As I try to rekindle (pun intended) my reading enthusiasm, especially my enthusiasm for reading what is turning out to be the highest number of e-books I've ever read in a given year, I've been browsing through lots of bookstore lists and the like to see what's new since last time around (the July 5 list). But, maybe because my enthusiasm is so low right now, I didn't feel like jumping up and down about much of anything I found.
I'm reading a novel right now from my "Books I Don't Want You to Miss" list from mid-June by Gillian McAllister called The Choice, but after almost 80 pages of reading, I'm finding it very difficult to feel the book's rhythm and pace. And on top of that, I've already abandoned one book this week after only 20 pages, and was disappointed by another that I thought would be so much better than it turned out to be. So the slump is real.
Who knows, maybe one of these that caught my eye in the last couple of weeks will be the very book I need to snap me out of it. I can hope.
It was probably the cover that initially caught my eye, but I've seen quite a few enthusiastic reviews of Mexican Gothic, too. It's set in the 1950s and is about a woman who goes to a family mansion in Mexico after her newlywed cousin begs for someone to save her from what she's gotten herself into. Sounds like a throwback kind of novel.
Subtitled, The True Story of an American Outlaw, this is the story of half the "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid gang" made so famous in a movie decades ago by Paul Newman (who played Butch) and Robert Redford. Robert LeRoy Parker created for himself both the Butch Cassidy name and kind of a Robin Hood image before he and Sundance were reportedly killed in South America.
This is one I've been looking forward to for a while even though I expect it will be a bit of a melancholy read because the 80-year-old Trebek is still fighting stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Trebek, host of one of the most popular quiz shows in television history, is just one of those guys that everyone likes, a very rare commodity these days.
Even worse than missing out on brand new books, is letting an older book slip through the crack permanently. This 2016 Stephen Harrigan book is narrated by a fictional friend of Lincoln's, and it is one of my favorite historical fiction novels published in the last few years. Harrigan is a jewel of a writer and, in my opinion, he is very underrated.
So, keep your heads down, my friends. Keep reading, and keep telling the rest of us all about it. Readers like us are the lucky ones right now because we can travel the world, go backward and forward in time, and can teach ourselves new skills without ever having to leave home. Show a little kindness to all those poor nonreaders out there.
A Friend of Mr. Lincoln appeals to me, will take a look at reviews and so forth.
ReplyDelete'Readers like us are the lucky ones right now because we can travel the world, go backward and forward in time, and can teach ourselves new skills without ever having to leave home. Show a little kindness to all those poor nonreaders out there.'
Sam, you are so right in what you say here. Books have kept me sane for several months now and I'm afraid I've been indulging myself as regards Kindle books just like you. I have a Kindle eReader and a Kindle Fire with a 10 inch screen. The page reproduction on the Fire is superb and I'm drawn to reading on it more and more. It's just too easy to 'one click' a book onto it! That said, I have also managed to get quite a few books off my real shelves and actually 'read'. I do feel sorry for all the nonreaders, what joy they're missing.
I love my Fire -10, too, Cath. I especially love it for it's almost perfect color reproduction and I find myself reading lots of e-magazines on it cover-to-cover. And you surely can't beat the price on the Fires when compared to similar Kindles - that don't have color at all.
DeleteI just can't completely get used to e-books, and I don't think that will ever happen. For one thing, it's too hard to feel like you're making progress on an e-book because you can't see the left side growing higher as the right side shrinks lower. :-)
Reading slumps are the worst, especially at times like these when being able to escape into a book is so important...at least for me. Hope you find the book to pull you into its pages and out of your slump soon. The Alex Trebek book is one I really want to read, too. He's one of the good guys, isn't he? :)
ReplyDeleteTrebek really does seem to be one of the good guys, Lark. He just feels like an old friend I haven't seen in a while.
DeleteI'm torn about Trebek's book. "Jeopardy" has been with me most of my life, if I count Art Fleming's run as host. But it's Trebek I'm finding myself all emotional about. His voice, its cadence, his humor...they're all woven into the fabric of my life. I'm even finding myself watching reruns of old game shows like "Concentration" to get as big a fix of this man as I can. But something is holding me back from reading this book. I'm not sure what it is.
ReplyDeleteI wonder, Cathy, if it's because reading the memoir would feel too much like a premature goodbye to Alex. That's part of what I'm going to feel as I read it, and I'm not ready to do that yet.
DeleteYou've just hit the nail right on the head, Sam. Reading it is a premature goodbye, and I am not ready.
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