You Can't Judge a Book by its Ratings

It's been a little bit since I've had a chance to post but I have an extra day off this week for vacation and, being between books at the moment, I thought this might be a great time to catch up on here as well!

I had a couple missteps with two books I'd hoped would be much better than they were (hence this post's title...as they both had great ratings online!) First was Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly. It's a WWII story that follows the lives of three women-a New York socialite, a Polish teenager involved in the underground resistance, and a young German doctor--it really had fantastic potential to be a truly great book but only turned out to be a truly great disappointment. The writing and characters are so weak, it reads like a young reader Holocaust chapter book, and I just had to put it down. I couldn't make myself finish it, the writing was just that bad.

 

The next one I had high hopes for was a recommendation I'd found in Stephen King's On Writing, where he has two extensive lists of some of his favorite reads. Being a huge Stephen King nerd/fan, I'd added both lists to my own To Read list, though I've scratched quite a few off after looking at some of the ratings on Goodreads. But one that made my cut--from the ratings at least, was Robert Bolano's 2666.

 

Unfortunately, over a hundred pages in, I was struggling to care about the characters although the writing was good--I was completely disinterested in the story plot and decided to give up the ghost and move on to something better.

In between these two sad reads, I did enjoy a few great winners! First was A Mercy by Toni Morrison. One of my all time favorite books is Toni's Beloved, so when I came across A Mercy at a used book sale, I snapped it right up. I love her voice and her characters always draw you in and steal you away to another era in history.

After that I zipped through Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland--a super quick trip back to a childhood favorite. I couldn't seem to get Tim Burton's movie version out of my head the entire time and especially enjoyed 'hearing' Alan Rickman's voice for Absolem, the caterpillar, Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, and Helena Botham Carter shouting "Off with her head!!" So, so good!

Following Alice came an ARC of Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley which completely swept me away--in a flood of tears, but in such a good way. For anyone who has ever loved a dog, this story will steal your heart. It's funny and heart wrenching, imaginative and emotionally devastating--I think it's my favorite of the year so far. I couldn't put it down from the minute I picked it up--I highly recommend this to be added to any animal lover's To Read List!

 

An endearing story of love between Lily the Daschund and her devoted owner, Ted.

Before picking up my next book, Alex Haley's Queen (a final tribute to Black History Month and a perfect fit for my Q title in my A-Z Reading Challenge for the year...),

 

I took a side step into Stephen King's Everything's Eventual--another collection of his short stories that I picked up at the same book sale where I'd found A Mercy. I wanted a little 'shake-me-up' other than the in-between's from 50 Great Short Stories (some of them aren't all that great...) and Mr. King, as always, delivers. Fun, crazy, heart racing--never a dull moment in any of his books!

Good, creepy fun!

I've also found myself wanting to play more lately and I've been drawn to several creativity books. I mentioned Adam Kurtz's 1 Page at a Time in my last post (definitely a fun launching point) and then I came across Jenny Doh's Craft-a-Doodle in the clearance books at work! I flipped through quick-quick and instantly knew I needed to have it (and half off! Why not?!) Which in turn led me to buying a couple sets of Windsor Newton pigment markers this morning--and also grabbing the No Excuses Art Journaling book at the library before I picked up my reserved Queen. A first glance it looks like it has a slew of creative journaling prompts and exercises--so looking forward to playing with that one as well.

And that's where I'm at as we approach the last week of February. It's hard to let go of a book once started but sometimes you just need to know it's okay, let it go and move on--there are far too many books out there to waste time on those that will only disappoint. How are your reading challenges coming along so far for the year? Have there been any losers among your winners?

Weekly Wednesday Update

It is a ridiculous fifty degrees here this morning and, as soon as the sun pops up, I'm heading out for a nice long run! Of course, tomorrow they're forecasting a good foot of snow--welcome to New England weather! Craziness. It's been a super mild winter so far with only one good snowfall, so I suppose we're a little overdue. I'm ready! (I'm also off tomorrow so I don't have to drive in it--double bonus, right? Haha!)

Anyway--it's been a great reading week. I finished Victor Hugo's Hunchback of Notre Dame and wept for poor Quasimoto and Esmeralda. I'm such a sucker for a beautiful, classic tragedy. This one was a much easier read compared to Hugo's Les Miserables but I absolutely loved both. His characters steal your heart and linger on long after the final page.

I also re-read JK Rowling's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Stone. These books simply make me happy in my soul. I'm also listening to the audio version in my car to and from work every day and I couldn't help "hearing" the movie characters' voices competing with Jim Dale's voice (the reader for all the Harry Potter audio books) as I was reading through again. It's always so much fun to slip back into the world of Hogwarts--I know I'll be re-reading these books for a long time to come!

This week I'm moving on to Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. This has been on my To Read list for years. I love the movie version, so definitely looking forward to finally reading the actual book!

I'm also sneaking in a short story from 50 Great Short Stories in between each book I read. Since I'm hoping to read at least fifty books this year, that should work out perfect--one short story after each full book. I don't typically read short stories. I don't find them engaging enough and they're over way too fast. But part of my reading challenge this year is to reach for books outside my usual genres. And so that lead me to pick up a couple more anthologies (my poor backlist is never going to shrink!) I bought Ken Liu's Paper Menagerie and Other Stories and Patricia McKillip's Dreams of Distant Shores. They're both at least in my favorite fantasy genre and I've heard lots of encouraging reviews about both authors, which I haven't read anything by either of them yet. Yet! And so grows my list...

And grows and grows--I also (heaven help me) picked up a couple creative books this week. I'm trying to find time to just play and create more this year and on my way to clock in one morning, I came across this happy yellow cover of 1 Page at a Time by Adam Kurtz:

 

It reminds me a lot of Keri Smith's Wreck This Journal series, just fun, playful creative prompts to help break down blocks and get the artsy juices flowing again. And THEN! I saw this gorgeous book yesterday during our morning staff meeting:



Calligraphy Made Easy

It's chock full of tips, instruction, technique drills and space to work, but what sold me are the beautiful painted backgrounds that are included for project practice! My mind has just been swimming with painting ideas that I can't wait to play with (hopefully a little later today!) And the bonus is this beauty is available in our bargain department--just had to have it!

So, alas, I may not be getting any closer to reducing my back list goal, but it's early--plenty of time to work on that yet! What books are finding their way into your stash?