What I'm reading this week (2/5/18)

What I finished last week:

Do you ever pick up a book that's an absolute long shot for you and fall in love with it? It doesn't happen to me very often, but boy did it happen with My Lady Jane. I think of myself as casting a pretty wide net when it comes to reading, but there are a few areas I have little interest in. I don't read much YA, I have zero interest in fantasy books, and I don't care for books that take place before, say, the 1800s, but I'd read so many glowing reviews of this book that I thought what could it hurt to try it? Needless to say, I'm so glad I picked it up. I guess I'd classify this as historical fantasy. This is a retelling of the Lady Jane Grey story. She was the queen of England for nine days back in the 1500s, her short reign ending in beheading. In this version of events, the authors (it's written by three women) explore an alternate, and much more satisfactory, ending. Also, there are shape shifters, men and women who can become animals. There is romance, a battle for the throne, attempted murder, and a band of royal and peasant misfits that go on a journey to restore the throne and right history--all while changing from human to animal and back again. It's charming, clean, and very funny, the perfect light book to refresh you after too many heavy ones. It's long (almost 500 pages), but it reads very quickly, and it never bogs itself down. It's really expertly done, and I loved it. I think you might too. The authors, who call themselves The Janies, are coming out with a similar book in June retelling the story of Jane Eyre. My rating: 5 stars.

Every now and then I go into a book knowing very little about it other than the slimmest plot summary. That was my approach to Wiley Cash's The Last Ballad. I ran across several Cash books several weeks ago, and I was interested in the plots. When this one came up as a Kindle deal, I snapped it up immediately, but I actually ended up listening to it. This perhaps isn't the best book to listen to, because the chapters alternate views and main characters, and it's a bit hard to follow. I think flipping back through a paper copy would have cleared up my confusion. Also, it's never very obvious at the beginning of any single chapter how this person fits in with the story overall. This wouldn't have been helped by having a physical copy, but the feeling of disorientation was exacerbated by listening to the story. The plot is this: 1929 North Carolina, local cotton mills are organizing unions, which leads to racial tensions, violence, and murder. I think it was quite well done, but my irritation with making so much of it a "mystery," of Cash allowing his reader to be in the dark so much of the time, really clouded my feelings. Also, it's rather a dark book. There's a foreboding feeling that made me uncomfortable. Since I'd just finished a couple of audiobooks that had similar dark moods, I had a hard time giving myself over to it. In addition, I didn't really care for the main character, Ella, nor many of the other characters, to be frank. Still, I think it was a case of "it's me, not you." I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in race, unions, and don't mind a dark plot, including violence and swearing. I don't think my feelings will stop me from trying another Cash book. My rating: 4 stars.

I finally finished Laura Kasischke's Where Now: New and Selected Poems this week. While I never felt that I wasn't enjoying the book, I was reminded that reading too many poems by a single person makes one numb. After several dozen poems, everything sounded the same to me. I kept trying to shake myself out of the poetry stupor, but I wasn't very successful. I did enjoy this collection, but I just wish I could have broken it up a bit with something else. Another reason I love anthologies! I've been trying to figure out how I'd describe Kasischke's work. It's partly domestic, focusing on relationships, not often nature-inspired, not often humorous. I enjoyed the book, but I wasn't blown away by it. And I noticed that as the collection went along, I liked less and less of the poems. Assuming they were presented by book in chronological order, this would indicate that I enjoyed her earlier work more than her later work. Or maybe it was the poetry coma I was in. My rating: 3 stars.

This week, I'm reading:

I've been wanting to read an E. M. Forster novel for awhile now, and I couldn't decide between A Passage to India or Howards End, so I just picked up Howards End at the library and started it. Since it drew me in, I settled on it. (And no, it's not about a guy named Howard who meets his end. It's actually the name of an estate. You're welcome, dear readers.)

I'm also reading:

I'm still loving Church of the Small Things. I'm about halfway through.

I began The Curated Closet last week. I'm not far enough into it to comment yet.

And I also began Jill Bialosky's The Players (poetry). I'm liking it so far.

 

 

My next audiobook:

I've wanted to try this one for awhile, but I always had trouble getting into it. Maybe the audio version will help with that.