Alphabet challenge
"C": Coover, Robert- Huck Out West
"D": Dymott, Elanor- Silver & Salt
2nd Goodreads list
Kwan, Kevin- Crazy Rich Asians
Silver & Salt: This is exactly the kind of thing that I was hoping to find when I devised my alphabet challenge. I don't think I've ever heard of this author, but this book really speaks to me, and now I want to get another from her. I've been trying not to add to my TBR, but I'm putting on her debut, Every Contact Leaves a Trace. For Silver & Salt, I can't even put my finger on why I like it. It goes back and forth in time, which I usually find annoying. There've been some times that I thought it dragged a bit; I was surprised when the StoryGraph said it was fast-paced. It doesn't fit cleanly into the mystery genre, but as StoryGraph says, it's mysterious. It took me a little while to get into this book, but I wouldn't have ditched it, even if it wasn't a challenge book. I don't mind a slow start, and I was intrigued by the title, so I wanted to know what that was about. The book switched from the 60s and early 70s to recent times, and it's the story of a family living in England and spending summers in Greece. There are several settings. The house in Greece and the country house in England are my favorites. The main character is the youngest daughter, and it's mostly about how the family affects her as she's growing up, and how she turns out. I've seen two very different covers for the book, and I think that if I'd chosen it with the misleading picture of a smiling child, I would have felt cheated. It's all very interesting and some of it's sad, but it's a good book. Not fun at all, but I recommend it.
Huck Out West: Another sad book! It's a little funny, being a continuation of the Huck Finn story, but poor Huck is just drifting along. Tom Sawyer can convince him to do anything, and even after he and Tom part ways, he just drifts. He falls in with belligerent army generals, gets caught in civilization again, and witnesses atrocities against Native Americans. He feels powerless to do anything about any of it. The descriptions of sanitation-free camp life about killed me. It's not laugh-out-loud funny, but there's quite alot of sarcasm. I only read Huck Finn once, about 8 years ago when I made a project of trying to read all the books I was supposed to have read in high school and college but skipped. But, if I'm remembering it correctly, this was true to the original. Anyone wanting a heroic Western probably won't like this.
Crazy Rich Asians: So much fun. This has been on my list since the movie came out. I have missed so many movies because I want to read the book first. Now I can finally watch it. As much as I enjoyed reading the ebook, I want to listen to the sequels on audiobooks. It always mentions after a long conversation how English they sound, and then I read the dialogue again to try to imagine it. I couldn't keep track of all their accents. They all just sounded American in my head, so I feel like I was missing something. While this book is a comedy, and I did think it was funny, it felt more like reading suspense to me. There were so many secrets, and so much scheming. The reader knew quite alot that the main character didn't, and I was so anxious to know when and how she'd find it all out, and what the fallout would be. I'm having to wait for the sequel.
Non-fiction: Didion, Joan- Let Me Tell You What I Mean
Goodreads: Haig, Matt- The Midnight Library
Dickens, Charles- Great Expectations
I'm past my February deadline by three days, but Feb is a short month by three days, so that's fair. I've got an e-galley that I really need to read soon, so I got all short books for March. This is definitely cheating, but since no on is checking up on me except for that Nerd and a Half, and she's SO LAX, it doesn't matter. I can read whatever I want!
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