NaNoReaMo 2010: Recap

At the end of November, I was proud to say that I had made it through my goal of reading 10 books throughout the month. Near the end of the month, I cheated a bit from my original guidelines by reading books that were not on my Kindle and by reading a book that wasn't even on my Unread Book Challenge list. But I'm okay with that--I still had a blast reading book after book, and I'm glad I did the challenge while I could. Now that it's the end of the semester, I know I'll be swamped with reading students' work rather than books for fun.

Talk of the Town by Lisa Wingate was a breezy and enjoyable read. If you have read any of her books before, then you can guess the general premise of the book: a big-city gal who has her priorities in life a bit mixed up but still has a good heart underneath it all gets stuck in a small Texas town and meets a range of fascinating characters (naturally including a hot guy) who help her get her life on a better track. But just like I enjoy watching Lifetime movies no matter how formulaic they are, I enjoyed reading this book. Wingate writes from a Christian fiction angle, yet religion doesn't take over the story. If you enjoy light, romantic stories that leave you filled with a feel-good feeling, then you should check out this book.

I moved from Talk of the Town to Mossy Creek by Deborah Smith and many more authors. It is a collection of short stories about the people living in a fictional southern town (Mossy Creek) pulled together into one book by an overarching narrator. I was enchanted by the stories themselves--the people of the town have such intriguing stories that I found myself being pulled into them and wishing they were real people I could meet. Each short story was like a chapter in the town's story (my favorite is The Naked Bean). While I loved the individual stories, though, I got annoyed by the narrator who wrote a short snipped between each story. The town's newspaper gossip columnist, Katie Bell, was writing letters to a woman in England who wanted to know more about the town and its history. Bell's voice served as a "voiceover" of sorts to transition from one story to the next. Yet the style of writing in those transitions grated on my nerves, and I thought the book would have been much better without those snippets. Even so, I look forward to reading the second book in the Mossy Creek series: Reunion at Mossy Creek.

After that, I read Booth's Sister by Jane Singer, a book I was looking forward to reading because I have a special place in my reader heart for historical fiction, and I am especially fascinated by the exploration of often ignored characters in history. I never considered Booth's family and how they must have felt after Lincoln's assassination. Once I started the book, though, I was quickly disappointed and ended up speed reading through quite a bit of the book. The majority of the book takes place after Asia, Booth's sister, pretends to faint and hits her head on an iron. She then, in her subconscious, goes through highlights of her life with her brother John when they were younger. I thought the book's premise was just fine--I didn't like the narrator's voice. Half the time, I had to re-read sections because I couldn't figure out what the author was intending to say. The language and style left me feeling like my brain was muddled; in fact, at one point, I remember thinking that Asia must have been on an acid trip rather than under a fainting spell. By the end, I felt like I had wasted energy on getting through the book.

I had started reading another book on my Kindle when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I came out to theaters. When my husband and I went to see the movie, I realized how much of the book I had forgotten and quickly abandoned the book I had been reading in favor of re-reading the seventh Harry Potter book. The only problem with reading Harry Potter during my month-long reading fest was that I love Rowling's writing style so much that after finishing the book, I had a hard time getting into any other books. None of them were living up to Rowling, so I started and stopped several before settling on Marked by P.C. and Kristin Cast, the first book in the House of Night series.

Marked is a vampire book for young adults and is a fun read, yet I don't feel compelled to go out and read any more books in the series. For me, the story was marred by the authors' attempt to use way too many obvious metaphors and snarky humor. If it hadn't been for the writing style, I think I would have enjoyed the story enough to keep reading the series. As it is, though, I found myself rolling my eyes far too often to enjoy the book.

The final book, Savvy by Ingrid Law, was so good that it will get its own post. I'll just say here that it was a perfect ending to a fun reading month.

