The Household Guide to Dying, part 2

I'm a little more than halfway through this book and I am still a bit unsure of how I feel about it. Certainly, there are parts that really tug at my heart, or at least they try to. It's hard to feel sympathetic with characters that are cold and distant. Even the main character is lukewarm, at best. While I think this could be an amazing book, (I do love the concept) I feel like the book is just taking us through the motions. The characters have no depth, and that makes it really hard to relate to them on any but the most basic level. There's about as much emotion to this story as you would get reading a newspaper article about the same events. I can't stand books at are all fluff and no substance, but on the same token, I don't like reading something that is all about actions with no emotional fluff added in. It makes the whole story feel very cold, and analytical.

"The Household Guide to Dying"

I'm a good ways into this book, and so far, I guess I like it ok. The timeline is fractured, with no real transition between the jumps between past and present, so it feels a bit disjointed. I tend to have trouble with foreign slang as well, but thankfully there isn't a lot of it present in this book.

The story itself is unique, that's for sure, and I appreciate the sometimes humorous look at death, especially being a topic I am so very uncomfortable with myself. I find my heart aching, thinking of the two little girls that will be left behind. My heart can only ache slightly, however, because I am finding that beyond the narrator herself, the characters are not (as of yet) developed at all...you're not given any chance to know, or to like or dislike them. Strangely at this point, we know more about the neighbor than of the husband or daughters.

The lists give some insight as to the things that we all may find unimportant, or even take for granted, that a person may consider when faced with their own mortality, even though the narrator herself admits that some are irrational worries. The random advice column replies seem to serve absolutely no purpose, other than to reaffirm that the narrator is, in fact, an advice columnist by trade. They are occasionally quite witty, but they offer nothing to the story itself that I can see so far. I've seen examples of this in other books, quite frequently as of late, it seems to be a very popular style these days, however I've seen it done much better than this. Jodi Picoult is a good example of how to effectively use this style of writing, in my opinion. In her book, House Rules: A Novel, the narrator is also an advice columnist, but these snippets seem to flow better, and have more to do with the actual story. She does something similar, but with recipes, in Handle with Care: A Novel. However, while these 'columns' don't seem to add to the story (for me at least) they don't detract from it either.

That's all I can stay awake to write this evening. More tomorrow.

The Current Book is Brought to You by the Letter A...

I have chosen to read The Household Guide to Dying: A Novel About Life by Debra Adelaide.

Here's the synopsis from Amazon:

Domestic advice columnist Delia is terminally ill, but she has a few loose ends she'd like to wrap up before cancer takes her from her husband and two daughters in Australian novelist Adelaide's ho-hum latest. Though Delia makes lists that encompass everything from the morning routine to planning her daughters' weddings, hoping to control what will come after she is gone, much of what is on her mind is her distant past in the small town of Amethyst, where she lived after she left home at 17 to raise her firstborn. Adelaide metes that portion out slowly, and readers will have figured out the twists long before she gets there. What Delia faces and remembers about her time in Amethyst leaves her better able to face gracefully her own imminent departure, which she chronicles in an advice book. That project leads to some off-kilter scenes (such as Delia observing an autopsy and casket shopping).

It's very different from that which I am used to, but I am hoping it comes out to be an enjoyable book. It caught my eye because I just joined listography.com after seeing the Listography Journal: Your Life in Lists at the book store this weekend. That seems like a very interesting journal, and I think I am going to pick up a copy when payday comes. Wreck This Journal on Amazon looks interesting as well, I may see if they have it at the book store.

Ok off to get started, I will post some opinions later this evening after I have read some of the book.

Welcome!

This probably would have been better to start at the beginning of the year, but oh well, I am a fast reader anyhow. I am forever searching for something to read. Since I have tastes that are all over the map, I can't simply stick to a particular genre and read within that. In fact, there are very few things I don't read. I don't care for a traditional romance novel, generally I would rather eat one than read it. I don't mind a book that has a good strong story, that happens to lean towards romance though (the Outlander series, for example, could technically fall into 'Historical Fiction' (which is Romance with a fancy name). I don't typically read Non Fiction, (except for the occasional true crime novel) unless there's a specific purpose for it, something I need to know about. I've also never been able to really dig into most typical sci-fi/fantasy novels. Other than that I'm open....Mysteries, Thrillers, Horror, Inspirational, Comedy, Young Adult, you name it, I've read it. Yes, I am a die hard Harry Potter fan, and yes, I enjoyed Twilight, but I haven't found any other 'teen vampire' type books appealing in the least. I also love Phantom of the Opera and just about anything by Steinbeck. I love James Patterson's Women's Murder Club series, and I also love Dan Brown. I've tried several times to read the Lord of the Rings series, and it just doesn't work with my brain. On the other hand, the first two times I tried to read Wicked I hated it. Third time really is a charm I guess, because I liked it.

This basically leaves me with far too many choices, and leaves me frustrated. I tend to stick to a few authors that I like, and read whatever I can. I've run into a wall on this one, since I have read just about everything written by all of my favorites. I'm trying something new then. I am going to read my way through the alphabet, before the end of the year.

I'm not placing many rules or limits on this one. I will try to steer clear of 'safe' books for me, that is, authors I've already read at length, since the whole point is to discover something new. I still won't be venturing into the romance section. It's just not going to happen. I have a stack here that a friend loaned me, and I really just can't.

So here we are, at the beginning. I will start a new post with my first selection. I am open to suggestions!