Bookin' It Thru Life

None to Accompany Me by Nadine Gordimer mid-2017 thru early 2018 until TBD (if I ever finish it???) I am not sure where I picked this book up, whether I found it on a list or whether I just grabbed it at Barnes and Nobel one time-I think I've had it for a while.  Started this book last year and stopped.  Started it again and put it down.  Picked it up, read a few chapters, put it down.  I suppose I'll finish it eventually since its a paperback and it just sits by my bedside until I am out of other things to read.  The writing is very, very dense which is probably why its taking me a while to get through it...I can't just "escape" by reading this book.  She doesn't use traditional punctuation, there is much stream of consciousness interspersed with active voice and you have to focus to take it all in.  Its also pretty far off the beaten path for me...its the story of two couples and their lives in post-apartheid South Africa.  I'm pretty certain the la

The Children's Book by A.S Byatt March 2018 I found this on a list online of books some author recommended.  It may have been Novik, the author of the last book I read (I sometimes go look at their websites after I finish a book).  It may have been someone else entirely, I really don't remember where I got the recommendation.  I had been heavy on the fantasy recently and was looking for a change in scenery.  This seemed to be a story about people, specifically an author and her relationship with her many children.  I'm a sucker for books about big families so off I went. Well, it was unexpectedly "artsy" in places...literally, there was a whole chapter that I barely skimmed because it was full of what I viewed as arcane and snotty references that even with my English major background and prolific reading experiences, I simply could not follow.  But that chapter was an anomaly in an otherwise very readable book. The lives of the characters were set in the

A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L'Engle February/March 2018 Obviously this book gets a "Fabulous" from me as well as a SUTMRS.  Obvious why, you ask?  Because L'Engle is one of my favorite authors of all time, I have read all of her books (most more than once), her children's book "The Other Dog" was a staple of my children's reading time, and well, just because.  A Wrinkle In Time was the original fantasy book that started me on my lifelong love of reading in general and fantasy in particular.  I read the book multiple times as a youngster and reread this book as an adult.  And, in anticipation of the release of the Disney movie I read it out loud to my 9 year old and I must say, the out-loud reading to him was far better than the adult reading to myself.  When he cheered out loud that the Mrs.'s were back I laugh/cried at his excitement.  When he expressed how scary IT was and how scared the children must be, my heart warmed at his empathy.

Caroline by Sarah Miller March 2018 My sister directed me to this book too.  Its a retelling of the Little House books from Ma Ingalls' perspective.  Or rather, its the retelling of one specific year in the life of the Ingalls family from Caroline's perspective.  I'm a sucker for the retelling/other perspective books...I've read several Austin "literary pastiche" or "parallel novels", March by Brooks (Jo, Beth, Amy' father), I think there was one based on Gone With the Wind and one based on Rebecca that I read? Anyway, its a genre that I enjoy delving into on occasion.  This particular book was approved by the LHOP "official" organization so its pretty white-washed even for an "adult" book.  At first I was like, yeah, yeah, get on with it but as the book progressed I came to enjoy it more and more.  In the final analysis, I'd give it a "Liked It".  Plus, even at 346 pages it was a pretty quick read...nothi

The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner March 2018 One of my sisters recommended this book and I almost always take recommendations, especially if I am in between books and looking for something to read.  First, let me say that I know going in that this was a young adult novel so I had certain expectations regarding how well written it would be and how much appeal it would have for me as an avid adult reader.  Perhaps unfair, but my experience with "young adult" fiction is its better to set your sights low and hope that it works out better than expected.  With that as a framework, the book met expectations.  I found the story predictable and the characters a little over wrought.  Bullying is a central theme and I found the way it was depicted irritating.  In my experience bullying is not as "in your face" as this author made it.  Especially in today's world of electronic and social media, kids just don't have to be mean in person and I think that they actually

