I am having issues adjusting to this whole blogging thing. As much as I enjoy it, I feel pressure to post more often than I do. Considering the limited amount of time I have to read, I don't polish off a book as often as I would like. The one I am posting about took an entire month to finish. YEESH!
During the time between completing books, I am always trying to figure out something to blog about but my ideas really end up seeming stupid. Nothing worthy of more than a facebook status, but I feel bad that there are some people that keep checking back for new posts to find nothing. When I see my blog linked on someone elses blog and it says that the last update was over a week ago I feel guilty (Sometimes I have so much pent up guilt it's suprising I'm not Catholic) But honestly, several of the last ideas I had for posts were CRAP! Absolute Crap! No one would have been interested in reading them. If you follow me on facebook, you may have seen my status "Ever have one of those days where you have needed to go to the bathroom since 8am and you don't get a chance to until 4:00 in the afternoon?". I seriously considered blogging about this. But no one (let me say that again; NO ONE!) wants to read about how much I need to pee. Not to mention it would have been a VERY short post. Not much more than the sentence that was my FB status.
So I am warning anyone that is interested in reading my blog. I am sorry, I am going to try to stick to just book reviews and the occasional "important" or "interesting" post... no more crap. I'm going to stop thinking about it and only post when moved to or completing a book.
Sorry if that means I only post once a month. *barf* (Really!? A whole month to finish a book? Ugh. I suck...)
~*~
NOTE: This book was one that was reviewed by
a friend on her blog and I thought it sounded good so I borrowed it
from her. Go
HERE to see her
review.
In her best-selling debut, Commencement, J. Courtney Sullivan explored the complicated and contradictory landscape of female friendship. Now, in her highly anticipated second novel, Sullivan takes us into even richer territory, introducing four unforgettable women who have nothing in common but the fact that, like it or not, they’re family.
For the Kellehers, Maine is a place where children run in packs, showers are taken outdoors, and old Irish songs are sung around a piano. Their beachfront property, won on a barroom bet after the war, sits on three acres of sand and pine nestled between stretches of rocky coast, with one tree bearing the initials “A.H.” At the cottage, built by Kelleher hands, cocktail hour follows morning mass, nosy grandchildren snoop in drawers, and decades-old grudges simmer beneath the surface.
As three generations of Kelleher women descend on the property one summer, each brings her own hopes and fears. Maggie is thirty-two and pregnant, waiting for the perfect moment to tell her imperfect boyfriend the news; Ann Marie, a Kelleher by marriage, is channeling her domestic frustration into a dollhouse obsession and an ill-advised crush; Kathleen, the black sheep, never wanted to set foot in the cottage again; and Alice, the matriarch at the center of it all, would trade every floorboard for a chance to undo the events of one night, long ago.
By turns wickedly funny and achingly sad, Maine unveils the sibling rivalry, alcoholism, social climbing, and Catholic guilt at the center of one family, along with the abiding, often irrational love that keeps them coming back, every summer, to Maine and to each other.
I thought this book was... ok.
I think it is one that had I read at a
different time (perhaps during the summer, like Dani) I may have
liked it more. The concept of heading out to a vacation home seems so
much better while reading it from your own vacation spot. Had I read
this while in the cabin at Waskesiu or on the beaches of Kauai, it
may have seemed more real. I also think that I don't have a clue what
Maine is like and so I can't really appriciate it at as great summer
destination. To me, I always think of Maine as rainy. I have NO idea
where this concept came from, but I can't imagine it being all that
great if it's rainy. I also can't imagine it being better than my
other two choice vacation spots. Waskesiu is my childhood vacation
spot and I can't imaging going anywhere else during my summers. And
if I want to sit on a beach by the Ocean, I have no intention of
going to Maine. I will drop the extra Grand on going to Hawaii. THAT
is Ocean. I can't even conceptualize how the ocean view in Maine
could even compare to the one in Hawaii.
But that is all biases that I have. And
that's not really fair to this book...
One of the problems I have with the
book is the four main characters in the book. All women from the same
family; Three generations, one joined by marriage... I don't like any
of them. Between the old woman who doesn't appriciate her family, to
the daughter in law who is completely driven by money, the bitchy
alcoholic daughter who dumped everything to become some kind of
hippy, and the granddaughter that chooses to get knocked up by a
douchebag boyfriend for stupid reasons.... ugh. This is the worst
family on the face of the planet. I had this problem with the book
Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin too. You don't know who to root
for because you hope they all lose somehow, but they are all so
antagonistic that if someone loses, someone else inevitably wins
somehow. However I do love the bitchy daughter's hippy boyfriend. Granted, this may be a somewhat realistic view of family and people in general. Everyone has their vices and sometimes big families don't get along. But why on earth would I want to read about that?
This book really dragged for me and from the one and only point that I laughed I can't really agree that it's "wickedly funny", and there wasn't really anything that I would consider "achingly sad" considering the character's involved. It wasn't awful, but I would have difficulty recommending it to someone. I'm guessing in a couple of years I won't really remember much about it.
But I liked the Joni Mitchell
reference... ;)
