I am trying harder to record as I read, if only to have my thoughts about the book fresh in mind.
Title: The Perpetual Ending
Author: Kristen den Hartog
Thoughts: I loved this novel. The delicate interweaving of present action, history and flashback, and the short stories written by Jane, the first-person narrator is so deft and beautiful. Den Hartog has a beautiful way with words and imagery, and the story, at once haunting and lovely, will surely stick with me for quite some time.
Tuesday, 18 December 2007
Thursday, 13 December 2007
So far behind!!
Okay, these are the books I've read in the last month:
The Cinderella Pact by Sarah Strohmeyer
Party Girl by Sarah Mason
The Probable Future by Alice Hoffman
The Romancipation of Maggie Hunter by Jane Sigaloff
The Gum Thief by Douglas Coupland
The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold
His Mother's Son by Cai Emmons
The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman.
Ouch! Why did I not record them as I read them??
The Cinderella Pact by Sarah Strohmeyer
Party Girl by Sarah Mason
The Probable Future by Alice Hoffman
The Romancipation of Maggie Hunter by Jane Sigaloff
The Gum Thief by Douglas Coupland
The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold
His Mother's Son by Cai Emmons
The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman.
Ouch! Why did I not record them as I read them??
Sunday, 11 November 2007
Book: Shoe Addicts Anonymous
#2
Title: Shoe Addicts Anonymous
Author: Beth Harbison
Thoughts: So cute! So exactly what I was in the mood for this morning! Though light in tone, it nevertheless had interesting characters in interesting situations. It was neither too trite nor too heavy, and I couldn't put it down. I look forward to reading more books from her.
Title: Shoe Addicts Anonymous
Author: Beth Harbison
Thoughts: So cute! So exactly what I was in the mood for this morning! Though light in tone, it nevertheless had interesting characters in interesting situations. It was neither too trite nor too heavy, and I couldn't put it down. I look forward to reading more books from her.
Book: The Stylist
Books in twos continues...
Title: The Stylist
Author: Cai Emmons
Thoughts: Another instance in which the cover and the book just don't match. The cover says chick-lit. The style, the story, the writing all say something a little more serious. When I picked it up I wanted chick-lit. When I finished I was glad I'd read it. Cai Emmons has a real knack for language, and several times I stopped in the middle of a passage to reflect on a beautiful sentence or word choice. I picked up her debut in the library yesterday---it has much more of a literary cover. I hope I'll enjoy it just as much.
Title: The Stylist
Author: Cai Emmons
Thoughts: Another instance in which the cover and the book just don't match. The cover says chick-lit. The style, the story, the writing all say something a little more serious. When I picked it up I wanted chick-lit. When I finished I was glad I'd read it. Cai Emmons has a real knack for language, and several times I stopped in the middle of a passage to reflect on a beautiful sentence or word choice. I picked up her debut in the library yesterday---it has much more of a literary cover. I hope I'll enjoy it just as much.
Thursday, 8 November 2007
Book: Harmony
Book number two!
Title: Harmony
Author: Joanna Goodman
Thoughts: I liked a lot of this book, even though I felt it took a while for me to care about what was happening. It suffered, a little, from a main character who verged pretty heavily on unlikeable. It's hard to stick with someone who spends the majority of 345 pages either whining and complaining or thinking about whining and complaining--even if she does have perfectly good reasons for those complaints. Such is the difficulty, sometimes, when writing a character who is not immediately lovable, or who behaves in a way most people try to believe they would not behave (right down to the jealousy and contemplation of infidelity, whining and complaining aside!)
Honestly, I wanted to know more about the other characters in this novel, because the main character exhausted me so thoroughly I could only read a chapter at a time before switching back to other novels on the go.
Title: Harmony
Author: Joanna Goodman
Thoughts: I liked a lot of this book, even though I felt it took a while for me to care about what was happening. It suffered, a little, from a main character who verged pretty heavily on unlikeable. It's hard to stick with someone who spends the majority of 345 pages either whining and complaining or thinking about whining and complaining--even if she does have perfectly good reasons for those complaints. Such is the difficulty, sometimes, when writing a character who is not immediately lovable, or who behaves in a way most people try to believe they would not behave (right down to the jealousy and contemplation of infidelity, whining and complaining aside!)
Honestly, I wanted to know more about the other characters in this novel, because the main character exhausted me so thoroughly I could only read a chapter at a time before switching back to other novels on the go.
Book: The River King
I'm just not very good at keeping this thing up to date as I finish, but I'm still trying.
