The Wisdom of the Shire, by Noble Smith
★★
Noble is an awesome name, but unfortunately, the book itself was less awesome. I rated it a two-and-a-half for book club, but I don't have a half star symbol, so consider this rating a two-and-a-half.
This book was supposed to be the lessons we can learn from hobbits, but it touched on all the inhabitants of Middle Earth. It felt very scattered, to be honest. It was also a bit shallow, and I outright disagreed with some of the conclusions he drew at the end of the chapters. (For example: “Bear your own Ring of Doom only for as long as you deem necessary. When the time is right, cast it into the fire and be free of the burden.” Um, the Ring of Doom is not something you can just choose to toss away "when the time is right".) So, would not recommend.
In a Holidaze, by Christina Lauren
My main takeaway from this book was that I don't read enough romantic comedies. I wouldn't want to read them exclusively, just like I wouldn't want to only eat dessert for every meal, but I think I can fit more than two per year into my reading roster.
Specifically about this romantic comedy: I loved the premise and I enjoyed the book, but it was a tad too steamy for me in parts. It didn't really jive with my worldview, and I felt like it was kind of shallow, but I was able to set those quibbles aside and enjoy the story.
Stir: My Broken Brain and the Meals That Brought Me Home, by Jessica Fechtor
Another food memoir. Still working my way through that first page of my TBR list! This one was different, though, because it focused on a specific time in the author's life. Her illness was an interesting lens through which to look at food and how she experienced food during that time.
I did disagree with her perspective on some things, particularly this quote:
"What comes of our own actions becomes the 'reason.' It is not predestined thing. We may arrive where we are by way of a specific path–we can take just one at a time–but it's never the only one that could have led to our destination. Nor does a single event, even a string of them, point decisively to a single landing spot. There are infinite possible versions of our lives. Meaning is not what happens, but what we do with what happens when it does."
Being a Christian, I strongly disagree with this, but I respect that other people have different perspectives.
Thinking back, I really did enjoy this read. Maybe I should bump it up to four stars ...
In the Time of the Butterflies, by Julia Alvarez
Technically, this was one of my October books, but I read all but a few pages in November. In my WWW Wednesday post last month, I mentioned that I enjoyed ITTOTB much more than the last Julia Alvarez book that I read, which was How the García Girls Lost Their Accents. HTGGLTA was written in 1991 and ITTOTB was written in 1994, so I like to think that Julia Alvarez refined her storytelling style in those three years between books. Like Butterflies (I'm trying to shorten these amazing but massive titles), HTGGLTA is about four sisters from the Dominican Republic. The main thing I disliked about HTGGLTA, though, was that it's written backwards; it starts with the sisters all grown up and living in the States, and I didn't feel like there was a reason for that. I don't mind gimmicks if they contribute to the story, but they do bother me if the author is just using a gimmick for the sake of using it. Because the story went backwards, they weren't any better off and there wasn't any revelation by the end. It felt pointless.
But I'm supposed to be talking about Butterflies. True, it did switch back and forth in time, but there was a reason for that, and overall the story moved forward. It was also told by the four different sisters, and I loved that each of them had their own voice. For example, Mate told her story through journal entries. Mate definitely had the most distinct voice, but all of them were separate and their sections were long enough that it really worked well.
Here's a quote that stood out to me: "Perhaps this is the only way to grieve the big things – in snippets, pinches, little sips of sadness."
That's all I managed to read in November! Next week, I'm excited to share a new writing project and its evolution with you. Until then, be safe and enjoy the holiday season!
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