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Wednesday, August 12, 2020

Unraveled Wednesday: Closing In on the Cover-all

It seems it's becoming a new tradition for me to blog on Wednesdays now, joining up with Kat and friends, and as my reading pace is showing no signs of slowing, I am here for it! Earlier in the week I officially hit my Goodreads Reading Challenge goal for the year, more than four months early, so that should give you some idea of just how much reading I've been doing.

Here's what I've finished since last week:

 

I heard about The Things We Cannot Say from Katie, who raved about it and who, like me, is a fan of the WWII novel. I had a fairly long wait for it from the library, but given how much is available to read, I didn't get too impatient waiting for it. When I did finally get it, I ended up plowing through it in a couple of days. I had some issues with it (which I detailed in my review), but overall I really enjoyed it. It was definitely a page-turner. I really enjoyed having two connected, parallel stories to follow -- one looking back at WWII, one in present day, and I appreciated (and I hope this isn't considered a spoiler) that the stories came together in a satisfying ending. I gave it 4 stars.


I'd been meaning to read Grit for several years, in part because I've "known" Angela Duckworth for many years -- when I was in college and she was in graduate school, we took a seminar together. We weren't exactly personally acquainted, but I was impressed by her at the time, and since then I've followed her accomplishments. And though I didn't take my psychology degree any farther than my college graduation, I'm still interested in the field and wanted to learn more about her research. I listened to the audiobook of this while I was out running, expecting it to be a little dry (as many academic books are), but I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. At one point I even laughed out loud at her comments about Marty Seligman, who taught that seminar we took together. This is a book I expect I will buy a hard copy of and reread at some point -- it's great! I gave it 5 stars.

 
I had another long wait from the library for the ninth Inspector Gamache book, How the Light Gets In, but my goodness, it was so worth it! This was my favorite book in the series yet. Those of you who have read the books will likely understand why I felt so unsettled at the end of the previous book, and this one resolved all of those feelings and then some. I sensed a bit of a departure in this installment, in that the murder investigation seemed secondary to the plot. Instead, the main focus is on the key characters and their relationships. And I loved that, because as much as I enjoy the process of solving the mysteries in these books, what I love about them are the characters and how they related to each other. I gave this a very enthusiastic 5 stars.



I know a number of you have read Brown Girl Dreaming already, because one or more of you put it on my radar. I picked it for the "Author of Color" square on my bingo card and chose to borrow the audiobook from the library because, in my opinion, the best way to experience poetry is by hearing it read -- and as the author reads the work herself, it's even better. This is a really imaginative way of writing a memoir, if you ask me, and how Woodson structured her narrative reminded me a lot of how I think of my childhood: not as a continuous narrative but as snapshots in the form of individual memories. It was wonderful to listen to, and I have even more insight into Woodson and how she became a writer now. I gave it 4 stars.


There There was a book that was on my radar because it was much talked about, but I didn't really know much about it when I bought a hard copy earlier this year as a way to support Rainbow's school through their book fair (which likewise supported a local independent book store). The book fair happened after lockdown had started, and so book selections were put online. This was one of the adult selections. It'd been sitting on my nightstand ever since, and I picked it up last week when I realized it would be perfect for the "Told from more than two points of view" square on my bingo card. I wasn't too impressed with it at first, and it takes a while to keep all the characters straight, but it's a slow burn that's well worth sticking around for. At less than 300 pages, it's a pretty quick read, too, and it builds to an exciting finish. I gave it 4 stars.


Let's take a look at my bingo card (my second card, that is), which is getting pretty close to being covered!


I'm currently reading two books, Ordinary Grace (on the Kindle app) and Stamped from the Beginning (in hard copy). I'm already a bit more than halfway through the former and may even finish it today, but the latter is a bit of a tome and, I expect, will be the book I'm rushing to try to finish to complete my square.

I'd love to hear what you've been reading and enjoying, and if you have any suggestions for my unfilled bingo squares, I'm happy to hear them!

One final note before I sign off for the day: I wanted to mention that while I really appreciate all the comments I receive on the blog and love interacting with you, to this point I've been responding only via email to those of you whose email address I have (either because you have a Blogger account that is linked to your comment or because I've emailed with you before). I've noticed recently that a number of other bloggers have been replying to others' comments by replying in the comments, and this surprised me a bit because I've never thought to go back to posts I've commented on to see if I have a reply. What are your thoughts on this? If I can't reply to you via email, do you come back after you comment to see if I've replied to your comment (and if you do, would you prefer that I reply to you that way)? Please let me know -- I don't want anyone to feel that I'm ignoring them!

