I must have misplaced my attention span these past few weeks because I’m not finishing anything!
Here are the books I gave up on, in no particular order:
The Searcher by Tana French
I started listening to this one on Libby and I really enjoyed the narrator. Seriously, he should get a trophy — switching between tough Chicago police detective and Irish and Scottish and whatever dialect necessary like he was a native everywhere.
I don’t know why this story didn’t catch me, but it just didn’t. I got nearly halfway through and realized that the characters didn’t matter to me. I know lots of people love this series, so please tell me if I was too quick to throw it all in.
Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
Here’s the thing, I adore the 2019 film adaptation of this book and saw it before I knew it was based on a book. Just figured out this movie was not popular with the people. Obviously, I either have a girl crush on Cate Blanchett, or the movie just hit me in the right place at the right time.
On to the book.
The book is a series of emails and documents — almost epistolary, but a little bit not. I already have a chip on my shoulder about epistolary novels.1 And it turned out that I was not thrilled to encounter this story through emails. So I turned the book back in, and decided I’ll rewatch the movie.
The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd
I just finished Writing Creativity and Soul by Sue Monk Kidd (super!) and was so intrigued by her description of writing The Book of Longings that I decided to try it out.
My main beef: it’s a story about the wife of Jesus (such an interesting premise) but Jesus is the flattest character ever — like Kidd was relying on readers knowing the bible and just filling in the bits. I don’t know — it felt like such a missed opportunity to really put more of a person onto the skeleton. So, like any way too hot person in the summer, I just gave up.
Current Bookstack
Library book on my bedside table: The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo. Sound familiar? That’s because it’s been on bedside table forever. It’s been giving me nightmares, so I keep reading Braiding Sweetgrass instead. I might be stalled on page 52 the rest of my life.
Audiobook on my Libby app: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. This book is gorgeous and devastating and hilarious and I will finish it.
I make exception for The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and The Correspondent.
I read braiding sweet grass over about 8 months. First a strong effort for book club but only got 1/2way through, then the rest in the middle of the night when I couldn’t sleep or other times when I just needed peace. It is so beautiful and filled my soul, a little bit at a time.