I've been rather slack about keeping track of my reading lately.A big part of that is thanks to Corinne's Gone With the Wind readalong.
GWTW is a reread for me and unlike my first read 20 years ago, where I raced through the story to see what happened, this read is far more leisurely and thoughtful. And made even more enjoyable by sharing it with a lovely group of other GWTW fans.
TJ @My Book Strings is hosting the next chapter round-up this weekend which means I need to get moving to finish chapters 31- 40 before then (you can see my hosting post for the last ten chapters here).Curiously this has been the first section where Mitchell's rather romantic view of the South has irked. Up until now I've been able to accept it as a kind of pre-war-remember-the-glory-days nostalgia that I thought would contrast the pre and post war periods. However, romanticizing the early crimes of the Ku Klux Klan was a step too far for me in walking around in another's shoes (not enough to stop reading, but enough to make me question Mitchell's motivations more critically).
Closer to home, I've been attempting to read as many of this year's CBCA shortlisted books as possible as well as keeping up with my Australian Women Writer's commitments.
The Australian Women Writers Challenge was set up to help overcome gender bias in the reviewing of books by Australian women. The challenge encourages avid readers and book bloggers, male and female, Australian and non-Australian, to read and review books by Australian women throughout the year.
My bi-monthly summary post for the History, Memoir and Biography category went live today if you'd like to see what we've all been reading lately.
I seem to be on a Pulitzer prize winning streak at the moment, as I devoured All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr last week.My next read - another Pulitzer prize winning book - comes from my Winter Reading list.
A Good Scent From a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler also has the added benefit of being connected to GWTW with the name Butler!
This 1993 Pulitzer Prize-winning collection of 15 stories evokes the ordeals of the Vietnamese people in the Vietnam War. Old or young, humble or arrogant, puzzled or proud, these are the characters for whom the absurdities of American popular culture and memories of war uneasily coexist.
This week's shoutouts go to:
JoAnn @Lakeside Musing for convincing me to read a book (Aquarium by David Vann) I had no intention of reading.
Melissa @Avid Reader's Musings has tempted me with the gorgeous cover of Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan - which may help me find another French book to read for Paris in July (since I got excited and read All the Light too soon!!)
What have you been reading and reviewing this week?
In Sheila's absence please feel free to leave a link to your IMWAYR post in the comments below. Or join the twitter hashtag #IMWAYR.
I'm really enjoying reading The Faraway Tree series to my kids. They were my favourite series when I was a kid and I'm so glad they are loving it too.
ReplyDeleteThey were one of my favourite Enid Blyton's too. I used to dream up what kind of lands I would like to find at the top of the tree :-)
DeleteI've got All the Light We Cannot See on my TBR pile, maybe I should read it for Paris in July since I read two of my Paris reads in June lol. Thanks for the reminder too, I've read many Australian female authors this year and I've been so slack updating at AWW. Have a great week and happy reading :)
ReplyDeleteGlad to see that I'm not only one who has trouble keeping their hands off Paris books!! All the Light We Cannot See was a fabulous read (although I did find the ending a little weak compared to the bulk of the book).
DeleteThanks for the shoutout. Can't wait to see how your reading experience compares!
ReplyDeleteglad to find your link for Paris in July - I was beginning to despair there wasn't any this year!
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to it as always :)
The link I provided was for a competition to create this year's badge...which is why I haven't added one to my sidebar yet...I'm waiting to see who wins :-)
Deletelol - I see you've found that out for yourself already - love your button ideas, esp the one with the balloons.
DeleteI'm looking forward to reading All the Light We Cannot See. It looks so good! Have a great week!
ReplyDeleteOh that's neat you'all are re-reading GWTW. I haven't read it since like high school when I devoured it. I think I might focus on a re-read of TKAMB. Better known as To Kill a Mockingbird. ... since the new one is coming out soon. Cheers.
ReplyDeleteYou will never regret rereading TKAMB :-)
DeleteOnce we start on a trend, it's hard to get off of it. I think it's a good trend that you're doing though with reading the Pulitzer Prize nominees. I really enjoyed All the Light We Cannot See and think it deserves the win.
ReplyDelete