it's just so satisfying when it happens and there's small moments and you just start to see this like web of interconnectedness and it's so well done and just completely propels you through this book because you're just hungry for more stories for more moments of run-in or like serendipitous moments of these characters crossing paths and each other's lives and sometimes they cross paths unknowingly but leave a huge impact like accidentally and sometimes it's truly just a moment of passing and as a reader you just kind of eat it up but it's just so interesting to see how like brief moments of connection can leave like huge lasting impact for people or even art like leaving behind a story can be someone's prized possession 70 years in the future like you just don't know and that's what makes this book so interesting oh i just remember loving this book so much and it's just hitting home in such a good way yet again and like again i mean i just read like a 50 page sequence and it's not even anywhere near this sort of pandemic level event and um and yet you're still so invested it's truly just about people and connection and emily st john mandel just does such a good job creating characters that you just so easily fall into their heads like you might not like them but you immediately kind of at least understand like where they're coming from and i think it's just a great talent of hers but i'm making good progress i'm obviously going to read more tonight i'm hoping to finish by like early mid afternoon tomorrow and then clay and i can start the show which i'm really excited about but i'm going to take a bit of a break now and actually start making dinner but just wanted to say i've read and um i forgot the sort of winding road this book takes you on like it's a very unexpected book for all the reasons i feel like you just wouldn't anticipate which i also think is what makes it such a beautiful story i'm halfway through officially and happy to say i am liking it just as much as i did the first time i read this book which is always a relief when it comes to a reread all righties i'm making some red beans and rice i've been soaking my beans all day and now it's the time where i just chop for my life and then i'm making it in the instant pot which just speeds up the whole process so yeah i'm gonna i'm gonna get to shopping do and here we are basically just chopped everything up i'm using bacon instead of ham hockey because i forgot to buy a ham hock this is a non-traditional recipe i know red beans and rice can be a touchy subject i just wanted to throw that out there um and i have all my veggies here i have my many cloves of garlic ready to be pressed and now i just need to get all my spices together but i love this because i just kind of put it on the instant pot forget about it make some rice and enjoy pull it all in here top this guy and then i always think i could do this gracefully but like putting on an instapot lid is for some reason tetris and it is officially dinner time folks time to unleash the steam for the rice cooker yum bon appetit and then it's back to reading alrighty dinner has been consumed and uh perhaps a few hours of switch was played but i'm back on my reading game and i'm going to read a good amount now before bed my goal is to finish this book by early afternoon so clay and i can obviously watch the show and i will say what i have read so far has been honestly very very excellent it's just such a fascinating story like obviously you're just dropped into all these different characters lives at different places in their lives they're sort of just trying to catch all the threads of their existence and kind of make sense of why we're being told about this one specific moment and not only is it just such a intimate like experience with each of these characters but there's also as i'm kind of crossing over the 50 mark of this book the overall plot and story is also beginning to heat up kind of in how it's going to culminate in this one kind of peak of wow everything has kind of come together i will say one of my favorite things about emily st john mandel stories is that you're kind of presented all these threads and you see these small connections throughout the book but then generally speaking it is leading up to some sort of like mosaic that you when you step away from it all you can kind of see the whole thing um and i'm really looking forward to that but now i'm just kind of situated in all the characters points of view obviously of kirsten again set 20 years after 99 of the population has died and a variety of characters were encountering pre this particular event from miranda to arthur to juvent so i'm just curious to see how it's all going to unfold so i'm going to keep reading i'm realizing how much of this book i also just forgot like the sort of smaller details so it's been really great to re-encounter those again and yeah it's just such a great story i'm just really happy i'm loving it as much as i did the first time around um but yeah i'm gonna get to reading go to bed and i'll see you in the morning good morning everyone ready for another reading fueled morning because i sure am atlanta's currently enjoy my faux fireplace in the last few days of my christmas tree and i'm gonna sit on the couch with matilda here hello minnie and get some reading on i was able to read just over the 200 page mark last night so i'm going to sit down now and do another chunk of reading and i will do a check-in as i get further hi i have been sitting here reading i'm even dressed i will show you my outfit and a bit but i wanted to check in because i'm officially sub 100 pages left in this book i have about 75 pages left so truly in the home stretch um and i wanted to talk about it a bit because i don't know this book has truly like re-burrowed itself like in my heart um and again i think reading it during this specific moment in history also kind of elevates this book to a new place and a new height so an aspect of the story i think that's just incredibly powerful is its use again of sort of