March Madness

Okay, I've been away awhile again, but just trying to read. Putting together one of these posts takes a good bit of time, and well, most of the time--I'd rather be reading. But this morning finds me between books again, so I thought it would be the perfect time to recap my March titles while I wait, hopefully, for a text from the library confirming my hold for the next book on my list: The World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig (for my A to Z author challenge) Fingers crossed!

But, meanwhile, March was a great reading month for me! I started off with Stephen King's End of Watch, the final book in his Bill Hodges/Mr. Mercedes trilogy. So good, he never disappoints. His imagination is truly staggering. I really am in love with that man's mind!

 

After Mr. King, I dipped back into the world of Westeros with A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms by George RR Martin. I had hoped there would be more insight into the back story and history of the Song of Ice and Fire series, but there's not. It is a great story about hedge knight, Dunk, and his squire (secret Targaryen) Egg, and it was wonderful to be back in that world again, rather like being back at Hogwarts with Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. But, it's more of a tease than a truly satisfying novel. I am excited about the new HBO season in July, and George is also publishing another Westeros story in an anthology due out this October, The Book of Swords (you can click on the link to place your pre-order if you wish--you know I have!) So, whether or not 2017 sees any sign of Winds of Winter, at least there is that to look forward to, right?

Following Knight, I read Philip Roth's Plot Against America, which is politically disturbing in light of Trump's America First campaign--the same campaign slogan used in this book, a twist on the history of post WWI election where Lindberg beats Roosevelt for the presidency and befriends Hitler, the nightmare of the Holocaust touching American soil...Frightening. Read it.

Perhaps that's what made Jennifer McMahon's Winter People seem not so scary to me? It just read as a frivolous ghost story--not very haunting at all. It might make a good movie if they'd beef it up some, otherwise it came off as a super lame read. Pass.

Next, (I told you I had a good reading month!) I took up a customer's recommendation and read Murakami's Kafka on the Shore. I'd heard lots of great things about Haruki and lover of big fat books that I am, have been eyeing his 1Q84 for some time. So I bought both before our blizzard last month, and devoured Kafka (saving 1Q84 for now...) Really great, trippy read. I love that sort of twisted, keep you guessing, transcendental story line. Five stars all the way!

I followed Kafka with Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch. I wanted to love this book but so didn't. I just didn't buy the story line, it doesn't read true to me. I also didn't see the comparison of Donna to Charles Dickens that so many reviewers share--a novel about an orphan doesn't make your book 'Dickensian'. Sorry.

 

I did pick up Oliver Twist after The Goldfinch--so much better!! I always have enjoyed Dicken's voice and his depth of characters. And, I also realized I think he's spoiled me for always having happy endings (one of the problems with Goldfinch (*spoiler*)--Theo is still a drug addict at the end and doesn't get the girl...) I like justice. I need resolution. I want the happy ending. Period. That's not asking for too much, is it?

 

Finally, I just finished Watership Down by Richard Adams this morning. I'd read this several years back when I was working at Books-a-Million in Tennessee and loved it. Rabbits. Justice. Happy ending. Of course I loved it! I've wanted to re-read it for a while and it was perfect for the Popsugar Reading Challenge prompt for a book from a non-human point of view. Love, love, loved it. Cried. Bill said something about me always reading sad books, but it's not a sad book...just the ending will bring on the tears. If you haven't read it, do. So good.

Now I'm waiting to hear from the library and if I can't pick up World of Yesterday today, then I'll start Andy Weir's The Martian and order Yesterday for reading later on. What was your reading month like? Share any recommendations? Let's hear it below...

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?

Weekend/End of Month Update-January

I surprised myself with how quickly I read both War and Peace and KL. This week I read My Antonia by Willa Cather, which was a super quick, beautiful read that took me back to a favorite childhood series: Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie. Gorgeously written, My Antonia is actually the third in Cather's Prairie trilogy but easily stands alone. It is a story about an orphan boy sent to live in Nebraska with his grandparents and their immigrant neighbors, the Shimerdas from Bohemia, and their life growing up in the newly settled Black Hawk. I may go back at some time to read the first two books in the series: O, Pioneers! and Song of the Lark but I really need to make some progress on my back list, which somehow has grown rather than shrunk this month (read with a small note of sarcasm--haha)

How my list has grown: Working in a bookstore, we receive a good deal of ARCs (Advance Reader Copy) from publishers and I picked up a few the other day to add to my TBR list: Edgar and Lucy by Victor Lodato, Setting Free the Kites by Alex George, and At the Water's Edge by Sara Gruen (which this last one is already published--just an old ARC sitting in our box to share. I loved Sara's Water for Elephants so I'm looking forward to reading this new one.) Who doesn't love free books, right?

I also went on a Barnes and Noble tour this week and visited a couple of our sister stores up in Walpole and Braintree. I love going to see our other stores, how they're set up, all the other beautiful books and merchandise they have that we don't have room to carry in our tiny Dartmouth location. Of course, I can't stop in a bookstore without buying a book or a few, so I picked up 50 Great Short Stories and Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks, justified by the notion that I need to read both of these for my reading challenges this year--the short stories for a genre I don't typically read, and Year for my A to Z challenge, I needed a title that begins with a Y. Perfect!

