Saturday Recap for Bout of Books

Weekends are pretty much family and chore time, so not much chance to sit and read. I have found that pretty much the only times I can read are before the kids get up, after the kids are in bed and, depending on what it going on, when I make dinner. Last night I stayed up too late finishing a book on my e-reader so that would feel at least a little accomplished for Bout of Books. 

Saturday, January 11, 2014 

Number of pages I’ve read today: 412

Total number of books I’ve read: 4
Total number of pages I've read: 2109

Books today:

I finished The Grand Tour: or the Purloined Coronation Regalia by Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer (380 pages). Okay - so if you think too deeply about the plot, it doesn't make too much sense and too much of the resolution depended on our heroes getting really, really, really lucky but this was quite fun to read. There was no major relationship angst to distract from the adventure and limited friction between the main characters (don't you get tired of stories where the heroes spend all of there time arguing ?). The mechanism of alternating journal entries between two characters was well done.  It could have gotten repetitive but it didn't.

I also read 20 pages of Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell and 12 pages of The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes to see if either would be a good candidate for "next book." I really enjoyed Attachments, so the tone of E&P took me by surprise - I felt like a butter boat of teenage angst with a side dose of nasty had been dumped over my head. So am a little interested in Eleanor's story, not too sure I care much about Park yet. Not sure if this would be my cup of tea right now. The Girl You Left Behind has also started off darker than I wanted to go (though the thing with the pig was pretty funny). I just read the first chapter so I plan to read a couple more before deciding anything.