READING - August 2016

August 2016

I was going to try to do all physical books, but with the advent of a heat wave that's threatening to dehydrate this whole region into a series of irregular pellets, I've switched it to beach reads so I don't have to think as much.  (My brain doesn't work in heat.)

Expect lots of genre fiction and easy reads here this week.  (And there goes all my pseudo-intellectual street cred.)

The Raven Boys
by Maggie Stiefvater
Buy this book.  If you get it on audible, the narrator's a little weird for the first chapter or two, but when you get used to the dramatic tone, you'll find he's perfect for the story.  And even though I told myself I'm not buying new books for the week, I want to, because this story was awesome.

Be Frank With Me
by Julia Claiborne Johnson
A young publisher's assistant is given the task of looking after a reclusive writer's life while she writes a long-expected sequel...including looking after her son.  Funny and touching, it includes possibly the best nine year old boy character ever written. :)

Fangirl
by Rainbow Rowell
I love Rainbow Rowell's books.  This one, though, gave me a weird chill from time to time, since the main character reminded me of a girl I knew a few years back who was, unlike the main character, a totally judgmental cow, while appearing on the surface to be an awful lot like the guarded, innocent Cath of the book.  It kept me from really getting into the story sometimes, but that's no fault of the author or the work itself...just a reflection of my sometimes-crappy choice of who to let into my inner circle of friends.  THAT SAID, Fangirl has all the charm of Rowell's other books, and if I set aside my Shitty Friend PTSD, I really liked it.

The Cupcake Witch
by Poppy Lawless
(I'm thinking that's a pseudonym.  Heh.)  This was cute.  Like, in the style of Sarah Addison Allen, cute.  It was also super short, which was good for so-hot-I-am-dying reading.  Julie, a baker at heart, takes over some inherited property, but runs afoul of the town's most notable family in the process.  And without giving any spoilers, here's the only thing that bugged me:  the majority of the book takes place over something like a day or two, and for the first day, she hated her love interest.  And then she didn't, and hopped into bed with him.  Which, okay, magic, but it felt like there may have been about a hundred pages missing where that would be even reasonable.  I mean, I always just strip down whenever there's someone I loathe, but I don't expect it from literature.  (Ahem.  /end sarcasm)  However, this one's free with Kindle Unlimited and takes about thirteen seconds to read, and the writing was entertaining, so I'm not sorry I read it. :)

Teardrops and Tiny Trailers
by Douglas Kiester
Frustrated by my consistently bad fiction choices this week, I finally just grabbed a stack of books I have here that are nonfiction and largely just inspirational.  This was the first of three books I picked up about teardrop trailers when I decided I wanted to be full-on nomadic, and it's kind of awesome.  It focuses mainly on vintage restorations and exteriors until the section on larger trailers, like the canned ham versions that are still small, but not quite tiny.  The history of the travel camper is really interesting, and there are way more vintage brands than I've ever heard of, even in my preliminary googling.  It's eye candy and educational.