It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It has been an awesome week/weekend for reading mostly because of one little book. Of course, I will tell you why.

I was talking with a friend on Saturday morning, which happened to be a gloriously gorgeous day here in the city. Chicago, that is. Swimming pools and movie stars... Oh wait, that’s Beverly Hills! We both expressed interest in epistolary books. Books in the form of letters. (To this day my hands down favorites are the Griffin and Sabine series by Nick Bantock. Have you read them?) And I am not sure how I found this little tome, or why I had never read it before because it is so totally me. 

Any way, I decided to go for a very long walk, probably 6 miles, to take in the sunshine and some solitude, choosing to stroll through the neighborhoods instead of along the lakefront. Almost gave up once at the furthest distance from home and hailed a cab. But at precisely that decision point, I saw a bookstore. Ahhhhhh! It beckoned me through its door. (It is here I will admit that this particular place was probably on my radar the entire time.) 

And success!!!!!! It is an old title, and if it hadn’t been a perpetual “staff pick”, it wouldn’t have been on the shelf. Have you read…

Check it out on Goodreads. For me, it was simply stunning.

In other book news, I finally finished…

It is primarily about a single guy, a wannabe writer in NYC, and the many iterations of his relationships. Kind of a Mars/Venus perspective, in a way, accentuating the differences split along gender lines. It's just not that simplistic, though, is it?

I had this to say on Goodreads: “I am still digesting this book, and wondering why I liked it so much to easily give it 4-stars. I think because it made me feel. Something. Even though that "something" wasn't completely positive.” 

So I did like it. But not all the time. I did think it was very well written. There was some interesting insight into the psyche of a young, single man and relationships. Some of it felt awfully familiar. While I wasn't crazy about him either, his character felt real to me. Was it because he reminded me of someone specifically? I don't think so, but I have seen plenty of those characteristics/traits in a lot of men just not so much wrapped up all into one. I never like generalizations and this felt a bit like that. Not all guys are like this. Not all women are like that. Or whatever, if that makes sense at all. What rang true was the protagonist's desire to do just so much talking. My husband is like that. He doesn't want to dissect and re-hash every little (or big) thing. For that matter, neither do I. If you read it, let me know what you think!

I am digging back into a book of shorts stories…

And will probably pick back up Lila by Marilynne Robinson…again! But maybe I should just go ahead and read Gilead, instead. What do you think?

Listening to...

It’s Monday! What are you reading?