I was momentarily at a loss for this week’s Tune in Tuesday…the weather was absolutely awful, so I was searching for a suitably melancholy song. Finally, though, I had to admit defeat and go with the song that’s been stuck in my head all week. Here’s “My Valuable Hunting Knife” by Guided by Voices.
As of yesterday, the Bout of Books 6.0 Read-a-Thon is officially over. I did accomplish my goal of reading every day, but ultimately I didn’t read as much as I wanted to. Overall, I read 280 pages of Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove. This isn’t totally insignificant, but the book is so long that 280 pages feels like a mere drop in the bucket! Still, I’m glad I participated in this read-a-thon; some days it was the only motivation I had to read at all! Hope everyone else had a fun and productive experience.
Confession time: when it comes to the Beatles, I’ve never really understood what all the fuss is about. I’m well aware that this is heresy to music lovers — the Beatles are arguably the greatest band of all time, and certainly one of the most beloved. But while I do like several Beatles songs, I never truly became a fan of the group. As a result, there are many Beatles songs that I’ve never even heard before…and I’m thinking it’s time for that to change.
Therefore, I’ve decided to make 2013 the Year of the Beatles. According to Wikipedia (that ever-reliable source), they released 12 original U.K. LPs. There are also 12 months in the year. Coincidence? I think not! So here’s the plan: I will immerse myself in one Beatles album per month. I’ll listen to it repeatedly and attentively, making notes on the individual songs. Then, on the last Saturday of every month, I will write a post about the album and my reactions to it.
The album for January is Please Please Me, released in 1963. I just realized that this is perfect timing, as 2013 is its 50th anniversary! I already own the CD, so accessing the music won’t be a problem. I’ll post about it on Saturday, January 26, so stay tuned!
My hope in doing this is that I will gain a newfound appreciation for the Fab Four. Maybe I will finally understand what everyone else is talking about when they gush about how amazing/seminal/life-changing this group is! At the very least, this project will make me a more culturally literate and musically knowledgeable person, which is always a good thing!
So what do you think about my musical project? Are you a Beatles fanatic or just a casual listener? What’s your favorite Beatles album or song? I’d love to hear your opinions — and if you’d like to join me in my quest, you’re certainly more than welcome!
Do you guys remember Jimmy Eat World? They had some radio hits when I was in high school, and I’ve always liked them, though I never became a hardcore fan. But my brother had their CD (Bleed American), and this was my favorite track. Something about the driving pulse of the song, combined with the lyrics (and, let’s face it, the nod to “Crimson and Clover”), just works for me. So here you go with this week’s pick, “A Praise Chorus”:
Lauren Morrill, Meant to Be
Julia Lichtenstein is an excellent student, a voracious reader, and a conscientious follower of rules. She’s incredibly excited about her class trip to London, eager to soak up all the history and culture that it has to offer. Her only problem is the presence of class clown Jason Lippincott on the trip. He’s loud, obnoxious, and completely immature — and because his name comes right after Julia’s in the alphabet, she’s stuck being his partner for their school assignments on the trip. However, as Julia spends more time with Jason, she slowly begins to discover that there’s more to him than meets the eye. At times it even seems like there’s a spark between them, but can Julia really fall for someone who’s the complete opposite of the “meant to be” guy she’s always imagined?
This is a very cute YA romance that hooked me almost immediately. Since Julia is the first-person narrator, we get inside her head right away, and I really enjoyed her determined, slightly neurotic voice. As for Jason, he’s just adorable; I definitely have a soft spot for goofy guys! Even though he and Julia are really different, I can definitely see how they work as a couple. Also, their clashing personalities provide a very believable conflict in the book; even after the happily-ever-after, you just know that they’ll continue to fight with and frustrate each other sometimes. Overall, while this book isn’t particularly deep or substantial, I found it a very fun and charming read.
Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus
The action of this novel centers around a beautiful, mysterious circus known as Le Cirque des Rêves. It is open only at night, and it contains unimaginable wonders — not only acrobats, contortionists, and exotic animals, but also gardens made entirely of ice and carousels with animals so lifelike that they breathe. In this magical environment, Celia and Marco meet and fall in love. However, unbeknownst to them, they are also rivals: both of them are magicians whose tutors are engaged in a deadly game. As Celia and Marco outdo themselves with feats of magical prowess, they must also find a way to end the “game” without paying an unthinkable price.
