The Christmas churn dashes are a flimsy! I'm auditioning backings.
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I am halfway through a book that I don't like very much. (Why do I feel compelled to finish what I start? Nancy Pearl, reader's advisor extraordinaire, has posited the Rule of 50 * and I should follow it more often.) Here are my reviews of last week's books that I didn't have time to post on Monday.
"A book published the year you graduated from high school" is one of the prompts for The Page Turner 2022, a FB group I'm in. For 1970 I could have chosen Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Love Story, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, or Play It As It Lays. I went with Agatha Christie. She takes on Cold War espionage in this stand-alone from late in her long life and prolific career. Her earlier series mysteries -- the classic Poirots and Miss Marples -- are much better. (This is one of four of her books that has not been adapted for film or TV.)
I bought this book when it was published last summer but it has taken a while for it to come to the top of my TBR stack. I was surprised and encouraged by Gigi Georges' account of five teenage girls in rural Washington County, Maine. I was surprised because I'd thought (feared) their stories would be a reworking of Hillbilly Elegy (drugs and hopelessness), but they weren't. I am encouraged to know how these young women are establishing their way in the world (as current as Covid in 2020).The author noted that she was careful to conceal the true identities of the five girls and their families with pseudonyms. However, when the Portland Press-Herald reviewed the book they gave the girls' names and published their photos.
Linking up with Midweek Makers and Wednesday Wait Loss
* Nancy Pearl's Rule of 50: if you're under 50 years old then read 50 pages of a book before deciding to give up on it. If you're over 50, subtract your age from 100. that's the number to read before switching to another book.
I hadn't heard the Rule of 50, but I like that! I also have stuck with a book I didn't like way longer than that. A book from the year you graduated from high school - that might be a fun thing to share with my book club. This month we're reading Nine Women, One Dress because you said it was one you never would have chosen except that your book club did! Love your Christmas Churn Dashes - lots of fun colors in that one!
ReplyDeleteOh LOVE your Churn Dashes!!
ReplyDeleteit kills me when I don't like a book but feel I have to finish it... I procrastinate - and you know what happens when I do that? I get in trouble!!!
I was way past 40 before I decided that I wasn't going to like everything that I'd picked up on a whim and that it was ok not to finish a book. For me the question is whether I care what happens to these characters. If I'm a few chapters in and I have no interest in what happens next, well there are plenty of other books out there.
ReplyDeleteYour churn dash looks great. I always love seeing red and green together.
ReplyDeleteAs for quitting a book before I finish it -- I used to feel compelled to finish no matter how much I disliked it. I finally decided I'm too old to waste time on a book I don't like because of characters, plot, writing, for whatever reason. These days I don't have a problem laying a book aside after the first chapter. On the other hand, I sometimes think it might be the wrong time (season, mindset, etc.) to read the book and make a note to try it again later.
Your Christmas Churn Dash quilt looks wonderful. When it comes to books, if the first few chapters don't captivate me, I stop and start a new one. I think life is too short and there are way too many good books out there just waiting to be discovered and read.
ReplyDeleteThe churn dash quilt is beautiful!
ReplyDeleteanother stunner from nann! i'll have to grab the one about washington county girls...could be my relatives...LOL
ReplyDeleteChristmas Churn Dash turned out beautifully. I'd never heard of the rule of 50, it does make some sense. If I'm struggling to read a book at the beginning, I'll skip to just past half way to see if I can get into it at that point. If it gets better, it makes it a lot easier to stick with the part that's not working for me.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't heard of the Rule of 50, but it seems like a good way to set a limit on when to decide to give up on a book. Love your Christmas Churn Dash! Can't wait to see it become a quilt. Thanks for sharing on Wednesday Wait Loss.
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