Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Reading Rut...Please Help!

I think we've all been there before...at least once or twice...where no matter what you pick up to read, no matter how long you've been anticipating future release dates, and regardless of the events going on around you, sometimes at any given moment not even one book seems to hold your interest for long.  I've recently hit a reading rut and I'm at a loss for what to do.  I'm sure there's nothing much to be done, but wanted some opinions from you guys in case I'm missing something or if you guys have tried something different in the past that seems to work for you when this crisis hits.

So everyone that stops by the blog from time to time knows that I'm a HUGE fan of countdown posts, mainly because there are just so many good books out there and it's almost impossible to keep track of the majority without leaving out a few gems in the process.  Well despite having countdown posts out the wazoo to look back through and try to pick a few titles from, nothing lately seems to be holding my interest.  At first I thought maybe I'd just hit a rough patch with the current book I was reading.  I found myself coming home from work and when I would normally go about my usual routine and then kick back for a little before I set the alarm clock for the next day with a good book I had no desire to pick it up.  BIG red flag for me!  So I figured I'd put that title aside and pick up another one...when I did this with two other books I admitted defeat.  I knew I'd hit a reading slump and now here I am...begging for help or suggestions. 

Maybe you guys have read something recently that's just so fabulous that you know it's a full proof title to get me out of this terrible crisis, or whatever, but I'm open to just about any ideas you've got.  While I'm a huge bibliophile and will stop at nothing to add more titles to my shelves, I'm also a coffee table book fanatic and can't seem to stop collecting them whenever I get the chance.  So I figured maybe it was time to add a few more tomes to my already crazy collection (I Love It!) and fingers crossed they spark my interest long enough to jump start my regular reading back into action.  So you'll see in my next IMM on Sunday what I've purchased this week, if you've got any others you think I should look into let me know.

Last on my idea list of what to do to get me out of this current dilemma: branching out.  I'm a big YA fan...obviously but since nothing right now is keeping my attention I am finally going to dig through my list of past suggestions from family and friends.  These titles don't fall into the YA category but maybe that's my problem at the moment?  Who knows right?  So here a few that I'm going to check out, if you've read any of them or think I should look at some others let me know.  Hopefully this is a quick passing phase and I'll bounce back pronto.  In the meantime, hopefully I've got enough reviews already scheduled for the upcoming days to tide me over until I get some fresh and new material to work with.

Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close

Wickedly hilarious and utterly recognizable, Girls in White Dresses tells the story of three women grappling with heartbreak and career change, family pressure and new love—all while suffering through an endless round of weddings and bridal showers.

Isabella, Mary, and Lauren feel like everyone they know is getting married. On Sunday after Sunday, at bridal shower after bridal shower, they coo over toasters, collect ribbons and wrapping paper, eat minuscule sandwiches and doll-sized cakes. They wear pastel dresses and drink champagne by the case, but amid the celebration these women have their own lives to contend with: Isabella is working at a mailing-list company, dizzy with the mixed signals of a boss who claims she’s on a diet but has Isabella file all morning if she forgets to bring her a chocolate muffin. Mary thinks she might cry with happiness when she finally meets a nice guy who loves his mother, only to realize he’ll never love Mary quite as much. And Lauren, a waitress at a Midtown bar, swears up and down she won’t fall for the sleazy bartender—a promise that his dirty blond curls and perfect vodka sodas make hard to keep.

With a wry sense of humor, Jennifer Close brings us through those thrilling, bewildering, what-on-earth-am-I-going-to-do-with-my-life years of early adulthood. These are the years when everyone else seems to have a plan, a great job, and an appropriate boyfriend, while Isabella has a blind date with a gay man, Mary has a crush on her boss, and Lauren has a goldfish named Willard. Through boozy family holidays and disastrous ski vacations, relationships lost to politics and relationships found in pet stores, Girls in White Dresses pulls us deep inside the circle of these friends, perfectly capturing the wild frustrations and soaring joys of modern life.


**I've been in enough weddings in the past two years that I think not only will this book hit very close to home, but I'm almost positive that I'll be able to relate in one way or another, don't ya think?

The Singles by Meredith Goldstein

Take an instantly recognizable social dilemma—attending a wedding alone—add a good laugh (and maybe a cry), and meet The Singles, the warm and witty debut by Boston Globe “Love Letters” columnist Meredith Goldstein.

Beth “Bee” Evans’s first vow as a bride is that everyone on her list be invited to bring a guest to her lavish, Chesapeake Bay nuptials. When Hannah, Vicki, Rob, Joe, and Nancy one by one decline Bee’s generous offer, the frustrated bride dubs them the “Singles,” adrift on her seating chart as well as in life.


**I'm not trying to start a theme or trend here, with all these new books being wedding related, it just so happened that the first two on my long list of suggestions were just that.  And this one sounded a little humorous which might just be what I need.

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

Remember the woman you used to be ...

Alice is twenty-nine. She is whimsical, optimistic and adores sleep, chocolate, her ramshackle new house and her wonderful husband Nick. What's more, she's looking forward to the birth of the 'Sultana' - her first baby.

But now Alice has slipped and hit her head in her step-aerobics class and everyone's telling her she's misplaced the last ten years of her life.

In fact, it would seem that Alice is actually thirty-nine and now she loves schedules, expensive lingerie, caffeine and manicures. She has three children and the honeymoon is well and truly over for her and Nick. In fact, he looks at her like she's his worst enemy. What's more, her beloved sister Elisabeth isn't speaking to her either. And who is this 'Gina' everyone is so carefully trying not to mention?

Alice isn't sure that she likes life ten years on. Every photo is another memory she doesn't have and nothing makes sense. Just how much can happen in a decade? Has she really lost her lovely husband forever?


The First Husband by Laura Dave

A savvy, page-turning novel about a woman torn between her husband and the man she thought she'd marry.

Annie Adams is days away from her thirty-second birthday and thinks she has finally found some happiness. She visits the world's most interesting places for her syndicated travel column and she's happily cohabiting with her movie director boyfriend Nick in Los Angeles. But when Nick comes home from a meeting with his therapist (aka "futures counselor") and announces that he's taking a break from their relationship so he can pursue a woman from his past, the place Annie had come to call home is shattered. Reeling, Annie stumbles into her neighborhood bar and finds Griffin-a grounded, charming chef who seems to be everything Annie didn't know she was looking for. Within three months, Griffin is Annie's husband and Annie finds herself trying to restart her life in rural Massachusetts.

A wry observer of modern love, Laura Dave "steers clear of easy answers to explore the romantic choices we make" (USA Today). Her third novel is packed with humor, empathy, and psychological insight about the power of love and home.

**So those are the four I've pulled from the list for now, and I've already decided that I'll be ordering one of those as an audio book, to really shake things up.  I'm not usually the type that likes books on tape...mostly the narrators annoy me, but like I said before...I'm willing to try anything to break this stupid chain of disappointments. 

What else should I be checking out?  Anything else you guys have had to do to break the reading rut spell that you think I should try?

1 comment:

  1. I found Carolyn crane --Mind Games Series helped get me out of a rut. Those books all sound good.

    ReplyDelete

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