these parallel timelines we're consistently jumping forward and back in time present day chapters are very much about like survival we're following a variety of characters in the symphony obviously they're performing shakespeare but you're also just seeing them as they're going about their day-to-day and going about the new existence of humanity and of the world also really fascinating to see not only what the world has kind of turned into but also seeing what ordinary people um do to kind of make it through another day i think when we watch like survival content it's like zombie post-apocalyptic very military all of these things but this story really centers like ordinary people confronted with an extraordinary event and you see them and society like have to try to sort through the mess and figure out what a they're going to do to survive and two like what do they want to carry with them from this previous existence into this new place and this symphony obviously has decided to carry on music art and culture and it's fascinating to see like the things they forget or don't think about so much anymore especially like the younger people living in this world because it's just not important to them or it's kind of moved to become irrelevant like electricity the internet gossip magazines all of those things and i think these particular present day chapters even become more intense or more vivid as they contrast the past chapters that we also read through these chapters are amazing but it almost reads like another book the chapters are so much about interpersonal relationships drama um heartbreak and betrayal all the things that sort of surround us and our current existence and it seems so bizarre to almost read about when you're kind of shifting to this sort of survival place it doesn't necessarily make those experiences less justified or not real but they just contrast each other in such a fascinating way um obviously with about 75 pages left like i wouldn't say this book is like heavy on the plot like there's no mission there's no like huge uh i guess rising action that we're trying to get to it's really just about encountering these characters but there is sort of a driving quest that's happening in our present day chapters and you're also a large part of this book is like seeing how all of the connections are gonna come together and i'm reaching that point and i am so fascinated i also think the short nature of these chapters just like drive you through this book some chapters are like a paragraph long some chapters are interviewed just like seeing the snippets of all of these different lives and times is just so fascinating and i'm just really curious to see how this book is going to wrap up i have suspicions i also obviously have read this book before but i'm curious to see what is going to happen so yes i'm definitely on track to finish this book hopefully by mid-afternoon so then clay and i can finally start the show but this book has just completely swept me away it's been such a good reread and obviously this is already one of my favorite books but to encounter it again i think even just like how much i have changed since i read it the first time it's also a really fascinating experience um so yeah i'm gonna do a bit more reading and then i think i'm gonna make myself a bit of a snack but all's that to say this book just really makes you think you know um and i know i haven't spoken a lot about the specific characters but i do feel like the characters themselves and the connections between the characters are like better left to experience when you pick up the book you know because so much of the plot is like their lives so i don't want to speak too specifically if you know what i mean but anywho gonna read a bit more probably make a smoothie and there's that look at that a picture of health spinach pineapple banana strawberry and pineapple ginger juice clay has a smoothie book he's a smoothie king a nice delicious green smoothie quick view quick ootd another day another sweater and uh i'm gonna read before lunch time i'm so close to finishing just gonna sit like wow you are just you're like a renaissance painting matilda look at that lounge yes show the world um i'm just gonna sit and finish reading i feel like i just keep saying that but i'm so close i have like 30 pages left and it's wrapping up in such a fantastic way it's just so satisfying and hopeful like it's hard to describe like you just have to read it like it works so well and i think it carries so much more weight given the reality of the world we live into so i'm gonna read it now hey clay yeah guess what what i finished the book oh nice now we can watch the show i really think what's up i zoomed in on your face a lot that is right i have a finished and so that means clay and i are going to sit down and watch the show very very soon he just has to wrap up some stuff with work and in the meantime i'm gonna heat up some lunch um i made a big batch of soup earlier this week and so i'm just gonna heat that up you know because gorgeous gorgeous girls eat soup so i'm just going to uh put this on the stove and enjoy it is soup time nothing like a version of a chicken soup in winter it's a great combination all right it's time we're gonna sit down and watch the first two episodes of station 11 because i finished the book which was absolutely delightful i have my obvious show watching snack of choice we're gonna get started oh and look at that right on the title page they knew we were coming so let's get to it episode one down moving on to episode two first episode was really good yeah really good i liked it a lot yeah i'll talk more about it later but wow i thought it did a really interesting job interpreting the first part of the book so next episode and just like that two episodes and an entire bag of cheetos have been consumed and wow i have to say clay and i really enjoyed the first two episodes of station 11 and obviously this part of the video is sponsored by hbo max and i am so happy i went ahead and re-read the entirety of