Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash
I was in a bit of a book slump in June, but I made up for it while we were on vacation in July. I still can’t knit (damn elbow tendonitis…) and I find that I don’t enjoy trying to embroider in the car, too bumpy a lot of the time. So…while we were in the car for 3400 miles, I read. A lot.
First up: a bunch of Fables graphic novels. My sister let me borrow her whole set, and since we were driving, I was able to take a big stack of with me and then leave them at her house. I enjoy the main Fables stories better than the Jack of Fables, so while I read some of both, I ended up giving up on the JOF ones and won’t read any of the others I still have at home. (Here’s the list of the main Fables books: https://www.goodreads.com/series/54296-fables). I have 10 of those left to go, plus several of the other spin-offs to try (Fairest and Cinderella).
After that was an eclectic list of books (all links go to Goodreads).
Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda — loved it, can’t wait to see the movie and read more by Albertalli.
The Book of Speculation — weird. Just OK.
Homegoing — I had tried this a year or so ago and couldn’t get into it. I couldn’t put it down this time. It was hard to read, but so compelling. Highly recommended.
Strange the Dreamer — loved it. Can’t wait for the sequel this fall. Great fantasy, different than anything I’ve read before. (This was a Printz honor book in 2018, which is part of why I picked it up, even though I haven’t read some of the other Printz books for the last few years. I should finish that project!)
The Little Prince — meh. I know this is beloved, but I was underwhelmed.
Candide — so, I had a list of classics I was going to read in 2013. I started this, but never finished it. I don’t know why I picked it up this time, but I was stuck in a car and just kept reading. I would love to see a performance of the Bernstein operetta. It has some amazing music, which I’ve actually sung before.
It appears that was everything I finished. I did start or continue some other stuff, I’m reading some poetry which I have to read in small spurts. I love Wislawa Szymborska. I’m also trying to read Ariel by Sylvia Plath. I’m not making much progress, because I’m afraid it’s all going straight over my head.
