In elementary school, I had this awesome teacher who would write the date on the board, but use the root words instead of the actual name – Wednesday became Woden’s Day, Thursday was Thor’s Day, etc. This is all to say that I couldn’t come up with anything clever to call January [1].
To kick the year off and fulfill one of my resolutions (to keep my “books I’ve read” list up-to-date), here’s what I read last month. Looking back, it’s a surprising number.
Mordecai Richler, Barney’s Version. It was a book club book, and I was pleased that I didn’t dislike it as I have some of his other books (Cocksure, I’m glaring at you.) At first, I was convinced Barney was an unreliable narrator and that he was selective in what and how he told events, but by the end I thought maybe he just didn’t remember the details anymore.
Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, Dedication. Meh. It didn’t end the way I expected it to end, but it was still kind of overwrought and dramatastic [2].
Susan Elizabeth Phillips, This Heart of Mine and It Had To Be You. Reader’s block reads – I was in a rut, and they helped me get out of it. SEP is one of my comfort authors who I’ll turn to in times of need.
Naomi Novik, Victory of Eagles. Great, kind of dark, but the end was a big “WTF?” I realize it’s a set-up for the next volume, but as a military tactic, it sucked large – why would you send your best weapon and leader into exile before the war is over?
David Levithan, Are We There Yet? Love love love David Levithan, who writes powerful emotions like it’s easy. The story of two brothers who are tricked into spending time together in Italy, and rediscovering each other. I read this on the bus home from Toronto last weekend.
Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave. Kind of slow and long, but still interesting. A Victorian mystery which reminded me of the Amelia Peabody (Elizabeth Peters) books and the Mary Russell (Laurie R. King) series.
This week I’ve been struggling through one of my two book club books for work, and I finally finished it today. Part of me wants to start the second one right away [3], but part of me wants to celebrate and do some “reward” reading [4]. For over a year, I’ve been sitting on a book I’d heard great things about and have been dying to read, and there’s no time like the present. Reward reading, here I come!
[1] That Crappy Cold Month At The Beginning Of The Year is too long.
[2] Oooh! I invented a word!
[3] I run two book clubs a month at the library. Most of the books I’d read before, but some of them I haven’t read in a while.
[4] At knitting, we’ve developed the concepts of “punishment knitting,” which is knitting you have to do, and “reward knitting,” or knitting you enjoy and is fun. I’ve applied these concepts to my reading, so that book club books or any other book I have to read but not enjoying are “punishment” reading, while everything else is “reward” reading.