It doesn’t seem it should have taken so long to post my September wrap up considering I only finished 6 titles. Honestly, I can’t remember the last time I read so little. I did not crack the spine of a book for two weeks. But I’ve learned I need to ride out these slumps (and I was listening to a good audio, so there’s that.) I did complete a Dusting Off The Bookshelf challenge — see below.
By the numbers: 6 books, 5 reviews on Goodreads, 4 reviews on alenaslife, 1 oldie from my shelf – #dustingoffmybookshelf, 1 from my 2014 personal challenge (poetry, non-fiction, foreign locale), 1 audio, 0 set-aside
From most to least favorite:
The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing, Mira Jacob ~ Already Reviewed
My Salinger Year, Joanna Rakoff ~ Already Reviewed
The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields ~ Already Reviewed #DustingOffMyBookshelf
The Free, Willy Vlautin ~ Already Reviewed
Landline, Rainbow Rowell
I just couldn’t ever really get past the gimmick that drives the plot of this book. Plus the fact that the protagonist’s name is Georgie McCool. It was all trying too hard for me.
“You don’t know when you’re twenty-three.
You don’t know what it really means to crawl into someone else’s life and stay there. You can’t see all the ways you’re going to get tangled, how you’re going to bond skin to skin. How the idea of separating will feel in five years, in ten – in fifteen. When Georgie thought about divorce now, she imagined lying side by side with Neal on two operating tables while a team of doctors tried to unthread their vascular systems.
She didn’t know at twenty-three.”
Beatrice & Virgil: A Novel, Yann Martel (audiobook)
Even though the writing is superb, I was uncomfortable the entire time I listened to this (thankfully) short book. In the beginning, I was concerned that it was taking far too long to get to the story. Then 1/3 of the way in, I was so disturbed by the often gruesome content. And then, the end. I don’t have the words to describe the insane, awful, gut-punching ending. I wanted to like it. I didn’t.
“Life and death live and die in exactly the same place, the body…to ignore death is to ignore life.”
My September Photo Collage is comprised of book covers uploaded from Goodreads.
alenaslife 
I felt exactly the same way about Landline–as I was reading I kept wanting to tell Rainbow Rowell “You are way too talented to have to resort to these gimmicks!” I WANTED to like that book so much–but yes, I agree that it just felt like she was trying too hard. Hopefully her next book will be better!
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I’m so glad to find I’m not alone. Still a Rowell fan.
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This was a slow month of reading for me too. I wonder why that is? I didn’t have a problem with Landline, though I wonder if it’s because I “read” it in audiobook format. I wonder if the hyperbolic “…while a team of doctors tried to unthread their vascular systems” phrase would have put me off if I read it on a page instead of narrated to me. I sometimes feel like I’m the only one not sold on Yann Martel. I didn’t particularly enjoy The Life of Pi and reading your mini review of Beatrice & Virgil has convinced me that maybe his writing just isn’t for me. I’m still working my way through My Salinger Year!
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Why is it that sometimes reading feels like a chore? I loved Life of Pi (like LOVED), but haven’t liked any of his other books. I hope things pick up for you.
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