NaNoReaMo 2010: Week 1 Recap

I finished four books during the first week of my month of reading; three of those books I read in the first three days (the fourth took longer because we had company and a wedding in the family over the weekend). I've noticed a couple things about using all my free time for reading: (1) Reading for fun makes me more productive when I work; and (2) I have been more relaxed during the last week than I have been in a long time because I'm spending more time doing what I love. So far, I'd say that NaNoReaMo is teaching me that I need to read like a fiend more often because feeding my joie de lire also feeds my joie de vivre.

The first book I read was The Shunning by Beverly Lewis, which is the first book in The Heritage of Lancaster County series. The book is about a woman who had been raised Amish, only to find out much right before her wedding day that her family had been keeping a secret from her for 22 years. I liked the book because the Amish lifestyle fascinates me, but I didn't like it enough to go out and get any of the other books in the series. While a lot of plot lines can be termed predictable, I've found there's a good predictable and a bad predictable. For me, a good predictable is one in which you can figure out the general direction of the plot from the beginning but are so in love with the characters and/or setting that you feel propelled to keep reading and, in fact, end up feeling like the plot is new even though you guessed from the beginning what might happen. On the other hand, a bad predictable is one in which you not only know what is going to happen, but you also end up rolling your eyes as what you guessed would happen actually happens. The Shunning bordered on "bad predictable" territory for me. I can see why people like Beverly Lewis's books--even if they are predictable, they are also satisfying--but her books will most likely never make one of my "favorites" lists.

The second book, Beastly by Alex Flinn, came highly recommended by participants of YALitChat on Twitter. It is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast that is set in modern-day New York and is told from the Beast's perspective. The beginning of the book enchanted me--I started reading it late at night, and even though I was tired, I literally had to force myself to put the book down. I was enjoying it so much that I made my husband listen to me talk about the book, which is something I don't do very often. One of my favorite things about the book is that the Beast (a.k.a. Kyle) joins a chat room for people who had been magically transformed. My favorite chatter is "Froggie" (who needs to be kissed by a princess to end his transformation); because he is typing with webbed feet, he often makes mistakes in his typing:

Froggie: stil no hop here. i meen ther is hop but not HOPE.

I am kind of hoping Froggie will get a book of his own... While I loved the beginning of the book, the plot fell apart for me when the girl came into the story. The Beast went from this wonderfully complex character to a flat stock character within one or two chapters. Maybe that says something about my reading tastes--I like the Beast better when he's mean than when he turns nice. Interesting...

After finishing Beastly, I read Skinny by Laura Smith, which is a novel that follows one girl's descent into an eating disorder. The portrayal of the main character, Melissa, and her struggle with trying to control her life through controlling her food intake is fascinating. Even though the book is Christian fiction, I would recommend it to anyone trying to understand what someone might be going through when they have an eating disorder. The resolution of the book came a little too quickly for my tastes, so I wouldn't label the book as wonderful or anything, but I do think it has a certain power from its honest look at a real problem.

Finally, I read Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan, another book that came highly recommended by fellow YALitChat participants. This book was my favorite of my Week 1 books (and will most likely be a contender for my favorite book of November). Nick and Norah is an example of a good predictable--I had guessed from the beginning what would happen in the end, but I wanted to know all the details of how these two people got from point A to B. This is novel (a novel novel, if you will) in more than one way: the entire book takes place in one night; the story is told from two perspectives, with every chapter switching between the two as the story advances; and the plot feels real--I wouldn't have been surprised to find out that Nick and Norah were real people and that this was an autobiographical account of how they met. My hat goes off to Cohn and Levithan for writing such an incredible thought-driven journey. I haven't seen the movie yet, but I am excited that Michael Cera was cast as Nick (not just because I have a weird old-lady crush on him but also because as I read the book, I pictured him as Nick, and it just worked). Here are just a few of my favorite lines from the book:

"Sure thing," I tell him, even though Norah looks like the only use she has for the word fun is to make the word funeral.

"No!" Tony/Toni/Toné exclaims. "I saw the two of you canoodling. You're a regular Johnny Castle." I have no idea who Johnny Castle is, but I definitely approve of the name.

