Read-a-thon: Update

Unfortunately I am not going to be officially taking part in the read-a-thon today. I have been admitted to labor and delivery and have been here since Thursday. Everything seems to be OK with the baby but they are still monitoring her for now. Hopefully will be going home tonight or tomorrow.

I will be unofficially cheer leading and Twitter and blogstalking when I can.  And of course I will be reading some in between all the doctor checks.

Good luck to all the read-a-thoners today! Hope you have so much fun!

Thoughts: What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

It is 1998, Alice is 29 years old and happily married to Nick, expecting their first baby and renovating their house.  One day Alice wakes up on the floor of a gym (she hates the gym!) after passing out and hitting her head in spin class (what is a spin class?).  Knowing that she is pregnant she freaks out and worries about the baby only to find out that there is no baby, she isn't pregnant, it is actually 2008, she is 39 years old and she is the Mother of 3 children, her and Nick are getting a divorce and the house they were renovating is all done.  She can't remember a thing from the past 10 years.  What is going on?

This story is told from Alice's perspective with diary entries written by her Sister, Elisabeth, to her therapist and letters her surrogate Grandmother, Frannie, writes to her dead Fiance, Phil, interspersed throughout.  As the story unfolds we slowly find out what kind of person Alice had turned into during the past 10 years and why her life has turned out the way that it has.  How did she go from being blissfully happy with Nick to having him hate her and barely be able to be in the same room as her?  How did her Sister go from being her best friend to someone who has distanced herself from Alice?  How can she not remember her own children?

This book started off just OK, it didn't really suck me in at first.  But as the details of Alice's life slowly unfolded I began to get more invested in her life.  I thought it was so interesting to see how the choices you make and the things that you say and do really all come together to form the person you are and how people perceive you.  Alice losing her memory forces her to go back over the last 10 years and look at the events that have shaped her into who she is and look at them in a new way.  It was really interesting.  It turns out that losing her memory was actually good for Alice and her journey was really fun to read.

I rated this book 4 out of 5 stars.

The Classics Club and a Wilkie Read-a-long!

I decided to join The Classics Club!

I am horrible at reading Classics (they scare me) but every time I do read one I end up loving it and am always pleasantly surprised.  So I figured having a list and a group to read along with would be just the push I need to read more.  My list can be found HERE.

And wouldn't you know that The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins is one of the books on my list and I just so happened to see that Ellie from Lit Nerd is hosting a read-a-long of The Moonstone in November. Perfect timing!

So if you want to sign up go visit her sign up post and add your name to the list. The Twitter hash tag will be #readwilkie.  Can't wait!

#FridayReads

Happy Friday!

It is shaping up to be a quiet weekend here.  My Mom will be coming over to check on me while my Husband takes the dog and goes camping with friends.  So lots of reading and TV watching time is in my future it looks like!

I am currently reading What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty.

I am about halfway through (about 200 pages in) and despite the slow start I am getting into the story now.  I am curious to see how everything plays out in the last half.

After I finish that (probably tonight or early tomorrow) I am going to pick up Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult.

Picoult is one of my favorite authors and this book of hers has been sitting on my shelf for awhile.  I felt in the mood to pick it up so it is on deck next!

So, that is what I will be doing this weekend.

It's Read-a-thon Time

Next weekend is Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-thon!

Since I am currently on bed rest with obviously no where to go I plan to participate in this read-a-thon as much as I can and I am excited!

My time zone starts at 8 am on Saturday and I have my stack of books ready.  I am a terribly slow reader so I have no idea what I will be able to finish but it doesn't matter. It is a good variety and they are all books I have been looking forward to reading:

September Recap

I was actually able to read 5 books in September which is really good for me!

I was put on bed rest at the end of the month until the baby comes so hopefully the reading streak will continue for the foreseeable future.

Night Film by Marisha Pessl-I loved the concept for this book.  I really enjoyed the addition of the newspaper articles and websites that were thrown in throughout the book.  I also loved the ambiguity of the story.  What really happened?  Which version is true?  While I did enjoy the plot of the book the characters were just "eh" for me. I never really connected to any of them. The one character I was interested in, Cordova, was the character we knew the least about!  Of course that is how it is supposed to be but it would have been nice to be a little more invested in the fate of the 3 main protagonists.  I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars because it really was a great book plot wise and definitely held me attention.

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier-This book has been a classic that I have wanted to read forever and I always put it off.  I am so glad I finally got around to it! It had such a creepy, Gothic feel to it and the writing was gorgeous.  I loved watching the evolution of the (nameless) narrator and I felt so bad for her as she tried to adjust to her new roll and life at Manderlay.  There is a big reveal about 2/3 of the way through the book and the pages after that had me scratching my head and questioning a lot of things the characters do which is the only reason I gave this a 4 out of 5 stars and not a full 5 stars. A great classic for those who may be a little scared of them (like me!).

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell-Oh, this book.  This book pulled out my heart and stomped all over it.  And I absolutely adored every moment of it. Such an amazing story of first love.  Definitely 5 out of 5 stars.  Read it now!

The Story of a Marriage by Andrew Sean Greer-I was intrigued by the description of this book and the fact that every review I read gave nothing away and stated that you have to discover what the story is about yourself.  And they were all right.  It is best to go into this book knowing nothing at all because that is the most enjoyable part of the whole thing.  Things are revealed slowly and take you by surprise and I would not want to take that away from anyone reading it.  That said, the book was just OK for me.  It is very short which is why I didn't mind finishing it but it didn't blow me away.  It can be read in an afternoon and the writing is very good.  3 out of 5 stars.

Coraline by Neil Gaiman-With Halloween coming up I wanted to read a scary-ish story and this seemed to be a good place to start for a scardey cat like me!  Coraline is one brave and clever little girl and her adventure behind the wall with the "other Mother" was very entertaining to read.  It had just enough creepiness to create a truly scary story but wasn't too scary.  I really liked it and it was my first Gaiman!  4 out of 5 stars.

Totals:

5 Books
About 1,726 pages

Year to date:

27 Books
About 10,128 pages