What I'm reading this week (11/6/17)

 I didn't finish anything last week, but I'm set to finish this today:

I don't remember what interested me about this book when I was introduced to it on a blog years ago, but I went into it with no idea of what it was about other than a girl and her family live in an old castle in Britain. I'm loving the cozy (or cosy) Englishy tone. It's one of those wonderful quiet books where nothing much happens.

Next up:

I was so excited when The Not-Quite States of America was published, because I'd always wondered about the U.S. Territories--how we acquitted them, how they were governed, how "American" they are. And now with the recent devastation in Puerto Rico, I'm even more interested to learn about Puerto Rico and the others.

Last week I abandoned:

 

Miss Burma is very well written, and there's nothing so much wrong with it as it's just not my thing. This is a novel that deals with the turmoil in Burma in the mid-20th century. There's a fair amount of violence and lots of adultery, and I just decided to throw in the towel halfway through. I found it quite unpleasant, and the TBR is too long to settle for unpleasant.

Last week I began:

 

I'm already about halfway through Anne Bogel's Reading People, about personality testing, and I'm enjoying it way more than I thought I would.

I'm also reading The Essential Emily Dickinson, selected by Joyce Carol Oates. I've never been a Dickinson fan, and while reading this I'm realizing that may not change.

My audiobook:

I am absolutely adoring the first in the James Herriot All Creatures Great and Small series (named after the first book). If you love funny Englishmen (think Bill Bryson) and animals (Herriot is a vet in the 1930s in Yorkshire), you must try this book. The audio is wonderful.