Book Review: A Little Life

As I've said before, it is hard to find time to write in the summer. The great outdoors and perfect Montana weather compete for my time and often win out over solitary time with my pen and my thoughts. With that in mind, I've set a challenge for today - write one book review during my lunch break from work. Here are my thoughts on Hanya Yanagihara's novel, A Little Life.

Discoving a New Author: Liane Moriarty

While I read regularly, sometimes I am at a loss for what to pick up next. I'm not very good about keeping a running list of books to check out so often I scramble to find  my next read. I love it when I enjoy a book by a new author and discover that he/she has written several more. This is always a great moment as I know I won't be short on reading material for a while. Thus is my recent experience with the work of Liane Moriarty.

Calling It Quits on My Big Read

As for the big read a mentioned back in March, I have decided to abandon it about 100 pages from the end. I made steady progress from the time of the post until I left for a holiday in May (It was too big of a book to bring with me) and when I returned in early June I made some progress. Eventually summer moved along and other books made their way into my life. It became that I couldn't even make it through a simple ten page chapter of the big read. I tried for most of the fall but it was not to happen. I returned the book to the library yesterday. Perhaps I will pick it up for the third time in about another 20+ years but for now I am through with it.

A Big Read with a Light Read as an Appetizer

Next time I'll read it in Russian

Several summers ago, I read Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. I was inspired by Kate, the daughter of my cousin Frank's wife Clara. Kate was 16 years old at the time and was in the middle of reading the book. (Smart girl, great way for an outsider to pass the time at our day long "Cousins' Party.") Inspired and not to be out done by someone not yet out of high school, I set out to read the book that summer.

Thoughts on Gymnastics Part Two: Reading & Viewing Primer

I wanted to follow up my review of Chalked Up with links to a few books, videos and thoughts about gymnastics.

Readings on Gymnastics: Chalked Up Book Review

Chalked Up: Inside Elite Gymnastics' Merciless Coaching, Overzealous Parents, Eating Disorders, & Elusive Olympic Dreams An memoir by Jennifer Sey

(Wow. Book reviews are harder than I had imagined. The second book review in the series proposed in my previous post is below.)

I first read this book when it came out and reread it on a boring November afternoon this past off-season. Competitive gymnastics was a huge part of my life for years and played an important role in shaping who I am today. While I no longer follow the sport closely, I do enjoy reading about it and watching it during the Olympics.

Off-Season Survival Plan - Read More Books, Part One

Winter has been slow to come to Southwest Montana and right now it feels like we're entering the sixth week of November. Ugh! Mike and have gotten  to do some backcountry skiing over the past two weekends but it is just a survival tactic at this point. Really more tootling than actual worthwhile ski touring but much better that walking up The M in mud and ice.

I am thankful for the extra time to take care of some neglected home projects and catch up on reading.  Below is the first of what I hope will be a series of book reviews.