Caramellunacy's Mt. TBR Excavation Continues

Back to the digsite of Mt. TBR in the coming year! After last year's success, I'm aiming to excavate 75 artefacts this year (and hopefully to post fieldnotes on them as well)!

Books Read in 2015:
Titles listed in italics are loans (library books rather than TBR) and do not count towards the total. Numbered entries count toward the challenge and bold underline means an exhibit of the month pick!

January
1. Hyperbole and a Half - Allie Brosh
2. Attachments - Rainbow Rowell
3. Jane and the Man of the Cloth - Stephanie Barron
4. A Lot Like Love - Julie James
5. The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde
6. Not in the Script - Amy Finnegan
7. Foiled - Jane Yolen and Mike Cavallaro

February
8. The Stolen Princess - Anne Gracie
9. Alone in Berlin - Hans Fallada
10. The Daughter of Time - Josephine Tey
11. The Everyday Dancer - Deborah Bull

March
12. His Captive Lady - Anne Gracie
13. Hope in a Ballet Shoe - Michaela & Elaine DePrince
14. A Town Called Alice - Neil Shute
15. Someday, Someday, Maybe - Lauren Graham

April
16. Drama Queen - Susan Conley
17. Above Suspicion - Lynda LaPlante
18. Geek High - Piper Banks
19. Spain or Shine - Michelle Jellen
20. To Catch a Thief - Christina Skye
21. Step Up and Dance - Thalia Kalkipsakis
Jane Austen's Mansfield Park (BBC Radio) - Audio
22. The Stranger Beside Me - Ann Rule
23. Dairy Queen - Catherine Gilbert Murdock
24. Dark Places - Gillian Flynn

May
25. The Off Season - Catherine Gilbert Murdock
26. Strange Objects - Gary Crew
27. Front and Center - Catherine Gilbert Murdock
28. The Naked Duke - Sally MacKenzie
29. Austentatious - Alyssa Goodnight
30. The Gallows Thief - Bernard Cornwell
31. Undressing Mr. Darcy - Karen Doornebos
32. Chasing Darkness - Robert Crais

June
33. A Kiss at Midnight - Eloisa James
34. Rowan Hood-Outlaw Girl of Sherwood - Nancy Springer

July
35. Girl Overboard - Aimee Ferris
36. Wanderlove - Kirsten Hubbard
37. Trading in Danger - Elizabeth Moon
38. Mit dem Rucken zur Wand - Klaus Kordon

August
39. The Likeness - Tana French
40. Royal Wedding - Meg Cabot
41. Champagne - Don & Petie Kladstrup
42. Rodin's Lover - Heather Webb
43. The Martian - Andy Weir
44. On Basilisk Station - David Weber
45. The Cotton Queen - Pamela Morsi

September
46. A Company of Swans - Eva Ibbotson
47. Glass of Time - Michael Cox
48. Last Chance - Sarah Dessen
49. Silent Scream - Lynda La Plante
50. A Walk in the Woods - Bill Bryson

October
51. The Morning Gift - Eva Ibbotson
52. Under a Painted Sky - Stacey Lee
53. The Book of Seven Delights - Betina Krahn
54. The Confession of Katherine Howard - Suzannah Dunn

November
55. It Happened One Autumn - Lisa Kleypas
56. The Gods of Guilt - Michael Connelly
57. Pretty Girl-13 - Liz Coley
58. Raw Blue - Kirsty Eagar
59. The Look - Sophia Bennett
60. Stonehenge - Bernard Cornwell

December
61. Getting the Girl - Susan Juby
Photograph 51 - Anna Ziegler
62. Losing It - Cora Carmack

I'm looking forward to the fieldnotes!

Welcome back and good luck! I look forward to your excavation fieldnotes again in 2015 ;)

Good luck!

Yay, fieldnotes! Good luck with the challenge.

Welcome back, good luck and bring on those fieldnotes!

Thanks all, good to see you all here again! The big challenge this time will be to actually donate, sell or otherwise remove from the house those books that don't need a permanent home with me! I have a tendency to get too attached (even to books that I wasn't hugely impressed by).

