November Wrap-Up and December TBR

Slacker slacker slacker. That's me.

It suddenly struck me today that it's already December 3 and I still hadn't posted my November wrap up OR my December To Be Read lists so here we go with a combined post.

November was kind of hectic for me. Between holiday preparation, a busy workload at my day job and a little traveling (not to mention a fabulous ice storm that knocked out our power for 3 days...) I have barely had time to read, let alone write about reading.

Still, I did manage to get a little bit accomplished.

I finished off the Anne of Green Gables series. I'm so glad I took the time to re-read these books. They are such gentle, peaceful reads. I have to say, the final book in the series, Rilla Of Ingleside, is possibly one of the better books I've read about World War I. I'm a little surprised that this one isn't taught in schools alongside the WWI history unit.  There's lots of detail and it really brings the events of the war, the different battles, the effect it had on the folks back home, etc, into focus without getting mundane or boring.

Along with the Anne books, I worked my way a little way down on my stack of books for review. This month I had the pleasure of reading Now That She's Gone, by Gregg Olsen as well as Coal River by Ellen Marie Wiseman.  Now That She's Gone was ok - I think I would have enjoyed it more had I read the first book in the series (imagine that!) and Coal River was great, even if the ending was a little... implausible.

I also read some Rainbow Rowell: Fan Girl (not such a fan) and Landline (loved it) to be exact. I still can't quite put my finger on what it is that keeps me from just going nuts over Rowell like so many of my fellow bloggers, but there's just something...

For December my plan is to just get to the end of this year in one piece! I had originally set a goal for myself this year of reading 150 books. Well, that's not going to happen. According to my tracker on Goodreads, I'm 98 books. Given that I have a full time job, a side business (I dye yarn! check it out here!), a social life and this blog... I'm calling it good if I get to 100 for the year.

Now that I'm done with the Anne books, I've started on the Oz books by L. Frank Baum. If you've never read them and have only seen the movie, I highly recommend you check them out. They're fantastic, silly, wonderful little books that are great distractions from the heaviness that day-to-day life can bring.

I'm determined to finish up Avenue of Mysteries in the next week or so. This latest work by John Irving was given to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Unfortunately, I didn't get it until the day before it published (11/3) so I'm a little late with my thoughts on it. I'm liking the book a lot... that's all I can really say for now.

At the library the other night I couldn't help but pick up the latest in the Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella. Sigh. All I can really say about this guilty pleasure book is that, as much as I enjoyed the first few books in the series, please stop writing them Ms. Kinsella. For the love of god. Please. Stop. Writing. These. Books. I started off loving Becky Bloomwood and now I'm just so disgusted by her inability to achieve real, lasting maturity that I could scream. And yet I can't quit reading these awful crack books!  I'm about a quarter of the way through Shopaholic To The Rescue and I just want my life back.

I've got big plans to read a few more books for review (and even get the reviews published on time this month!) and a few more new releases picked up at my local library. Last but not least, I've started on the Mark of the Lion trilogy by Francine Rivers. These books are Christian Fiction classics that have somehow been recommended to me several times (if you knew me in real life, you'd know how funny it is to see me reading Christian Fiction). The first book is good so far. Some of the history is suspect, but the overall view of ancient Roman culture is right up my alley.

Landline

Another day, another Rainbow Rowell review...

I am so happy to report that I have finally found a Rainbow Rowell book that I really liked! I still don't totally get the hype over this writer, but I am at least happy to learn that she can in fact create a plot and finish a story!

So, Landline is the story of a marriage in crisis. Georgie and Neal have been married for nearly 15 years and I think it's safe to say that Neal's pretty much over being the one to make all the sacrifices in the relationship. When Georgie decides that she has to work over Christmas, Neal takes their two daughters and flies home to Omaha without her. Georgie is left behind to figure out what's really important and to decide if she is willing to do what it takes to save her marriage.

Pretty straightforward, grown-up stuff, right? Well, the twist is that Georgie discovers that she has a magic phone that can somehow call 15-years-ago Neal and, using this phone over the course of a week, learns a lot about her husband, her marriage and herself. I don't know how to make that sentence not sound silly and insane, but trust me when I tell you that, somehow, it works.

Rowell does a great job with this book. I would love to see her apply this level of story-telling to her Young Adult novels as well. If she could do that, I could easily see her becoming a favorite.

Fangirl

So this is the part where I make some enemies.

You guys. I don't get Rainbow Rowell. I mean, I don't get the hype. She's an ok writer. She creates great characters, for sure. But where's the plot? Why don't her endings ever feel like endings? I swear, it's like she just lost interest after a few hundred pages and said, "Welp, that's enough. You can imagine the rest." There's not enough resolution.

I don't know. I don't hate her or anything. As a matter of fact, I just picked up another of her books (Landline) at the library today and fully intend to spend the afternoon reading it out on my patio.

I just finished Fangirl this week. It's been on my TBR shelf for a while, but I just hadn't gotten around to it. It was ok. A perfectly serviceable coming of age story about Cath, a girl who is really into writing fanfiction about a faux-Harry Potter series. At first I identified with Cath - she's pretty clearly got some anxiety issues that manifested in ways I could relate to. As the book went on though, Cath turned into something of a caricature. She's passive and reclusive and pushes the boundaries of what I can believe when it comes to being a late-bloomer. (she starts dating a guy she's already kissed and then doesn't let him so much as give her a peck on the cheek for over a month? really? really?)

The thing is, Fangirl didn't have much plot. Cath leaves home to go to college. Deals with her identical twin not wanting to room with her. Becomes friends with her somewhat intimidating roommate, gets a boyfriend, deals with family drama and bam. The book is over. There are enough loose ends to take up a whole second book. For instance: what's going to happen with Cath and Wren's mom? Is their dad really ok now? Or is he just going to continue an endless cycle of stable then manic then stable then manic periods for the rest of their lives? Is Wren going to be ok or is she going to turn into a full-on alcoholic?

Rowell spends hundreds of pages building this world and creating these characters and then just walks away from them. I don't get it. Why do people love her so much?