So it looks like I'm following this book challenge:
http://modernmrsdarcy.com/2015/01/2015-reading-challenge/
I happened to receive All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr as a Christmas gift and started reading it immediately. When I came across the above list, it was obvious that "a book that's currently on the bestseller list" was a natural place to start, because All the Light We Cannot See is not only a current bestseller, it is also widely considered to be one of the best books of 2014. And I so agree.
My rating: Five stars. Unquestionably. I would try to describe why, but it's hard to put it into words, because my words are so much less beautiful and illuminating and masterful than the words that are in this book. Read it!
For February, I chose "a book you've been meaning to read," because I have tons of those. I am an extreme bibliophile, which results in me frequently checking out books at the library when I already have stacks of unread books at home.
So I picked up July, July by Tim O'Brien. I hadn't read O'Brien since high school (The Things They Carried), but I had bought this one at a Gift & Thrift Book Sale quite a while ago, and I seem to remember it being recommended to me by someone or other.
My rating: Four stars
My review (as written on Goodreads): Perfectly encapsulated snippets of the monumental and the minutiae which, when woven together, form a portrait of a generation. This is a testament to the universal tendencies of humanity - love, resentment, failure, luck, tragedy, friendship, regret - and the stories that shape us all.
This is one of those books that I hold in higher esteem after having finished it than I did while reading it. The more you read, the more it comes together.
In March, I'm planning to read Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez to fulfill "a book that was originally written in another language." I have never read any GGM (except for one short story), which feels wrong. One Hundred Years of Solitude has piqued my interest, but I'll admit that it feels like a daunting place to start. What I know about these two works is that they're very well-written and rewarding, but difficult in certain respects (extremely wordy sentences, everybody having the same name, etc.), so I opted for the shorter one.
Hopefully writing about it now will give me enough accountability (which, given my recent literary diet of mostly YA fiction, is probably much needed) to actually follow through.
What are you reading this month? :)