The year opens with a difficult question - to count or not to count?
Yesterday we went shopping for a new winter coat for The Fantastic Mr. Fox and as the mall was heaving and horrible, I was promised a trip to the bookstore in recompense. So I have four new acquisitions thus far this barely-begun month, and last night I finished one of them.

On the one hand, it is very clearly a new TBR, as it was read directly from the bookstore and thus doesn't feel like it should count.

On the other hand, I don't particularly want to worry about acquisition dates - especially later in the year when it will be far more difficult to remember/require checking (and not all of my books are logged straightaway). Plus it (and its three brethren) arguably became TBR books upon purchase - though, of course, that does not deal with the fundamental point of reading books I already have...

Thoughts?

I'll have to ponder this for a bit. In the meantime, fieldnotes below!

Artefact: Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate situations, flawed coping mechanisms, mayhem and other things that happened - Allie Brosh
Trove: Paperback (2015 Acquisition)
Status: Awaiting Review by Director



Fieldnotes:
1 Hilariously Relatable To My Own Failures at "Adulting" Story
1 Truly Funny Story involving 1 Predatory Goose
1 Discussion of Depression (in 2 Parts) that is Important
4 Dog-Related Posts (Varying Degrees of Funny)
Various Other Stories/Essays
Multiple Entertaining Stick Figure Illustrations

The short version:
Three of the stories/essays were great. A few of the others were passingly funny - in a yes, that's true and entertaining, but not in a yes-I-must-keep-this-forever way. The rest were iffy at best, as I suspect is usual in collections of blog posts of this kind.

The Long Version:
The first I heard of Hyperbole and a Half (the blog) was when I stumbled across a link to Brosh's post "This Is Why I Will Never Be an Adult", which is just so, so true. I also end up in this cycle ("CLEAN ALL THE THINGS!") and the progression is incredibly spot-on even now that I am ostensibly a proper grown-up. This was the first time I realized that there are other people who feel this way about life (at least some of the time) and that not everybody has their act together regardless of how it may appear. So that was an eye-opener (and a funny one at that).

It was on the strength of that essay and based on discussions that Brosh included a powerful essay on what depression is really like that I purchased the book. And those two essays were certainly worth it. I have (thankfully) never been in Brosh's position, but as I suspect most of us do, I have had small tastes of depression and recognized the onset of those feelings in the initial stages of what Brosh describes. And I felt like I certainly understood better what things are like for certain of my family/acquaintances after her explanation (and dead fish simile).

But really these two, and the predatory home invading goose story, which had me giggling like crazy, were the only ones that particularly resonated with me. While reading I sometimes felt like I was being overly judgmental, but I found certain of the stories of Brosh's childhood somewhat off-putting (the cake story?) rather than funny.

And my first resolution above is already tested. I'm uncertain about whether to keep this. Two of the three stories that I enjoyed are available in the blog archives. The Goose story is much expanded in the book (and really funny) - and also one I would probably read to my dad. So perhaps that will be the plan. Once dad has also read the goose story, this will make its way into the cull pile.

To count or not to count is the question? I have asked myself that before. I have answered myself, also! If it is in my TBR pile, regardless of the date, I count it! But then, I do not keep track of the dates of aquisitions!

I count all books I own, regardless of date, and also include rereads to encourage me to do more of it. I try to give priority to older books but it doesn't always happen.

>10 Caramellunacy: I realllly enjoyed that one :) but i know what you mean about some stories not being particularly strong..

As for counting, I count it if I got it *last* month :). That's easier to remember, but then I feel like they have a little bit of "root" ;). But I also agree that if its on the shelf, it's on the shelf! So if you want to count it, you won't hear objections from me!

I'm counting all of mine - I'm trying to be more mindful of not buying too many new books, and will mostly prioritise books I bought pre the start of the year, but if the odd new acquisition sneaks its way in then I'm not going to beat myself up about it, it's still a tome waiting to be read!

Here's hoping that you only dig up fragrant flowers!

I would not count is as a ROOT. My goal is 24 and that leaves enough room to read 'new' books. I've read almost 70 books last year! Room enough!
But you can certainly make your own rules!