station 11 so it was very fresh in my mind when starting this particular television adaptation because it was really interesting to see one just the natural changes that are gonna happen from a screenplay adaptation from a novel adaptation and from the first two episodes i've seen just like an honest reaction obviously there was some changes that were made but i feel like from like a style and from an overall story so far i feel like the screen adaptation is doing a fantastic job not only capturing like the literal translation but also the overall heart of the story um one of the elements i was really curious to see how they were going to do is obviously a large component of this book is shifting between past and present and also through time and space from all of these different points of views of characters and we kind of see them as they intersect through each other's lives in really interesting ways um and how the show is kind of adapting that i think is really cool with these sort of overlays of really intense flashbacks and sort of having just as extreme in the book just the shifting of forward and back in time and one of the things they do which i think is really beautiful is they'll show like a scene from the city and then it'll just like blink out and then they'll be the scene like 20 years after the fall and it's like completely been reclaimed by nature and it's just a really intense sort of visual the first part of station 11 is incredibly intense and i feel like with the pilot episode it really captured that intensity and i feel like again there are so many parallels you can make about this book show to our current reality so i also feel like that grounded episode one in a place that just like doesn't matter how they adapted it like the current reality of our existence to make us as watchers kind of consume this piece of media a little differently and it was really intense to be honest but i thought also incredibly well done but ultimately and what i think is like at the heart of this book and what i'm so excited to see and to hear is the art and culture component of this obviously one of our main characters in this book kirsten is part of a traveling shakespearean group and they travel all around a certain area in the united states and canada and basically perform plays and that is kind of how not only they are surviving because survival is more than just making it to the next day it's also finding meaning in life and they find meaning through art and music and theater and all of that and that is very much present and at the heart of this story within the show and what's really cool is it's great to like read about theater but it's a whole nother thing to like see it visually unfold in front of you so seeing the performances of different shakespeare plays within the station 11 show i thought were just beautiful and kind of seeing these different scenes of this post-apocalyptic existence but still feeling that community and that connection the show itself obviously is still intense and there's brutal elements to the show which you would expect to give in the sort of reality in the setting but i do feel like it kind of captures this element of camaraderie and just connection especially through the shared experience of art and culture that i think is really beautiful and it's like what remains at the end of it all you know the bubonic plague happened and we had shakespeare and we've had another terrible plague sweep this earth and now what do we have left and it's the same like no matter how much time passes like what withstands it all it's art it's writing it's all of that and that's kind of what makes society makes humanity and also like brings people together and i just feel like that was really beautifully captured in the show obviously the acting was great the scenery is great um and i'm just really excited to continue to watch and i feel like it is an interesting adaptation of the books and because there have been some slight changes to the plot it also provides kind of an unexpected element for me um and because clay is also red and loved this book it's really fun to watch it together because we're kind of like oh oh and i wonder how they're going to do this or like who do you think that character is so it's kind of fun to kind of go back and forth with each other while we're watching it but this is such a ramble but clearly i really really enjoyed the first two episodes of the show this is a true and honest just verbal vomit reaction of my initial thoughts and feelings but also ultimately brings me to the end of this video which was kind of a journey of rereading station 11 in preparation for checking out the show with clay um and honestly i loved both so much i obviously read 333 pages throughout this vlog with my reread and watched two episodes of the new hbo mac show which is available to stream now and again big shout out to hbo max for sponsoring this video it was such a fun challenge such a fun experience it's honestly just so cool to not only be able to partner up for one of my most anticipated releases of all time but also get an opportunity and a reason to reread one of my favorite books of all time but i hope you guys enjoyed this video again i'll leave a link to learn more about the show station 11 down below i highly recommend streaming it reading it both because i promise it will live in a special place inside of you but i hope you guys enjoyed this video and i will see you soon with another one soon byehi guys it's regan and welcome to the start of another reading vlog and this is actually another challenge-based reading vlog which is sponsored by i still can't believe this hbo max but let's sit down and chat about that a bit more hi so as i said this video is sponsored by hbo max but the challenge component of it is completely uh my choosing but that's right this video is sponsored by hbo max for their recent release of station 11 which is a book to show adaptation that is now available to stream on their platform the sponsored part of this video is going to