Bestest Friend and I are doing a blog project. Each day we will write a blog post on a pre-determined them chosen by a random noun generator. The theme for the second day of the month is "Entertainment."
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This month was a pretty good reading month. It helped that I DNFed with some abandon.
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8/3: The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo (library ebook, 2018) - Beautiful novel in verse about a teenage girl speaking her truth. 4.5/5 stars
8/4: Closer to the Chest (Valdemar: The Herald Spy #3) by Mercedes Lackey (library, 2015) - Very nice close to The Herald Spy trilogy. Seemed very prophetic about life in these United States in 2023, too. 4/5 stars
8/4: Leaves of Grass, First Edition by Walt Whitman (library, 1855) - It turned out that I liked reading the front matter and endnotes more than the actual poems, but I'm glad I did it. 4/5 stars
8/6: The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht (library, 2011) - Weird, weird book. I don't think I'm smart enough to know what was going on here. Also, I counted the word "hat" 39 times in this book, which has to be some kind of record. 3/5 stars
8/6: Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (library, 2017) - Clever. Insightful. Important. 5/5 stars
8/8: Where the Drowned Girls Go (Wayward Children #7) by Seanan McGuire (library audiobook, 2022) - This was fine. Definitely not the worst in the series, but not among the best, either. 3/5 stars
8/8: The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka (library, 2022) - Beautifully written meditation about memory loss. 4/5 stars
8/10: Ballet Shoes (Shoes #1) by Noel Steatfield (library, 1936) - After Doris and Anne recommended this book to me in our first ATGIB post, I immediately got it from the library. What a delightful book. I can see why they loved it when they were children! 4/5 stars
8/11: Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson (library ebook, 2019) - Weird book. It's just like our world, but some kids can catch on fire and not injure themselves. 3/5 stars
8/12: The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer (library, 2013) - Why was this book structured the way it was? There was no suspense ever. 3/5 stars
8/14: God Spare the Girls by Kelsey McKinney (library audiobook narrated by Catherine Tabor, 2021) - Two sisters, one summer, a family in pieces. I found this book oddly compelling. 4/5 stars
8/16: Clockwork Boys (Clocktaur War #1) by T. Kingfisher (library ebook, 2017) - Very fun take on class fantasy tropes. You get an eclectic party together to defeat an unkillable villain and save the kingdom. Kingfisher rarely does wrong for me and this was no exception. 4/5 stars
8/18: The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness by Meghan O'Rourke (library, 2022) - Nonfiction about one woman's journey with autoimmune diseases. I have mixed feelings about this because I think it's important, but I'm not sure O'Rourke was the best person to tell this story. 3/5 stars
8/20: The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older (library, 2023) - Very interesting genre mashup of sci-fic/mystery. 4/5 stars
8/23: Thank You for Listening by Julia Whelan (library audiobook, 2022) - This was a fabulous audiobook. Just fabulous. I have some nitpicks about the story, but I gobbled this up. 4.5/5 stars
8/25: The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker (library, 2012) - Coming of age novel set in a dystopian setting. Very interesting premise. 4/5 stars
8/29: Stealing by Margaret Verble (library audiobook, 2023) - Tough historical fiction about a Cherokee girl from a lovely family who is sent to a residential boarding school. Very long. 4/5 stars
8/30: Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison (library, 2020) - Sherlock Holmes retelling with angels, vampires, and hellhounds. Very funny, but the story was tired. 3.5/5 stars
Totals: 18 books
Average star rating: 3.83/5 stars
Did Not Finish
On Beauty by Zadie Smith - I KNOW. I should like this book. But I just couldn't figure out what was going on and why the family members were being such jerks to each other and there were endless paragraphs about so-and-so's family tree and I am not a patient enough reader for this. DNF at 11%.
Sam by Allegra Goodman - Coming of age story about a girl named Sam. I just wasn't vibing with this. I did attempt to listen to the audiobook, so maybe it would have been better if I'd read it. I don't know. DNF at 25%.
The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings #2) by J.R.R. Tolkien - Look, I hate it. I read 50 pages. Not a single female character appeared, let alone spoke. I was bored senseless. I know it's a classic of the genre and maybe someday I'll come back to it to figure out why it's so beloved, but it's not for me right now.