If you think it might have, ah, aged on your shelves if you hadn't read it right away, I'd say count it. Actually, I'd say count it no matter what. :)

Allie Brosh's essays on depression are some of the best descriptions I've seen of what it feels like, right down to the hysterical laughter over a stray piece of corn. That is such a surreal thing -- your feelings are Doing a Thing and you're just along for the ride, thinking "...what?? well, at least it feels better than the usual."

Oh, adulthood. "What am I, some kind of wizard?!" is a common refrain in our house. Alternately, when the Giant Dark Cloud has settled over one or both of us, minor triumphs (emptying trash, going to an appointment) are celebrated with high fives and "Yeah!! You're a @%^?in' WIZARD!"

Artefact: Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
Trove: Paperback
Status: Unattached



Fieldnotes:
1 Married Headline and Copy-Editor with Baby Woes
1 Marriage-Minded Movie Critic
1 Emotionally Distant Musician Boyfriend

1 Socially Awkward Perpetual Student Nursing Ancient Traumatic Heartbreak
1 Weird Job Screening Email
1 Overly Protective Mother
Almost(?) Stalker-y Behavior
1 Underused Cute Redheaded Protest Guy Who Should Have Been the Hero

Y2K
1 Ending that Made Me Flip Pages Convinced I Had Missed a Few Chapters

The Short Version:
This book and I didn't really click. I liked the semi-epistolary style, but I never really fell for the characters. And when I found myself rooting for a barely-mentioned character to be the love interest rather than the man clearly set up to be the protagonist, I knew that this wasn't going to work out between us.

The Long Version
At a newspaper office in middle America, Lincoln is paid to monitor his colleagues' email, and gets caught up in the personal back and forth of movie critic Beth and her best friend Jennifer. Beth has an emotionally distant rocker boyfriend. Jenn has a definite fear of pregnancy and a generally stand-up husband who makes her feel guilty about not wanting kids. Their interchanges about their relationships and various tribulations catch Lincoln's attention, and he begins to look forward to reading what is going on - and slowly finds himself falling for Beth.

Now here's where things started really not working for me. Lincoln, who's shy and who hasn't had a girlfriend in the better part of a decade because his high school girlfriend ditched him and tore his self-esteem to shreds during his first year of college, not only reads her email and finds himself attracted to her - he does this weird pseudo-stalking thing where he goes by her desk - not when she's there and she might have the chance to actually speak to him. He doesn't try to get to know her in person. Instead, he wanders by her desk to look at her things and goes to her boyfriend's concerts (because he knows she won't be there), and insinuates himself around her life. And it's kind of creepy.

But even if that doesn't strike you as weird - here's the thing that I couldn't deal with about Lincoln: he got hurt when he was 19 years old, and delicate flower that he is, he withdrew from college, from life, from anything resembling independence. FOR TEN YEARS. He moved back in with his mom, doesn't date, doesn't really interact with people. Now he's very shy - fine. He was hurt. Fine. For a bit. But he just doesn't pull himself together until towards the very end of the book, and we're supposed to be irritated along with him about his pushy sister trying to get him out of his mother's basement and into his own life (which, admittedly, she goes about all wrong, but, boy, do I understand the sentiment). I mean, I just wanted to reach into the pages and shake him. Who pines away for a DECADE? I just couldn't cope. Especially since the whole situation with his ex-girlfriend was danced around like some sort of incredible trauma for essentially ALL OF THE BOOK. And the break-up scene? I recognized it. It was painful and messy and ugly and true. But it was also something I expect has happened to an awful lot of people who did NOT allow themselves the luxury of ten years of protecting their fragile egos. So to me, Lincoln didn't come across as sweet, but shy. He came across as a bit wilting flower (not to mention a tad creepy).

And finally, I was angry about the scene with Sam. Yeah, she was horrible and selfish and nasty at age 19. Too scared to ditch Lincoln and strike out on her own, so keeping him dangling, but not willing to actually invest in their relationship. But to turn her into a caricatured villainness because of it - thrice married and divorced with kids from all of them practically throwing her number at Lincoln in the video store? I mean, he didn't even get over her himself. She just showed up being incredibly unattractive and he finally realized that maybe he should let a relationship that no longer existed go after TEN YEARS of clutching it to his wounded broken heart. UGH.

