Remember last week when I told you that the previous week and weekend were awesome in terms of reading. I know better than to gloat!
These last seven days have been far, far, far less than productive reading-wise (Is this a word?). Life. Personal issues. Stuff. All things that disrupt concentration. At the very least, these things encroached on my reading time. That’s okay. It’s life.
What I read:
It did finish a collection of short stories called There’s Something I Want You to Do by Charles Baxter. Here’s the underlying premise: The stories are interrelated so we see several characters more than once. I like this. The book is in two parts. In the first part, each story uses a virtue as its theme ("Bravery," "Loyalty," "Chastity," "Charity," and “Forbearance”). The second part is devoted to vices ("Lust," "Sloth," "Avarice," "Gluttony," and "Vanity"). The characters do some great and noble things then turn around and do some things bordering on despicable (that’s maybe too strong a word). At the center of each story is a question, or request. There’s something I want you to do. Sometimes, it is stated as such, other times it is implied.
I really liked this book and I recommend it to anyone who likes short stories or would like to give them a try. I now want to read one of his novels called The Feast of Love.
What I am reading:
I have made a decent dent in the audio version of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler even though I hardly have any drive time anymore. I guess that’s what the Step Mill is for, right? I will NOT be telling you anything about this book. Trust me, it is fun and interesting. It surprised me! And it sounds so well written that I wish I was actually reading it instead of listening.
Last night I started Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris. I read To Rise Again at a Decent Hour and thought it was so funny and different that when I saw Then We Came… on the cheap at Open Books last week, I immediately thought “Destiny!!!”
That’s my last week. This week is shaping up to be busy, busy, busy. Aside from "life events", I will be celebrating World Book Night at Unabridged Bookstore at a BYOB (Bring Your Own Book(s) to donate) event sponsored, I think, by some local folks connected with Book Riot.
I did not know until this morning that Friday, April 24th is some sort of 24-hour Read-a-Thon thingie! Happens twice a year. How perfect is it that my husband leaves for a golf trip that very morning? Score! (Sorry Honey!!! You know how much I love to read!)
5 comments:
I read Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty and it was awesome. So, I decided to read her first NY Times Best Seller The Husband's Secret, but now I'm getting the characters confused because my lame brain can only handle so much information at once.
I read The Husband's Secret. I can see how you'd jumble up who's who. It clears up after a while! I have Big Little Lies though haven't read it yet.
Glad to see the love for Aussie girl Liane Moriarty everywhere. Big Little Lies was fabulous.
Hope you enjoy your first Dewey's Readathon on the 25th - pop over to sign up and you might still be in time to get allocated a cheerleader who will support you & cheer you through the 24 hrs :-)
Hi Brona! I am going to read my buns off from the 24th-25th!!!!!!!!!!! I have so, so, so much lined up!!!!!!!!
That's fun that you got to go to one of the World Book Night events! I listen to the Book Riot podcast and had heard them talking about them...sounded like fun. There was not one near where I live :)
Post a Comment