Bookish Chatter | International Booker Winner and Two Bedtime Readalouds

I am totally discombobulated this week for some reason! I spent all day yesterday (Tuesday) thinking that it was Thursday and that my houseplants needed to be watered. I kept trying to reset my internal clock with almost no success. Wednesdays tend to keep me straight thanks to my weekly reading update, so let’s hope the rest of the week is a little less shocking.

Today I’m sharing a finished novel and two bedtime readalouds, as well as a couple of slow & steady books that I’m working through and two novels that I’m currently loving. On to the show!

Finished in the Last Week:

Oof – I was so excited about Time Shelter when I mentioned it on Friday but that enthusiasm waned as the book went on. The book starts with an innovative treatment for Alzheimer’s: recreate the time in the past that the person remembers and allow them to live there happily. I loved how the author explored facets of memories in these opening chapters, such as how certain lights and sounds can trigger some of our strongest emotions.

The book became difficult about halfway through – when government officials catch wind of this treatment, they decide it’s the best way to cure humanity of our ills. Countries in the EU begin voting on the time periods they deemed to be the happiest in order to turn back the clock and reset their societies. This is where I began to disconnect and felt like there wasn’t much of a story behind the words. There was a lot of potential for the author’s ideas but it didn’t work for me overall. Have you read it? What did you think about it?

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Bronwyn and I finished Meet Kit last night. Kit is a young writer living in Cincinnati during the Great Depression. She and her friend Ruthie are a spunky and fun pair! Kit’s special interest is writing – she wants to be a reporter. It takes a while before her family begins to feel the full extent of the Depression but when they do, Kit’s mother has a brilliant idea to keep them afloat. I can’t wait to see where Kit’s writing takes her and how her family fares during the Depression. I think this is going to be a great series!

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Bryce and I finished Captain Underpants 12: The Sensational Saga of Sir-Stinks-A-Lot last night! We’ve read this one before but it got lost under his bed so it was a long time ago and only once, so I’d completely forgotten the plot. It’s amazing how much more enjoyable these are when they feel new to you! It was full of hilarious puns and I laughed out loud dozens of times. We’ll see what he picks tonight!

Slow & Steady Update:

I haven’t been very consistent with my 20 page/day goal for Doctor Zhivago, but I’m still making some progress. Lara returned to Zhivago’s life and I cannot say that I approve of their reunion (fuddy duddy me, of course). And now Zhivago has been conscripted back into the military and we’re about to meet the Forest Brotherhood. If I can figure out how to be more consistent about reading this then I can finish it in 10 days at my 20 page/day pace. I’d like to finish it sooner, if possible, so that I can finally understand the appeal of this story!

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Mary and I have started a buddy read of When I Was a Child I Read Books after finishing up another book of essays by Marilynne Robinson in February. As usual, I’m going very slowly with this one because most of this is way over my head. I’ve only just started the second essay, Imagination and Community, and am enjoying the description of her book and magazine collection. Robinson always blows me away with her brilliance and she’s a great role model for readers: she is insatiable as a reader and follows her curiosity as far as she can. And then she manages to pull together all of these disparate parts together and write something. Life goals!

Currently Reading:

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I was lucky enough to snag the audio of The Covenant of Water on Monday without a wait! It’s a monstrosity of an audiobook (over 30 hours) but fingers crossed for some quiet time around here when I can slip in my earbuds and clean or stitch. I’m almost four hours into it and hooked. I am loving all of the food so far!

I also started Hello Beautiful on Monday. I am hesitant to sound too angsty, but the characters are painfully beautiful. It has a great opening sentence, For the first six days of William Waters’s life, he was not an only child. That line grabbed me and I’ve been fascinated by this story and these characters ever since. There are definitely Little Women vibes that make it even more enjoyable!

[PS: how is it possible that I’m reading TWO Oprah’s Book Club books at the same time?? Oprah, can I read books for you and help with your book club?]

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That’s it for today. How are things going in your reading life? Do you have any recommendations for me? I shared my summer reading plans on Monday and I’m so pleased to be inching towards them. I hope to be back on Friday with a brief stitching update; I’m going to be trying on the second version of my Junction sweater and checking the fit and am nervous! Until Friday – take good care!