Doing the math...

Dear Jenny,

I have looked at the remaining books I have, eliminated the two longest ones, added together the pages of all of the other books and divided that by the number of days left in the year.

My golden number? 20 pages per day. That seems doable, right? Assuming I don't miss a day and have to do 40 the next, of course...

What's left.

I'll probably tackle Double Fold next because it has a shit load of end notes, which slows my reading down more than anything else. Then I can re-calculate once I'm done with that puppy.

Meanwhile, The Venetian's Wife is going quickly (yay for illustrations) so that should help.

Sometime last year, I told someone about this TBR challenge and their response was that they didn't like the sound of "reading just to get reading done." I have never felt that way about this challenge, even *now* as I count up how many pages I need to read per day for the rest of the year to complete it.

Isn't that what a "challenge" is about? Maybe this person just didn't like the idea of reading as a "challenge" (versus a "pleasure" or a "pastime")? Hrm. What do you think?

love,
kelly

Kelly's Book 6.12: The Venetian's Wife

Dear Jenny,

I am shamelessly choosing these books in order of length, starting with the shortest. I am sure I will regret this in December, but it serves my purpose now, so... I'm in.

I love Nick Bantock, best known for his Griffin and Sabine trilogy/series (remember those?)  His art is mesmerizing and his story telling is so magical.

I have read most of his books and loved them all, but I particularly enjoyed a non-fiction work of his called Urgent: Second Class. In it, he discusses how he makes his art in great detail -- it's so inspirational.

I know very little about this one, other than... it's a fictional story, interlaced with Bantock's beautiful illustrations and [flipping through it now] ooh! Looks like some letters, too! Yay!

love,
kelly

Completed: The Mermaid Chair

Dear Jenny,

Go, me! I finished a TBR book! I started it 10 days ago and it's done and I'm already posting. Yay! Of course, it turned out to be a quick and easy read. But still -- I'm gettin' it done! (Okay. I'll stop patting myself on the back for reading a frigging book now...)

I'm not sure what to say about this book because... I liked it and it was kind of fluff. Sooo... what is there to say? Good characters, a fine story -- even a little bit of a "mystery" that carried through to a pretty satisfying end. Plus, it's set in the South and I have a weakness for southern lit, so... thumbs up!

I only had two little problems with it.

1. Some weird copy on the book jacket. This is not the fault of the author, but I almost rejected the book totally when I read this: "Few novels have explored, as this one does, the lush, unknown region of the feminine soul where the thin line between the spiritual and the erotic exists." First of all: Ew. Secondly: Really? Cause I feel like plenty of novels have "explored" that territory.

Again, not the author's fault, but it was seriously grody talk for what turned out to be a pretty good "self-discovery" novel (without much of the ickiness alluded to in that copy).

2. This is not an uncommon writing device, but I still do not like it -- frontloading the book with something that is going to happen later. I always feel like it's kind of a spoiler. And, while I actually don't mind "spoilers," I feel like they should have warnings.

The opening line of the novel:

"In the middle of my marriage, when I was above all Hugh's wife and Dee's mother, on of those unambiguous women with no desire to disturb the universe, I fell in love with a Benedictine monk.
"It happened during the winter and spring of 1988, though I'm only now, a year later, ready to speak of it. " [1]

It takes over 150 pages for her to hook up with that dude, but... you know it's going to happen the whole time! She already told you! Meanwhile, that was in a Prologue. Re-reading the first line of Chapter 1 now, I feel like it would have been a stronger opening to start with that.

More does happen after the hookup, so not everything is spoiled, but I still can't help but be a little irked.

As a random note... this book was apparently made into a Lifetime movie, the poster of which is to the left there. And... yeah. It's also pretty spoiler-y with Kim Basinger's come-hither look and the cross on that guy's neck. (Psssst! She's going to have a forbidden love affair with this here monk!!)

Overall review: Quick, enjoyable story. Decent chick novel/beach read.

Onwards!

love,
kelly

Kelly's Book 5.12: The Mermaid Chair

Dear Jenny,

Well, it's the month 9 and I'm only picking book 5, so I guess I'm 4 months behind. The move took waaaay more out of me than I had predicted (probably a good thing I didn't know before I did it, though). The last time I did this sort of thing, I was a lot younger. ;)

At any rate, I haven't given up! So here I am, choosing book 5. Mostly because I am getting on a plane on Monday and it's the smallest of my remaining books to haul around with me.