And the final addition to my TBR list this week came from a friend who'd seen I added Liane Moriarty's Big Little Lies to my Goodreads Want To Read list, and she surprised me with a copy yesterday! Yay! Thanks so much Courtney!!! So my backlist now contains 127 titles, up from 122 at the start of the year. It might take a miracle to cull it to my goal of 81 books if I carry on in this manner....I can't help myself, I just love books!!

Currently I'm reading Victor Hugo's Hunchback of Notre Dame. Les Miserables is one of my all time favorites, so I hope this one becomes another love. Do you give classics a chance? Some of them can be a struggle at times to get through, but I find that if I stick it out, I'm rarely disappointed. I suppose they're "classics" for a reason, right?

Whatcha Readin' Wednesday

I finished The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett last night. Not a great read. Granted, it was probably just the mindless fluff I needed after the heaviness of War and Peace and KL. And the actual writing wasn't bad. It was just absolutely pointless. It's the story of these couples, the choices they made, then could've made. It explores the paths their lives take along each possibility. But...but...each marriage fails, they all cheat on each other and get cheated on by the ones they cheat with. They have kids, then have different kids in the different scenarios. The only one constant is the main character's best friend, Penelope, who seems to appear steadily in each and every scenario--the rest is such a convoluted jumble and utterly senseless.

I kept wanting something significant to happen, some sort of redemption or resolution but it never came. It left me wondering what was the whole point? Rather Ecclesiastes-like, all of our choices are pointless, chasing the wind--it got me nowhere, only wanting more. Quite shallow and stupid.

So, moving on this morning to a book that was recommended to me by a fellow bookseller back when I worked at Books-a-Million in Tennessee, My Antonia by Willa Cather. I came across a copy at a used book sale last year and it's been sitting there ever since, so I'm actually quite excited to finally begin this one. I have much greater expectations for it at least than I did for Versions--here's hoping, anyway!

The good news, I suppose, is that I'm back on track to meet my reading challenge goal of fifty-two books for the year, and that makes me feel better. What's on your reading list this week?

KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps

 

I finished KL yesterday. I imagine this book will haunt me for a long time to come--as it likely should. KL was an incredibly difficult read, emotionally. There simply aren't adequate words for what happened during this era in history. Brutal and horrifying, the capabilities man has against fellow man to humiliate, torture, and ultimately kill...Reading this book was like witnessing a voraciously evil cancer take hold and grow, tormenting and devouring its victims with greater, more tremendous savagery as time went on.

I found myself Googling a lot throughout reading this book--realizing just how little I truly knew about the Holocaust. But the actual Holocaust is only a tiny portion of what happened throughout this history of the Nazi concentration camps. I think this book is a must read for every human being on earth--to acknowledge, to remember, to truly know the atrocities that happened at the hands of these monsters.

So I've started the year with a couple incredibly heavy reads with War and Peace and KL. I'm definitely ready for something lighter and happier and am starting Laura Barnett's The Versions of Us--an alternate universe sort of story, imagining "what if", the possibilities of missed opportunities in life and relationships.

I also discovered a super cute used bookstore this week not far from home, Annie's Book Stop in Raynham. I was immediately enamored with the store and picked up a couple previously read mass market paperbacks for a new fantasy series I've been wanting to read, Brent Weeks' Night Angel trilogy. So much for culling some of my backlist--I also picked up A Strangeness in my Mind by Orhan Pamuk when I popped into Westport's wonderful Partners Village Gift Store yesterday and ordered James Corey's Caliban's War with a Barnes and Noble coupon this morning...A girl just can't help herself! There are much worse things I could spend my money on, right???

How is your reading list growing?

Weekend Update

I managed to finish War and Peace in record time this past week: 17 days. I was certain it would take me well over a month to read this immense book but by virtue of being sick, I parked myself with my Glowlight and poured through the final chapters on Thursday and finished up early yesterday morning.

My bullet journal reading tracker showing my final sprint to the end

 

I had watched the BBC mini series last year and fell head over heels in love with the story. The book itself had been on my To Read list forever but honestly overwhelmed and intimidated me with the breadth of what could possibly lie between its covers, and so I put off reading it until now.

When I first attempted Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, I just gave up. The awful dragging through all the historical parts killed it for me. Then, once I'd seen the musical and absorbed the gist of the story, I went back and read the entire book--quite happily and loved it, hated for it to end (even though, those historical parts are still quite tiresome...) But this gave me hope to be able to make it through War and Peace, knowing the story and having faces to go with the characters in my head--and it did very much help. I've even ordered the DVD so I can watch it all over again--ah, happiness!

Pierre, Natasha, Prince Andrew, Nicholas and Sonya

 

Moving on to my next book, I requested KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps

from the library. I first saw it at work and was intrigued but not quite sure it was a book I'd want to spend $40 on to own and, in spirit of trying to cut down my on hand backlist, I thought it'd be wiser to check it out free from the library. Smart move as it's pretty intense and I don't know if I'll be able to stomach it the whole way through. It's staggering to imagine the depths of hatred and cruelty human beings are capable of towards each other. We'll see if I make it to the end...

Bullet journal reading tracker for KL

So, what are you reading?