To add to that, the ultimate outcome of Lincoln's crush on Beth? This is kind of spoiler-y so beware: She's never really spoken to him. He writes her a note telling her he's been reading all her email and quits. Then she spots him at the movies while she's SUPPOSED TO BE WORKING TO WRITE A REVIEW and instead? She makes out with him for two hours. WHAT IS THIS? He fell for Beth because he read her emails and that I can believe. But she knows NOTHING about him other than some friends/colleagues think he's pretty nice. It just seems like nothing but cop-out wish fulfillment showing that "nice" guys don't finish last or something. Where were the bits where she gets to know him? How did that "love story" even happen

Instead, I found myself rooting that Beth would go out with the funny red-headed protestor she kept meeting -shared love of cinema, witty banter, the actual willingness to speak to her. All that sounded great! Much better than the non-interactions with Lincoln that are apparently leading to a Love that is Deep and True...

Plus we keep being told over and over again how nice and sweet the male protagonists are - Mitch, Jenn's husband, is supposed to be the greatest in the world, but makes Jenn feel like she's destroying her marriage if she doesn't give in and have a baby. WHICH SHE DOES. And that made me so angry! How can someone be so great and the relationship be so great if he cold-shoulders her into A BABY. NINE MONTH CARRYING TIME and LIFETIME OF MOTHERHOOD. AS A SOP TO KEEP THE MARRIAGE. Because he sulks and whines and makes her feel guilty if she doesn't?! This? This is the pinnacle of a "nice guy"? I don't think so...

Hmmm "Convinced I Had Missed a Few Chapters"... sounds like a bad thing!
And always sad when a character is underused :(

Sounds not really like you loved it but more like it annoyed you. Or am I mistaken?

>19 avanders: I thought the ending was overly abrupt and I didn't really understand when/why the heroine fell for the hero as they hadn't ever actually interacted (and she hadn't even been reading his email so had no real knowledge of him).
She did, however, have a flirty exchange or two with this protestor...

Which just goes to show that I have a tendency to want the heroine to fall in love with side characters when the hero isn't working for me... (I read this book High-Heeled Alibi and did a chapter by chapter recap with several asides about how I thought a bit character - whom I referred to as Lawyer McStudmuffin on at least one occasion - should have been the hero because I was so annoyed at the actual hero)

>20 connie53: Hi Connie, I didn't love it - no. Everyone seems to love Rainbow Rowell's novels, but they don't quite work for me. There was a lot that was really nice about the book, but the main hero being hung up on a relationship that ended 9 years ago just seemed a little extreme (and not that attractive a trait) plus the abruptness of the ending meant it just didn't click with me.

I've only completely read Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell and really enjoyed it, but I did try listening to Eleanor and Park as well and I kept zoning out. Sometimes an author just misses with you. Sounds like the same thing that happened with me with Audrey Niffenegger.

>21 Caramellunacy: oh. yeah, that's sad. :( I always find it .... annoying when a character in a tv show, movie, book.... real life... falls for someone they don't know, but it "seems like" they should fall for each other :P

Lawyer McStudmuffin sounds interesting though... ;)

It's been a busy time at work, so have had little time to read and even less time to post :(. But I am popping my head back in to note that I finished Anne Gracie's The Stolen Princess late last night.

The hero Gabriel doesn't replace her Gideon, Lord Carradice as my absolute favourite romance hero, but his light-hearted charm and witty banter (combined with a strong protective streak) definitely brought him to mind. I enjoyed this one and will have to dig out the rest of my Gracie's. It's been too long!

>24 Caramellunacy: sometimes "life happens"... sounds like you're still right on track w/ ROOTing, anyway, though! :)
Hope the busy-ness abates soon...

Busy-ness is ongoing, but I am steadily working my way through Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada on my commute/in the evenings. I've been interested in WWII Germany for a long time - ever since I was given a novel about the last days of the war in Berlin (Der Erste Fruhling by Klaus Kordon) as a prize at school.

This is a story about an ordinary man and wife, who after they lose their son at the front, decide to do something, however small and quiet, to resist Hitler's regime. It is about the petty crooks and bullies and busybodies. People who are afraid. It is about the Gestapo inspector who tries to track them down and delivers them to the brutality of the Gestapo prison system and the SS. It is about the inevitability of being caught and tortured and executed. Betraying others.

