Sunday, March 11, 2012

Book Fail: The Moment by Douglas Kennedy

Title: The Moment
Author: Douglas Kennedy
Page I Stopped Reading: 50

Here’s what happened.

The Moment is a thick book. I tend to shy away from books over 400 pages for many reasons. I feel a great sense of pride by finishing a book. I feel accomplished and proud of myself, even if it’s 15 minutes worth. When I read longer books, I get that feeling less often. I tend to get tired of books I read for over ten days too. This fear of reading this book for over ten days consumed me and thus, why it’s going back to the library unfinished.

I had the best of intentions. The first 50 pages were good and interesting. However, I put it aside to read 31 Dates in 31 Days, which I knew I would finish quickly enough to return to the library this week. However, when I finished 31 Dates in 31 Days, I was no longer interested in it. I lost the book’s rhythm. This again reaffirmed why I read one book at a time and date one man at a time. I’m horrible at multi-tasking.

The Moment is about a divorced writer who has just signed on the dotted line to dissolve his marriage. He’s solitary and single-minded in his career as a travel writer. He soon comes home from a short trip to find a package from a woman he used to see—who was from Berlin. The Moment definitely sets up the book’s overarching theme right away—The moments that change us the most are often the most unexpected.

The Moment is a tragic book fail for me because it was just a matter of timing. What would have happened if I didn’t pick up 31 Dates in 31 Days? Would I be further through it?  Who knows. Overall, I do not feel bad for returning this to the library. I can only move forward and pray the next one doesn’t meet a similar fate.

Grade: Incomplete

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Review: 31 Dates in 31 Days by Tamara Duricka Johnson

Title: 31 Dates in 31 Days
Author: Tamara Duricka Johnson
ISBN: 9781580053662
Pages: 320
Time It Took Me to Read: 3 Days       

When I started reading The Moment, I had a feeling it would take awhile. With my growing pile of books to take back to the library, I figured I could get this one out of the way and return it with my hoard.

Now from first glance, this has “Bitter” written all over it. It’s about a single thirty-something woman from New York. I’ve watched enough Sex and the City to judge this book by its cover (or blurb on the back). However, this is anything but bitter. It has frustration, yes. It has a little bit of heartache, yes. But, bitter it is not.

This 31-year-old woman named Tamara embarked on a dating project in 2009 called “31 Dates in 31 Days.”  She would date a different man for each of the first thirty days and on the thirty-first day, she would go on a second date from the broad she dated over the month. She created a blog from it, which I suspect some of the book is.

Tamara was kinda desperate, kinda hopeless. However, over the coarse of the thirty-one days, she learned how to open up to love, see the positive in people, regain hope in the men of New York, and eventually become marriage-material. In her author bio, it says she’s married. Interesting.

Now, whenever you do a memoir, everyone and their mother will have an opinion about you. She put her life out there for people to judge and read about and that’s brave. However, I don’t think her singledom is due to a terrible personality. She seems sweet, kind, and easygoing. I think she just choose the wrong men and had bad dating habits. That makes this easy to read and easy to cheer for her. You want to see her find love.

I enjoyed reading the book but would definitely fail a reading comprehension test on this one. The men definitely ran together and I began to have trouble distinguishing them. When she chose her second date on the thirty-first day, I had to go back and read about his first date. Still, there was some suspense as to who she would choose and more importantly, did she marry someone from the project? It says she’s married after all.

Grade: B+

Saturday, March 3, 2012

February Round-Up and March Goals!

I know, I know.

March is already three days in and I have yet to make any March reading goals. I also need to wrap my head around February. Well, here it goes.

February was a wildly successful reading month for me. I enjoyed pretty much every book I finished and I blazed through some. My original goal at the beginning of the month was to read four books and I read seven. I do have a bigger goal of reading 40 this year (I only read 38 or 39 last year) and I feel like I am well on my way. This blog has been a positive motivating experience for me and encourages me to have a steady reading pace. I have no doubt I might need to choose a new target for the year (50? 60? 70?!) and that excites me. I feel like my old self again when it comes to reading.

The books I read last month are:

  1. Bringing Adam Home: The Abduction that Changed America by Les Standiford and Det. Sgt. Joe Matthews
  2. Then Came You by Jennifer Weiner
  3. California Girl Chronicles by Michelle Gamble-Risley
  4. A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard
  5. The Next Always by Nora Roberts
  6. Bossypants by Tina Fey
  7. 31 Dates in 31 Days by Tamara Duricka Johnson (Review Soon!)

I did have a book fail but it wasn’t epic by any means. I stopped reading The Moment by Douglas Kennedy. However, one book fail for a month is pretty good because I am a lot more picky about what I finish reading these days.

So, here are my goals this month for my reading and for my blog:

  1. Finish 5 books
  2. Give every book I currently have borrowed from the library a chance before picking up any others
  3. Post 10 times throughout March (this is #1)

So, happy March everyone! BIRTHDAY MONTH!