be happening later when i actually watch the first two episodes of the show and kind of give you guys my initial thoughts and feelings about it but in true reader fashion i've decided i cannot watch one of my most anticipated show releases without first re-reading the book i read station 11 right when it came out um i want to say four or five years ago now it made my top books of the year the year i read it i loved this book so much it continues to be one of my favorite books of all time i actually made clay read it over the summer and he loves it too and he has been begging me to hurry up with this reread so we can watch the show together so i thought you know let's make this say reread a fave and watch an upcoming most anticipated show release sort of reading vlog so i am going to be attempting to reread this book in about a day or so because i promised clay that i would be done so he could watch the show tomorrow when he finishes up work so that's where we're at and the inspiration for this challenge-based reading vlog i honestly cannot wait to get to this book i've been meaning to reread it for a few years now just because i loved it so much the first time i picked it up emily st john mandel is one of my favorite authors she actually has a new book coming out early next year which i already have pre-ordered i cannot wait but yes thank you guys so much for watching that is the book i'm gonna be reading over the course of this vlog and let's get started because clay has me on a tight schedule i said tomorrow so it's gonna have to be tomorrow speaking of clay uh while i was doing some work this morning he made me a delicious smoothie which i'm now gonna sit down and drink and actually get a little bit of reading in i am actually about to leave to meet up a friend for lunch who is in town um for the holidays she's back in texas so i can't wait to see her but then today i'm really going to be hanging out with matilda where is she of course on the couch and just getting my read on so cheers clay got a fancy blender for the holidays and so he has dubbed himself the smoothie king so that's where we are in this household also if you're curious if i was in fact wearing a dress in the midst of december the answer is yes it is 76 degrees outside in texas i'm concerned but at least my dress is cute that's sort of my thought process at the moment hi so about 20 minutes until i need to read so i'm gonna sit down and just go ahead and start my reread of station 11 but if you're not familiar with the story um just to give you a bit of an overview it is a multi-point of view book that basically chronicles the before and after of a humanity altering event which is actually a pandemic so obviously there are some parallels um that i didn't have when i first read this book to our current world in reality which i do feel like is going to very much alter my reading experience of this story that being said i don't want you to think that this book is like harrowing or i don't know like depressing because while it definitely has some very significant and difficult problems emily st john mandel in this book definitely kind of keeps humanity and like perseverance very much at the center of this book it also has one of my favorite narrative devices that i just love to encounter in stories and that is the sort of small sort of vignettes of a variety of different characters and kind of told in a disjointed fashion and then slowly begin to see the web of all these different narratives come together in a really satisfying way she does this particular device so well she does it in her other books that i've read too and i just personally love that style and i'm really curious to see how that component is going to be adapted in like a show adaptation so that'll be something i will personally be looking out for but if you're not familiar about this book yet it's basically set before and after a global pandemic but it also follows a shakespearean theater troupe as they travel around the united states performing so it's a really interesting concept obviously has some direct parallels to our current world and life i remember being very emotionally moved by this story i feel like it's going to hit me even at a higher emotional place this time around so looking forward to reading it now i'm going to try to read like 30 or so pages before i meet up with my but i shall check it no this is how you holiday i'm back from eating way too much cheese back from lunch it was so lovely to see um my good friend she's in town from her phd program she doesn't live here anymore but anyway i'm rambling i and luckily only planning to read today because i need to put on comfortable clothes immediately um and just lounge to digest all of that burning cheese i just ate which was also delightful um but it's time for me to post up back over there and uh just get get some reading in i read about 30 pages before i was able before i needed to leave um but now i'm going to get a decent chunk of the way through because again i'm on a time limit clay has already come out and been like so how far are you so gotta get back to it much better now this is proper reading attire am i right ladies someone dm'd me to let me know that there is a calcifer you log basically you know one of my favorite characters from hal's moving castle that you can put on your tv obviously a fireplace well reading is very necessary and this just brings me so much joy wow and also don't ask me when i'm taking down my christmas tree because i have no idea but look at that immaculate vibes hey friends so i have been reading and i'm happy to report i have passed uh the 70 page mark and i basically entered into part three of this book and i'm happy to say i have fallen into this narrative immediately and i'm liking it not just as much as i remember i mean i gave this book five stars when i read it the first time but i was right to say that i do feel like it's taking on a different weight um with the new reality and perspective i've gained but wow i'm really enjoying this story first and