Author: Jennifer @ The Relentless Reader

It’s Monday! What are you reading? 01/21/13

~ Jennifer @ The Relentless Reader ~ 53 Comments
Found this cutie patootie graphic @ Once Upon A Twilight

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila @ Book Journey. 
I love this meme, it inspires me to be a bit more organized than usual! 


It’s been another great week of reading around here. Yahoo! 


Reviews: 

The Love Song of Jonny Valentine by Teddy Wayne

Much Ado About Loving by Jack Murnighan and Maura Kelly

Astray by Emma Donoghue and The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards by Kristopher Jansma

Read:

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham

The Bracelet by Roberta Gately

Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
(Reviews coming soon!)

Currently Reading:

The Newlyweds by Nell Freudenberger
In The Newlyweds, we follow the story of Amina Mazid, who at age twenty-four moves from Bangladesh to Rochester, New York, for love. A hundred years ago, Amina would have been called a mail-order bride. But this is an arranged marriage for the twenty-first century: Amina is wooed by—and woos—George Stillman online.  
For Amina, George offers a chance for a new life and a different kind of happiness than she might find back home. For George, Amina is a woman who doesn’t play games. But each of them is hiding something: someone from the past they thought they could leave behind. It is only when they put an ocean between them—and Amina returns to Bangladesh—that she and George find out if their secrets will tear them apart, or if they can build a future together. 


Upcoming:


The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman
Fifty years and many changes have ensued since the paper was founded by an enigmatic millionaire, and now, amid the stained carpeting and dingy office furniture, the staff’s personal dramas seem far more important than the daily headlines. Kathleen, the imperious editor in chief, is smarting from a betrayal in her open marriage; Arthur, the lazy obituary writer, is transformed by a personal tragedy; Abby, the embattled financial officer, discovers that her job cuts and her love life are intertwined in a most unexpected way. Out in the field, a veteran Paris freelancer goes to desperate lengths for his next byline, while the new Cairo stringer is mercilessly manipulated by an outrageous war correspondent with an outsize ego. And in the shadows is the isolated young publisher who pays more attention to his prized basset hound, Schopenhauer, than to the fate of his family’s quirky newspaper.


Bloggish Business:

I’m continuing to keep track of the settings in the books I read here. This is such a blast to do!

Judith at Leeswammes’ Blog is hosting another Literary Giveaway Hop and I’ve decided to join in for the 2nd time. The last day to sign up is on February 6th. Go check it out! (And join!)

You can find more from The Relentless Reader here:



Have a super week of reading everyone!

Quick Thoughts: Astray by Emma Donoghue & The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards by Kristopher Jansma

~ Jennifer @ The Relentless Reader ~ 16 Comments
Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
Publication Date: October 2012
Categories: Historical, Literary
Source: I won a copy from Book Club Classics!
Description:
The fascinating characters that roam across the pages of Emma Donoghue’s stories have all gone astray: they are emigrants, runaways, drifters, lovers old and new. They are gold miners and counterfeiters, attorneys and slaves. They cross other borders too: those of race, law, sex, and sanity. They travel for love or money, incognito or under duress. 

With rich historical detail, the celebrated author of Room takes us from puritan Massachusetts to revolutionary New Jersey, antebellum Louisiana to the Toronto highway, lighting up four centuries of wanderings that have profound echoes in the present. Astray offers us a surprising and moving history for restless times.

My Quick Thoughts:

Emma Donoghue strikes again! (I was absolutely smitten with Room)

Normally I don’t seek out short story collections. I might not have read this at all if I hadn’t won a copy. I’m very glad that I did. This is chock full of great tales about compelling characters.

I wholly recommend Astray. Each story is irresistible.

Publisher: The Viking Press
Publication Date: March 2013
Category: Literary
Description:
An inventive and witty debut about a young man’s quest to become a writer and the misadventures in life and love that take him around the globe

From as early as he can remember, the hopelessly unreliable—yet hopelessly earnest—narrator of this ambitious debut novel has wanted to become a writer.

From the jazz clubs of Manhattan to the villages of Sri Lanka, Kristopher Jansma’s irresistible narrator will be inspired and haunted by the success of his greatest friend and rival in writing, the eccentric and brilliantly talented Julian McGann, and endlessly enamored with Julian’s enchanting friend, Evelyn, the green-eyed girl who got away. After the trio has a disastrous falling out, desperate to tell the truth in his writing and to figure out who he really is, Jansma’s narrator finds himself caught in a never-ending web of lies.

As much a story about a young man and his friends trying to make their way in the world as a profoundly affecting exploration of the nature of truth and storytelling, The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards will appeal to readers of Tom Rachman’s The Imperfectionists and Jennifer Egan’s Pulitzer Prize–winning A Visit from the Goon Squad with its elegantly constructed exploration of the stories we tell to find out who we really are.

Kristopher Jansma has been named one of Flavorwire’s “Up-and-Coming Culture Makers to Watch in 2013” and The Millions selected The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards as one their Most Anticipated Books of 2013


My Quick Thoughts:

There really isn’t a way to describe this story, within a story (within another story?). It’s a mind bending adventure that kept surprising me.

You might want to carve out a day or two for this one when it comes out. The buzz is big and I think it’s going to be a hit. Turn off your phone, log out of Twitter and give this amazingly written book the undivided attention it deserves. It will be worth your time.