Despite life being a bit hectic as we settle into new routines now that school is fully in swing I got a lot of reading done. I started a new classic that I feel might take me through the rest of this year and a new book that I will finish this week.
Currently Reading
I’m at a great part in Chosen Son where things are about to really come to a head for the characters and I can’t wait. The pacing has been a bit slower in this book compared to Fallen City but I’m still enjoying it. I’m just over 40% and I can’t even imagine what the second half of this book contains.
I’ve been trying to read one chapter of A Court of Thorns and Roses a night since I haven’t found any extra time to devote to it. This is the third time I’ve read this book so I’m pretty familiar with it but now I’m reading with world building being my main focus. If you are interested in some Maasverse theories I’ve been loving the unhingedbooktalk account on Instagram.
I started my new classic, The Rainbow by D.H. Lawerence, which is my second Modernist novel as an adult (I think The Great Gatsby is considered part of this movement, which I read in high school). My first one was The Waves by Virginia Woolf that I read earlier this year but was told in such an abstract way that I wasn’t able to fully pick out all of the themes. However, The Rainbow, is very in your face about its modernist ideas and it is making a very intriguing read.
My current audiobook is Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? It comes recommended from Sunbeam Jess on Youtube but in particular she posted about it on her Substack. I wanted a palate cleanser before I jump into the third book in the Broken Kingdoms series. This is a short read so I listened to over half of it today at work so I will be finishing it sometime this week. This is a great coming of age story that has brought up a lot of memories being a teenager and my group of friends that I haven’t thought about in so long.
DNF
My IRL bookclub selection was Go Gentle and I’m so disappointed by this. I was loving the first part of this book even though I wasn’t that impressed with the romance. We then transitioned into an out of place section about the protagonist being a writer for a popular comedy show (the author, Maria Semple, used to write for SNL) that felt so self aggrandizing it was a major turn off. Before deciding to DNF I looked up reviews for this book and once I found out that the love interest actually says he likes her because she’s not like other girls I knew this wasn’t the book for me.
Finished
I enjoyed my time with Court of Ice and Ash and I will be picking up the third book later this week. I’m looking forward to seeing the consequences of actions and things revealed during the ending. I recently realized that there is a prequel novella that I need to pick up soon but I’m not prioritizing it right now. I’m also interested to see if this book wraps up a trilogy with our MMC and FMC or we continue on with them for all 9 books in the series. I feel like their story is going to wrapped up with the next book but I’m not sure and I don’t want to accidentally spoil myself by looking into it.
I was loving The God of the Woods but the ending was so disappointing. I throughly enjoyed the majority of this book and now I’m undecided on if it was even worth it. Everything great that the story was building to feels unrealized and ultimately not necessary to the story. One of my bookish pet peeves is when an author has an ending and then continues the story on by telling us again what the resolution was. It is needlessly repetitive and frustrates me. I’m still thinking on a rating for this book but if I had to give one right now I’m leaning toward a 3.
Paradise is an impeccable piece of work that I feel like I could reread multiple times in my life and come away with new ideas and meanings each time. It is such a multilayered piece of art that I’m finding it hard to coherently talk about. I loved the imagery of the novel as well as its ideas about womanhood and survival. I also appreciated the duality of physical vs. spiritual death and how that applies to each character. This was an easy five star read and has left me eager to read more Morrison.
Books With Cassie 