Sometimes when we slide together, we take a few seconds to separate ourselves. We're not to the point of deliberately touching again, but we're not about to turn down a good accident.

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist opens the dialogue between males and females--it's an exploration of the whole Mars versus Venus debate. Because we get to read the story from both their perspectives, it helps us better understand the magic of an incredibly good first date. My one warning label for the book is that it is rated R for language and content. If you are easily offended, you may not be able to enjoy the book; furthermore, I think many readers may find this book more appropriate for the 16 and above crowd. I honestly don't think I would have understood this book's brilliance if I had read it at too young of an age.

After such a strong Week 1, I hope my Week 2 will keep the reading energy flowing. Happy reading!

What I've Been Reading

I've had an incredibly productive reading week, which reflects the fact that I've had a pretty slow week otherwise (in other words, all the work on my to-do list has been effectively pushed back to this week as I enjoyed sticking my nose in book after book).

After finishing Pride and Prejudice, I decided to read the other books I had listed in the first poll while anxiously awaiting results of the second Book-To-Read-Next Poll (which is up and running in the left-hand sidebar). First, I read Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding.

It was rather fitting to read Bridget Jones after having finished Pride and Prejudice, as the core of the first book's plot (Bridget Jones's Diary) is based on Pride and Prejudice. The second book focuses on what happens after our modern-day Elizabeth Bennet (Bridget Jones) gets her Mr. Darcy (Mark Darcy). I found that with both the Bridget Jones's books, it took me a while to get into a reading groove--I think the diary-style writing presents a shift in writing style that takes my brain a bit to catch on to--but by around page 50, I had found my groove and immensely enjoyed the book. I might go so far as to say that I like Edge of Reason better than the first book, which I find interesting because I didn't like the movie based on the second book as much as I liked the movie based on the first book. Just another argument for reading the books that movies are based on instead of relying solely on the movie version...

The second book, like the first, is filled with instances that had me laughing and my son asking, "What's so funny? Can I see?" I would show my son the page and explain that the words were funny, but he'd just shake his head at me, probably thinking I'm a bit over the edge of reason. One of my favorite snippets from Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason is when Bridget realizes that she accidentally threw her friend Tom's phone into one of the dumpsters (dustbins, in British English) when she took her trash out, but she doesn't know which dumpster it's in:

Ended up flinging long leather jacket on top of bra and knickers and going out into street to wait till Tom rang the phone so could find out which it was in. Was just standing on wall peering into the dustbins when a familiar voice said, "Hello."

Turned round and there was Mark Darcy.

He glanced down and I realized was standing with--fortunately coordinated--underwear on full display.

"What are you doing?" he said.

"I'm waiting for the dustbin to ring," I replied with dignity, pulling jacket around self.

"I see." There was a pause. "Have you been waiting . . . long?"

"No," I said carefully. "A normal amount of time."

Just then one of the dustbins started to ring. "Ah, that'll be for me," I said... (224)

I love the laid-back sense of humor Helen Fielding uses in her Bridget Jones's books; the scenarios Bridget gets herself into are over the top but believable at the same time.

Once I finished reading Bridget Jones, I moved straight into another Pride and Prejudice-themed book: According to Jane by Marilyn Brant.

I thought the book looked cute--definitely chick lit--making it an appropriate read for summer break. Unfortunately, it bored me. I couldn't get into it, and I found myself skimming more often than not and counting down the pages until the story wrapped up. The premise of the story is that one day Jane Austen's spirit/ghost/voice pops into a modern girl's head, giving her advice on life--specifically on her love life. The modern-day girl is appropriately named Ellie Barnett and is dealing with situations with men in her life that resemble some love themes from Pride and Prejudice. I didn't find the characters believable, which made it difficult for me to make any sort of connection with the book. Not only did I not like Ellie Barnett by the end of the story, I also didn't like Brant's version of Jane Austen by the end of the story.

After being disappointed by According to Jane, I was looking forward to the next book on my list, which I thought held a lot of promise: One Week in December by Holly Chamberlin.

