The Book of Summer came out this week! It was otherwise uneventful.
I finished A Separation, which turned out to be a real slog. There is lots happening in this book, and it’s fairly short, so its issues are 100% the writing style. A very very tedious writing style.
The Big Love turned out to be something of a palate cleanser. As I’ve mentioned, I am newly infatuated with Sarah Dunn, so I want to get caught up on her work. This is pretty light and somewhat forgettable, but very funny. Great beach book.
Next up was The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley. I had high hopes for this; lots of hype and it definitely sounds like something I would like. Unfortunately I really did not dig this main character at all, and the whole thing just kind of has this protective dad/machismo kind of vibe. I liked the structure, the writing is decent, overall though I didn’t care for this.
Again, high hopes were dashed by Castle of Water. I did not like this one at all, in fact, I’m surprised how strong my aversion is to this one. It could end up in the “grudging respect” category, because even though I very much disliked it, it’s going to stick with me. I thought this was sappy and overwritten. This is about two people stranded on a desert island for years; the male character is much more believably written than the female character, whose motivations and actions never rang true. The author goes into a great amount of detail about Barry’s contact lenses but nothing beyond a throwaway line regarding Sophie’s periods. I’m curious whether that was a deliberate choice or an oversight, but either way it bugged me.
Today I just finished Class and I’m starting to ask myself if I even like to read. I’m hating everything! This is a novel about a privileged white lady’s angst about whether her daughter is better off in a diverse underfunded school, or a mostly white well funded school, and if that sounds incredibly tedious, that’s because it is.
I have a huge stack out from the library right now. I don’t know what I’ll get to next, but I hope I pick a winner this time!
