Hood is the first of the 40 books I’ve committed to in Reading Challenges for 2012. It comes from the Mount TBR Reading Challenge and it feels good to cross one book off those three lists. And as mentioned sometime in the past, this is one of the novels my boss brought in for me to read – and it was interesting, not sure I would want to talk about it with her – see my reaction in the last paragraph before the recommendation. But regardless, on to the review!
Written by the author of Room and Slammerkin, Hood is a moving story of love and loss. Taking place during the week of Cara Wall’s funeral, the reader finds themselves at the mercy of Pen O’Grady’s, Cara’s lover of 13 years, sometimes tumultuous, most of the time lacking emotions. Using flashbacks and the days of the week, Donoghue tells the story of Pen and Cara’s relationship while showing Pen’s coping (or lack thereof) with Cara’s death.
Aside from reading, I’ve kept busy with work (it’s the year-end fundraising season) and holiday shopping. I thought I finished shopping last month, but wasn’t and only have one last item to buy.
Last week I mentioned buying more books during Small Business Saturday. I ended up buying five books and a 
I finished reading this book last week, but wanted to take the time to digest what I’d read. I’m still not sure how to respond to the book. Having read the three follow-up essays in the novel, I have a better understanding of the time period, the groundbreaking place this book earned, and the seeming timelessness of the book and the story.
I waited to post November’s update as I knew I would surpass my 50-book goal for 2011! You can read about book 50 
The workshop was really interesting. I took Section B with Grace Talusan, who was great! We started out with a bit of an overview and then jumped right into the writing activity. It was four basic steps and it was brilliant and just forced you to write regardless of what it was you were writing. My notes are to the left and below.