I find myself a little conflicted about this book, since I absolutely loved certain aspects of it but found other parts underwhelming. By far the strongest part of the novel is its setting: the Night Circus is described in such specific, evocative, loving detail that I absolutely believed in its magic. I’ve rarely read a book with such lush, awe-inspiring descriptions. By comparison, the plot of the star-crossed dueling magicians, while a wonderful idea in theory, is a bit flimsy in execution. I didn’t particularly connect with any of the characters. Even Celia and Marco are extremely flat, with no particular defining characteristics except for their mutual infatuation. The circus is the heart of the book, but the events and people surrounding it seem almost like afterthoughts. That said, I did enjoy reading the book overall and would definitely read more by Morgenstern. Also, I hope this book is made into a movie and that Baz Luhrmann directs it — it would be gorgeous.
Happy New Year! I’ve sadly neglected this blog for the past couple of weeks, as I’ve been busy traveling and making merry. But with the arrival of 2013, I’m ready to jump back into blogging — and what better way to do that than joining the Bout of Books 6.0 read-a-thon? Here’s some info about the event, taken directly from the BoB website:
The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 7th and runs through Sunday, January 13th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 6.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. -From the Bout of Books 6.0 team
For this read-a-thon, I’m not going to set myself any specific goals other than to read every day. I just plan to read as much as possible and enjoy myself! I’ll edit this post every day of the read-a-thon with my daily progress, so stay tuned!
Monday 1/7: I probably picked the worst time to start reading a very long book, but what can you do? Today I read a mere 18 pages of Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove, a Pulitzer-winning Western weighing in at over 900 pages. My new goal is to finish it during the read-a-thon, but I definitely won’t make it at this rate!
Tuesday 1/8: Thirty-three more pages in Lonesome Dove! I’m doing so well on this read-a-thon! </sarcasm> But it’s fun to participate anyway. I did do Ms. Buff‘s mini-challenge about our favorite book cover and our funniest book cover. My answers were:
I totally love the new covers for Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series. Here are links to books 1 and 2, The Eyre Affair and Lost in a Good Book. As for funniest cover, I definitely have to go with Lords of Desire. OK, guy, your sword is really big; we get it!
Wednesday 1/9: Here’s my entry for today’s mini-challenge at Booking in Heels:
Original sentence from p. 48 of Lonesome Dove: “I might do that,” Dish said.
“I might do that,” Dish said. “But eloping with you would hurt my family grievously! Bowl would have a meltdown – and surely Knife and Fork wouldn’t be too pleased with me either.” “None of that matters,” replied Spoon, “for I love you so. Run away with me!”
Also, I actually had a respectable reading day, with 56 more pages read.
Thursday 1/10: Seventy-two pages read in Lonesome Dove. I’m up to p. 193 now, which is pretty good, I guess…but then, I still have about 750 more pages to go!
Friday 1/11: A bad reading day — only 12 more pages read! Hopefully I can make some real progress over the weekend.
Saturday 1/12: A dismal 9 pages. I am really failing at this read-a-thon…although I guess I’m achieving my goal to read every day. I just wish I’d had more time and energy to devote to reading this week!
Sunday 1/13: I couldn’t resist the New Year’s resolution mini-challenge at Ex Libris! The idea is to pick one or several characters from a novel of your choice and make up what their New Year’s resolutions would be. Obviously I had to pick Pride and Prejudice, as it’s my favorite book in all the world! It was way too much fun to make up resolutions for some of the characters:
Also read 80 pages on this last day of the read-a-thon. At least I didn’t let the whole weekend go to waste!
I really hate to do this on Christmas Day, since it’s supposed to be a time of joy and love. But last week I listed my top 10 reads of 2012, and this week it seems only fair to list my 10 worst reading experiences. Consider it my Christmas gift to you — now you know what books to avoid! 🙂 Here, in no particular order, are 10 books that disappointed me this year:
1. P.D. James, Death Comes to Pemberley — Being a sucker for anything Austen-related and also a fan of British mysteries, I thought this book would be a slam dunk. Sadly, I was extremely underwhelmed, both by the mystery and the P&P elements. A poor start to 2012, for sure!
2. G.M. Malliet, Death of a Cozy Writer — This is a mystery in the English country house tradition, but it’s so unoriginal that I just found it boring. There are a lot of great books in this genre, but this isn’t one of them.
