I've been at kind of a standstill when it comes to reading. It's not for lack of books: I easily have about two hundred piled around my room, waiting to be read. And it's not from lack of time. I'm really not doing much else with my time, apart from playing chauffeur to my sister and arguing with various University departments.
In part, I think it may be that I'm disappointed that I still haven't received the second installment of the Booktown mystery series. I was extremely excited to listen to the next book, but was put on a wait list at my library. I haven't felt the urge to listen to many other audiobooks. Plus, I've been rather lacking in the inspiration department. I keep finding series of books to read. While I love exploring my favorite characters in new adventures, on some level, you need a bit of an intervention. I have yet to find a proper audiobook that will take me away on a new universe.
I'm also feeling a bit guilty that all I've been listening to and all I've been reading lately have been classified as cozy mysteries. I know that there's nothing wrong with reading what you like- after all I firmly believe that the purpose of books is solely for enjoyment. If you don't enjoy what you're reading, you're missing the purpose. Still, when time after time it's yet another quirky heroine solving a murder, I feel like I'm stuck in a rut. I need to break out of the pattern, at least for a little bit!
Finally, I think the biggest reason I've been avoiding reading has been that I'm stuck in a never ending book. While I ordinarily enjoy nonfiction, particularly when it involves mysteries and serial killers, I just can't get into The Devil in the White City. I know a good chunk of the reason is that it's a paper book- again, one of the two hundred or so covering every surface in my bedroom. It's hard for me to read paper books now that I feel the urge to knit at every waking moment. The other part is something I'll discuss when I eventually finish it. I know it's not an issue of the topic- I absolutely adored the episode the Stuff You Missed in History Class did on the murders, and the World's Fair is a topic that's been featured at my work for months now.
In any case, out of sheer desperation, I downloaded the audiobook of The Last Suppers by Diane Mott Davidson in hopes that I might finally resume my interest in books. After all, pretty soon I'm going to be much too busy to be reading as often as I can now.
This attempt to garner my own interest failed miserably. I felt myself tuning out of this book. While I still enjoyed the characters of Marla and Goldie, I couldn't keep any of the secondary characters in this book straight. The whole book revolved around Goldie freaking out, with entirely too much of a focus on religion. You didn't get to enjoy her relationship with her friends and family, and the whole bit about her hearing voices was rather disturbing. While I understood that she was going through an emotional crisis with the loss of her fiancee, that should have given Davidson an opportunity to stress the importance of Goldie's relationship with her family. Instead, it was a book entirely filled with inner monologue of someone anguished.
The mystery itself felt very much pushed to the wayside in favor of inner monologue whining. There were minimal clue finding and red herrings. It was just a dud of a book, in my opinion. I have faith that the next few will be considerably more entertaining. I know that my complete lack of knowledge involving Goldie's religion didn't help matters either.
(2/5 stars)
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