A life of books . . .
This was a very cultural month or perhaps I made an effort more than I have the past few months. I’ve noticed a lot more public artwork around the city and haven’t taken a single photo of it, maybe I’ll try to get some for next month’s Culture Corner. Instead you get to relieve two amazing events and my virtual rock-starness.
Above you can see my tickets for the Harvard Bookstore Margaret Atwood reading and the Boston Lyric Opera’s performance of The Magic Flute.
As with many galleys I end up with, I thought this book was a different book. However, I am glad to have read this one and for a debut novel it was really well written and I mostly enjoyed it. I received a copy from the publisher via NetGalley and received no compensation in return for my honest opinion of the book.
The Bookstore starts and ends with great potential, but never quite lives up to it. I thoroughly enjoyed the characters and the setting of the book, but there was just something missing from it. I’m not sure if it was the writing style, lack of a finite conclusion (even though I did like how it ended) or something else completely, but the entire time I was reading I couldn’t help feeling as if something were missing.
What a busy month! It’s amazing how even though I didn’t work a full week at work the entire month, it feels like I’ve done nothing but work! I guess that’s part of gearing up for the students to return. I did get the amazing postcard, below left, from my friend Courtney who clearly knows me better than she should!
However, reading was seriously delayed this month as I spent TWO WEEKS trekking through Les Misérables and then as soon as I finished I immediately jumped into Austen in August! And the most memorable aspect again was re-discovering the HORRIBLE typo (above right) that occurs in the last 10 pages of my edition of Pride and Prejudice. I mean of ALL the words to get wrong in THAT book, that is not the one you want to misspell. In addition to the original I read three Austen fan-fiction novels (The Missing Manuscript of Jane Austen, The Darcys and the Bingleys, The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen) and a Brontë fan-fiction novel, The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë. And surprisingly three of these books were library books!Â
What a fun novel! I am so glad I stumbled across this novel and I cannot wait to read more of Syrie James’ works. I can’t remember where I first read about it or why I thought I had to read it, but I checked it out of the library last month and have waited patiently to read it as I trekked through Les Misérables I once again, however, tricked myself into not knowing ANYTHING about the book and did not realize that James wrote a novel in a novel so that was pleasantly unexpected.
I think what I enjoyed most about this novel was the contrast between the missing manuscript The Stanhopes and the modern story of those who find the manuscript. The two novels were intertwined enough to make it interesting, but not so much to make it confusing (I’m looking at you Ms. Atwood! [Even though I still love you and The Blind Assassin was phenomenal]).
In case you missed it I published my first podcast this month, so I’m sure you won’t be surprised to find out that this month’s Culture Corner is about podcasts. Having published my first podcast and recently becoming obsessed with more podcasts (I need something to listen to while walking 89.99 miles in a month), I thought I’d talk about the ones I’m enjoying because after all they are cultural right?
I published the first episode of The Oddness Moving Bookcast this past Sunday!  And then Monday afternoon they approved it and it appeared on iTunes (you can click and see it without it trying to open iTunes). So you should go and subscribe on iTunes, or just keep an eye on this site and posts will be published. I already have ideas for the next few in my back pocket and can’t wait to start recording them! I’m still convinced I sound slightly crazed, but the feedback I’ve gotten so far is that I don’t sound too crazy, just passionate. I’m not sure I’ll be able to hold the crazy in with some of the more tetchy subjects that are upcoming. If you’ve followed this blog for a while now you might remember my gushy Austen fan-boy love letter instead of a Pride and Prejudice review back in January.