Hooray!! My title rhymes!! I’m like a poet or something.
May turned out to be an absolutely ridiculous yet awesome month.
- I graduated:
- Ración got a wonderful write-up by Jonathan Gold in the LA Times: “Basque in its Glow” which led to an explosion of business.
- I started a cleanse/diet thing and started getting more serious about exercising (there will be a future post about this).
- Oh yeah, and some other stuff happened:
Despite work having gotten so crazy, the nice thing about finally being done with school is that I got to start reading for pleasure again. I’d been doing a ton a reading for my thesis, and while some of it was very interesting and relevant to my topic, it can be difficult to take pleasure in reading when you know you HAVE to do it. I think there was a photo in my April Photo a Day of the stack of books I immediately went out and purchased because I was so excited to have time to read them! (Keep in mind I’ve pretty much ALWAYS got a stack of books to read, but this was a large growth.) I also decided since I’d done so much research reading, I wanted to go with the light stuff first. Here are some reviews (Images click through to Goodreads, so you can find out more about the book – I’m just giving you my impressions):
I really wanted to like this book. It’s about women of three generations and their lives and their loves. And as much as I wanted to love it, I found that I couldn’t. I was incredibly disappointed by the ending, and the ridiculous behavior of the characters. I kept waiting for someone to make smart decisions and toss aside petty feelings, for the characters to develop more than one dimension but it never happened. I suppose it’s art imitating life, but I just couldn’t connect with this book.
I LOVED Madame Tussaud. I am generally not a reader of historical fiction, but I adored every minute of it. The detailed descriptions of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette’s Versailles, the explanation of the construction of wax sculptures, and an creative insight into the type of woman Anna Maria Grosholtz might have been made this book nearly impossible to put down. I devoured this whole book in less than a day. I also found myself researching the French Revolution afterwards wanting to know more about the historical events that inspired this novel.
I would like to preface this review by saying I love Jen Lancaster. I mean I think we are soul mates just waiting to find each other. I was ecstatic when I met her. In my life, she’s kind of a big deal. Okay, now that I’m done sounding totally creepy, I will say that I enjoyed this book, but not as much as I was hoping to. Her first few books were rolling-on-the-floor-peeing-your-pants funny. But they were sort of getting less funny (not un-funny just less funny) and I was hopelessly disappointed by her novel. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good either. But this book is heading back to that original JL funny – the good stuff. The only thing that held this book back was a complaint I seem to see on reviews all over is that many of the stories were stories any fan who follows her blog had already heard. Some of the stuff seemed to be more detailed accounts of posts she had already written, or stuff that had come up on her Facebook page or Twitter. So again, while it was amusing, and most of those posts I found amusing the first time around, it didn’t feel new or special. But I will continue to buy everything she publishes and follow her blog, because really, what kind of soul mate would I be if I didn’t stick by her in the hard times?
I like Sophie Kinsella. I loved the Shopaholic series, I liked Remember Me, and Undomestic Goddess. (I found Twenties Girl to be too predictable…) so when I picked this up, I was excited to have something light, easy, airy, and fun. I got exactly that. This book was a lot of fun, with a runaway bride romantic ending. I always like it when the right guy gets with the right girl. The characters were lovable, funny, and relatable. I mean who hasn’t gone a little nuts when they’ve lost their cell?
Now I actually read several (read: A LOT) more books than this in the last couple months but this post is getting lengthy, and I’ve shared the fun ones. But now for the good stuff. A giveaway!! This giveaway is not sponsored by anyone, it’s not paid for, I’m not receiving anything, nothing like that. This giveaway is basically because I’m a good old fashioned idiot. I ended up with 3 copies of Jen Lancaster’s Pretty in Plaid and I ended up with 2 copies of I’ve Got Your Number, the Sophie Kinsella book I just reviewed. Please don’t ask how. Just suffice it to say I’m a moron and I can’t keep track of things I’ve already purchased. One of the JL books I gave to my sister, so I’ve got one copy of Pretty in Plaid and one copy of I’ve Got Your Number to give away. There will be two winners; one of the books to each winner.
To enter, leave a comment in the comment section letting me know 1) which of the giveaway books you would like to read and 2) if you’ve read anything great lately that you think I should read!
You can get one (1) extra entry by tweeting: “Enter @hotpinkmanolos book giveaway! http://wp.me/pATqq-cq #bookgiveaway @altgeldshrugged #jenlancaster #sophiekinsella”
You have until, say, July 6th 11:59 pm to enter. Winner will be chosen randomly. Good luck!
I recently read Commencement by J. Courtney Sullivan and had a similar experience to yours (with Maine). Her book had so much potential and I enjoyed the characters through about the first half – and then things went bizarre and stayed bizarre through the end. I was left a little puzzled.
Reblogged this on Dkernizah's Blog and commented:
You Have a good taste of books … Love it
WOW, such great words of encouragement. You are just dead on the money with your comments. Great post! I will be back soon to read more