One Week in December is based on a woman (Becca) in her early 30s who, when she was sixteen, had a daughter (Rain) and let her brother and his wife (James and Naomi) adopt her daughter. Now that Becca is in her 30s, though, and completely alone in life, she has decided that she is ready to tell her niece/daughter Rain the truth about her parentage. Rain is 16 and has no idea that the two people who raised her are not her birth parents. The rest of the family is appalled, and so the story focuses on the shifting relationships among the family during their week together for Christmas. I started the book with so much hope for it but ended up doing more skimming in this book than I had done with According to Jane. Chamberlin spends far too much time expanding details that don't matter (I don't care what the characters are wearing!) and attempts to create cliff hangers, but the outcomes to those hangers are obvious, so they failed. And felt cheesy. At one point, Becca thinks to herself that the week with her family wouldn't be "worthy of the Hallmark Channel." That's a bit of planted irony, I suppose, since the story ends up being exactly what you'd expect for a Hallmark Channel movie--including a rushed new love forming between Becca and the good-looking, mysterious neighbor.

And so after reading two disappointing books, one right after the other, I'm moving forward with another book that I hope won't disappoint: Dial Me for Murder by Amanda Matetsky, the fifth book in the Paige Turner mysteries.

What have you been reading lately?

Happy reading!

Weekly Poll

Here is the poll question for the past week:

Do you pay attention to what critics have to say when choosing what book to read next?

A.  Yes.  Critics help me narrow down my book choices.
B.  Sometimes.  It really depends on the book and/or the critic, though.
C.  No.  I don't want to be biased before I start the book.
D.  No.  I never seem to agree with critics.


The results are in and ... 50% of voters sometimes pay attention to critics (depending on the book and/or critic) while the other 50% of voters do not pay attention to critics for the fear of becoming biased before reading.  Before you become blinded by my dazzling math skills, I will warn you that statistics can create a hazy picture, and I don't want all book critics running out and quitting their jobs because not a single percentage of readers always pay attention to what they have to say.  My numbers are based on a whopping 4 votes.  I was rather proud of getting 4 whole votes (new blog, still recruiting a following), so a big thank you to the four people who made this results posting possible.

One of the reasons I asked the question was because I was trying to figure out my own reading relationship to book critics/reviewers.  Prior to the past month, I probably would have answered either C or D because I tended to staunchly avoid book reviews (even the ones posted by users on sites like Amazon).  Sometimes it was because I didn't want to be biased or find out too much information about the plot by a poorly written review (some people don't know how to review without spoiling), but other times it was because when books I enjoyed got horrible reviews, I was left with my doubts about critics.  The same goes for movies--I tend to really like the movies critics hate while only semi-enjoying the movies critics hale.

Over the past month, though, I've become aware of a new type of book critic: the online blogger who reviews books.  I found my answer swaying more toward the A and B answers from above.  I've been able to find bloggers who fit my reading style and provide fair reviews that help me narrow down my reading selection (or, in some cases, add to it).  Not all online bloggers have reviews that are helpful for me, so I don't pay attention to what all of them are saying (so the helpfulness really depends on the reviewer in question).  I don't know if these bloggers consider themselves critics or not, but for me, they fill the position nicely.  If you'd like to check out some of the bloggers I follow for advice on whether or not to read particular books, my blog list in the right-hand sidebar includes an up-to-date list of blogs I frequently read (most include book reviews; a couple are devoted to language and words rather than to book reviews).

So thank you again to my voters, and thank you to the bloggers who have helped me come to appreciate a well-written book review, especially Rebecca of The Book Lady's Blog, Dawn of She is too fond of books, Trish of Trish's Reading Nook, and Ruth of Bookish Ruth.

The new poll question for this week is up (my polling week runs from Wednesday to Wednesday), so be sure to vote.  My goal is to get at least 10 votes this time. . .  Again, if you have any suggestions for questions, please share them with me.

Happy reading and voting on poll questions!