It is not uplifting, but it maintains that there is a sense of decency - however small and unambitious - to be found even under such a horrific regime of terror and fear. And I am finding it very engrossing for all its quiet predictability.

Artefact: Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada
Trove: Paperback
Status: To be Loaned (My dad has already expressed a certain interest in the novel)



Fieldnotes:
1 Old Couple Galvanized into Quiet Resistance
1 Gestapo Inspector Determined to Catch the "Hobgoblin"
Several Hundred Treasonous Postcards

1 Nasty Nazi Party Family
1 Good-for-nothing Layabout and Gambler
1 Small-time Crook and Informer
1 Unobtrusive Retired Judge

Casual Cruelty
Brutality, Torture and many, many Deaths

The Short Version
Written in the immediate aftermath of WWII and based on the Gestapo files of a real couple, Fallada examines small acts of ineffective resistance (writing postcards against the regime when the population is too afraid to do anything but turn them over to the police immediately - unread), their motives, their capture, trial and punishment. It shows us a bleak picture of life on the home front under terror. And while at times it seems that the novel is populated with stock characters (see above, as well as the persecuted elderly Jewish lady upstairs, the political dissidents, the SS members, the boorish Gestapo boss, etc.), Fallada questions whether ineffective resistance truly is ultimately pointless or whether the very act of risking one's life in the name of decency (no matter the result) - to do anything at all - is the important point in the face of so much apathy. And it is an interesting question to ponder.

The Long Version (More to come)
It all starts when postwoman Eva Kluge treks up the stairs - past the self-important low-rung Nazi Persicke family celebrating the fall of France - to the Quangel's to deliver one of those awful impersonal type-written letters informing them that their only son has fallen at the front. In her grief, Anna Quangel lashes out at her quiet, self-isolated husband Otto that the fault lies with "you and your Fuhrer". This wounds him deeply as he is as peripherally involved with the reigning Nazi party as is possible to be (and remain alive, at liberty and employed).

Ooph! Congrats on finishing that ROOT! Sounds like a dense one... but glad you found it engrossing :)
"It is not uplifting, but it maintains that there is a sense of decency - however small and unambitious - to be found even under such a horrific regime of terror and fear. And I am finding it very engrossing for all its quiet predictability."

>27 Caramellunacy: I found that one in my ebook folder! And transferred it to my BB-folder.

I have too much folders ;-))

Sounds like an excellent read!

Still working on the review above - a book like Alone in Berlin takes some time to digest.

In the meantime, I've managed to finish Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey, which has pointed out how woefully little I know about the Wars of the Roses/Richard III/the Princes in the Tower. Last summer we went to see a production of Shakespeare's Richard III with Martin Freeman, which I enjoyed (though not as much as the gleefully twisted Kevin Spacey's), but it's hardly an unbiased account, and most of the portrayals I've read of Richard III have been negative ones (including the wittily charming yet ruthless version in Margaret Campbell Barnes' The Tudor Rose, which is my favourite thus far). So it seemed about time I read the "exoneration" popular in mystery circles. And while Tey raised certain interesting facts that I would be interested in exploring further, I can't really get over the conceit that what sparked this entire drive to exonerate Richard is that a portrait of him has such a nice/kindly/good guy face. I mean, really? I know you need a jumping off point, but "he had a nice face" doesn't really sit well with me.

I've since moved on to Nicholas and Alexandra (another couple & period of history that I know very little about) and am trying not to dance around the office singing about "A Rumor in St. Petersburg".

>31 Caramellunacy: "Still working on the review above - a book like Alone in Berlin takes some time to digest." I bet! Take your time :)

Wending my way through Romanov St. Petersburg - I've just hit the fateful summer of 1914, and Archduke Franz Ferdinand is about to have a pretty terrible time of it. Nicholas and Alexandra is really interesting reading (far more so than I had expected) - but it sure is a heavy one to lug around on my morning commute at 584 pages...

I bet!

