I'm already at 24 books so far this year. Just 76 to go!
I love reading challenges (if you've been reading this blog for any amount of time, you probably already know that). And I like challenges that are challenging - that make me seek out new books and authors I never would have run across otherwise. But every once in awhile, I need one that I can accomplish without worrying about it. You Read How Many Books?, hosted by Gina at Book Dragon's Lair, is perfect for that. I'm signing up for Level One, which means I need to read at least 100 books this year. In 2013, I read 125 books, so I'm pretty sure this goal is easily doable. I'll be keeping track of the books I read in a Google Doc, which you can view here: Books Read in 2014. There will also be a link to this on my Reading Challenges page.
I'm already at 24 books so far this year. Just 76 to go!
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I picked up 3 Willows because it was by Ann Brashares,and I devoured the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series in about two days a few summers ago. The characters were what hooked me. I felt like I knew Lena, Tibby, Carmen, and Bridget. I desperately cared what happened to them in all of the ups and downs of their teenage lives. Of course I was hoping for the same sort of connection in 3 Willows. 3 Willows is written for a younger audience than the Traveling Pants books; it’s aimed more towards middle schoolers. The characters have just graduated from eighth grade and are trying to figure out who they are and who they will become. Polly is the daughter of a single mother who spends all day in her art studio. Polly is desperate for a past, since she has never known her father. She latches onto the idea of becoming a model because someone casually mentioned that her grandmother had been a model. Ama is a scholar, an over-achiever, someone who loves knowledge for the sake of achievement, rather than learning. Her older sister has set the standards high, having entered college at the age of 16. Ama has gotten into a prestigious summer program – except she’s assigned to the one that involves hiking and camping in Wyoming. So incredibly far outside her comfort zone. Jo is working as a busgirl in a restaurant by her family’s beach house. She is trying to get in with the “in-crowd”, especially since these will be the girls to know come the fall in high school, but she finds herself in way over her head. I enjoyed this book, but not as much as the Traveling Pants books. I didn’t really get a sense of the friendship and connection between the girls before they were off on their separate ways and drifting apart. Without that foundation, the book lacks something. I loved Ama’s story as she struggled to adjust to a world with hiking boots and tents and without her beloved hair products. Jo’s story also caught me, because who hasn’t desperately tried to fit in with those the world has deemed “popular”? Polly’s story. . .I don’t know. I just never really got a grasp of who Polly was. She didn’t seem three-dimensional enough. Her personality traits kept changing. I did enjoy the casual entwinings of this book and the Traveling Pants series. They take place in the same town, and the Traveling Pants girls are somewhat of a legend to the middle schoolers. Lena even drops in for a cameo appearance at Jo’s restaurant. It’s nice to get even a small glimpse of them again. The book ends as you would expect (no spoilers here): the girls all pull together and become the friends they need each other to be. It was a satisfying, but not especially profound, read. Just the perfect thing for a long train ride to Chicago. Everyone needs to be reminded just how important their friends are. This weekly meme is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. My Recent PostsThe Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig - Review (What a fun series!) Read It Again, Sam Challenge Sign-Up (Glad to find a reason to reread without feeling guilty.) The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier - Review What I Read Last WeekServing Victoria: Life in the Royal Household by Kate Hubbard (My review should be posted next Tuesday.) What I'm Reading NowThe Help by Kathryn Stockett (Our book club selection for the month. I've got two weeks to finish it before our meeting, but I don't think it's going to last another two days. What a great book!) What's Coming Up NextA Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain (This was my Classics Club spin, so I need to read it by April 2. I haven't read any Mark Twain outside of Huckleberry Finn in high school. I am very much looking forward to reading this one!)
Honor Bright has left the home she knows and loves to move to America with her sister. When her sister Grace dies before they reach their destination, Honor is left to find her own place is this strange, entirely new world. She has to adjust to new animals, different building materials, and the opportunity to put her Quaker beliefs about helping runaway slaves to work. I’m really just starting to learn to love the genre of historical fiction. I love learning about history, but I’ve usually gleaned my facts from nonfiction. Now that I’m really discovering historical fiction, I’m rather picky about the quality of the books I read. Thus far, my model of wonderful historical fiction is Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland (my review). Other end of the spectrum: Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker by Jennifer Chiaverini (my review). Where does The Last Runaway fall, you may be asking? I’d say smack dab in the middle. It includes plenty of history without reading like a textbook. Yet I never really felt like I was there with Honor. I remained a passive observer from the 21st century. I’ve yet to pinpoint why exactly this is. In part, it could be that there was something just a little too flat in the character of Honor. She wasn’t as real as she could have been. And it could have been that the plot had the potential for epic events, but it remained limited to one town and just a few characters. That’s probably more realistic for actual people in that actual time period. But I expect fiction to go beyond that and tell me a big story. I’m probably being much too picky. I’m just trying to figure out why I was left feeling slightly dissatisfied at the end of this book. All that being said, I still recommend it. It’s an interesting look at Quaker culture in the 19th century, as well as the actual running of the Underground Railroad. And being written by Tracy Chevalier, it’s of course deeply researched and includes many details. The Last Runaway would make a good addition to a list of novels about the Underground Railroad – just make sure it isn’t the only one, because there’s a lot more to say on the subject! There was a time in my life when I reread a lot of books. I read Pride & Prejudice once a year (at least) and the Chronicles of Narnia regularly. But since I started this whole blogging venture, rereads make me feel guilty. There are so many other books out there that I haven't read yet! That's why the Read It Again, Sam Challenge, hosted by My Reader's Block, is perfect for me. I can reread for a purpose!
