I missed posting on Groundhog Day yesterday, with its special palindromic date of 02-02-2020. Today, February 3rd, is National Women Physicians Day, among other things.
Currently Reading
I chose Christmas in Austin by Benjamin Markovits (Faber & Faber, 2019) as my First Book of the Year and I’m still reading it in February! I had a review book to read (Sue Monk Kidd’s latest) and a book club book for January (Stay with Me by Ayobami Adebayo (Penguin Random House, 2017) — which I highly recommend for literary fiction readers in the mood for some serious family drama from multiple perspectives — and just not as much time to sit down and read in January as I thought I would have.
This week I’m also planning to finish Sanditon, for a group read with the Massachusetts Center for the Book. Sanditon is a novelization based on the new TV miniseries, which is based on an unfinished novel by Jane Austen. Based on the first half, the only thing the book and miniseries have in common with Jane Austen’s work is the period costumes. The novelization seems to be an attempt at an enemies to lovers romance, a la Emma and Darcy, but is so lacking in subtlety in both language, dialogue, and character development that it doesn’t even rise to the level of your average TV miniseries.
I’m supposed to be watching the miniseries in conjunction with reading the book, but lately I’ve only had time to watch Riverdale, my current TV obsession. (Our binge-watching is three episodes a week, so we get through shows very slowly. We did watch Season 8 of Game of Thrones this month, too, after finally getting the DVDs from the library!)
This week, I also need to quickly reread Me Before You by JoJo Moyes for a book club book & movie discussion next week!
Currently Listening To
The Snow Queen by Michael Cunningham
I just started The Snow Queen by Michael Cunningham on audio, narrated by Claire Danes. This weekend, I started and set aside The Guest Book by Sarah Blake, narrated by one of my favorite audiobook narrators, Orlagh Cassidy. Although this was on my TBR list, I’m just not in the mood for another WWII book right now.
I just finished listening to the audiobook of When Breath Becomes Air, the famous memoir by Paul Kalanithi, the neurosurgeon who is on track to a pinnacle of success that few achieve and is about to complete his residency after ten years of work and studies when he receives a fatal diagnosis of a rare form of cancer. He is only in his 30s.
When Breath Becomes Air is a must-read, if you haven’t gotten to it yet! The audio narration is excellent, by Sunil Malhotra, and Cassandra Campbell, who reads the epilogue written by the author’s wife, Lucy Kalanithi, who is herself a highly successful doctor.
Unfinished from last month
I started Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner (Simon & Schuster, 2019) last month, but had to bring it back to the library unfinished. I may or may not go back to it. I liked the characters, but the writing seemed bland and the storyline too much like a rehash of cultural/historical moments. I might try the audio edition, which got a good review from AudioFile.
Thanks for visiting! Happy Monday and please let me know what you’re reading this week in the comments
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? (#IMWAYR) is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. It’s a place to meet up and share what you have been, are, and about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organize yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit and comment, and er… add to that ever-growing TBR pile! This meme started with J Kaye’s Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at Book Date.
When Breath Becomes Air is definitely on my list! I have it at home and I’m saving it for the perfect occasion, though I don’t quite know what that is.
I know what you mean! It’s a short book and could definitely be read in a weekend. If you had a weekend that’s relatively quiet in a beautiful place where you could spend some time out in nature to take breaks from reading, I think that would be ideal.