Month: February 2016

Monthly Rewind: January

- Meg

rewind

January was a weird and busy month! I moved back in with best friends in their new house, I am on the hunt for an additional job to support myself while I finish out this semester as an adjunct English professor, and I’m seriously loving that I can see the library from my front door. I did manage to read six books (and didn’t finish one). Now that I feel more established, I think I’ll be posting these once a month, and next month’s will hopefully be less sparse. So here’s January’s recap!

GENERAL BLOG UPDATES

Even though I technically implemented it in February, the blog has a little bit of a facelift! It was looking a little plain and impersonal, so it was time for a change. There’s a main blog header, and three headers for the three main styles of posts I’ll be writing. I might get fancier later.

BOOKS READ 

I’ve posted a review for one of these, I want to write a proper review for Truthwitch, and I think I’ll post a mini-review recap in a few days for the rest of them.

  • The Crimson Petal and the White – Michel Faber (owned)
  • The Bad Beginning – Lemony Snicket (owned)
  • The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight – Jennifer E. Smith (Netgalley)
  • Moth and Spark – Anne Leonard (owned)
  • The Apple: New Crimson Petal Stories – Michel Faber (library)
  • Truthwitch – Susan Dennard (library)

DNF

I usually try to finish all of the books I read, but this one I had to stop about 60% of the way through. I’ll post more about it in that mini-review recap.

  • The Good Luck of Right Now – Matthew Quick

BOOKS ACQUIRED

I am trying to curb my acquisitions, spend less, use my library more, and read what I own, so I’m pleased with this list. I’m still waiting on the two giveaways I won from Goodreads, so if those don’t arrive by this weekend, I’m going to drop both a line!

  • 2 A.M. at the Cat’s Pajamas – Marie-Helene Bertino (Blogging for Books)
  • The Apple: New Crimson Petal Stories – Michel Faber (library)
  • Truthwitch – Susan Dennard (library)
  • The Nightingale – Kristin Hannah (library)
  • The Dressmaker – Rosalie Ham (library)
  • Eleanor – Jason Gurley (library)
  • We That Are Left – Clare Clark (library)
  • Far From the Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy (purchased)
  • Star Wars: The Force Awakens – Alan Dean Foster (purchased)

That’s all for this month. I’m planning on making this short, leap-yeared February a full one!

 

Top Ten Tuesday; My Favorite Settings

- Meg 3 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by The Broke and the Bookish) features our favorite settings we like to see in the books we read! Here I’ve listed my favorite settings, and I tend to gravitate toward books with these themes, too. I love reading about day-to-day experiences of characters, right down to the nitty gritty, so the more “realistic” it is, the more I’m engaged with it. In essence, if it’s set in New York City, Paris, or London, I’m immediately drawn to it no matter what the time period, but these are my absolute favorites.

  1. England, and especially London, before, during, and after World War I. Even before Downton Abbey’s cultural popularity, I’ve loved this period. Edwardian Era? Check. WWI? Check. The Lost Generation? Check.
  2. The Tudor Era. Or basically anything to do with the kings and queens of England from The Wars of the Roses until Elizabeth I.
  3. Victorian England. If it’s got prostitutes and/or detectives, even better. Gothic themes and ghosts? Hell yes.
  4. The Middle Ages, anything from the Medieval times to the Renaissance. The influx of knowledge we gained over those hundred years is astounding, and old medical practices gross me out and intrigue me at the same time.
  5. Space, the final frontier. I love a good space opera or a space western, especially those that go to strange new worlds and engage with new, alien cultures.
  6. 19th century France. Something about Paris and the French countryside before the industrial revolution seems so romantic.
  7. Classical Greece, Rome, Ancient Egypt, and Biblical eras. I’m not religious, but the mythologies surrounding ancient cultures and religions are fascinating. I especially love reading about women in these times.
  8. Late 19th-early 20th century New York, right as the city begins to come to life during the industrial revolution.
  9. Time travel. I haven’t really come across many books lately that delve into traveling through time, but I’m so excited to read Passenger!
  10. Fairy tales, especially ones with princesses, princes, kings, queens, fairies, magic, and sprawling, lush kingdoms.

Which are your favorite settings?

BOOK REVIEW: 2 A.M. at the Cat’s Pajamas, by Marie Helene Bertino

- Meg 2 Comments

fbmreview

BOOK REVIEW: 2 A.M. at the Cat’s Pajamas, by Marie Helene BertinoTitle: 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas by Marie-Helene Bertino
Published by Broadway Books
Published: October 27th 2015
Genres: Fiction
Pages: 288
Format: Trade Paper
Source: Blogging for Books
Buy: Bookshop(afflilate link)
Goodreads

An enchanting and staggeringly original debut novel about one day in the lives of three unforgettable characters  Madeleine Altimari is a smart-mouthed, rebellious nine-year-old who also happens to be an aspiring jazz singer. Still mourning the recent death of her mother, and caring for her grief-stricken father, she doesn’t realize that on the eve of Christmas Eve she is about to have the most extraordinary day—and night—of her life. After bravely facing down mean-spirited classmates and rejection at school, Madeleine doggedly searches for Philadelphia's legendary jazz club The Cat's Pajamas, where she’s determined to make her on-stage debut. On the same day, her fifth grade teacher Sarina Greene, who’s just moved back to Philly after a divorce, is nervously looking forward to a dinner party that will reunite her with an old high school crush, afraid to hope that sparks might fly again. And across town at The Cat's Pajamas, club owner Lorca discovers that his beloved haunt may have to close forever, unless someone can find a way to quickly raise the $30,000 that would save it.   As these three lost souls search for love, music and hope on the snow-covered streets of Philadelphia, together they will discover life’s endless possibilities over the course of one magical night. A vivacious, charming and moving debut, 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas will capture your heart and have you laughing out loud.

If you are anything other than humbled in the presence of love, you are not in the presence of love.

Marie-Helene Bertino’s writing is incredibly fresh and free-flowing, almost like jazz itself. It feels timeless it the sense that this story could have happened in the fifties or sixties or in contemporary times. There are very few details that suggest that this novel happens in the 2010s (I think there is only one mention of a touch screen phone). Because of that timelessness, the novel reads like a dream sequence. It’s effective and transporting.

This novel takes place over the span of a single day, from seven in the morning of Christmas Eve eve to seven in the morning of Christmas Eve. It follows a handful of interconnected characters, but it seemed to lack a deeper focus in characterization. When it ended, I wanted to know more about who these characters are and what happens in the coming year. I wanted to read more about Madeleine, the nine year old girl who doesn’t take shit from anybody. I’d really like to read about who she becomes when she grows up, because I think it would be a fascinating companion piece.

Overall, I enjoyed it. It’s a great novel about what happens between ends and new beginnings, and sometimes that’s exactly the novel we need to read.

A copy of this book was provided for review by Blogging For Books. All opinions are my own.