14 comments:

  1. I am happy you asked that comment question. I get an email from some blogs when the author replies in the comment section but not from Blogger. I have a Wordpress blog and it is pretty simple to reply via email. Sometimes I ask a question but I don’t really need a reply. I am just happy when people post frequently so I have something to read with my coffee! And your reading life is an inspiration!

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  2. I just noticed the notify button. I wonder if that would give me a notice if you reply in comments?

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    1. I'm trying this to see if it works!

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  3. I've always meant to read Grit, so I'm glad for the reminder. I'm feeling like I could definitely use more of it these days. If a place you'd like to know more about is England, I highly recommend Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell. I haven't finished it yet, but I think it may set a new standard for a five-star book for me.

    I also love the personal connection and conversations generated through comments and enjoy replying (most of the time). I usually reply through email, but sometimes do it in the comments if I don't have the commenter's email. I rarely go back to a blog to look for a reply to comments I might have left, but I know you've got my email, so that's not an issue for me!

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  4. I am loving your reads this week! Thank you for putting Grit on my radar! :)

    I like the conversations in blogs, but it is easiest to manage via the wordpress app, I think. (or at least for me, when I remember to use it!) I don't know how blogger works, but I am clicking "notify me" if you want to comment here and see how it works! :)

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    1. I'm giving replying on the post a go to see what happens. It's usually easier for me to reply via email because all the comments go there and I log into my email before I go to the blog.

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  5. I found your blog because of novel I'm reading "Sea Glass Summer" by Dorothy Cannell. Main character is knitting pattern designer; I wondered if there happened to be one with same name by searching www.Ravelry.com (no Draycott, but many Sarah's). Rather soothing read for those in mood for women's fiction set by idyllic small seaside town.

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  6. So many good books here! I totally agree with your critique on All The Things We Cannot Say. It wasn't super well written and the mystery was obvious, but I still loved the story and the characters!

    The comment question is a conundrum for me and I get super confused by it. I like commenting and responding to comments on the blog rather than through email because my hope is that it will strike up a conversation between readers and not just between the commenter and blog author. That's one of the reasons I like Wordpress - it collects all of the comments on my blog in one place and I can go straight there to respond. If I get all of the comments in my email inbox, then I become quickly overwhelmed and things get lost. And it's a bit challenging when blogs I love are on blogger because I don't get any notifications when someone has responded to my comment, so I just make sure that I leave comments with no expectations about responses (although, I don't usually expect responses on blogs anyway!). (And I'm clicking the 'notify me' button on this post to see what happens, too. But of course - no expectations for a reply!)

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    1. Let's see if you get notified of my reply here!

      I don't have an issue with responding within the comments, but I don't know if there's a way for me to know if someone else has responded to me on another blog unless they respond via email. I have a hard enough time getting to read all the posts as it is, so I'm not sure I could keep up if I kept going back to see if there was a response!

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    2. This worked! But please don't feel like you have to do anything differently! One of the things I love about Wordpress is that I was able to choose to NOT get emails when someone replies to one of my posts or a comment that I've left on a Wordpress blog -- it collects all of those notifications for me and I can reply when I'm ready to, rather than get emails throughout the day. Now I know that I can just tick that 'notify me' button and can be kept in the loop with blogspot emails via email. No worries! I just wished that Wordpress and Blogspot were more friendly and worked together more easily!

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    3. Thank you for this! I love having the conversation on line ... let's do it!

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  7. Lots of great reading there! I reply in the comments section as I agree with Katie, that I like to have the interaction visible for others. I like to read other peoples' comments too.

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  8. So many good books! I listened to the Gamache series and admired the character development. I feel like Penny takes the mystery genre and elevates it into more of a novel.

    I rarely go back to look for any replies to my blog comments. I enjoy the conversations via email when they happen but I understand that all the replying can eat up time. I'm just happy to have a new post to read. I reply via email because that is where I receive notification of comments. Do what makes the most sense to you.

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  9. ...and apparently in my excited about joining the discussion around another comment, I didn't leave my own! you've had a great season of reading, Sarah! I think you'll find that the Gamache series gets even better with each book now - and the latest installment is out in just a few weeks!!

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