3. Susan Elia MacNeal, Mr. Churchill’s Secretary — A mystery set during World War II. (I don’t seem to have had much luck with mysteries this year!) I was really interested in the premise of a woman using her mathematical abilities to crack German codes, but I found this book far too scattered to be compelling.
4. María Dueñas, The Time in Between — Again, this book was supposed to be about a Spanish woman who worked for British intelligence during World War II…but that plot didn’t actually begin until about page 400 of 600. It really annoys me when a book’s blurb and cover give a completely erroneous description of what the book is about.
5. Alexandra Potter, You’re (Not) the One — This is another book whose great premise was let down by bad execution. The plot is about a girl who kisses a boy under Venice’s Bridge of Sighs, thus binding him to her as her one true love — but when she meets him again 10 years later, she discovers they’re not truly compatible. It sounded like a really fun chick lit book, but in practice it just…wasn’t.
6. Elizabeth Speller, The Return of Captain John Emmett — Another mystery! This one is set during the aftermath of WWI, which is an interesting time period to me. I think my problem with this book is that it tried to be “literary” but only succeeded in dragging and being dull.
7. Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon — With all due respect to Mr. Hammett, I wasn’t a fan of this classic noir novel. I can’t really put my finger on why; I guess it just wasn’t for me. Loved The Thin Man though!
8. Daphne Du Maurier, Jamaica Inn — This book was just way too soap opera-esque and melodramatic for me. I also found it extremely predictable. A lot of the book focuses on creating a sense of suspense, but the heroine was such a passive person that I didn’t really care whether evil befell her or not!
9. Shane Jones, Light Boxes — I found this novel a bit too experimental. There were many different narrators, a plot that didn’t quite make logical sense, and hardly any character development. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I’d approached it as loosely releated poetry rather than a cohesive novel.
10. Josephine Tey, The Man in the Queue — Another disappointing mystery! I love the genre, but I definitely seem to have picked a lot of clunkers this year.
I should say that I didn’t think any of these books were awful; they just didn’t appeal to me personally. I chose these 10 books because of my level of disappointment with them, which was based on my expectations. So obviously your mileage may vary.
Lest this post is too Scrooge-y, I want to wish everyone a very merry Christmas! I’m off to chill with my family and open some presents. 🙂
Fun fact about me: Christmas is my absolute favorite holiday. I love that it’s a symbol of hope in a world that often seems dark and full of tragedy. And of course, it’s great to spend some time with family and friends — and OK, presents are nice too! 🙂 So today, in honor of the season, I figured I’d share a Christmas song that I really enjoy. Here’s Sister Hazel’s rendition of “Merry Christmas Baby”:
Merry Christmas to all! I hope you have a wonderful day and enjoy some relaxation before heading back to work/school/life responsibilities.
Kristan Higgins, Catch of the Day
Maggie Beaumont is incredibly unlucky in love. Her first serious boyfriend dumped her for another girl without even telling her about it, and for the past year or so she’s been carrying a torch for the local priest. Although Maggie has a job she loves (owning and operating the only diner in her tiny town of Gideon’s Cove, Maine) and many friends amongst the townspeople, she can’t help feeling incredibly lonely at times. In desperation, she agrees to go on several blind dates, but each one is more catastrophic than the last. Just when she’s about to give up hope, however, a surprising kiss from an unexpected source makes Maggie think that maybe she’s finally met her match.
Once again, Kristan Higgins delivers a fun and fast contemporary romance. I found Maggie instantly likeable despite her flaws — and she actually does have real flaws, not the “flaws” that chick-lit heroines often have that are actually adorable quirks in disguise. Her obsession with her priestly friend, Father Tim, is a case in point: she knows he’s off-limits, but she spends an inordinate amount of time obsessing about him anyway. On the other hand, I didn’t get to know and love the taciturn hero, Malone, in the same way. Maggie is utterly bewildered by his behavior for much of the novel, and I can’t really blame her. If Higgins had developed his backstory a bit more and given us some insight into his point of view, I would have enjoyed the romance more than I did. But even though I thought the hero was underdeveloped, I still enjoyed this book! I definitely look forward to reading more of Higgins’ work in 2013.
An ex-literature student who can't quite kick the habit.
Classic detective fiction and impossible crimes
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