Thank you Readathon!
Click here to see my updates, but suffice it to say it was incredibly awesome and refreshing to spend so much time reading. It made up for the minimal reading I've been doing the rest of the week as I work on my thesis lit review, trying to have another paper completed by Friday which I should manage no problem though I've got lab work and whatnot going on as well.
Last week I finished reading:
Waiting for Robert Capa by Susana Fortes
I've pretty much decided that perhaps novels about real people aren't quite my thing, even if they are written with lovely language. I didn't connect with
The Paris Wife earlier this year, and Hemmingway actually makes a couple guest appearances in this one as well (which had a bit too much name-dropping for my liking), and I didn't connect with this either sadly.
Prized by Caragh M. O'Brien
Okay, so wow, that was different than
Birthmarked, but I loved it all the same. I wish the two novels had been connected a little better, at times I wasn't quite convinced it was the same Gaia in both of them, but I once again loved O'Brien's world building and I can't wait to read the final book in the trilogy!
Practical Jean by Trevor Cole
Another book that wasn't quite for me, the satire was well done at least not over the top like I found
Super Sad True Love Story to be for example, but my problem was I never quite believed that Jean would kill all these people without thinking twice. I mean, I understood her reasoning but it didn't quite seem as if she was crazy enough to be okay with murder even if she didn't want her friends to have to age.
TruthBeauty by Alison Nordstrom
Absolutely breathtaking photographs complimented by interesting essays on the pictorialism and photography, I learned a lot but considering the book was put out by the Vancouver gallery, by a Canadian publisher, I was a little disappointed there were sections on Australia and Czech but not Canada.
What I plan to read this week:
Love Alone by Emmanuel Kattan
Former lovers reunite and turn homicidal? Count me in.
Liesel and Po by Lauren Oliver
So it's now or never for this one because my e-galley is about to expire! I really really want to read it so, well, I've got to make that happen this week.
Eating Dirt by Charlotte Gill
A memoir about tree-planting, and of course the plant-loving environmental nerd in me would be interested no matter what, but I've also heard it's incredibly well written. Can't wait to find out firsthand.
What are you reading this Monday?
Love Alone sounds good and I love the cover of Prized. Enjoy your reading week!
ReplyDeleteShelleyrae @ Book'd Out
Books about real people aren't for me either...I tend to struggle to get through them. And I'm not a fan of the name drop...unless it's done to be funny. lol Practical Jean sounds kind of creepy...my friends better not try and kill me to stop me from aging...I'd rather get old. :P And I agree, Prized is very different. I thought a large part of the differences in Gaia had to do with where she was...and the thing that he grandmother discovered...miasma...*cough, cough* I'm trying to not do any spoiling, so I'll refrain from talking too much about it with you yet. lol Too bad, TruthBeauty didn't have Canada in it...which I agree, is weird for a book published in Canada by a Canadian publisher, but I guess maybe it's just not what they wanted to focus on. Yay for Liesel and Po, I hope you get to it, and Love Alone sounds interesting...Eating Dirt, probably not my type of book, but I hope you like it. :) I love the environment, but I'm a big memoir reader, so this probably wouldn't click with me.
ReplyDeleteHappy Reading, Zoë! I hope you have an awesome reading week! :D
Ambur
PS. I noticed you switched back to blogger comments...how come?
@ Ambur- gah you would not believe the comment issues I've had, I had intense debate and it kept messing up and appears to have eaten my comments for several months. well i have them saved but at the moment they can't be transferred back to blogger. and then after some kinks with disquis i just gave up. i like being able to 'reply' but it's just been too stressful and i am sticking to the blogger comments and hopefully someday they make them better!
ReplyDeletethat's true about Gaia, we'll have to discuss it with plenty of spoilers via e-mail but overall I loved the book, it just felt very different like you said.
i think for TruthBeauty maybe there wasn't anything to say about Canada? but I surprised it didn't at least get a mention, I mean the countries they picked were pretty random, and it was beautiful and interesting to learn about but I don't really know why those and not others.
I think you mean you're not a big memoir reader :P I love memoirs, which is I guess partially why I keep thinking I'll enjoy these memoirs meet novels, but nope, so I think I'll avoid them from now on.
gah I can't stand name-dropping! and the worst part is the book takes place in the 30s so it's like name dropping of people i had to regularly google, i know she was trying to be historically accurate but she could just say "the man" instead of using names that only appear once and that most readers won't recognize. personal pet peeve I guess!
P.S. Ambur where is your post? :P it's 12:30!
ReplyDeleteWow what a fabulous reading list for the week!! :) I have only heard amazing things about Liesl & Po, so I do hope you enjoy it! :)
ReplyDeleteHappy Reading this week! :)
Jackie @ the Hardcover Harlequin
PS: New follower!! :) fantastic blog!
Zoe, I had a couple not my cup of tea reads last week also.
ReplyDeleteHere's to a better reading week, cheers.