The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell February 2018 I believe that I stumbled over this book on a fantasy book list and as fantasy, well, I guess it fits the bill but its not really my favorite kind of fantasy.  It took too long building to "the story".  I was perfectly happy hanging with the characters on the outskirts of this other-world and did not really need to go deep into it to be satisfied.  That's a sign of a pretty good novel but not such a good sign for one that bills itself as "fantasy"...I mean, if the reader thinks your climax is sort of an add on and not the meal itself, have you really succeeded in writing good fantasy? Setting discussion of genre aside, what to say about this book?  It was a wandering tale of varying degrees of likeability.  Or rather, it was a wonderful wandering tale with characters who had varying degress of likeability.  The story, the writing, the overall feel for the book did not vary-I liked it very much.  The Holly st

Uprooted by Naomi Novik January 2018 Let me say that before I started it, this seemed to be right in my wheelhouse-a little bit of fantasy, a little bit of adventure, a little bit of romance...ok, I'll buy it.  Couple of pages in I was like, this is Hunger Games all over again.   To be clear, I LOVE The Hunger Games . I've read the trilogy three times and I am certain I'll read it several more times before I turn of the lights.  That said, I'm kind of over knock off  HG s. But then it morphed, and I was like, well, maybe its a romance, 'cause any one who hates on their "teacher" in this way and then doesn't end up in bed with him is a pretty poor romantic lead but she was a good lead...but then, well, it morphed again...the traditional small girl fights the big bad world...and then there was the best friend angle and that went unexpected places too...and well, at the end of the day Novik really, really reached and I think she got there, but barely

Fitz and the Fool Trilogy by  Robin Hobb (separately:  Fool's Assassin, Fool's Quest and Assassin's Fate ) Yeah, so, years after reading my first Robin Hobb book, I finished this trilogy in tears and smiles. I stumbled on her books on some fantasy reading list a couple of years ago and made my way through the Assassin Series , the Rain Wilds , the Liveship and Tawny Man ...enjoyed them all very much. I had not read any of the Fitz and the Fool series, though two of the three have been out for a couple of years. Hobb finished the trilogy in early 2017 and I picked all three books up over Christmas break. At 600+, 700+ and 888 pages, this series is not for the weak of heart nor the uncommitted...plus, oh yeah, there are four previous trilogies which set these books up. So -think about it before you venture in. That said, I say go for it.  All we have is time, right? I loved these books. I love Fitz's voice, when she (finally!!) got to speak I loved Bee, I loved ho

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey As a contrast to the Two Family House , this books was delightful. The themes were similar in some ways...families longing for completeness that was just out of their grasp, women seizing an opportunity to make their world whole in an unconventional way, children looking for their place in the world...but the execution was soooooo much better here. The story is an old one based on a fairy tale that probably has a version in every culture.  In some ways the path this book followed was predictable...as you read you did not know the specifics but you had a sense for how it would go...but oh, the way it got there! I very much liked this book. I found the characters compelling, the writing enchanting, the story endearing, a properly happy ending (if you are into such things)...as I mentioned this book is entirely predictable so if you are looking for a big pop or for some swiftly moving story that will keep you on the edge of your seat, this is not that...b

January 2018 Two Family House by Lynda Cohen Loigman This was a truly forgettable book, but oddly I was glad that I read it. First, it only took me a day, so I didn't feel like I had wasted too much time. Second, it solidified for me what I don't want in any book that I were to ever write. I mean, I admire the writer to some extent-she put together a whole novel, sought and found an audience for it, engaged an editor and a publisher and had a least enough of a publicity staff to get me to buy the darn thing so, yeah, kudos to her. That said, it was a truly forgettable book-see, I can't even be creative enough to come up with a better description.  The house which was supposed to sort of frame up the story was no Manderley  nor Bleak House nor even the cottage in The Princess Bride-it seems that it was "framing" in only the most tentative of senses. The characters were forgettable, I did not even care what happened to them. When the mother went off to Florid