Sunday, September 21, 2014

Sunday Salon: All I Need

 Better late than never, right?  I've already been to church and had a walk, and thought I'd try to bang out a quick update of my week before we have to leave to take my daughter to SAT class.  Taking note of my stress level, my husband has silently made this Sunday SAT thing a good excuse for the two of us to have a weekly brunch together, walk around doing window shopping and taking deep breaths.  

I won't go into detail of my week.  You don't really need to hear about it.  I will say that I've been working on pulling myself together, and that really friends, Xanax and Tana French are all I need.  (Having visions of Steve Martin in The Jerk!  LOL).  In an act of pure charity, when I expressed a mood that wasn't conducive to book club this week, a small group of friends whisked me out for a more intimate setting of drinks and talking.  This stuff is good for the soul.

So Tana French.  I knocked out her latest release "The Secret Place" on audio this week.  While I don't think it was her best work, even then it is better than almost anything else out there.  Psychologically twisted, clever and finely-wrought dialogue, and a bunch of fairly toxic girls in a boarding school?  It doesn't get any better than that.  And at the risk of sounding like a broken record, her audios are sheer perfection.  After I finished that book, I started "We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves" by Karen Joy Fowler.  TBD on my opinion of this one, but is it narrated by Orlagh Cassidy, whom I love.

In print I finished "Wool" finally, and deem it to be genius.  I don't care what your favorite genre is, you are going to love this one.  And there is more to come, with two more installments plus a buttload of fan fiction too I hear.  I am now about a quarter of the way through "Station Eleven" by Emily St. John Mandel.  This book was just nominated for the National Book Award and I couldn't be prouder of this little whisp of a girl who writes in a big way.

Hope you all have a pleasant Sunday.  Make sure you let me know if you have anything awesome going on your nightstand!!! 



8 comments:

bermudaonion said...

I hope things are better for you this week!

rhapsodyinbooks said...

You're ramping up the reading I see! But with all those good books, it should be fun for you!

Alyce said...

I'm glad you have some good things to balance out the week you had, and I hope that things get easier and better from here on out!

Lately I've been starting and then giving up on a lot of books, in search of things that suit my mood. What I've ended up reading is the Kingkiller series by Patrick Rothfuss.

JoAnn said...

I'm really on the fence with We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves... maybe you opinion will help me make a decision.

Sure hope you have a calmer week ahead. Love the SAT prep class routine!

Beth F said...

Good luck with this week ... deep breaths.

techeditor said...

I, too, read the secret place, and I agree with you that, although it's not her best it is better than most.

I,too, intend to read we are all completely beside ourselves. I'm anxious to hear what you think of it.

Anonymous said...

Sorry about your bad week, but it helps to talk to friends and read! I have Wool on my kindle, to be read, and after your praise-- probably soon. I read the first Tana French and now I am hoping to get her next so I can read them in order.
Station Eleven has been on my radar..glad you are liking it, and though I don't do audio, I believe I might like this one.

Ti said...

I am not all that far into The Bone Clocks but I was having trouble following the story and realized my ARC is missing some pages. I wonder if there are more pages missing in that chunkster! Sort of grates on the nerves.

I am reading nothing fantastic at the moment and it's bugging me.