Gosh, it's August, isn't it? I'm just not ready for summer to be so far along. But at least I'm getting some reading done. The July Book Blowout helped a lot in that area (see my wrap-up post about the challenge) – forced me to read a lot more books in one month than I ever would have on my own. July was very definitely my biggest reading month in years.Today I'm getting back to one of the books I started and then abandoned earlier last month – Stealing Athena, by Karen Essex. It was an advance reading edition when I got it, but by now it's been out for a while. I've been having a little trouble sticking with it – not sure why because it seems well-written and it's an interesting subject (the Elgin Marbles). I'm not a huge fan of historical fiction, but I like it well enough. So I think I just need to give the book a bit more of a chance.
Of course, since I'm almost always in the midst of several books at once, I've also got a few more going right now. But it looks like my main books for August (besides Athena) are going to be The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, and Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time. I've heard wonderful things about TTTW, so I'm expecting a lot. It's quite a chunkster for me – I don't usually commit to 500-page tomes unless I'm pretty sure I'm going to like them. Hope I'm not disappointed this time.
And I've had A Wrinkle in Time on my to-read list for at least 20 years. Don't know why it's taken me so long to get around to it. But my husband read it not long ago and liked it well enough (well, he said it was "not bad"). And as he's not usually a fan of fantasy or young adult fiction, I'm considering that to be quite a recommendation.
But right now, I have to go see about the potatoes and the asparagus, and find out if said husband needs any help grilling the tuna for dinner. Then I can get back to London and Athens and those amazing sculptures!
I had almost requested Stealing Athena to review, but decided I had too much on my plate already. It sounds like an interesting book and I do like historical fiction. Sometimes though, even books I am enjoying, just don't quite hold my interest the way I might like. Too many distractions, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteHave a wonderful week!
When I took a Children's Literature course, we were told that A Wrinkle in Time was for 5th graders. You might not care for it so much.
ReplyDeleteI found A Wrinkle in Time very much of its time- early cold war overtones. The Time Traveller's Wife was very enjoyable as long as you are comfortable with non-Linear narrative. My Sunday Salon Post
ReplyDeleteI was just the same as you with A Wrinkle in Time. I resisted reading it as a kid because I didn't read sci-fi, but I read it last year for Banned Book Week and just absolutely loved it. Like "where have you been all my life" loved it. I hope you do too! :-)
ReplyDeleteA Wrinkle in Time is one of those "weird" books my brother used to read. He was totally into fantasy and scifi which I thought were odd so I made a point to stay away from them. It's a shame. I missed out on many good books, like The Hobbit. It's about time I pick a few of them up.
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