So. The first of two more books to add to my reading list.
Title: The River King
Author: Alice Hoffman
Thoughts: I went through a phase about six months ago where I mainlined all the Alice Hoffman books I could find at my local used bookstore (this was back before the library became such a precious fixture in my life). She has a style that is... interesting, to say the least. She writes beautifully, in a way I admire and wish I could replicated, but which also breaks so many rules I've come to believe are Writing Law. She's forever waxing poetic with prose just this shade of purple, and she has an irritating habit of jumping POV in the middle of chapters or sections or even paragraph to paragraph. Yet, somehow it works. Somehow the story ends up beautiful, magical, readable and almost cinematic.
I still think she's a writer I should only read in small doses, but I know I'll probably catch up on her entire bibliography eventually. Jumping POVs and overuse of adjectives notwithstanding.
So. The first of two more books to add to my reading list.
Title: The River King
Author: Alice Hoffman
Thoughts: I went through a phase about six months ago where I mainlined all the Alice Hoffman books I could find at my local used bookstore (this was back before the library became such a precious fixture in my life). She has a style that is... interesting, to say the least. She writes beautifully, in a way I admire and wish I could replicated, but which also breaks so many rules I've come to believe are Writing Law. She's forever waxing poetic with prose just this shade of purple, and she has an irritating habit of jumping POV in the middle of chapters or sections or even paragraph to paragraph. Yet, somehow it works. Somehow the story ends up beautiful, magical, readable and almost cinematic.
I still think she's a writer I should only read in small doses, but I know I'll probably catch up on her entire bibliography eventually. Jumping POVs and overuse of adjectives notwithstanding.
Tuesday, 30 October 2007
Book: French Trysts
Book number two.
Title: French Trysts
Author: Kirsten Lobe
Thoughts: A very different book from the other I read yesterday. This was the story of a young American woman who falls in love with Paris and becomes a grande courtesan. I enjoyed it, although I did find certain passages clunky. Usually when I pause to put a book down, and then debate picking it up again, it means I have reached a passage that didn't quite work for me. Still, the novel worked in many ways, and had a clever narrator (though there were a couple of instances of repeating-clever-thoughts which I think I only picked up because I read the entire book in one evening.)
I love Paris, too. I don't think I'll ever be a courtesan, and I hope my husband won't have a plethora of affairs, even if we do live in Paris one day (and we'd like to) since it seems de rigeur en France. The novel captured so many wistful reasons why I, like so many others, have become captivated by the City of Lights.
Title: French Trysts
Author: Kirsten Lobe
Thoughts: A very different book from the other I read yesterday. This was the story of a young American woman who falls in love with Paris and becomes a grande courtesan. I enjoyed it, although I did find certain passages clunky. Usually when I pause to put a book down, and then debate picking it up again, it means I have reached a passage that didn't quite work for me. Still, the novel worked in many ways, and had a clever narrator (though there were a couple of instances of repeating-clever-thoughts which I think I only picked up because I read the entire book in one evening.)
I love Paris, too. I don't think I'll ever be a courtesan, and I hope my husband won't have a plethora of affairs, even if we do live in Paris one day (and we'd like to) since it seems de rigeur en France. The novel captured so many wistful reasons why I, like so many others, have become captivated by the City of Lights.
Book: One for Sorrow, Two for Joy
Visitors, while lovely, also usually mean a break from writing. So the day my lovely visitor left, I read two books. To make up for lost time. The first is this:
Title: One for Sorrow, Two for Joy
Author: Elisa Juska
Thoughts: A lilting, melodic book. I love the way Juska uses words, and I found her writing tender and evocative. It was also one of those books that, although probably not the author's intention, profoundly affected me. It made me think about sisterhood and friendship, love and life, feeling like you're never going to be what you thought or dreamed you could be when you were young. It didn't offer any easy answers, and I appreciated that even as I wished for more closure. I wanted another chapter, another moment, even though I know why the story ended where it did.
When I first saw the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind I cried through almost the entire thing. Most people don't understand why. Hell, I'm not even sure I understand why. This book reminded me a little of that, even though the stories are not similar at all. Something about the writing, the story, reached in under all my defenses and tugged on my heart until the only response I had was to weep over it and hope for a happier ending, somewhere in the imagined future.
