Current Listen: New York by Edward Rutherfurd
Finished three more things! It's been a pretty relaxing weekend, and I've been listening to my audio book while shopping and running errands. Also, I just really needed to know how You ended, and I was NOT disappointed. This was a book I found that was promoted by Audible, and every review I read just raved about the reader, Santino Fontana. Fontana was the prince in the Broadway cast of Cinderella and the voice of Hans in Frozen, so I bought the book out of curiosity. He was an excellent, excellent reader, second only in my experience to Davina Porter, who reads the Outlander series.
You takes place in contemporary New York City and is narrated by Joe, a very intelligent loner who manages a rare and used book store. One day, Guinevere Beck walks into the bookshop and Joe is hooked on her. The whole book is a conversation with "Beck," and he goes to phenomenal lengths to get to know her and to win her love. He is basically a stalker, but never have I been so understanding of someone who should by all accounts be terrifying. I was reminded a bit of Lolita in that I found myself understanding where Joe was coming from against my better judgment. It was an awesome, fun thriller, and I was kept interested despite the fact that I am not normally drawn to this genre. I just discovered via Goodreads that there will be a sequel, also starring Joe! I'm slightly skeptical--I feel like a sequel might be a little formulaic--but I'll definitely read it.
I also finished Renee Ahdieh's The Wrath and the Dawn yesterday evening. I was about a third of the way through it, then read it at the gym, then came home and just read until I finished it. I love YA, and this title falls into a category that I love even MORE, the YA that re-imagines an old fairy tale. This is an AWESOME retelling of Scheherazade. The Caliph of Khorasan takes a new wife every evening and strangles her the next morning. Shahrzad's best friend is taken and killed in this way, and Shazi decides to volunteer to be his next bride in order to exact her revenge. She discovers that things are not as they seem, and there is a lot of tormented, forbidden love. It was super fun, and I'm so, so glad that a sequel comes out next May. The sequel is a fortunate happening not just because I can't get enough of these characters, but because it is easier to resist purchasing a book if I know I'll have to buy the sequel as well. Not that I would be upset if someone gave me the complete set of the Lunar Chronicles for Christmas once the last book comes out.
Finally, I decided to use the weekend to breeze through Our Town, the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Thornton Wilder.I'm sure that if I saw the play, I would be weeping all the way through Act III, but plays just don't translate very well for me unless I get a bunch of people together to read different parts, a la high school English. Worth reading, though. With these books, I've completed my Goodreads challenge to myself of reading 55 books this year, which means I need to up the ante considerably for next year. Updated challenging for those following along at home:
A book with more than 500 pages: Drums in Autumn by Diana Gabaldon
A classic romance:
A book that became a movie: Paper Towns by John Green
A book published this year: Girl on a Train by Paula Hawkins
A book with a number in the title: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
A book written by someone under 30: My Drunk Kitchen by Hannah Hart
A book with nonhuman characters: Cinder by Marissa Meyer
A funny book: Grace’s Guide by Grace Helbig
A book by a female author: Royal Wedding by Meg Cabot
A mystery or a thriller: Doll Bones by Holly Black
A book with a one-word title: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
A book of short stories: Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
A book set in a different country: Berlin Boxing Club by Robert Sharenow
A nonfiction book: A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
A popular author’s first book: An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
A book from an author you love that you haven’t read yet: Fairest by Marissa Meyer
A book a friend recommended: Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein
A Pulitzer Prize-winning book: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
A book based on a true story: Odette's Secrets by Maryann Macdonald
A book at the bottom of your to-read list:
A book your mom loves: Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
A book that scares you: The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression by Andrew Solomon
A book more than 100 years old:
A book based entirely on its cover: Playing for the Commandant by Suzy Zail
A book you were supposed to read in school but didn’t:
A memoir: Yes, Please! by Amy Poehler
A book you can finish in a day: Hidden by Helen Frost
A book with antonyms in the title:
A book set somewhere you’ve always wanted to visit: Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon
A book that came out the year you were born:
A book with bad reviews: Frogged by Vivian Vande Velde
A trilogy: Legend trilogy by Marie Lu
A book from your childhood: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
A book with a love triangle: Voyager by Diana Gabaldon
A book set in the future: Cress by Marissa Meyer
A book set in high school: Armada by Ernest Cline
A book with a color in the title: Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
A book that made you cry: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz
A book with magic: Wild Born by Brandon Mull
A graphic novel: Watchmen by Alan Moore
A book by an author you’ve never read before: The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh
A book you own but have never read: You by Caroline Kepnes
A book that takes place in your hometown: All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
A book that was originally written in a different language: Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
A book set during Christmas:
A book written by an author with your same initials:Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
A play: Our Town by Thornton Wilder
A banned book: Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
A book based on or turned into a TV show:
A book you started but never finished:
I've swapped out a few titles that I read as part of the Young Hoosier Book Award nominations (I read them all for school) in favor of titles that I enjoyed more. Not that anyone noticed, which is fine.
That's all she read!
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