foremost i just love emily st john mandel's writing i feel like her style is just it really pulls you in it's not overly flowery it's not even like overly raw it's pretty like straightforward but it feels so comfortable to read and i think it just works so successfully with all of her shifting points of view i mean you're moving through not only different lives but you're moving through time and space shifting forward and back in time and kind of reading different vignettes and moments of people's life but once you're there once you're reading from their points of view you immediately feel connected to them and their life which just makes stories like this just very successful the book itself opens the first part is like pre-flu or actually the night that the flu is kind of sweeping the world and the book opens actually during a shakespearean performance of king lear and we follow one of our main characters jeevan and he's basically being told about this flu and is kind of figuring out what he's going to do and is kind of hunkering down with his brother in his house from there we get a quick chapter from another character who is on the other side of the world who was like loosely connected to one person that jeevan just happened to run into that night from there we shift 20 years in the future and we follow our i would say our main main character kirsten she is part of a traveling group of shakespearean actors posts kind of the world basically ending and they travel from town to town giving performances of different shakespearean plays i have to say i love this book's use of shakespeare and just kind of art being so prevalent to the story obviously it opens on a shakespearean play and again when you think of shakespeare i mean so many of those plays are written kind of off the heels of the plague in the 1500s and in a lot of ways it was kind of part of the rebirth of society in the west and like people going to experience this particular piece of art form and here it is so many hundreds of years in the future not only continuing to be celebrated in normal times but also kind of at the heart and is continuing to be a piece of art and solace for people at sort of the end of times where humanity is kind of picking itself up once again and is still turning to the arts for entertainment for peace and also inspiration so i just think as like a device within the story i just think it's a really smart use and also one that i think is really cool something else i wanted to say because this book kind of shifts from different perspectives and we're obviously pre and post this sort of world altering event it creates a level of intensity too because we've read chapters from two characters miranda and jeevan pre-episode and you really have no idea what has become of them in this new world um because again 99 of the population has died so i appreciate to this sort of shifting forward and back in time and kind of seeing the change in humanity but also what persists no matter the incredible weight that's put on them also say i've read 70 pages the writing style the characters the story i find to be very very gripping as i recall looking forward to reading more i'm going to read more i think i'm just going to go get a cup of coffee um the book itself i want to say is just under 400 pages but i'm reading it super quick the chapters themselves are also very short which in general i love the sort of staccato nature of just like shifting from scene to scene and from character to character i just personally find books written in that style i read so quickly and i really enjoy it but it's coffee time that's all i got it is time for coffee also peep my new stainless steel pan we've upgraded in this household and um i am also soaking some beans because i'm making red beans and rice tonight which i am very much looking forward to back to the point which was to grab a much needed cup of coffee the best reading sessions happen in the reading chair isn't that right matilda hi reading session over i have officially passed the 150 page mark uh and i am just re becoming memorized by this story so what's so interesting about this book is that yes there is a global pandemic that is part of the story but it's not really the point of this book it's kind of like a backdrop for characters to move in and around like before and after and obviously it adds this level of intensity that sort of drives you through because you know that there is this big moment and you're curious to see how characters interact after and then how they're going to interact like leading up to this event so yes it's there but i wouldn't say it's like the primary driving force especially because oftentimes you're reading perspectives that are in way before the event itself happens which again it just shows that the story is really about the characters and also the art they create and how everyone is sort of intrinsically connected which emily st john mandel just does such a fascinating way of like bringing unlikely people and connecting them in a really fascinating way but i'm rambling on to say i've read 150 pages so i'm almost 50 of the way done and again she introduces us to two new characters that we're getting points of view from and those two characters are first arthur who is like a celebrity film star and then miranda who we did run into incredibly briefly at the beginning of this book who is a artist herself like a comic book writer and it's funny because we've run into them already but we've really only seen like an outline of their character kind of a passing reference to them with other characters we've run into but what she does is like she brings us back to some pivotal moments of their lives and begins to fill in that outline with this character study by focusing in on a few different important vignettes that kind of make up this particular person again she also plays with outcomes really well in this book often you're given the fate of an individual before you even meet them so when you do finally run into them you're like it creates a very interesting