Lisa's 30-32
#30 - Anne of Windy Poplars by L.M. Montgomery
Towards the end of this it started to feel like it was just an introduction of a new problem for Anne to fix until it was fixed, and then something else cropped up... but that's pretty much life, so it didn't bother me much. And I loved Little Elizabeth. I'd forgotten all the different names she goes by. That's maybe one of my favorite bits... well really anything with her.
#31 - A Book of Luminous Things edited by Czeslaw Milosz
This has been a long time coming. I've had it for years... a friend gave it to me for Christmas one year, and I've picked it up and read a poem here or there, but I decided at the beginning of the year that I'd read a poem a day... that didn't really stick out, but by the end of the year I'll probably be averaging one per day, at least. This was a really great collection of poems, probably the best I've read from multiple poets... but that's not very fair to say because I don't think I've read another one all the way through except maybe a few kids' ones, which really don't count. And then there's the Norton Anthology but that's a totally different story. These had "chapters" of poems, and each one followed a specific theme, which was nice, plus there were some poets that just kept popping up and they were nice to see. A lot of them are California poets, since Milosz is, too, and that was nice. There's a kind of... "climate" that's unique to stuff by California poets, and I love it, since I guess I'm a California poet myself.
#32 - The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
So yes, I finally did read this. And yes, I loved it. Almost all of it. I have to admit that I found the ending a little disappointing. Just a tiny bit.
This is mainly because after that gorgeous letter of Henry's, it still feels a bit like all Clare did was sit and wait for him. I mean, you can make arguments that of course she didn't because she was in a different place, a different situation, but we really got no indication that she had this full, meaningful life, and I really wish we could have gotten just a hint of that. Of course the ending was beautiful and the quote from the Odyssey was very fitting, etc, and probably the explanations I wanted would have brought that down to a too-prosaic place, but... I don't know, I felt like that letter set up a lot of expectation for her, and that it didn't quite pay off.
But enough of that. Really I just found so much that's beautiful in this book, right down to the language. I was really excited by it because it had me wanting to go look up words other things... which I haven't come across in a long time. Which is my own fault for reading YA 60% of the time, but yeah. It was nice reading an adult book. Or rather, an adult book that isn't set pre-1900. I found some of the high-browed cultural references a tiny bit unrealistic in their consistency (it's like Gilmore Girls, people don't really talk like that) but maybe that's just my public-education making itself abundantly clear. But it was a beautiful read, all in all. I'm not surprised y'all pressed me about it so much. :-P
Towards the end of this it started to feel like it was just an introduction of a new problem for Anne to fix until it was fixed, and then something else cropped up... but that's pretty much life, so it didn't bother me much. And I loved Little Elizabeth. I'd forgotten all the different names she goes by. That's maybe one of my favorite bits... well really anything with her.
#31 - A Book of Luminous Things edited by Czeslaw Milosz
This has been a long time coming. I've had it for years... a friend gave it to me for Christmas one year, and I've picked it up and read a poem here or there, but I decided at the beginning of the year that I'd read a poem a day... that didn't really stick out, but by the end of the year I'll probably be averaging one per day, at least. This was a really great collection of poems, probably the best I've read from multiple poets... but that's not very fair to say because I don't think I've read another one all the way through except maybe a few kids' ones, which really don't count. And then there's the Norton Anthology but that's a totally different story. These had "chapters" of poems, and each one followed a specific theme, which was nice, plus there were some poets that just kept popping up and they were nice to see. A lot of them are California poets, since Milosz is, too, and that was nice. There's a kind of... "climate" that's unique to stuff by California poets, and I love it, since I guess I'm a California poet myself.
#32 - The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
So yes, I finally did read this. And yes, I loved it. Almost all of it. I have to admit that I found the ending a little disappointing. Just a tiny bit.
This is mainly because after that gorgeous letter of Henry's, it still feels a bit like all Clare did was sit and wait for him. I mean, you can make arguments that of course she didn't because she was in a different place, a different situation, but we really got no indication that she had this full, meaningful life, and I really wish we could have gotten just a hint of that. Of course the ending was beautiful and the quote from the Odyssey was very fitting, etc, and probably the explanations I wanted would have brought that down to a too-prosaic place, but... I don't know, I felt like that letter set up a lot of expectation for her, and that it didn't quite pay off.
But enough of that. Really I just found so much that's beautiful in this book, right down to the language. I was really excited by it because it had me wanting to go look up words other things... which I haven't come across in a long time. Which is my own fault for reading YA 60% of the time, but yeah. It was nice reading an adult book. Or rather, an adult book that isn't set pre-1900. I found some of the high-browed cultural references a tiny bit unrealistic in their consistency (it's like Gilmore Girls, people don't really talk like that) but maybe that's just my public-education making itself abundantly clear. But it was a beautiful read, all in all. I'm not surprised y'all pressed me about it so much. :-P