I would like to start this post by saying that this month felt like I was inundated with goodness. Just pure amazingness ALL THE TIME. Some fantastic books this month, plus I listened to the Serial podcast (devoured it in 2 days - I couldn't stop listening) AND we watched season one of Transparent on Amazon. I am loving that show! So, now that you all know I have no life other than reading, listening to and watching things, let's get started with the books of the month, shall we?
This was my book club's selection for the month. I thought it was a cute story until the very end when it completely lost me. I actually feel like I should re-read the ending because wha-the-wha? I have no idea what just happened there and it was sort of abruptly trying to cram all of these little golden nuggets in at the end... it didn't need that. The nuggets were implied. I felt like it had some potential to wrap up beautifully and it didn't.
One of my favorite books of all time now. This is a story of a young girl who dies and her family's journey up to that point and beyond. So beautifully written and haunting and thought provoking. I would highly recommend reading this book. Or, listening to it! I think I got SO much more out of listening to it. I have a tendency to skim and when someone else is reading, you cannot skim so you have the benefit of hearing EVERY single word. It was a perfect experience for me.
Oh, Lena Dunham. This was exactly what I thought it would be. It's really just one woman's experience with coming into her womanhood in this world we live in. I realized that she's not my favorite person to read about (or watch on TV - I really tried to like "Girls" but just don't) so it was a little long and tedious reading this. By the end I was fighting through it just to check it off my list. Darn! I wanted to like it, but I didn't.
Sometime after Christmas I realized that I hadn't read much over the break and I had received a lot of non-fiction for Christmas. I started the Lena Dunham book but put it down because I wanted a good story and everything I had received wasn't cutting it. So, I put on my big girl panties and started "Outlander". This is a long book, like 700 pages long. But I had heard rave reviews and I figured there's no time like the present. It did take me about 3 weeks to finish (I read in on my phone while I nursed Crosby and finished 2 other books during that time as well) but I really loved it. I was pretty riveted the whole time. It's a fabulous story AND it fits into a category of a reading challenge I took on for the year!
That might be hard to read... but "Outlander" completes the category of "A book in a genre I don't typically read". Bonus - I liked it!
Ritchie read this and wanted me to read it so we could talk about it. He loved it. I LOVED the first half and the second half I was like..... "What the hell? Wait, what?" A lot. And the ending sort of brought it all back around, but I still felt like it was really botched together weirdly. And I'm not sure if it's Ian McEwan's writing style because this is my first time reading him, but this book went ON and ON about things that I didn't see the relevance in. Ritchie didn't feel that way at all though and he was able to read into every part and tie it together poetically. He's smarter than me, though. Duh.
Another audiobook! I also loved the listening experience of this book. At first it was a little hard to follow because it has many different narrators but soon you get the rhythm and it all makes sense. This book has so many important themes and sub-morals but at its core, it's a story about love and community. Amongst that there are immigrants in Delaware in current times and their experience with everything from not knowing the language to just being outright ignored or bullied. It made me think about my own perceptions and judgements. I recommend this book with a warning that it's not a quick story line. It's a lot of rich character development and more than it's a story, it's just following 7 months in time. It does climax and get intense towards the very very end, so hang in there. The message is worth the slow pace.
This was the 3rd book I've read by Liane Moriarty and boy do I love her more and more! Great characters and plot and I'm usually riveted (The Husband's Secret wasn't as riveting for me, but I still really enjoyed it!) I was up past midnight last night just to finish this book and the ending was SO fantastic! I won't say much about it because it's a murder mystery (a comical one) but it's really great!
Phew! I'm going to post this a few days before Feb even starts because after 7 books I'm just done reading for a few days. I need a little time to clear my head before starting my Feb book club book. But this month caught me up on my goal! I'm 30 weeks in and 30 books down. Yay!
