Monday, January 18, 2016

What I'm reading this week (1/18/16)

This year is off to a good start, reading-wise. I've been saving up books for the new year for months, so I'm stacking the deck in my favor.


Last week, I finished:


In the Heart of the Sea is a great book if you're looking for an adventure story and can stomach the tragedy that often goes with one. As I read it, I wanted to see the movie more and more.

I tore through Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None in about two days. Not only is it mostly dialogue, which makes it a quick read, but it's riveting. I had to know whodunit! Ten people are summoned to an island and confronted with their past indiscretions (murder via neglect in all cases), and then they die one by one...until there are none. Did I guess? No, of course not. But I enjoyed the mystery.
 
I thoroughly enjoyed Mary Oliver's new book of poems, Felicity. They're short and simple, and if you blink, you miss them. You have to be present to read them--perhaps more so than many collections. It's really quite a wonderful little book.


This weekend, I started:


I've been dying to know what makes Wallace Stegner's Crossing to Safety so good, so this weekend, I began reading it.

After reading Barbara Bush's memoir earlier this month, I was reminded that I owned a copy of Millie's Book, the book written by Mrs. Bush's dog, Millie. I thought now would be as good a time as any to read it.


This week, I'll continue with:
 
 

I'm sort of stalled in my reading of Ruth Reichl's My Kitchen Year. The book is divided into four sections based on the season, and I'm lagging in Winter. The structure of the book is sort of monotonous: a few paragraphs of memoir, then a recipe, over and over and over and over. The photos throughout are wonderful, but I have to force myself to pick the book up. A friend at work is reading it also, and she says it gets better.

And I continue my audio of Eighty Days. Goodman is a bit longwinded, and the story could have done with some good editing (it took nearly a third of the book for the two women to finally set off on their journey), but I still look forward to each installment.
 

What are you settling into this month?


 
 



 

2 comments:

  1. I stalled in my reading of My Kitchen Year, too. I love Ruth Reichl's writing, but the recipes were actually coming too frequently for me. I needed a little more story in between each one. I think (hope) I'll come back to it, but we'll see.

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    1. That's EXACTLY how I feel! I'll finish it (I'm up to Summer), but it's not my favorite Reichl.

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