January 2016 Book Report
In my effort to read all the books this year, I made some progress with reading this month. Here’s the lowdown:
Completed
- The Care and Management of Lies by Jaqueline Winspear. I’m a huge fan of historical fiction and as I was trolling through the Overdrive app for our library this one piqued my interest. I rated it 3/5 stars because of some character development issues and some weird language/writing at the beginning. The book is set in WWI England and we see the beginning of the war from three different vantage points. Because of this I believe it easily could have been split into two books. Also, there was a very compelling suffragette component to one of the storylines and frankly I found myself wanting to know more about that line and suffragettes. It made me want to read more about women getting the right to vote, what was done to them (HORRIBLE THINGS!), and to be a more well-rounded feminist. Mental note: read more feminist books this year!
- Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. This book. This book deserves 6 stars instead of 5. It is that good! It’s part memoir, part meditative/contemplative, part whip-your-ass-into-creative-shape…I will refer to this book for years to come. Read it straight through and then randomly pick it up and pull out whatever passages speak to you. I want to be Elizabeth Gilbert’s BFF.
- A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows by Diana Gabaldon. This is a novella of the Outlander novels set between/around books 7 and 8. I hesitate to say a whole lot about it so I don’t spoil things for others who haven’t made it through the whole series, but if you’ve at least read Dragonfly in Amber, the second book, there are several characters in that book that appear in this book. I know, I know, I’m confusing y’all! Just know there’s a sweet treat and more mystery when you finish the Big Books. LOVED this one!
- The Space Between by Diana Gabaldon. This is another novella from the Outlander series and it takes place concurrently with the last released book, book 8. Definitely don’t read this one until you’ve finished the entire series as it is currently. It is about what happened to Roger’s parents. While I did like this one it wasn’t a ‘love’ as the other novella. Honestly, I wanted more. It was too short. Oh, and another mention of a Dragonfly in Amber character in this book. Yes, very intriguing!
Currently Reading
- The Lady Elizabeth by Alison Weir. Remember I said I liked historical fiction? Yep, this is historical fiction and it’s Tudor fiction at that! I love me some Tudor fiction! I know I’ve gone through all or most of the Philippa Gregory books for this period and the earlier War of the Roses period. I also love to watch any kind of Tudor time period movies or tv…so of course this gets me! It is a lot slower reading, though, so I’m pretty sure I’ll be renewing this one when it comes up. Based on the author’s list of books she’s written, I’m pretty sure I can satisfy my historical English monarchy fiction reading for awhile.
What are you reading?
3 Comments
chel
I just finished “hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl” by Carrie Brownstein and while she’s an AMAZING writer and so crazy eloquent (I’m uessing she’s written a lot of academic papers), I can’t decide what I thought of the book. There was a gruesome chapter tagged on the end about a tragic situation with one of her pets that had NOTHING to do with the rest of the story (which was completely about her devlopment and growth as a musician and artist). The pet thing seems like it was stuck on to give the story some heart, but it was disjointed and turned me off to everything that came before it. The girl can rock the English language, though. It was liking reading someone’s dissertation on herself.
Now I’m trying to figure out what I want to read next- in december I finished Station Eleven and All the Light we Cannot See, and both were amazing books, so everything now seems so dull and unreadable in comparison. I’m trying to find a good, interesting, cozy readable series for winter, something like Alexander McCall Smith’s books.
Gayle
I’m always so impressed by how much you read and get done! Hugs
Patrice
Sold! (On Big Magic)