October 27, 2009
Last night, I finished The Real Minerva, written by Mary Sharratt. It had been on my wishlist for awhile, and then it sat here for an embarrassing long period of time after someone at BookCrossing sent it to me.
It was okay. In a way, it was similar to Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees, in that you had a young teenager who runs away, meets a woman who upsets the order of society and is branded an outcast, and learns important things but comes out okay in the end.
Of course, the similarities end there.
This was an interesting book. I think I could have lived without delving into the point of view of a truly despicable character, although I see why Ms. Sharratt wrote it that way. It’s not the choice I would have made.
I’m glad I read it. Yeah, I’d recommend it, but not over some other books I’ve read.
Next up for me: Hank Phillippi Ryan’s Air Time. I’m overdue to start this, in fact — but that’s nothing new.
Your turn. Talk to me about what you’re reading.
Bunnygirl‘s reading The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon.
Alice Audrey just finished the first three books in the Black Dagger Brotherhood, JR Ward’s series. But she doesn’t say what’s next…
Patricia is reading The Ghosts of Belfast, written by Stuart Neville.
Robin is gloriously reading nothing!
bunnygirl
October 27, 2009 11:51 am
I’m reading The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon. Yeah, sorry to be dull. It beats The Tale of Genji all to pieces, but I can see why Shonagon got a reputation for being conceited. I think I’d have liked Lady Murasaki better IRL, even though I found her novel tedious. I shouldn’t be too harsh, though. When you’re writing the world’s first-ever novel, there’s no one to tell you about plot and character development, so I guess Murasaki gets a pass. 😉
I still like The Pillow Book better, though.
Alice Audrey
October 27, 2009 1:40 pm
I just finished the first three books in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series by J.R. Ward. I was planning on making them a Halloween book give away as a set, then decided to keep them for myself instead. 🙂 Yeah. They’re good.
Alice Audrey
October 27, 2009 1:41 pm
Hey, has Entrecard finally pulled themselves together?
Patricia Stoltey
October 27, 2009 3:56 pm
I finished reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (liked it a lot), and now I’m reading Stuart Neville’s thriller, The Ghosts of Belfast.
Robin
October 27, 2009 5:22 pm
What am I reading? Nothing. Nothing at all. For the first time in weeks.
See, a few weeks ago my TBR pile didn’t appeal and I decided to reread Patrick O’Brian’s Master and Commander, a great story. The only catch is it’s the first of a TWENTY-ONE books series (well 20 and then the unfinished 21st because Mr. O’Brian sadly dropped dead in the middle of writing it) and all of the books end with cliffhangers or the beginning of the next story. Have I mentioned that there were 21 of them? Now I’d already read the entire series, but that was many years ago and a lot of the details were fuzzy, and before I knew it I’d been sucked in, utterly and completely, to the world of Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin. And today I finished the last page of that last unfinished tale, and I find myself, after so many weeks of living in the story, strangely bereft. I often feel this way when I really good story has ended, but the act of reading these thousands of pages all in a row has magnified the feeling by an equal degree. I don’t know quite what to do with myself now.
I suppose I’ll have to paying attention to my blog again.