The Tiger's Wife

When reading a good book, I've found that there typically comes a point when I stop focusing on the physical act of plowing through the sentences and get sucked right into the story, producing the sensation I imagine all book lovers seek.  Reading becomes less of an "ok, I need to get reading on this chapter tonight" and more of "Geez louise, I can't put this down, oh the baby's crying and the family's hungry?  Just let me read one. more. page."  If I were a runner, maybe it could be described as akin to a runner's high--but I only run if I'm being chased, so I surely wouldn't know.

My favorite is when this sucking in occurs right from the get-go, either on the first page or even the first chapter.  For me, while reading The Tiger's Wife, this didn't occur until well into the second chapter and while I was hooked for several chapter.  Don't get me wrong, there is some beautiful writing in this story.  (insert examples)  I think the author has a tendency to shroud her plotlines in a little too much mystery.  In her defense, though, there may be some really great reveals coming up, I just haven't arrived there yet.  So far we've got several timeframes and setups going on: Natalia and Zora in Brejevina shortly after the death of Natalia's grandfather, Natalia's grandfather as a young boy in his hometown, Natalia in current time(?), and Natalia's grandfather as a young doctor meeting the deathless man.  I want to like this book, I really do.  But I'm nearly halfway through and I'd like to begin learning how all these scenes weave together.  Here's hoping the story takes off again very soon.

New Year, New Book

I've decided that the first book* I will read in 2012 is The Tiger's Wife, by Tea Obreht.  I don't know anything about this book going in and have only chosen it because the Huffington Post has chosen this book as the first selection for their online book club, oh-so-conveniently beginning tomorrow, so I'm jumping right on the bandwagon.  That is a good enough reason for me!  I'm terrible at deciding which new book to read and having the choice picked for me is super easy.  Plus, this book has made several 2011 "Best Of" lists and I'm a sucker for that type of thing.  I've never participated in a book club and now is as good a time to start as any, plus hopefully it will be fun.

*This is not entirely true.  Actually, I've been very diligently making my way through my husband's copy of Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover, which I discovered in the basement the other day.  When one is unemployed, one can never know too much about how to be financially intelligent. ;)

Welcome to My Little Corner

I am starting this blog with the hope that it will become a little corner where I can assemble my thoughts and opinions on books that I read and either love, hate, or that fall somewhere in between.  Truthfully, it's difficult to tell whether or not this will be a successful endeavor.  Reading books is one of my very favorite pastimes.   Discussing books is a whole different bird.  I've never really been any good at it and any attempt I make just devolves into word babble.  Typically, my conversations go something like this: "I just read a book I loved.  So good. "  "Oh really, what's it about?"  "I don't know how to describe it.  It's kinda hard to explain.  It was just really good.  The characters...the writing...just so good." (Conveniently, this inability to describe what my favorite books are about fits in nicely with my theory that if the plot of a book can book can fit into one or two sentences, the book is not really special enough to be a Very Good Book.  Of course, this is an extreme generalization and there are most assuredly exceptions to this theory.  But on the whole, I've found that the books I love the most owe their brilliance to beautiful sentence structure, compelling characters, or smart dialogue and not necessarily to their plot line.)  However, it is my intention to follow each book I read with a small write-up on this blog.  Few pleasures in life rival that of stumbling on a truly suuuu-blime novel...but typically it is necessary to plow through many run-of-the-mill books in order to reach the gems.