relationship as a reader like consuming their particular story because you sort of know where it's going to end up but the pathway there is unknown to you which still makes it rather fascinating so you have that occurrence with a variety of characters and then obviously you also have this huge moment and you don't know how it's going to impact a lot of the people you're running into and then when you're encountering all these different vignettes you start to see these threads of connection that bring you back to other people you have already run into and it's just so satisfying when it happens and there's small moments and you just start to see this like web of interconnectedness and it's so well done and just completely propels you through this book because you're just hungry for more stories for more moments of run-in or like serendipitous moments of these characters crossing paths and each other's lives and sometimes they cross paths unknowingly but leave a huge impact like accidentally and sometimes it's truly just a moment of passing and as a reader you just kind of eat it up but it's just so interesting to see how like brief moments of connection can leave like huge lasting impact for people or even art like leaving behind a story can be someone's prized possession 70 years in the future like you just don't know and that's what makes this book so interesting oh i just remember loving this book so much and it's just hitting home in such a good way yet again and like again i mean i just read like a 50 page sequence and it's not even anywhere near this sort of pandemic level event and um and yet you're still so invested it's truly just about people and connection and emily st john mandel just does such a good job creating characters that you just so easily fall into their heads like you might not like them but you immediately kind of at least understand like where they're coming from and i think it's just a great talent of hers but i'm making good progress i'm obviously going to read more tonight i'm hoping to finish by like early mid afternoon tomorrow and then clay and i can start the show which i'm really excited about but i'm going to take a bit of a break now and actually start making dinner but just wanted to say i've read and um i forgot the sort of winding road this book takes you on like it's a very unexpected book for all the reasons i feel like you just wouldn't anticipate which i also think is what makes it such a beautiful story i'm halfway through officially and happy to say i am liking it just as much as i did the first time i read this book which is always a relief when it comes to a reread all righties i'm making some red beans and rice i've been soaking my beans all day and now it's the time where i just chop for my life and then i'm making it in the instant pot which just speeds up the whole process so yeah i'm gonna i'm gonna get to shopping do and here we are basically just chopped everything up i'm using bacon instead of ham hockey because i forgot to buy a ham hock this is a non-traditional recipe i know red beans and rice can be a touchy subject i just wanted to throw that out there um and i have all my veggies here i have my many cloves of garlic ready to be pressed and now i just need to get all my spices together but i love this because i just kind of put it on the instant pot forget about it make some rice and enjoy pull it all in here top this guy and then i always think i could do this gracefully but like putting on an instapot lid is for some reason tetris and it is officially dinner time folks time to unleash the steam for the rice cooker yum bon appetit and then it's back to reading alrighty dinner has been consumed and uh perhaps a few hours of switch was played but i'm back on my reading game and i'm going to read a good amount now before bed my goal is to finish this book by early afternoon so clay and i can obviously watch the show and i will say what i have read so far has been honestly very very excellent it's just such a fascinating story like obviously you're just dropped into all these different characters lives at different places in their lives they're sort of just trying to catch all the threads of their existence and kind of make sense of why we're being told about this one specific moment and not only is it just such a intimate like experience with each of these characters but there's also as i'm kind of crossing over the 50 mark of this book the overall plot and story is also beginning to heat up kind of in how it's going to culminate in this one kind of peak of wow everything has kind of come together i will say one of my favorite things about emily st john mandel stories is that you're kind of presented all these threads and you see these small connections throughout the book but then generally speaking it is leading up to some sort of like mosaic that you when you step away from it all you can kind of see the whole thing um and i'm really looking forward to that but now i'm just kind of situated in all the characters points of view obviously of kirsten again set 20 years after 99 of the population has died and a variety of characters were encountering pre this particular event from miranda to arthur to juvent so i'm just curious to see how it's all going to unfold so i'm going to keep reading i'm realizing how much of this book i also just forgot like the sort of smaller details so it's been really great to re-encounter those again and yeah it's just such a great story i'm just really happy i'm loving it as much as i did the first time around um but yeah i'm gonna get to reading go to bed and i'll see you in the morning good morning everyone ready for another reading fueled morning because i sure am atlanta's currently enjoy my faux fireplace in the last few days of my christmas tree and i'm gonna sit on the couch with matilda here hello minnie and get some reading on i was able to read just over the 200 page mark last night so i'm going to sit down now and do another chunk of reading and i will do a check-in as i get further hi i have