February has been quite a slow reading month for me - I only finished three ROOTS:

The Stolen Princess - Anne Gracie
Alone in Berlin - Hans Fallada
The Daughter of Time - Josephine Tey

Of these, I really enjoyed The Stolen Princess - not surprising as Gracie's The Perfect Rake is one of my desert island, read-when-I'm-feeling-blue romances. I don't know why I left picking up this series so long! I'm aiming to pick up the next in the series much sooner.

Alone in Berlin was a difficult read - with the subject matter this is hardly surprising, but ultimately an engrossing and thought-provoking book. I'm glad to have read it, and I'm still chewing on how to finish that review above. (That will happen!)

The Daughter of Time is a mystery about Richard III (a subject much in the news) and the Princes in the Tower. The story just really drove home how little I remember (of what little I knew) and how little I know of the Wars of the Roses. I'm actually quite eager to pick up Weir's The Princes in the Tower or one of the books recently written about the discovery of Richard III's remains as I'm not quite ready to turn loose of the era yet. For my birthday this month, I picked up the utterly massive Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman (but haven't started it yet).

I haven't gotten much else finished, though I have been reading quite a bit, as I've been working my way through the hefty Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert Massie. I've reached the fateful summer of 1914 and everyone is declaring war on everyone else (and I'm reminded briefly of Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan - a steampunk young adult take on an alternate WWI - I wonder what I've done with my copy?).

I've been working late (and weekends), so when I'm too tired to settle in with Nicky and the Tsarevich (and to deal with Rasputin), I've been reading snippets of The Everyday Dancer, which has just made me want to try out a dance class - if only I could find a time that wasn't constantly pre-empted by work!

Isn't it annoying how work always gets in the way of the fun things in life?

>35 Caramellunacy: Maybe slower than you'd like, but progress is progress and you have 3 more ROOTs done! Sounds like heavier (in topic) ones, too...

Hopefully your work schedule eases soon!

Just back from a lovely two weeks travelling around Australia! It was great to get a break from work, to see a bunch of critters, and the get at least a bit of reading done.

We had an amazing time wandering around Sydney - seeing the botanical gardens, the cheeky ibis that are a bit like Sydney's pigeons, wandering around the ships near the maritime museum and seeing Hyde Park Barracks (ending up at the memorial to the Great Irish Potato Famine on St. Patrick's Day coincidentally). We went to the zoo (which was great) where I saw my first ever live platypus and a few echidna (which I loved - sort of part porcupine, part anteater seeming). Also I got to hold an owl.

We next flew out to the desert to see Uluru and Kata Tjuta, saw Aboriginal dancers, rode camels and did some great stargazing (Jupiter was out and I saw three shooting stars!).

Finally, we flew up to Cairns to snorkel off the Great Barrier Reef (I saw a white tip reef shark and three turtles, plus a ton of brightly colored fish including clownfish) and to see the rainforest by scenic railway, cable car and duck boat, we held a koala and went on a wildlife spotting tour where we saw a ton of possums, tree kangaroos, a platypus in the wild and I licked a green ant...(which tasted quite nice, actually).

Plus I ended up picking up books in relevant sorts of places (A Fatal Shore at Hyde Park Barracks and A Town Called Alice while at the Alice Springs airport).

A really good trip :)

Continuing the Australian theme, I've been immersing myself in Batavia's Graveyard on my commute - a non-fiction work about the wreck of the Dutch East Indiaman Batavia and the bloody mutiny that ensued (though I know fairly little about it at the moment as we have backed up to discuss the main mutineer's heretical philosophies at the moment). This portion reminds me of a Science and the World class I took in college all about the various heresies (Gnosticism, Rosicrucians, Anabaptists...) that all ring a faint bell but I remember fairly little about any of them.

So far the book HAS taught me where we got the word "libertine"...

Sounds like you had a wonderful trip!

Artefact: To Catch a Thief by Christina Skye (Code Name, Book 06; Draycott Abbey, Book 10)
Trove: Paperback
Status: Auctioned to a Wealthy (Above-Board) Collector



Fieldnotes:
1 Navy SEAL with Unexplained Oddly Enhanced Vision
1 Renaissance Art Restorer and Free-Climber/Parkour Expert
1 World-Renowned Art Thief Father
1 Sequel Bait Navy SEAL Data Handler

1 Stolen Sketch of the Mona Lisa with Overdrawing By Michelangelo

1 Bad News Crime Family with Ties to Terrorism Financing
2 Sneering Feds with Warrant Issues
1 Impenetrable Scottish Fortress
1 Unexpected Betrayal!

