Recent Reads, Reviews and Recommendations

At the end of June every year our public library system has a ginormous book sale. Think school cafeteria filled to the brim, with new boxes being unloaded hourly.

I go - more than once - and I swoon. This year I came home with 29 books (over 3 visits) and I read 9 of them in July.

Just so you don't think that I spent the month of July doing nothing but reading, I will confess that I chose the fun, easy ones first. That's what July felt like for me. I also didn't want to get too far into a tome and have to put it aside for the book club book (though I wish I had).

I've also developed a book rule. If I am not excited to sit down and read it and I've given it a good 50 pages, it goes away. I used to feel like I had to read a whole book once I started it, but life's too short for icky books.

So, here's some of what I've read recently.

A Good Year and Hotel Pastis by Peter Mayle. Here's how you read Peter Mayle - open a bottle of wine, go sit in a chair under a tree, turn off your phone and immerse yourself in the lighthearted and entertaining antics of the characters in the small towns of Provence. Both these books are easy page turners and are fun without being too fluffy. Mayle has a great way of writing that creates enough of a meaty plot yet also seems like you're on vacation. Unlike my review of To The Lighthouse, these are definitely good for beaches or planes - or simply escaping on a summer afternoon. Two thumbs up!

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. A good 'ol mystery is good for the soul, I think. When I was a teenager I loved Agatha Christie books, and this is what this book sort of reminds me of. A young biographer, who has grown up in the stacks of her father's specialty book shop is hired by a famous, but reclusive writer to pen her autobiography. But, they both have a secret. While you read Peter Mayle outside under a tree, this book calls to be read in a large overstuffed chair in a dimly lit room, with the plush velvet curtains drawn, and the cat curled up on the ottoman. One thumb up, one thumb middle.

I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusak. Book Club recently read The Book Thief and I enjoyed it so much that I was tickled to find Zusak's previous book amidst the library's piles. Such a clever writer. Our main character, a taxi driving misfit, unwittingly foils a bank robbery and after the consequent notoriety he begins to receive cryptic messages on the Aces of playing cards. He must determine what these messages mean and what he has to do about them. Zusak had a knack for creating quirky and lovable characters who seem both light and deep at the same time. Two thumbs up for this one also.

Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer. Confession. I have read the Twilight series books . I'm not really a book snob, and I like young adult reading (Zusak is classified as a young adult writer), but I have to say that the Twilight series is kind of like 'reading crack'. I liked the first one, Twilight, but I thought the second one, New Moon, was terrible. So what could make me read the third, Eclipse? I'm not sure. It's that addictive thing - like potato chips, you can't eat just one. The concept is interesting and I get why this appeals to teenage girls, but puleeze, could it be about 2/3 shorter? Of course, it's likely all the mental gyrations of the teenage mind that appeals to the teenage audience, but I'm not interested. Two thumbs down on this one. But, will I read the last one - Breaking Dawn?

The Queens Fool by Phillipa Gregory. I am not a fan of historical novels in general. However, I picked up Gregory's bestseller The Other Boleyn Girl at last year's sale and quite enjoyed it. I learned more about the history of the Tudors and the royal court than I remember from any history class. So, I thought I'd give a different one a try. The Queens Fool is a sequel in terms of history, but has a differing vantage point of a character outside the royal court. The second was not quite as good in my opinion. Like the Meyer's books, a bit too long in the tooth and I found myself getting tired of the characters halfway through. I quite enjoyed the first and last thirds. So, one thumb up, one thumb down.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. I was supremely attracted and repelled by the cover of his book, and that is a bit how I feel about the story itself. But here's the best way I can describe it. Imagine sitting down with an amazing story teller who begins to weave his tale. You are drawn into the characters immediately, but you have nagging questions and your story teller simply nods when you ask, and then continues. As the tale moves along you notice a wrapped box in your story teller's lap and while you are deeply engrossed in the plot of the story, he quietly and with no great fanfare, rips a large swath of wrapping off the box. "Oh", you exclaim, "that explains that" as you see what is under the wrapping. And so it continues, until all is revealed. I was riveted by this book, the story - though it is a bit dark, the missing pieces slowly revealed, the characters, and the way it was written. Two thumbs up.

What about you? Read any good books lately?

To The Lighthouse - Did We Get There?

Book Club recently met and reviewed Virginia Woolf's classic To The Lighthouse. I had picked it up at the library book sale thinking that it would be a good idea to read a classic. BC agreed, but I wish they hadn't.

We met at Dale and Nikolai's, partially because they have a painting hanging in their living room that was inspired by the final scene in To The Lighthouse. However, more than the painting we paid attention to the scrumptious feast. D & N had recently been on vacation to see friends and had brought home all kinds of new recipes to try on us. Spicy grilled pork chops with a cooling riata, super yummy grilled corn, and a fantastic moist chocolaty bundt cake.

In between the 'mmmm's' and the 'please pass the ...' we talked about this book for about 2 1/2 hours. Good talk, or bad talk?

Interestingly enough, a bit of both. Craig and I agreed that the conversation was way more interesting than the book.

Here's how we rated it: (I think-BC please edit me if I misrepresent you)
Catherine - 3 (for book) 5 (for conversation)
Craig - 3.5
Hans - 3.5
Maria - 4??
Dale - 8.5
Nikolai - 3-4
Tess - 4??

Not very high ratings as a group, but certainly a lot to talk about.

This book was written in the 1930's and is autobiographical of segments of Virginia Woolf's life. That wasn't the part that was hard though. The hard part was that nothing happened in the book. It was a general stream of consciousness of several different characters, which unless you liked the character (which I didn't), was very hard to care about.

Most of the BC found the droning narrative tiresome. Maria and I did not make it through the book. I don't think Tess did either. Hans said, 'It was only 200 pages. I can read 200 pages of anything.' That's what I thought. But I couldn't.

Dale, contrary to the rest of us, resonated strongly with the main character of the book. She had read To The Lighthouse in her 20s with artist friends and had lively discussions and so had history with the book that was meaningful to her.

Should you read this book? I don't know. I certainly think it is worth a try. But don't pick it up for summer beach reading or your next plane ride. This may be the book that you read a bit at a time in between the other books that you read.

Or do what Craig did. He read it on his phone. That meant that only a small portion of the page showed up a time and so the lengthy paragraphless narratives didn't seem so daunting.

Bite size. Do it that way.