Dear Miss Metropolitan by Carolyn Ferrell - I felt sort of gross reading this? It's loosely based on the lives of the girls that Ariel Castro kidnapped and they have actually written their own accounts and I just didn't need this in my life. I'm sure it's something other people might be interested in.
I swear that DNFing is key to a good reading life. If it helps -
ReplyDelete- I tried to read a Zadie Smith book once and couldn't figure out what was going on.
- Yes some books are better as audio and some are better on the page but...c'mon if it's a good book the format wouldn't matter.
- I remember that we had a box set for LOTR and I remember reading the whole thing in middle school. The only reason I read it was because I was in middle school and had nothing else going on in my life at the time.
- I remember Dear Miss Metropolitan from Sarah's Bookshelves. At first they were excited about it, and then Catherine panned it once she read it. I definitely got the "gross" vibe.
I think I'm really the audience for Zadie Smith books, but I just can't do it.
DeleteI heard about Dear Miss Metropolitan as I was listening to an old ep of SB and I didn't really believe Catherine (she has some wild takes sometimes), but I should have listened in this case!
I loathe Tolkien, I have never been able to get into any of his books.
ReplyDeleteYou had a great month for reading!
It was a great month in reading! Probably will be the high bar for the year!
DeleteWhat a busy month. I finally got a few books other than ATGIB on my bedside table! I've loved ATGIB (though it is SO much more heartbreaking than I remember)...but it's fun to have some other books back. I largely take the summer off from reading because life is too nuts. But we're almost back to fall routines and that means time for books!
ReplyDeleteI'm going to be SO SAD when ATGIB is over. I have to read the last chapters to write the post for next Monday, but I've been putting it off and putting it off because I don't want to be done.
DeleteHa ha, I love how you admit you hate Tolkien- very refreshing! I'm just finishing the Older and Adichie books, and loving both of them. And I LOVED Ballet Shoes when I was little. I still love it- I'm probably due for a re-read. There are other books by the same author- Theater Shoes is also really good. Ballet Shoes was my favorite though.
ReplyDeleteLook, Tolkien isn't for everyone. I think I need to stan for the people who can't deal with him. I deeply admire what he did for the fantasy genre, but I also admire Asimov and Heinlein and I don't go around wasting my time reading their nonsense, either!
DeleteI'd never heard of the Shoes books until Doris and Anne brought them up. I brought them up at my family reunion last weekend and about half of the women got Very Excited remembering them and the other half looked just as confused. There was only one guy there at that moment (many of the men and boys were golfing - it's very sex-segregated in our family) and he admitted he'd never heard of them, either. I'm so excited to have read one and be part of the cool kids group now!
Oh no, NGS--we grow further apart. On Beauty is a favorite as is LOTR in its entirety. On Beauty is very like an old-fashioned 19th century novel except at Harvard in the 21st century. So you're absolutely right about all the people and family trees. And you're right about the lack of women (and in the movies, people of color) in LOTR. I guess we grew up in different times, so I was just so grateful for Eowyn's lone existence as a woman warrior and it fueled all my imagination for a while. You're have higher expectations :).
ReplyDeleteWell, I can respect your book choices and just admit that I'm probably not enough of a deep thinker to appreciate the same books you do! We can still be friends.
DeleteI tried to read a Zadie Smith book once and DNF'd it and haven't tried another. I couldn't tell you which book I DNFd but I remember being confused and bored.
ReplyDeleteConfused and bored is exactly right! Maybe at a different point in my life, I'd be more patient and wade through it, but I was unwilling to do so.
DeleteI'm always so happy when I see you have a high average rating score for the month. Yay for good books! DNFing is KEY to my reading life. I used to be so scared to do it, but now I DNF with abandon.
ReplyDeleteLife's too short to read books you're not enjoying is my new motto.
DeleteOK, I feel a bit better about never reading LOTR. Thank you. I also HATED the Hobbit when I had to read it in elementary school. Hated it. Also? It was our school musical one year and it was the dumbest thing to have to do in a musical. Musical Gandalf? Seriously? Bah.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I got a Zadie Smith book and have been scared to pick it up. This makes me wonder if I should bother... I am not a deep thinker when I read. Reading is for mentally relaxing, thank you. (It's one of the ways I rest! ;>)
LOTR is not for everyone. I think that's okay. (I kind of want to watch small children doing a Hobbit musical now. Life goals.)
Delete