“I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I might have. ”
—Abraham Lincoln
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
Sunday, May 1, 2016
april: 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 & 18
i read so much in april! woo hoo! i'm almost halfway through my book challenge...though at this point all the easy-to-check-off categories are gone. a satirical book? a self-improvement book? these are not at the top of my list to read. we'll see how this challenge progresses...
crazy salad, by nora ephron (this is my "political memoir" and this is one that you can probably skip. sorry, nora. it's a serious of essays that nora ephron wrote in the 1970s about women, and while they are interesting, they are also pretty dated (lots of talk of consciousness-raising groups and such...several stories about richard nixon's daughter, who probably was more interesting to people of the 70s than she is to me today). i have decided that i get to call this a political memoir because this book reminded me that to "be political" one just needs to have strong feelings about political issues (such as the women's movement, in this case) and act upon them. one doesn't have to be a politician. whew. successfully avoided reading a book written by a politician, which i was not looking forward to.)
miss peregrine's home for peculiar children, by ransom riggs (this is my "book that's becoming a movie this year" and this is another one that was fine and all, but nothing fantastic. i watched the preview for the movie and they appear to have dramatically altered the plot, which is probably going to work out just fine because the plot of the book didn't really captivate me. fantastic premise, very cool historical photos interspersed with the text, but the plot doesn't really go anywhere and you can probably skip it and watch the movie instead.)
the red house, by mark haddon (this is my "book that takes place on an island" (island = great britain) and sorry to be a broken record: but this is skip-able. i LOVED haddon's two previous books and was eagerly looking forward to reading this one...and then was disappointed. there are eight narrators in this book - yes, eight - and each only gets a few paragraphs before we move on to the next one. so it's a bit disjointed. gets better over time, but i won't be re-reading this one.)
the longest night, by andria williams (this is my "book that is published in 2016" and, wait for it...i really liked it! this was recommended to me by the skimm, an email newsletter i subscribe to, and they described it as a mix of serial and army wives. loved serial; stuck with army wives as my guilty pleasure tv show for a couple seasons, so i definitely wanted to pick this up. it's based on the true story of the only nuclear fatality in the united states, but told from the perspective of a fictional husband (military, works on the nuclear plant) and wife (1960s housewife). in addition to the nuclear reactor storyline there's love and jealousy and intrigue. i'd definitely recommend this!)
fangirl, by rainbow rowell (i switched some things around, so this is going to be my "YA bestseller" and oh, people. you need to read this book. i love rainbow rowell's writing (though the plot of carry on didn't really do it for me) and this might be her best book yet. it's the story of twins who go off to the same college and drift apart...one parties, one writes fan fiction about a harry-potter-like series. it has romance (duh, it's YA), poignant moments, believable and well developed characters. thumbs up! the only rowell book i haven't read now is attachments, and you better believe it's on my list.)
euphoria, by lily king (this is my "book about a culture you're unfamiliar with"; becky recommended it to me and i bought it in an airport bookstore before a flight - with a connection - back to houston. an excellent purchase! it's the story of a margaret mead-like character in papua new guinea with her husband in the 1930s doing anthropological observations of native people there...plus the story of another anthropologist doing similar work nearby. it's not so much the story of their work as the story of the people themselves - the passion of the characters for the work they do plus the story of their complicated inner lives. thumbs up!)
crazy salad, by nora ephron (this is my "political memoir" and this is one that you can probably skip. sorry, nora. it's a serious of essays that nora ephron wrote in the 1970s about women, and while they are interesting, they are also pretty dated (lots of talk of consciousness-raising groups and such...several stories about richard nixon's daughter, who probably was more interesting to people of the 70s than she is to me today). i have decided that i get to call this a political memoir because this book reminded me that to "be political" one just needs to have strong feelings about political issues (such as the women's movement, in this case) and act upon them. one doesn't have to be a politician. whew. successfully avoided reading a book written by a politician, which i was not looking forward to.)
miss peregrine's home for peculiar children, by ransom riggs (this is my "book that's becoming a movie this year" and this is another one that was fine and all, but nothing fantastic. i watched the preview for the movie and they appear to have dramatically altered the plot, which is probably going to work out just fine because the plot of the book didn't really captivate me. fantastic premise, very cool historical photos interspersed with the text, but the plot doesn't really go anywhere and you can probably skip it and watch the movie instead.)
the red house, by mark haddon (this is my "book that takes place on an island" (island = great britain) and sorry to be a broken record: but this is skip-able. i LOVED haddon's two previous books and was eagerly looking forward to reading this one...and then was disappointed. there are eight narrators in this book - yes, eight - and each only gets a few paragraphs before we move on to the next one. so it's a bit disjointed. gets better over time, but i won't be re-reading this one.)
the longest night, by andria williams (this is my "book that is published in 2016" and, wait for it...i really liked it! this was recommended to me by the skimm, an email newsletter i subscribe to, and they described it as a mix of serial and army wives. loved serial; stuck with army wives as my guilty pleasure tv show for a couple seasons, so i definitely wanted to pick this up. it's based on the true story of the only nuclear fatality in the united states, but told from the perspective of a fictional husband (military, works on the nuclear plant) and wife (1960s housewife). in addition to the nuclear reactor storyline there's love and jealousy and intrigue. i'd definitely recommend this!)
fangirl, by rainbow rowell (i switched some things around, so this is going to be my "YA bestseller" and oh, people. you need to read this book. i love rainbow rowell's writing (though the plot of carry on didn't really do it for me) and this might be her best book yet. it's the story of twins who go off to the same college and drift apart...one parties, one writes fan fiction about a harry-potter-like series. it has romance (duh, it's YA), poignant moments, believable and well developed characters. thumbs up! the only rowell book i haven't read now is attachments, and you better believe it's on my list.)
euphoria, by lily king (this is my "book about a culture you're unfamiliar with"; becky recommended it to me and i bought it in an airport bookstore before a flight - with a connection - back to houston. an excellent purchase! it's the story of a margaret mead-like character in papua new guinea with her husband in the 1930s doing anthropological observations of native people there...plus the story of another anthropologist doing similar work nearby. it's not so much the story of their work as the story of the people themselves - the passion of the characters for the work they do plus the story of their complicated inner lives. thumbs up!)
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