1 Impeccably Conscientious Butler
2 Abbey Ghosts (1 Cat Variety)
1 Brooding Abbey
1 Charming House in Provence

1 Camping Trip (Rescue Variety)
1 Camping Trip (Sexy Variety)

The Short Version:
The premise of this novel set off all my catnip alarms - art heist, men in uniform, Scotland!, Ghost Cat. I mean, seriously, I should have absolutely loved this. But I just didn't - it was pretty forgettable. I finished this yesterday and I'm not entirely sure that I am remembering the main characters names correctly...

The Long Version:
To come

>38 Caramellunacy: sounds amazing!

>41 Caramellunacy: lol "1 Camping Trip (Sexy Variety)" .. I have never experienced one of those... ;)

I doubt I will be finishing anything else today, so my roots as of the end of April stand at 24 as I read Gillian Flynn's Dark Places over the course of yesterday on various flights.

I owe you all fieldnotes :)

I am in a bit of a reading slump (or attention span deficit) at the moment. I keep on picking books up, and although I am enjoying them end up putting them down and picking something else up and so on. So I haven't gotten anything actually read in quite a while now.

I had picked up The Monuments Men for my trip to Brussels (and Bruges) because I thought it would be nice to read a bit about the recovery of the Madonna before seeing it (especially given its prominent role in Clooney's movie version), but after the Bruges visit (the Madonna was well worth the trip - SO pretty), I put that one down.

I bought a copy of Waterloo at Waterloo and meant to start it (btw, if anyone else has been, did it strike anyone else how VERY MUCH it is Napoleon-focused and how VERY LITTLE any of the museum mentions Wellington or the actual victors?), but got side-tracked.

I picked up Among the Janeites to get the iffy taste of Undressing Mr. Darcy out of my head, but put that one down in favour of a German young adult novel set during the rise of Nazi power by the inimitable Klaus Kordon and A Lady Raised High about Anne Boleyn.

Then when both of those seemed too depressing to deal with along with my current state of (over)work ennui, I dropped those in favour of my current read A Kiss at Midnight by Eloisa James. I figure if a fluffy Cinderella-inspired historical romance cannot help, I don't know what will...

Oh no, not you too! There's been an outbreak of reading slumps in a couple of my groups this year. I myself have only just recovered from one. I hope the romance does the trick for you.

Yes, I had a slump for 2-3 weeks in April and then in May had 4 stinker books that I didn't finish! Here's hoping you recover quickly!

>44 Caramellunacy: :( Well, you know it happens... Maybe picking up something "super easy" (but not depressing ;)) might help move you out of the slump? When I get in my slumps, I turn to my children's & YA books and that usually helps me..... Do you like Oz? I just finished the first 2 "Dorothy Must Die" books -- they're fast-paced and fun & interesting... I actually mostly listened to the first one (audio -- but I think it requires a slightly faster speed because her pace is weirdly slow! I listened to it at 1.75 speed), but when it wasn't going fast enough, I continued reading it on my phone (e-book download ;)) Either way, Good luck w/ your slump!

I'd been very curious about The Monuments Men! But I can see why it lost its appeal ;)

Something fluffy has definitely helped. I am currently in the middle in the latest of Meg Cabot's Princess Diaries series Royal Wedding - her first Mia Thermopolis novel that is not YA (though the voice remains quite similar). I'm enjoying this latest adventure with Mia - funny and fluffy is a nice break from work...

>48 Caramellunacy: glad you found a book that helped!

>48 Caramellunacy: oh Meg Cabot is fluffy & fun! :)

Hi everybody, just back from an utterly glorious trip in the Loire Valley and Champagne regions. Aside from copious amounts of wine tasting and lots of pretty, pretty castles, I also managed to read a few books from the excavation site. Fieldnotes below!

The Loire valley? The Champagne? I'm happy you had a great time, but now I'm a little bit jealous!

The Loire valley is so lovely. Glad you have enjoyed your trip! Welcome back.

Wine tasting and castles sounds lovely! Glad you had such a good time!