Current Read: Mr. Sammler's Planet by Saul Bellow and The Rose Society by Marie Lu
Current Listen: Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovitch and the Siege of Leningrad by M.T. Anderson
It's been a bit since my last update, but I'm still here! Still STRUGGLING by way through the Saul Bellow, though I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It's just hard to move toward that light when you can read Rainbow Rowell instead.
I just finished Carry On by Rainbow Rowell, which is her newest release (again my reading schedule is determined by whether or not things will renew at dear old IMCPL). Carry On follows the story of Simon Snow, who is a variant on the Harry Potteresque "Chosen One" idea. This book exists because of a previous Rainbow Rowell book, Fangirl, about a girl who is a popular Simon Snow fanfiction writer. I was skeptical about it for that reason, but Rowell does a really excellent job filling you in on the world of Simon Snow that has, in Fangirl, existed for seven books before Carry On. That's confusing, but I liked that it was a fictional book that became a real book. NOW John Green just needs to do that with An Imperial Affliction. That'd be great.
This book also did a good job of distinguishing itself from the Harry Potter series. I particularly liked that in the world of Carry On many people who are magickal live their lives among Normals and have Normal jobs. Also, the spells in Carry On are well-known phrases from nursery rhymes, songs, and other common aphorisms. That was really neat. I don't want to spoil all the fun little surprises in the world that Rainbow Rowell created, but suffice it to say that it was compulsively readable but also contained a surprising amount of emotional and philosophical depth. Rainbow Rowell is truly a master of her craft.
On the listening front, I finished Kate Atkinson's Life After Life. When I finished it, it took about 15 minutes of intense reflection for me to decide that I really, really liked it a lot. But it was definitely a lot to take in and was not a perfect book. It took a LOT of stamina to get through the first third of the book (spoiler alert: the Spanish flu was a really terrible thing that happened), but I'm glad I fought through it because it was a very rewarding, thought-provoking read.
The book is the story of a girl called Ursula Todd, who is born during a snowstorm in 1910. The umbilical cord is wrapped around her neck and she dies. Then she is born again in the same storm, but this time her mother is able to find surgical scissors and she is saved. And so Ursula's multiple lives begin. She has the same family, but lives through the early 20th century in many, many different ways. We watch her grapple with the Great War, the Spanish flu, and finally the Blitz. There was some intense, intense stuff. It made me appreciate the London blitz, especially. I also liked that she experiences the war both living in England and in Germany, and both ways from the perspective of an every day citizen of the country.
In the end, Life After Life is a testament to the role of the smallest decisions we make in our days and how they can radically impact our lives. It is a story about possibility and perseverance that I would like to read many, many more times.That being said, I'm not sure why the audiobook is so popular. Listening and not reading really took a lot away from the story for me, since I couldn't go back and compare the details of each story line. I'm not sure if I will read the sequel, A God in Ruins, but I would be open to the idea.
Up next is powering through the end of my reading challenge, though I do have to also throw in Marie Lu's The Rose Society (already overdue, oops), and the only Rainbow Rowell I have yet to read, Landline. I'm confident that I'll make it to the end of the challenge, though, which makes me feel really, really great. If you are only a blog reader, please make sure to also check out my Youtube channel, also called Book Buying with Katie! Posted a wrap up for the month of October last week which can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbzQerOimi4
Thanks for reading, and for now, that's all she read!
No comments:
Post a Comment