Thoughts
Since my last random update post, August’s, when I was audiobooking Charlotte Sometimes, I have not only completed my Classics Club 50 in 5 years requirement but am devouring more classics in a race to the end of the year!
Not sure why the above is indented, but I’m going with it. The list/image below is in finished order, but I’m going to talk about audiobooks first and then print.
OK, so I finished Charlotte and only kind of liked it. Gave it 3 slices of pie. As far as I recall (and perhaps failed to note) there was NO PIE. Boo.
On to my next audiobook, also a classic, Tom Hardy’s
The Woodlanders – and I was all in for the drama-DRAMA-D.R.A.M.A!!! of that crazy tale.
Started Naked Lunch
after that both for Classics Club 50 and for this year’s What’s in a Name Challenge. I DNF’d. I got 25% in and decided that I wasn’t going to enrich my life further by listening to any more c words, f words, p words and v words. (v for vomit.) I’m counting it as read. Judge me all you want. (Applause also appreciated.)
Then it was on to A Handful of Dust!
Crazy wild tale, really. Quite. I would love to chat with anyone who would like to discuss. I don’t think I shall forget this story. Ever. Evelyn Waugh is just so easy to imagine as a snooty and brilliant uppercrusty-judgey Brit. Apparently he hated Dickens. Huh.
I palate-cleansed with a quick 1 hour audio ‘short story’ called Wally Roux, Quantum Mechanics,
an Audible Exclusive (freebie) and enjoyed it very much. I like time travel stories.
After that and still into is my current audiobook, Wolf Hall. More on that in a later post…
Now print – mostly eBooks:
For print and in this case, I mean KINDLE, I read
The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal and LOVED IT! OF course it HAD PIE! Pie was a goddamn THEME. Five slices of pie served with beer, if you please. Read it if you LOVED Kitchens of the Great Midwest, which I did. I think it was an eBook. (Yes, yes it was. I noted that.)
I read a few free or not-expensive eBook romances:
Next in Line by Amy Daws (fun! especially to read aloud to the hub while driving in to work) and Sealed With a Kiss
by Leeanna Morgan (not my cup of tea – skimmed it).
And, YIPPEE SKIPPY for me! I finally finished The House of the Seven Gables!! After many rocky starts which never ever seemed to catch, this time, I rolled up my sleeves and powered through.
LOVED it once the characters were allowed to be characters (about 25% in, I’d guess? and not the history prep explanation which begins this story. I’m so glad to have read it. whew.
Then
The Bird’s Nest was available – I think it was a library eBook? Very Shirley Jackson. I adore Shirley Jackson. Such talent. This book impressed me.
Oh wait! I read A Clockwork Orange, too.
And yes, it was odd, violent and scary but not as scary as Naked Lunch. At least ACO had a story.
Which brings us to
Love in a Cold Climate – hardback, library – which I just finished and immediately reviewed in the post prior to this one.
The pie tally? 7 out of the 12 had pie. A few had interesting pie references, indeed (chubb pie in Love in a Cold Climate!) Plus, a description of pie dough rolling in The Woodlanders, kidney pie and meat pie in A Handful of Dust. Truly, I’m deeply suspicious of any Brit book not having pie!
On the list of 1001+ Books To Read Before You Die: A Clockwork Orange, House of Seven Gables, and Cold Climate Love. And Naked Lunch.
Edith would just as soon take another woman’s husband as another woman’s pie recipe, and she had the best husband in the world, so there you go.
- from The Lager Queen of Minnesota

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