I’m not sure how I managed to read anything this week, since I feel like I spent all my time on waterslides. This has been the greatest summer and we’re really ending it on a high note.
I knew I was going to love Emily, Alone. It’s one of those books that feels like it was marketed directly to me. There was not a whole lot that happened in this book, but I did not care one bit. I could have read a thousand pages of this character just going about her daily life. Somehow I’ve never read Stewart O’Nan before even though he’s been on my radar a long time; clearly I have some catching up to do.
I did not think I was going to love The Sarah Book, and guess what, I didn’t love it! Somewhere on the back cover, he is described as “The Appalachian Charles Bukowski.” Oh dear, not my jam at all. Still, some of my most admired readers have been raving about this, and since it was short, and I love divorce stories, I gave it a try. There were a couple highlights, but overall it didn’t do much for me. It felt very very ordinary, and it bugs me that it’s billed as fiction but is clearly a memoir. Stop tricking me into reading memoirs, I don’t like them!
Next, I finally got around to Mr Splitfoot, which was on my radar for quite a while. This one was a little frustrating for me, because I loved loved loved the writing, but I wasn’t into the direction the story took at all. I guess I respected this book more than I actually enjoyed it, but I will definitely read more from her.
Stay With Me is aptly named, because I will remember this one forever. I. Loved. This. Book. This is one of those, “This is why we keep reading,” books. This one gave me all the feels. I loved these characters and I was so invested in their stories. I was not prepared for this one and it blew me away.
That’s a tough act to follow, but I have to keep going, so I started The Burning Girl today. I’m excited about it because I loved The Woman Upstairs so much, but so far I’m not super feeling it. I loved her last one because it was about a woman “of a certain age,” and this one is about teenage girls. But I’m trying to just let it be the book that it is, and not just compare it to what came before. That’s the eternal little sister in me!
