Toss Me That Book

Format:  Hardback Date Started:  May 2, 2019 Date Finished:  May 13, 2019 Flavia is growing up.  I can see it in the way that her emotions, which she ever tries to keep at bay, begin to creep into her investigations.  And, it makes a nice change to see her struggle with having conflicting emotions that she has to grapple with.  For example, while she's delighted to be rid of her sister, Feely, following Feely's wedding, Flavia's surprised to find herself overcome with sadness when she catches a glimpse of Feely's empty chair at the breakfast table.  I'm also delighted by Dogger's advancement from indispensable character of the edges of the action to center stage.  Our friend Dogger is a dark horse, and I'm looking forward to seeing how Bradley uses him in the upcoming stories.  I think he would make an excellent surrogate father for Flavia, but I don't think Flavia is ready to deal with the loss of her actual father. 

Format:  Hardback Date Started:  April 18, 2019 Date Finished:  May 2, 2019 I love going to Three Pines.  I like to experience winter vicariously, and I like to explore how it's residents care for each other. While I loved this installment, it left me feeling sad because, of course, these are real people who are really my friends.  Right?  Let's just all agree to this, please, for my sake.  I'm looking forward to the opportunities for growth in Amelia, Jean-Guy, and Armand.  I just really wish that they didn't have to experience trauma and heartbreak to start it.  I've already pre-ordered my copy of the next installment which should be published in August-ish?  And, it will make a wonderful antidote to the 100+ degree temperatures I'll be living in.  A tout a l'heure, Three Pines!

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.