There were so many good lines.
Are you talking about Rob Hodge (I think that was his name)?
I finished two books this weekend, and I enjoyed both of them, but only mildly.
One was Truth and Beauty, about author Ann Patchett’s friendship with the late author Lucy Grealy. It was actually pretty disturbing to read, as Patchett seemed to hold onto quite a bit of resentment towards her friend, and portrayed her in an extremely unkind light. But while it was disturbing, I must admit that it was beautiful writing, and the pages seemed to flip themselves.
The other book was Station Eleven, which perhaps I would have liked more if the dozen awards its won hadn’t given me such high expectations. The premise of the novel was intriguing, both to read about and to imagine myself in such a situation. The plot was cool, and I thought it was neat the way everything came together at the end. The main problem with this book is that the character development was weak, and there’s only so much you can care about a story when you don’t care about the characters.
Yes, that’s the guy.
The WAR GASM chapter was my favorite. It’s perfect.
I read a quick YA novel, We Are Okay by Nina LaCour, which was winsome and sweet, if not particularly realistic. A girl arrives at college after a mysterious and unnamed series of traumatic events, and then the backstory is slowly provided when she reunites with a close friend from home.
It took me a while, but I finally finished Breaking the Maya Code by Michael Coe, which was maybe a little too rambly, and it was also that thing where I was hoping for a book that was more focused on the language and writing itself, and this book had a lot of information about the individual scholars who were working on deciphering it. Overall it was fine, but not what I was looking for. I feel like I learned a lot, though.
And I just read Kildee House, which is a Newbery honor book from 1949. It’s about a quirky older man who goes to live like a hermit in the redwood forest, but then of course he befriends local children and woodland creatures. There is a lot of quality writing here, especially in the descriptions of life in the woods, but overall the plot did not age well.
I just started The Last Gunfight, by Jeff Guinn, and yes, it’s about that unpleasant business at the OK Corral. I was ready to be delivered a boring sociological treatise on How The West Wasn’t Like the Movies and it may yet so develop. However, so far it is excellent.
I am at the point where the Earps begin to clash with the Clantons and McLaurys, and Wyatt’s strengths and weaknesses are beginning to be tested. LOTS of picture and maps.
Just finished a cozy mystery Books Can Be Deceiving, by Jenn McKinlay. It includes this sentence:
Puzzle on that.
I’ve started an audiobook of Little Failure, the memoir of Russian-American writer Gary Shteyngart. It’s not nearly as funny as a friend told me. I’m also rereading Joe Haldeman’s 1990 sf novel The Hemingway Hoax, about a con artist and a literary scholar teaming up to create a fake, “long lost” Hemingway novel to earn big bucks. Weird stuff ensues. Also underway: Noah Brooks’s Lincoln Observed, a collection of reminiscences by a reporter whom the President befriended and often socialized with.
Currently reading *Blood and Daring: How Canada Fought the American Civil War and Forged a Nation *.
I’m finding it really fascinating - a perspective you don’t usually see. Explains a lot about why Confederation in Canada took place when it did, and why it took the form that it did - I never appreciated what a threat the US posed during this time period.
Makes sense when you think about it - the US was busy tearing itself apart in a terrible war, from which it emerged with enormous and ferocious armies - Canadians looking south are going to find a lot to be concerned about, particularly as there was a whole series of war scares.
When creating a political system, our leaders deliberately reacted against what they saw as the dangers of the US system - constitutional monarchy in a parliamentary system as a brake on the unbridled populism of the mob looked like a positive island of sanity by comparison.
That lesson, learned in the blood and thunder of the US Civil War, looks just as pertinent these days …
Finished Unmentionable. If it’s half true, I don’t know how the human race survived the Victorian period. Very entertaining, though.
This morning I read about 50 pages of Abigale Hall by Lauren Forry, then put it aside forever with a sigh of relief. A tale of orphans, an evil housekeeper, a gothic mansion…shoulda been good but wasn’t.
I finished The Emperor’s Edge by Lindsay Buroker today. I agree with BetsQ, you have to suspend your disbelief to read it, but it was fun to read with enjoyable characters. A potato chip and M&M book.
And because I have the attention span of a grasshopper, I started So Anyway by John Cleese yesterday. So far enjoyable but I don’t envy him his home life growing up.
I finished rereading Watership Down (RIP Richard Adams) and picked up a library e-book called The Muralist.
Last book of April: Blood and Lemonade, a Hap & Leonard “mosaic novel” by Joe R. Lansdale. I haven’t run across the term “mosaic novel” before; if you haven’t either, it’s the equivalent of TV’s “clip show”. Short stories (not all new) stuck together with a clumsy frame. For completists only.
We have a book club at work, where the selected books always relate, in a very broad way, to our field. I just finished the latest one, Janet Mock’s memoir, Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More. Very interesting story, although I went back and forth a little between thinking some of the issues were presented in too basic of a way, but then realizing that a lot of readers need the basics.
I read The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman. It was OK. The protagonist is a Librarian whose Library spans the multiverse. Her job is to pop into various worlds and pick up key pieces of literature. I think maybe I’ve had enough light and fluffy fantasy for now, but I’m not sure what’s next!
This thread might interest you: Help me stock the ultimate (fictional) library - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board
Yes - it sounded like a very familiar premise! I think Skald has had a couple threads like that, too, hasn’t he?
New thread!