It's Monday! (8/24/15)

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

 

I had a great three days off last week, and I accomplished a lot in the reading category. Almost nothing in any other category, though. (But in my defense, it was too rainy to weed the garden.)

 

And since hubby  has to work on Saturday (boo!) I'll likely be doing nothing more than reading until he comes home.

 

So, last week I finished...

 

Sister Mother Husband Dog. Good book. I enjoyed it when Ephron talked about working on screenplays and movies with her sister, Nora Ephron. Movies like Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail and When Harry Met Sally. You know, back when Meg Ryan was the It girl. I have no idea who the It girl is these days.

 

And I finally finished The Best American Poetry 2011. I'm kind of amazed at how long this series has been going--esp. given this selection of poems. I'm still feeling kind of burned by this one.

 

And I finished my Mansfield Park audio. Nothing like first cousins falling in love to make you feel all warm and tingly inside.

 

 

I spent most of my three days off re-reading Julie & Julia. I liked it a lot more when I read it for the first time in 2008. This time through I was a little disgusted by Julie Powell's immaturity and narcissism. This is one case where the movie is much better than the book.  

 

 

 

Last week I intended to read The Folded Clock, but after giving it 30 pages or so, I decided I couldn't continue. The author and I would be buds is all I'm saying. So at the public library, I picked up The Book of Joan, Melissa Rivers's tribute to her mother, Joan Rivers. I've been trying to check out more books from the library, and this is exactly the kind of book I should check out instead of buy because I'll likely never feel the desire to re-read it. I was enjoying the book for awhile, but its crassness started to grate on me before long. I finished it this weekend, and let's just say I'm glad I didn't buy this one.

 

I also finished The Great Gatsby this weekend. Did you know it's a very short book--a novella, I'd say. I didn't know that. I enjoyed the writing, but the story left me cold. I don't understand why this one is such a favorite for so many.

 

 

 

This weekend I started At Home in Mitford, and I think I've found something I'm going to really enjoy. Since there are about a dozen Mitford books, that's a good thing. I love finding new fiction that charms me.

 

 

 

The surprise hit of the month, though, has been The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, the first in Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce mystery series. I couldn't find an audiobook I wanted to start at the library, but I did find the audio of this book which was already on my August reading list, so I decided to "read" it on audio. And oh! Oh! I'm loving the audio. The narrator is fabulous. She brings Flavia to life with her wonderful accent. I'm hereby adding all of the Flavia books to my TBR.

 

 

What are you up to this week?