been sitting here reading i'm even dressed i will show you my outfit and a bit but i wanted to check in because i'm officially sub 100 pages left in this book i have about 75 pages left so truly in the home stretch um and i wanted to talk about it a bit because i don't know this book has truly like re-burrowed itself like in my heart um and again i think reading it during this specific moment in history also kind of elevates this book to a new place and a new height so an aspect of the story i think that's just incredibly powerful is its use again of sort of these parallel timelines we're consistently jumping forward and back in time present day chapters are very much about like survival we're following a variety of characters in the symphony obviously they're performing shakespeare but you're also just seeing them as they're going about their day-to-day and going about the new existence of humanity and of the world also really fascinating to see not only what the world has kind of turned into but also seeing what ordinary people um do to kind of make it through another day i think when we watch like survival content it's like zombie post-apocalyptic very military all of these things but this story really centers like ordinary people confronted with an extraordinary event and you see them and society like have to try to sort through the mess and figure out what a they're going to do to survive and two like what do they want to carry with them from this previous existence into this new place and this symphony obviously has decided to carry on music art and culture and it's fascinating to see like the things they forget or don't think about so much anymore especially like the younger people living in this world because it's just not important to them or it's kind of moved to become irrelevant like electricity the internet gossip magazines all of those things and i think these particular present day chapters even become more intense or more vivid as they contrast the past chapters that we also read through these chapters are amazing but it almost reads like another book the chapters are so much about interpersonal relationships drama um heartbreak and betrayal all the things that sort of surround us and our current existence and it seems so bizarre to almost read about when you're kind of shifting to this sort of survival place it doesn't necessarily make those experiences less justified or not real but they just contrast each other in such a fascinating way um obviously with about 75 pages left like i wouldn't say this book is like heavy on the plot like there's no mission there's no like huge uh i guess rising action that we're trying to get to it's really just about encountering these characters but there is sort of a driving quest that's happening in our present day chapters and you're also a large part of this book is like seeing how all of the connections are gonna come together and i'm reaching that point and i am so fascinated i also think the short nature of these chapters just like drive you through this book some chapters are like a paragraph long some chapters are interviewed just like seeing the snippets of all of these different lives and times is just so fascinating and i'm just really curious to see how this book is going to wrap up i have suspicions i also obviously have read this book before but i'm curious to see what is going to happen so yes i'm definitely on track to finish this book hopefully by mid-afternoon so then clay and i can finally start the show but this book has just completely swept me away it's been such a good reread and obviously this is already one of my favorite books but to encounter it again i think even just like how much i have changed since i read it the first time it's also a really fascinating experience um so yeah i'm gonna do a bit more reading and then i think i'm gonna make myself a bit of a snack but all's that to say this book just really makes you think you know um and i know i haven't spoken a lot about the specific characters but i do feel like the characters themselves and the connections between the characters are like better left to experience when you pick up the book you know because so much of the plot is like their lives so i don't want to speak too specifically if you know what i mean but anywho gonna read a bit more probably make a smoothie and there's that look at that a picture of health spinach pineapple banana strawberry and pineapple ginger juice clay has a smoothie book he's a smoothie king a nice delicious green smoothie quick view quick ootd another day another sweater and uh i'm gonna read before lunch time i'm so close to finishing just gonna sit like wow you are just you're like a renaissance painting matilda look at that lounge yes show the world um i'm just gonna sit and finish reading i feel like i just keep saying that but i'm so close i have like 30 pages left and it's wrapping up in such a fantastic way it's just so satisfying and hopeful like it's hard to describe like you just have to read it like it works so well and i think it carries so much more weight given the reality of the world we live into so i'm gonna read it now hey clay yeah guess what what i finished the book oh nice now we can watch the show i really think what's up i zoomed in on your face a lot that is right i have a finished and so that means clay and i are going to sit down and watch the show very very soon he just has to wrap up some stuff with work and in the meantime i'm gonna heat up some lunch um i made a big batch of soup earlier this week and so i'm just gonna heat that up you know because gorgeous gorgeous girls eat soup so i'm just going to uh put this on the stove and enjoy it is soup time nothing like a version of a chicken soup in winter it's a great combination all right it's time we're gonna sit down and watch the first two episodes of station 11 because i finished the book which was absolutely delightful i have my obvious show watching snack of choice we're gonna get started oh and look at that right on the title page they knew