too many books, so little time

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This week: Do you frequently read more than one book at a time? Do you try to limit this to a certain number? Do you have different books for different purposes/topics?

I am a dyed-in-the-wool read one book at a time fan. I like to immerse myself completely, no distractions or characterisations blending into one another, no getting storylines mixed up…you get the picture. Alas my total devotion to one book and one book only has gone by the wayside.

I usually have a book club book going at the same time as one (or two) from Mt TBR. Too many books not enough time-before-I-turn-out-the light sums up my abandonment of my preferred reading habit.

The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff

514 pages
Genre: Family Saga/whodunit/religion
Tone: factual/historical
Rating: VPI
Fav lines: We were something else – a cult, a cowboy theocracy, a little slice of Saudi America. p8

First Line: In the one year since I renounced my Mormon faith, and set out to tell the nation the truth about American polygamy, many people have wondered why I ever agreed to become a plural wife.

Synopsis: Interweaves dual stories of a nineteenth wife; one, Ann Eliza Young in 1875, who sets about divorcing her husband and de-bunking the practice of polygamy; and two, BeckyLyn a current-day 19th wife accused of killing her husband who must be rescued by her estranged son, Jordan Scott.

What do I think?: This is a book about families and the pressures we put on each other which of course are compounded for the polygamous family. I was very interested to see how the women in a multiple marriage cope and it has to be said that this story shows both he good and the bad (although perhaps not with equal measure). It’s not what you think, it’s not all LDS bashing in fact one of the aspects I really enjoyed was the focus on faithful people living out their lives according to their beliefs even when the rest of the world can’t understand or doesn’t agree.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that it’s not at all sordid, the voracious way women are ‘consumed’ and then discarded by a few men in positions of power is subtly handled with lots of spaces in the text for the reader to fill in themselves…nice.

Overall I enjoyed both storylines although Ann Eliza gets a bit dry at times. Polygamy is an interesting subject deftly given life in this book, I’d recommend it if you’re interested in the different ways people live their lives.

Happy New year

Hello everyone in blogland I know the 1st of Feb is a ridiculous day to say happy new year but my year has got off to a bit of a rough start so I’m declaring January a non-entity and starting afresh with February.

I hope you all got the books you wanted for Christmas and am looking forward with relish (pickles and mayonnaise too) to reading all your reviews of your summer/winter/holiday reading. How lucky am I…I got 3 of the 4 books on my wishlist.

 

The 19th Wife David Ebershoff, Unbearable Lightness of Being Milan Kundera & Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society Mary Ann Shaffer.

AND

Using Functional Grammar: An Explorer's Guide David Butt, 1000 Glass Beads: Innovation & Imagination in Contemporary Glass Beadmaking & Junk Style Melanie Molesworth.

S.P.O.I.L.T!