Monday, April 09, 2012

Weekly Check-in #2*


*if, by "weekly" I mean "once every three months." This plan seemed like a good idea at the time but obviously has not been executed on the proper schedule.

True Facts about Blogging:

Did you know that it is possible to take your entire time alotted for writing a blog post and instead spend it reading episode wrap-ups of Game of Thrones Season 2? Especially compelling are those on my favorite site www.westeros.org where I can totally geek out over scene-by-scene comparisons of the book vs. the TV show.

Currently Reading:

The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman. If, by "reading" I mean "perused last night and promptly fell asleep." This is for my book club, and as I am scheduled to lead the discussion I had better make some progress. I am not worried about not liking it; Alice Hoffman is consistently good and this book seems like a logical next step in my current fascination with epic drama (more about which later, and in coming blog posts).

Drifting House by Krys Lee. The opposite of epic drama. Short stories, so easily parceled out into bite-sized pieces. Almost done.

Emily, Alone by Stewart O'Nan. Also unepic, undrama. Done, post coming soon, I promise.

The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh. Epic drama to the max! I love Burma! I love revolution and colonial strife! I love World War II in Asia! Also done, and post coming soon. 

Recently Sampled:

Swamplandia! by Karen Russell. This was okay but I didn't feel the need to read more than the sample. I have to be in the right mood for Southern Eccentricity, and for Coming of Age, both of which this book has in spades.

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah E. Harkness.  More Coming of Age, this time in the supernatural realm. I am always looking for fantasy novels with a strong female protagonist. Again, I finished the sample but wasn't interested in more. The first person narrator seemed young and naive, and let me tell you, I am done with young and naive.

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach. Just as I feared, it really is about baseball. I made it through two pages of the sample before deleting it in disgust from the Kindle. Really folks, I don't care what baseball is a metaphor for, and I never will.

2 comments:

Iris said...

I just found your blog, and can I say I*love* your header?

As for A Discovery of Witches, if you did not enjoy the sample much, I would not recommend reading the rest. The first 200 pages really are the best ones of the novel.

LINDA from Each Little World said...

I love that baseball is a metaphor, but you have to deeply understand the game and its history and know the names of players to read any baseball related book. Don't care how much they make it sound like it's about something else, there's always too much baseball for me!

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