Title: One for Sorrow, Two for Joy
Author: Elisa Juska
Thoughts: A lilting, melodic book. I love the way Juska uses words, and I found her writing tender and evocative. It was also one of those books that, although probably not the author's intention, profoundly affected me. It made me think about sisterhood and friendship, love and life, feeling like you're never going to be what you thought or dreamed you could be when you were young. It didn't offer any easy answers, and I appreciated that even as I wished for more closure. I wanted another chapter, another moment, even though I know why the story ended where it did.
When I first saw the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind I cried through almost the entire thing. Most people don't understand why. Hell, I'm not even sure I understand why. This book reminded me a little of that, even though the stories are not similar at all. Something about the writing, the story, reached in under all my defenses and tugged on my heart until the only response I had was to weep over it and hope for a happier ending, somewhere in the imagined future.
Sunday, 21 October 2007
Book: The Sleeping Beauty Proposal
See? What did I tell you? Two books in one day. I'd be a pauper if it wasn't for the Brooklyn Public Library. (Fine, I'd be more of a pauper.)
Title: The Sleeping Beauty Proposal
Author: Sarah Strohmeyer
Thoughts: Ahh, chick-lit done enjoyably. Fast-paced, engagingly (no pun intended) written story. There were moments when I shook my head and thought, "Oh, no waaaaaaaay is she getting away with this." But those moments were still fond. I liked the characters (for the most part) and was pleased with the way the story came full circle.
I'm definitely going to hunt down her other novels. And that's about the highest compliment I can give, really.
Now, to bed. And tomorrow: writing, not just reading.
Title: The Sleeping Beauty Proposal
Author: Sarah Strohmeyer
Thoughts: Ahh, chick-lit done enjoyably. Fast-paced, engagingly (no pun intended) written story. There were moments when I shook my head and thought, "Oh, no waaaaaaaay is she getting away with this." But those moments were still fond. I liked the characters (for the most part) and was pleased with the way the story came full circle.
I'm definitely going to hunt down her other novels. And that's about the highest compliment I can give, really.
Now, to bed. And tomorrow: writing, not just reading.
Book: Getting Married
No idea what I mean to use this blog for, so, for the time being I'm going to use it as a bibiography of all the books I read. I consume books like a man dying of thirst drinks water: so quickly and voraciously I half forget everything I've read.
I'm going to borrow the format from a little notebook I saw not too long ago in Barnes and Noble.
Title: Getting Married
Author: Theresa Alan
Thoughts: I wanted to enjoy this book a whole lot more than I actually did. It was one of those cases, I think, where the cover is deceptive. I remember seeing the book several months ago when I was planning my own wedding, and thinking: yes, I know what that means. The cover depicts an insane sort of calendar, filling up with event after event after event. It is brightly covered and very chick-lit-y, but the book wasn't quite as light as the cover would have you think. I don't have a problem with heavier books at all, but I just...wasn't expecting what I got.
The book suffered, I think, from a writing style where too much information is given in dialogue, but instead of sounding natural, it sounds like exposition. Or like things people would never, ever say to each other. I believe pretty strongly that all authors should read their dialogue out loud. And think twice about the use of names. When I have conversations with my friends, or especially with my husband, we rarely use each other's names: "Pass the salt, Jane." "Certainly, Bob." "Thank you, Jane." "You're welcome, Bob." See? Awkward.
The story picked up pace in the middle of the book, and over-all had some lovely messages about self-worth and love, but committed, for me, the cardinal sin of doing way too much telling and not enough showing.
I'm going to borrow the format from a little notebook I saw not too long ago in Barnes and Noble.
Title: Getting Married
Author: Theresa Alan
Thoughts: I wanted to enjoy this book a whole lot more than I actually did. It was one of those cases, I think, where the cover is deceptive. I remember seeing the book several months ago when I was planning my own wedding, and thinking: yes, I know what that means. The cover depicts an insane sort of calendar, filling up with event after event after event. It is brightly covered and very chick-lit-y, but the book wasn't quite as light as the cover would have you think. I don't have a problem with heavier books at all, but I just...wasn't expecting what I got.
The book suffered, I think, from a writing style where too much information is given in dialogue, but instead of sounding natural, it sounds like exposition. Or like things people would never, ever say to each other. I believe pretty strongly that all authors should read their dialogue out loud. And think twice about the use of names. When I have conversations with my friends, or especially with my husband, we rarely use each other's names: "Pass the salt, Jane." "Certainly, Bob." "Thank you, Jane." "You're welcome, Bob." See? Awkward.
The story picked up pace in the middle of the book, and over-all had some lovely messages about self-worth and love, but committed, for me, the cardinal sin of doing way too much telling and not enough showing.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)