we were coming so let's get to it episode one down moving on to episode two first episode was really good yeah really good i liked it a lot yeah i'll talk more about it later but wow i thought it did a really interesting job interpreting the first part of the book so next episode and just like that two episodes and an entire bag of cheetos have been consumed and wow i have to say clay and i really enjoyed the first two episodes of station 11 and obviously this part of the video is sponsored by hbo max and i am so happy i went ahead and re-read the entirety of station 11 so it was very fresh in my mind when starting this particular television adaptation because it was really interesting to see one just the natural changes that are gonna happen from a screenplay adaptation from a novel adaptation and from the first two episodes i've seen just like an honest reaction obviously there was some changes that were made but i feel like from like a style and from an overall story so far i feel like the screen adaptation is doing a fantastic job not only capturing like the literal translation but also the overall heart of the story um one of the elements i was really curious to see how they were going to do is obviously a large component of this book is shifting between past and present and also through time and space from all of these different points of views of characters and we kind of see them as they intersect through each other's lives in really interesting ways um and how the show is kind of adapting that i think is really cool with these sort of overlays of really intense flashbacks and sort of having just as extreme in the book just the shifting of forward and back in time and one of the things they do which i think is really beautiful is they'll show like a scene from the city and then it'll just like blink out and then they'll be the scene like 20 years after the fall and it's like completely been reclaimed by nature and it's just a really intense sort of visual the first part of station 11 is incredibly intense and i feel like with the pilot episode it really captured that intensity and i feel like again there are so many parallels you can make about this book show to our current reality so i also feel like that grounded episode one in a place that just like doesn't matter how they adapted it like the current reality of our existence to make us as watchers kind of consume this piece of media a little differently and it was really intense to be honest but i thought also incredibly well done but ultimately and what i think is like at the heart of this book and what i'm so excited to see and to hear is the art and culture component of this obviously one of our main characters in this book kirsten is part of a traveling shakespearean group and they travel all around a certain area in the united states and canada and basically perform plays and that is kind of how not only they are surviving because survival is more than just making it to the next day it's also finding meaning in life and they find meaning through art and music and theater and all of that and that is very much present and at the heart of this story within the show and what's really cool is it's great to like read about theater but it's a whole nother thing to like see it visually unfold in front of you so seeing the performances of different shakespeare plays within the station 11 show i thought were just beautiful and kind of seeing these different scenes of this post-apocalyptic existence but still feeling that community and that connection the show itself obviously is still intense and there's brutal elements to the show which you would expect to give in the sort of reality in the setting but i do feel like it kind of captures this element of camaraderie and just connection especially through the shared experience of art and culture that i think is really beautiful and it's like what remains at the end of it all you know the bubonic plague happened and we had shakespeare and we've had another terrible plague sweep this earth and now what do we have left and it's the same like no matter how much time passes like what withstands it all it's art it's writing it's all of that and that's kind of what makes society makes humanity and also like brings people together and i just feel like that was really beautifully captured in the show obviously the acting was great the scenery is great um and i'm just really excited to continue to watch and i feel like it is an interesting adaptation of the books and because there have been some slight changes to the plot it also provides kind of an unexpected element for me um and because clay is also red and loved this book it's really fun to watch it together because we're kind of like oh oh and i wonder how they're going to do this or like who do you think that character is so it's kind of fun to kind of go back and forth with each other while we're watching it but this is such a ramble but clearly i really really enjoyed the first two episodes of the show this is a true and honest just verbal vomit reaction of my initial thoughts and feelings but also ultimately brings me to the end of this video which was kind of a journey of rereading station 11 in preparation for checking out the show with clay um and honestly i loved both so much i obviously read 333 pages throughout this vlog with my reread and watched two episodes of the new hbo mac show which is available to stream now and again big shout out to hbo max for sponsoring this video it was such a fun challenge such a fun experience it's honestly just so cool to not only be able to partner up for one of my most anticipated releases of all time but also get an opportunity and a reason to reread one of my favorite books of all time but i hope you guys enjoyed this video again i'll leave a link to learn more about the show station 11 down below i highly recommend streaming it reading it both because i promise it will live in a special place inside of you but i hope you guys enjoyed this video and i will see you soon with another one soon bye\n"