pagesofjulia

So I finished The Unputdownable last night. I was hard pressed not to take it to our favorite local Italian restaurant and read while I ate! But I was with the Husband of course and that would have been rude.

A perfect expression of Reacher to share with you: “…the irony of his life was that although he had covered most of the earth’s surface, one time or another, he felt he hadn’t seen much. A lifetime in the service was like rushing down a narrow corridor, eyes fixed firmly to the front. There was [sic] all kinds of enticing stuff off to the sides, which you rushed past and ignored. Now he wanted to take the side trips. He wanted a crazy zigzag, any direction he felt like, any old time he wanted.”

More compliments to Mr. Child, who sprung a real surprise on us very late in the book. Wow! Actually I recall Connelly having used a similar villain once upon a time; but it caught me well off-balance and was a great finish. Another solid Reacher novel. I’m a fan.

Now for our book beginnings. Again, this meme is hosted by Katy at A Few More Pages. Today we have The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. Now, I realize this is not a new book (originally published 2003), and was a bestseller years ago, and I’m way behind, so I apologize if this is old news to you; but I don’t tend to read a whole lot of newly-released books, so deal with it. (Partly because there are so many very good not-new books I’m trying to read; partly because I don’t care all that much how new a book is; and partly because I work in a library where my patrons really badly want the new books and I think I’d be a bad person if I took those out.)

Sorry for rambling. Without further ado, we begin with the Prologue:

“CLARE: It’s hard being left behind. I wait for Henry, not knowing where he is, wondering if he’s okay. It’s hard to be the one who stays.”

I guess I already knew what the book was about in a vague way, so this start doesn’t shock or grab me so much; it’s a reasonable beginning to what I think the book is about. But I have to give credit; I wasn’t expecting to very much like this book, for whatever reason. Maybe I thought it was too pop-lit and I’m a snob or something. But in the first 50 pages or so I got interested in what was going to happen next. I’m intrigued by the logistical concerns about Henry suddenly appearing naked in unidentified times and places. I’m intrigued by Clare knowing the future, kind of, but also not. So that’s on the list for the weekend.

Another note today on future reads… I think I definitely have my eyes peeled for Tana French’s first book, In the Woods. My friend Valerie says I should definitely read it before The Likeness, because they share a lot of characters. I was thinking about French this morning because I heard Dropkick Murphys in the car doing “Young Willie McBride” and it took me right into the Irish setting, with a mournful tone… it made me want more of Tana French because I enjoyed Faithful Place so much. So stay tuned for that one…

This weekend I’ll be traveling with the Husband to a race that he’s racing but I’m not (gasp, this will only be my second time to support him from the sidelines!) and I’m taking plenty of reading material with me. I still haven’t finished reading the last Playboy magazine (January – great articles in this issue folks) and I have the latest issues of both American Libraries and Texas Library Journal waiting on me, too. Niffenegger will come along as well, and maybe I’ll have a lot to write about on Monday! Will be away from the interwebs til then, though, so hopefully this long post will keep you. This has turned into another WWW Wednesday post, in fact, about what I just finished, what I’m reading, and what’s up next. 🙂 Enjoy your weekend, friends! Read something good and tell me about it.

Filed under: book beginnings, book reviews | Tagged: mystery |