It's Monday! (4/20/15)

It's Monday! is sponsored by Sheila at Book Journey.

 

 

Last week I finished five books (I jumped the gun and included Middlemarch in last week's update). It was a great whirlwind reading week.

 

I finished Better Than Before, Gretchen Rubin's latest. I've heard a lot of chatter about this book not being as good as her Happiness books, but I liked it just fine. Perhaps the subject matter isn't as engaging, though.

 

I also started and finished The Penderwicks, and it was as good as I expected. It was a simple story, perhaps even predictable, but I loved the characters.

 

And I finished Garrison Keillor's collection Good Poems: American Places. It was a big book for a poetry book (444 pages), and I enjoyed almost every poem. I marked dozens of them to return to. I'm not much of a Garrison Keillor fan in general, but no one can edit a collection of poetry better than he can. Or perhaps he and I share a Midwestern proclivity to certain kinds of poems. If you're looking for some poetry to read this month, try one of his Good Poems collections.

 

Lastly, I finished Hammer Head. (I've always kind of wished I knew how to do carpentry, though I think I'd be more interested in furniture building than house building. And by "furniture" I probably mean "bookcases.") I liked it for the first couple dozen pages, but the rest of it just sort of tanked for me. I'm not sure if it was the book or me, but we weren't a good fit. Lots of swearing for one thing.

 

 

 

 

 

When I finished Hammer Head, I was looking for a comfort read, so I started Between You & Me, and though I'm only about 25 pages in, I'm hooked. I love books about grammar and words.

 

I started my audio of The Grapes of Wrath this morning, but I'm not sure I'll stick with it. I'm working through a great deal of sadness right now, and I think it might be best to find a happier book.

 

 

 

What's next? Well, I have two more books on my April reading list, and I hope to get to both of them. I think I'll have to swap out Eat, Pray, Love for a different re-read (maybe that should be my next audio...), and I think it will be A Working Girl Can't Win (poems). I've been wanting to re-read this one. And I also plan to read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.

 

 

 

 

What are you reading this week?