I'm signing up for the Trip Down Memory Lane level, which means I need to reread 12 books this year. That sounds like a lot, but I've already got a couple down. And this summer, I'm planning to reread the entire Harry Potter series (which, yes, I've already done several times, but it's been awhile). That's seven books right there. So twelve altogether should be doable. How about you? Do you reread books? Do you guilty when you do so, like I do? Where has this series been my whole life? I had never even heard of it until a few months ago, and even then I only put it on my highly populated TBR list. I should have gone immediately to the closest library or bookstore and found myself a copy. Several years ago, I discovered Georgette Heyer, who wrote Regency romances reminiscent of Jane Austen. They are wonderfully good stories about a time period I love. The Pink Carnation series is simply Georgette Heyer with spies! Could it get any better? The story of the creation of the Pink Carnation, a British spy in Napoleon’s Paris à la the Scarlet Pimpernel, is perfectly framed by Eloise’s story, a young woman who is writing about the Pink Carnation for her doctoral dissertation. Except all of the myriad historical documents she’s looked through have no hint whatsoever of who exactly the Pink Carnation was. Until she gets permission to look through the documents of the Selwick family. There she discovers more than she bargained for. Both Eloise and Amy (the main historical character) are fun narrators full of their unique voice and style. The book is replete with witty dialogue between the characters in both time periods. Overall, this is just an enjoyable read – the perfect escapist book for those moments when Regency spies are just your cup of tea. This weekly meme is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. Welcome to March! The sun may be shining more often, but the snow continues - another two inches last night. Our driveway is so coated in ice, it's hard to stop before you get to the road. And while I love cozy winter afternoons reading in my library, I am more than ready for a day spent reading out in the sun with a glass of lemonade by my side. Maybe we'll get some spring-like weather one of these months. My Recent PostsThree Reading Challenge Sign-Ups - European Reading Challenge, Global Reading Challenge & Around the World in 12 Books Shiver Language in The Book Thief (If you're not sure what shiver language is, check out my post!) Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder - for the Reading to Know Book Club What I Read Last WeekFangirl by Rainbow Rowell (This book should have been longer. I wasn't ready for it to be over.) Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Can you believe I've never read this before? That's finally been fixed!) What I'm Reading NowServing Victoria: Life in the Royal Household by Kate Hubbard (This is a really interesting book so far.) What's Coming Up NextThe Help by Kathryn Stockett (This is our second book club selection, again a reread for me. I'm trying to start reading earlier, so I don't have to rush to finish this time. :)
I've decided that it's a really good thing that Little House on the Prairie was February's selection for the Reading to Know Book Club. Reading this book made me discover just how woefully ignorant I am about Little House on the Prairie. For example, I didn't know that this was the second book in the series. Little House in the Big Woods comes first. I just assumed, since the series was essentially called Little House on the Prairie, that it was the first book. Yup, I was pretty ignorant. As you can tell, I never read this series when I was a kid. They sat there on the bookshelf, occasionally tempting me. But the couple of times I tried to pick them up, they just couldn't hold my interest. This is rather strange, since I read Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink repeatedly as a child, and they're essentially the same story. I've never seen the television show, either. All this meant that it was high time I picked up one of the books in this series, and I'm oh-so-glad I did. Little House on the Prairie tells a simple story that is really not that simple. Life wasn't complicated by technology and social media. Each day passed slowly, living in the outdoors. But that's exactly what made it not so simple. Can you imagine living as the Ingalls family did? To pack everything on your wagon, leaving all the furniture behind - after all, you can simply make more. To build a house in a random spot from what you can find on the land. To hunt for each night's supper - otherwise, you won't eat. I guess I am truly a child of the twenty-first century, because I truly cannot fathom being totally self-reliant like that. Settlers who lived in this way just gained an awful lot of respect from me. I'm sure Laura Ingalls Wilder's treatment of the Indians is a source for much controversy. We all cringe when we read, "The only good Indian is a dead Indian." And while that was an accurate portrayal of many settlers' feelings at the time, it isn't the opinion of Charles Ingalls and his family. Charles views Indians as individuals, as human beings - not savages, as his neighbors do. He offers them respect and peace. Which makes me wonder if this was really Charles' opinion at the time, or was this Laura trying to make her father look good in retrospect? It took me much too long to truly discover this series. But now that I have, it won't be much longer before I add the rest of it to my repertoire. I just need to go get them from my childhood bookshelf, dust them off, and enter the world of Laura Ingalls Wilder. |
My name is Julie, and I own a lot of books. As in, they are stacked on the floor because I've run out of room on the shelves. And those shelves? There are so many books on them that they smile -- not sag; smile. This blog will cover book reviews and all manner of other bookish things.
You can contact me at julie@smilingshelves.com. Archives
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