The Reading Promise

What a disappointment. I love reading and books, so a book about reading is a sure winner, right?

The idea of this book had such promise, but the execution was dismal. The book had parts about the reading promise, but a lot of other parts that were just stories about the author's life and not related to books or reading. I found the narrator to be too precocious and her father to be a bit of a martyr about being a single parent and being a school librarian.

I read to my daughter, but probably should read more. I picked this up thinking that it would give me inspiration. Instead it just wasted some of my limited reading time.

I know parents who still read to their tweens and teens. I remember loving being read to. Having a streak like Ozma and her father is something to aim for, but sadly this book didn't entertain.

30 Days of Books: Book that Disappointed Me

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

I "read" this in high school. I say "read" because I'm pretty sure I didn't read it. A couple years ago I thought I'd reread it. I figured that as an adult I would appreciate it. Nope. The plot and the themes (religion, societal norms, etc) in the book are things that I find interesting, but it was still such a hard read. The writing is so difficult.

I was disappointed that I couldn't appreciate it. I did watch Easy A with Emma Stone and loved it, so maybe there's hope for me and The Scarlet Letter after all.

30 Days of Books: Book I Hated

Peony in Love by Lisa See

Ug. I hated this book. Honestly, to me, this was about a moody 15/16 year old who was pissed at her parents, got caught up in her fantasy world, stopped eating, and died. The Chinese history and beliefs about spirits was interesting. The status of women was depressing, but this book was not my cup of tea.

30 Days of Books: Most Overrated Book

Blankets by Craig Thompson

The more I thought about this book the more my opinion of it dropped. I really didn't think it was worth the hype. The plot fell really flat, whiny teenager woe is me stuff. I've read other graphic novels that I think are so much better in terms of telling the story. Blankets just seemed like a book with pictures, not a book written with pictures. (If that makes sense.)

Wait for Me! and other Mitford family books

I think the Mitford family is fascinating. They were such a part of history. The Mitfords were an upper class family who seemed to be around every important person and event in England from the 1920s on.

I've read the non-fiction book The Sisters which first introduced me to the family. I also have read The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford. Those two books are on the 1001 Books You Must Read list and are stories based on the family. The Mitfords show up in other works of literature. Sir Oswald Mosley (sister Diana's husband) has been mentioned in the Maisie Dobbs series.

I really enjoyed the first part of Wait for Me! The book is the memoir of the youngest Mitford daughter, Deborah, who became Duchess of Devonshire. The first half is about Debo's childhood, teen, and early adult years and has lots of great stories about her family members.

However, when it got to the point where her father-in-law, the Duke of Devonshire, died and the family had to pay death taxes it went downhill quickly for me. They had to pay 80% taxes, which yes, is a huge portion of their wealth. But when she's saying how they had to sell off 42,000 acres here and another 11,000 there and all these fabulous works of art. Boo freaking hoo. She even had a catty remark about how a Rembrandt they had to sell was only a drawing/practice/etc and consequently not worth as much as previously thought and haha on the government for that. They still were beyond wealthy and didn't have to work. They even left England to live at their castle in Ireland because they didn't like the socialist/Labour governments of the time.

I had a really hard time caring about her after that point in the book and didn't finish it. I'm sure there were stories that were more interesting towards the end, but I just really didn't want to listen to the author anymore.

The Sisters by Mary Lovell is a great book about all the Mitford girls which you should definitely pick up. It's a great biography as well as covering so much history. I don't recommend Wait for Me! unless the money stuff won't bother you. Debo is not my favorite Mitford.

Crocodile on the Sandbank

Hmmmm. I expected to like this one.

I read it for the challenge category of read the first book in a series and decide if you'll keep reading it.

I'd had it a few years. I thought I'd like it since it is a mix of two of my favorite genres: historical fiction and mystery.

But, it wasn't anything special to me. I probably would have put it down if it weren't for the challenge.

It's probably a good thing I didn't love it. I don't need to find a brand new series to read. And it's another book knocked off my personal 2010 challenge and the seasonal club one!

One for the Road

Goodreads Summary: After a year working an office job in Sydney, author and Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaperman Tony Horwitz finds himself longing for the open road. Spurred on by a colleague's "Aren't you a little too old for this game?" he sets off on a 7,000-mile adventure around Australia, hitchhiking to Alice Springs and beyond: through desolate mining towns, sheep stations, countless bush pubs (do not attempt to match his beer intake), and the forbidding, Martianesque emptinesses of Australian deserts. On the way he encounters hostile, friendly, and downright strange natives; jumps a train; survives a harrowing accident; and uses his relentless sense of humor to face down a cyclone.

This book was a big disappointment for me. One of my all time favorite books is Horwitz's Baghdad Without a Map. My distaste was not with Horwitz or his storytelling, rather it was with the Australian outback. What a truly awful sounding place. As far as I could tell, all anybody did was drink. Drink to beyond excess, drink while driving, drink while walking to the next bar.

There were interesting parts of the book. Coober Pedy is a town in South Australia. Most building are underground. The heat is so intense that it makes sense to live in dugouts rather than to pay for A/C. It looks fairly cool from pictures on the internet, but after a night Horwitz writes, "I have never wanted to get out of town as much as I want to leave Coober Pedy." So even the interesting still sounds miserable.

Skip this one, but don't write Horwitz off. Like I said, Baghdad Without a Map is one of my favorites. His other books (Blue Latitudes, A Voyage Long and Strange, and Confederates in the Attic) are well-worth the read. And remember, when/if you eat at Outback, you need a LOT of alcohol to have a realistic experience.