As I have been for the past several weeks, today I'm joining Kat and friends to share what I've been reading. My pace has slowed a bit since last week (mainly because I've been reading some longer books), but I'm still on track to fill my second bingo card!
The quickest recent read for me was Ordinary Grace, which I borrowed from the library and plowed through in just a few days. I really enjoyed the story and the "back when times were simpler" setting. In many ways it reminded me of books like To Kill a Mockingbird, in which stories are told from the point of view of a child who is just becoming aware of the fact that adulthood is messy and complicated. I also was quite tickled by the fact that the fiber I was spinning as I was reading seemed to match the cover artwork perfectly! My one complaint about the book was that it seemed to have a shocking lack of (to my mind, anyway) necessary commas; the copy editor in me could have easily taken a red pen to the book if I'd been reading a physical copy! I have no idea if that was intentional or just the author's style, but it did bother me more than it might bother the average person whose day job doesn't involve the correct placement of commas. I put it in the "Protagonist with a different gender/sexual orientation from your own" square on my bingo card and gave it 4 stars.
Yesterday I finished The Warmth of Other Suns, and my goodness, was it a great read! I put it in the "About politics" square on my card, because it's about the Great Migration of Black Americans fleeing the Jim Crow South for the North and West and all the barriers they faced -- and systemic racism is politics, as far as I'm concerned. If you just heard a summary of what this book was about, you might think it would be a dry, academic-type book, but it's really not. Wilkerson tells the story of the Great Migration by focusing on three individuals who left different parts of the South at different times and for different destinations, and she follows their paths for the rest of their lives. It's really masterfully done and engaging -- I really had trouble putting it down! And in addition to enjoying it, I learned a lot, which is really a great combination in a book. I gave it 5 stars and highly recommend it!
I have about half an hour left in the audiobook of Housekeeping, which will fill my "Originally published within five years of the year you were born" square, and I'm still reading Stamped from the Beginning for my "More than 500 pages" square. I just borrowed The Secrets We Kept for my "Set in a place you'd like to know more about" square (it's set in the USSR), so I have just two squares left on my card to pick books for: "Classic" (for which I have several options already in my Kindle library) and "With more than one author listed on the cover." I think I'll be reading quite a lot to get this whole card filled, but I'm feeling good about doing it!
I'd love to hear what you've been reading or what you have queued up to read next!
I’m not a fast reader and, with very few exceptions, I cannot read (pay attention to) a print or ebook while knitting. I also try to juggle too many books at a time but I think that has a lot to do with being so excited to have time to read now. I just want to read all the books! And now I have a few more title to add to my list.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the book recommendations! Put both on hold list at library, they are about 9 weeks though, oy vey!
ReplyDeleteOther Suns sounds like an excellent read--thanks for your great review of it. I'm going to put it on my list. (I've had a note to myself to read more about Jim Crow, of which my knowledge is very basic.) Your Ordinary Grace fleece reminded me immediate of J M W Turner's paintings--it looks lifted off the canvas! And I love how your slouchy hat turned out yesterday, too :)
ReplyDeleteI think you will really enjoy the book. The writing is excellent and the book is chock full of information, but it's not overwhelming.
DeleteThe Warmth of Other Suns is SO GOOD. I'm really glad you enjoyed it! :-) I am working through The Mirror and the Light (the 3rd - and last - installment in Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall trilogy) and it is an INVESTMENT at over 40 hours in audiobook form. (Good, though.)
ReplyDeleteYour comma feedback reminded me that I listened to both Ordinary Grace and This Tender Land. I sped through Sally Rooney's two books (Sara LOVED them both and I promised to be ready to discuss) and finally finished A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Gosh it was good. I have the "two authors" square on my 2nd card, too, and picked up The Road Back to You for a re-read and a refresher. It's a good introduction to the Enneagram if you're interested in that sort of thing.
ReplyDeleteUh oh. I didn't know you were an editor. I am definitely a lover of commas and didn't even notice this issue in Ordinary Grace! Haha! (Thanks for putting up with my own overuse of commas in my blog posts and being so kind about it!)
ReplyDeleteI saw your review for Housekeeping on Goodreads. I read this one earlier this year and disliked it as well. When I was on Twitter, there was a thing going around. It was something like, "which novel do you wish you could read again for the first time?" SO many people said Housekeeping. And then when I read it, I was so confused about WHY.
(Now I'm super self conscious about my use of commas in this comment! :p)
You have nothing to worry about with regard to your commas!
DeleteI picked Housekeeping because it was on a NYT best books list I found for the year I was born (and was available from the library). When I finished it, I was really left scratching my head. I mean, the writing was good, but the story (which really wasn't much of one) was bizarre. I had to go look up a synopsis online to see if I'd missed something important and I hadn't.
I am on the wait list for The Warmth of Other Suns. Thank you for this excellent review, I am eager to read it!
ReplyDeleteHa! I probably use...so often to compensate for punctuation uncertainty! :-) Ordinary Grace was a favorite of mine. I have a re-read square on my card and that may just fit the bill. It's been a few years. I am definitely going to put The Warmth of Other Suns on my list!
ReplyDeleteI too like it when my fiber work matches a book cover for Wednesday Unraveled. I am halfway through The Warmth of Other Suns and learning a lot. I agree with you that the writing is excellent.
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