Toss Me That Book

Format:  Paperback Date Started:  April 12, 2019 Date Finished:  April 17, 2019 It's my first non-digital book of the year! I went into this book expecting a "incredibly funny" book as promised by the cover of my edition and several pages worth of review blurbs.  And while our narrator, Eleanor, and her way of interacting with the world was awkward and humorous, it never left my mind that it was born from an incredible trauma and tragedy. I'm pretty hip at picking up the clues that author's are throwing down, so I figured that something terrible had happened and was probably still coming for Eleanor. I was right, and it was hard to read.  Thankfully, the little gem of a guy who is Raymond was there.  We all need a Raymond. 

Format:  Kindle Date Started:  April 4, 2019 Date Finished:  April 12, 2019 A self-professed Anglophile whose life plan was, in fact, stolen by one Ms. Meghan Markle, I will read just about anything concerning the British Royals.  Heck, I check Hello Magazine everyday.  Even for me, this one was a slog. I made it to "Glimpse #60" before Margaret became altogether too much.  In giving the reader a series of vignettes loosely stitched together to tell her story, the full range of Margaret's snobbery, rudeness, and oftentimes cruelty became too much for me.  I'd like to think that Margaret thought she was being amusing or clever or witty, but, to me, she just read as if she just enjoyed being a brat well into her old age. 

Format:  Kindle Date Started:  April 7, 2019 Date Finished:  April 8, 2019 As a recent joiner of the Reese Witherspoon Book Club bandwagon, I thought it would only be fair to give her memoir/style guide/cookbook a read.  Other than one section on hot rollers and another on the perfection that is the movie "Steel Magnolias," I wish I hadn't.  The book read like an expensive version of Paula Deen and/or down home-style Goop.  She didn't cover any new territory on Southern cuisine or style, and what I had hoped to read about - how she puts together outfits, more about her experiences while filming "Walk The Line, and her grandmother's life story - were just not there. 

Format:  Kindle Date Started:  April 1, 2019 Date Finished:  April 7, 2019 I was 100% prepared not to like this book.  And to be perfectly honest, I was looking forward to actively disliking the story.  But, I couldn't.  The ridiculousness of life in the extremely wealthy suburbs, coupled with strong female friendship, and an appearance by the ever icy Miranda Priestly made for a fun trip to Connecticut.  I also found that the major themes of the book were extremely accurate about what life in your late thirties can be like -- feeling like you've lost your identity, navigating huge life changes, wondering who exactly you married (because husbands are nuts), and trying to keep it all going when you are so very tired and really just want to go to Amangiri for a week. 

Format:  Kindle Date Started:  March 25, 2019 Date Finished:  April 1, 2019 This one hovered between 3 and 4 Goodreads stars because while I liked it, I didn't LIKE it like it.  In the end, I wasn't super-wowed by it, and I kind of though that Circe was going well out of her way to be a pain in the neck.   Familiar stories re-imagined from another point of view are particular favorites of mine because they underscore the point that what one person thinks/remembers/understands is not at all what another person perceives.  But, I enjoyed visiting ancient Greece with Circe.  Her status as a goddess allowed her access to many places and people in a very non-Bullfinch's Mythology way. 

Format:  Kindle Date Started:  March 19, 2019 Date Finished:  March 25, 2019 It looked like it was going to check all the boxes for me:  Paris, a mystery, books.  And then, it failed to deliver in any meaningful way. Paris is such a rich and wonderful place, full of quirks and customs, beauty and ugliness.  Instead of being a major character, Paris was glossed over.  For all of the narrator's rhapsodizing about the city, she operates as if it doesn't exist.  Her daughters live, love, and thrive in Paris, so I really wish we could have heard from them.  Hearing about what high school is like in Paris would have been better than whining and pining in a bookstore.  Heck, reading a list of books available for purchase in the bookshop would have been better than listening to the narrator moaning about her husband. I didn't finish the last half of the book because, at that point, it became painfully clear that I wasn't going to g...

Format:  Kindle Date Started:  March 13, 2019 Date Finished:  March 19, 2019 I thought this book had flashes of brilliance, but on the whole, it was mostly just okay. I loved the way that the author wove in bits of Dutch history without a lot of overly pedantic explanation.  Unless a person's studied art history, the average person might not have a frame of reference for Tulip-mania or the extremely intricate guild system which essentially governed painting.  I also really liked learning about how paintings can be restored/forged and authenticated.  The science is fascinating to me as is the reason why someone might want to copy a painting. What I didn't like - and ultimately what spoiled the book for me - was the lack of depth of the characters, and I think it happened because the author kept shifting narrators.  Sara de Vos job was to experience tragedy and paint.  Sad.  Ellie Shipley's job is to not ask any questions of anyb...