Thank goodness for road trips. The long, boring drive to and from Ames, Iowa afforded me hours of reading time. It is the only way I was able to finish three books this week.
FINISHED SINCE THE LAST UPDATE:
The Pataki siblings’ novel is dense, almost too much so at times. The story has a tendency to plod, especially in the beginning. Eventually though, it picks up and becomes a decent story about the seedier side of the French Revolution. Interesting stuff.
Jesmyn Ward’s newest novel is a beautifully written story, but I am afraid I struggled to finish it. It took a turn into magical realism that had me scratching my head. The fault lies with me though. Until that point, I was thoroughly immersed in the story.
DID NOT FINISH:
Yay!
CURRENT READ:
CURRENT LISTEN:
This does not appear to be one of Uncle Stevie’s horror novels, but it still makes for a difficult read at times given the blatant misogyny he intersperses throughout the story (for a reason, people, for a reason). It is a different type of horror, if you will.
NEXT UP:
So, what are you reading?
I’m starting to fear reading Ward, but then I want to try her books. But magic realism does escape me quite a bit. Meanwhile I might try Stay With Me by Adebayo.
I am in no hurry to read Ward’s other novels now. In fact, I am more inclined than ever to skip novels that include magical realism. I love fantasy, but magical realism just confuses me.
I’m trying to read an ebook version of this book called Behave, which deals with brains and how they work and how they make us behave the way we behave. It’s super good! However, it’s also quite dense and a million pages long, so I may need to ask for it for Christmas rather than counting on myself to read the whole thing before my library hold expires.
LOL! I tend to love books like this, so now you have piqued my interest!
Hmmm…magical realism seems like a marriage of opposites. I will take straight up fantasy every time!
I have attempted magical realism books multiple times and have yet to find one I thoroughly enjoyed. I love fantasy and scifi, but I know going in to expect something unrealistic. Magical realism fools you into thinking everything is normal and real life, and then it throws in a small scene of magic. I think my brain struggles to make the shift.
With you on Sing, Unburied, Sing….that whole Richie storyline did not work at all for me. Extraneous to the story. Plus, I kept zoning out throughout…yet agree the writing is gorgeous. I think, now that I DNF’d Salvage the Bones and didn’t love this one, I might be done with Ward.
And glad to hear king’s latest isn’t horror. I got it from BOTM, but don’t love his horror. Did love 11/22/63.
Oh thank goodness! I thought I was missing something with Richie’s story. I was not a fan of that at all, and it ruined the novel for me. I haven’t read Salvage the Bones yet, but I will do so with caution. I know I won’t be rushing to read it for a while now.
Yes, still no horror. There are some woo-woo things going on similar to the time travel in 11/22/63, and there are some terrifying events but they are definitely reality-based and not caused by killer alien clowns or ghosts. I am thoroughly enjoying it and can’t wait to talk it over with others.
Magical realism does me in ever time… I’ll probably pass on Ward’s latest.
I’m learning that it does me in too. I need to get better at avoiding it.
Yay for lots of reading! I will be interested to hear what you think of Good Me, Bad Me. I’ve been seeing it around lately.
So far, it is creepy af. It took a bit to get into it, as I kept falling asleep after just a few pages, but now that I am at the halfway point, I am loving it. I hope the ending is good!