May 30, 2016

Reading Lately

I'm super late to my own book club this month. Oops!

Carolann and I were reading "Why We Came to the City" by Kristopher Jansma for our Beyond Bloggers Book Club. After waiting 3 weeks to get this book from the library (it was in stock, but they couldn't find it), I finally caved and just bought it and then read 100 pages a day for 3 days to try and finish it in time, but by the time I got to the 3rd day, I was pretty bored by it.


I thought the first 6 or so pages of this book were beautiful and I was so excited to keep reading but I got about half-way through and realized that there were going to be a lot of loose ends that weren't going to be tied up.

The book is about a group of college friends living in New York about ten years after college. Early on in the book, one of them is diagnosed with cancer and the book follows the group as they deal with this. I really hated the characters in this book and the book was full of cliches and too-modern references...like Lady Gaga lyrics, and terrible references to things that it was clear the author couldn't get the rights to use like a "Cobalt 7" instead of an iPhone 5, and this Spanish sitcom they all watch together that sounds exactly like "Friends."

I hated the way that one of the characters treated their friends' diagnosis like the worst thing that had ever happened to them, rather than the friend this was actually happening to. I hated that the oh so mysterious backstory of one of the characters was revealed in all of one sentence, and didn't even reveal much, and I hated that at the end, everything worked out just perfectly, despite the obvious fact that nothing was perfect at all.



This month, I also read "Mr. Churchill's Secretary," fulfilling my pension for trashy historical fiction (i.e. Philippa Gregory). The book is about a young American woman who finds herself living in London after being sent there to sell her grandmother's estate during World War II. While in London, she lands a job as a private secretary to Winston Churchill where murder, intrigue, and mystery follow her. This was a quick read and I enjoyed it. Now that it's finally summer, I highly recommend it as a beach read!

I'm 7 books behind on my Goodreads challenge of 50 books this year. I'm hoping that some plane rides and beach days (??) in my future will help change that!

What have you been reading lately?
Have you joined our Book Club? Click here to join and vote on our June pick this week!
Happy Reading!

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