I've also been reading other (not TBR! Gasp!) books and I struggle to read more than one book at a time. But I'll power through -- I need to get on top of this darned list!

I know absolutely nothing about this book except that it was written by Sue Monk Kidd, who also wrote The Secret Life of Bees, which I loved. I just read the jacket description and, while it started strong, I did have a bit of a WTF moment towards the end. Sooo... we'll just see.

love,
kelly

Heavily Skimmed: All the King's Men

Kelly,

Um, yeah. This one wasn't for me.

My friend Lori lists All the King's Men as one of her favorite books, which is what inspired me to pick it up on sale a few years ago. It's also one of those great American classics that is supposed to be amazing. It's a novel about the rise and fall of Louisiana politician Willie Stark, loosely based on the life of famed politician Huey Long. The narrator is his aide and ally, Jack Burden. (Even the heavy-handed names got on my nerves.) It's structure reminds me of The Great Gatsby, in that it has a narrator telling of the rise and fall of a powerful and complex main character.

On the plus side: it's beautifully written. The author, Robert Penn Warren is a poet, and it shows. The language is sumptuous. And reading a story about politicians in an election year was also sort of interesting. I found myself marking a few pages with particularly pithy statements about politics.

Here's my problem--the novel's language totally eclipses the action. In the first chapter, which runs 80 some pages, the following events happen: Jack and Willie visit Willie's hometown. Jack ruminates on his first meeting with Willie. A judge in a neighboring county publicly states his disrespect and lack of faith in Willie. Jack and Willie visit the judge at his home and essentially threaten to blackmail him if he doesn't back down. I'm sorry, but it shouldn't take 80 freaking pages for inciting incident to unfurl. Ugh. I wanted to shoot myself. This is one of those few books that makes me wish I would have just watched the movie!

I tried to read it all very carefully, but the truth is I skimmed prodigiously. I hate it when I read a classic and feel so miserably disappointed. Perhaps it's just bad timing, because mostly I just didn't feel in the mood for this one. I'll keep it and read it again at some point. It just wasn't what I was looking for this summer.

Jenny

Funny/cool book related site: Matchbook

Dear Jenny,

Kind of a random post here (yes, I am still woefully behind on my TBR list) about a somewhat book-ish and definitely entertaining (to me, at least) site... pairing bathing suit designs and their matching counterpart book covers. It's called Matchbook.

I like that the first line of the book is also included -- kind of surreal with the suit.

I love a good book cover and the owner of this site has a great eye for design -- check it out and see what you think. (My current favorite is Slaughterhouse Five, although Lightning Rods is also pretty great.)

love,
kelly

Oh, Amazon. It's like you don't even want me to buy books.

Kelly,

As we have previously discussed, there is nothing more infuriating that buying a newly released book from Amazon. The ridiculous markdown on hardbacks combined with the infuriating mark up on the Kindle version creates the following situation:

Broken Harbor is a book I have been looking forward to all summer. Last summer, I blew through these mysteries set in Dublin. Each one focuses on a different member of the detective squad, and I loved them. The new one came out yesterday!

How infuriating. I can buy the Kindle version for 15 bucks or get the hardback from Amazon for $16.43. The hell?

You know what I'm probably *going* to do, even though it's totally illogical? Go down to my local independent bookstore, right in the neighborhood, and plunk down full price for it. At least that way the local bookstore gets a cut. Those jerks at Amazon, or those jerks at the publishing house, or whoever it is that makes hardback sales the be-all-end-all number, make me want to scream. Don't get me wrong---I still by plenty for Amazon. But every once in a while, I just want to protest the stupidity. It also makes it more likely that I will get my small, petty revenge by letting other people borrow it. That's why I almost always purchase the actual book in these situations---I hate spending $15 on a non-lendable Kindle book.

Gah!
Jenny

PS. You know what, the more I think about it, the more likely it will be that I won't buy this book at all. I'll borrow it from the library at school and read it for free. Take that publishers! Of course, the downside of this plan is that I'm not supporting the author.