Wednesday Reading Meme (49. The Countess Conspiracy)

[osprey_archer]

What I've Just Finished Reading

Michael Ende's Momo, which I think I would have appreciated more if I had read it when I was a child. As it was, the villains fell rather flat - they're evil gray time-stealing creatures who exist for no other reason than to steal time from human beings - which drained the book of much of its forward motion for me, I think.

I also read Courtney Milan's The Countess Conspiracy, which I enjoyed, although it didn't leave as strong an impression as The Duchess War or The Heiress Effect. But it did have this one exquisite quote, which I will share with you: Victory wasn't sweet; it was devastating and incomprehensible. It reduced her to rubble when she could have withstood harsh words.

I feel like I've read something else (it's been three weeks since I posted this meme! Surely I read something else in that time?) but it's not coming to mind now, so clearly it didn't make much of an impression on me.

What I'm Reading Now

Ann Patchett's essay collection This is the Story of a Happy Marriage, which I hoped to find as compelling as Truth and Beauty, her memoir about her friendship with Lucy Greeley. (I highly recommend Truth and Beauty to everyone and should probably write a review of it someday so I can extoll its many virtues.)

This is the Story of a Happy Marriage is a perfectly reasonable essay collection, but so far it does not live up to Truth and Beauty, although who knows, perhaps one of the later essays in the collection will offer that shining moment of transcendence.

What I Plan to Read Next

I have the latest Newbery Medal winner, Kwame Alexander's The Crossover. If the cover is any guide, it features basketball heavily, which has rather put me off, but I really should crack it open and give it a try.

But I borrowed the first Hercule Poirot novel from Caitlin, and I ought to read it so I can return it to her when I visit next week, so I may end up reading that first.

Comments

[ghosted.livejournal.com]

Thanks for reminding me about Truth and Beauty! I forgot it existed but I would like to read it. One day.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

It is awesome and I hope you get around to it! Lucy Greeley and Ann Patchett had one of those friendships that I am always looking for in novels.

[evelyn-b.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've read the first Poirot book yet! I hope you enjoy it, whichever one it is!

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

It's The Mysterious Affair at Styles. It's interesting, although mainly it's reaffirming to me how much I love the TV series: Hastings is so much more pleasant when he's a side character rather than the narrator.

[littlerhymes]

Momo works best as an allegory, I think. I wish I'd read it as a kid too.

Truth & Beauty is so great. Sooo great.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Truth and Beauty is really the best. Not only are the emotional notes hit perfectly, but the writing is just gorgeous, too, the way she strings the sentences together.

And the excerpts from Lucy's letters always make me want to write better letters.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

It's funny: when I read Momo, the thing that grated on me was some of the cutesy-poo elements. The villains I found pretty compelling, but in a very abstracted way that I think, contrariwise, kids would find boring. I think what won me over about it was its whole notion of time and the preciousness of time--which appealed to me on an intellectual level more than a story level, maybe?

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I mean, on a philosophical level I am on board with this message, but I needed something more than the message to really get me on board with the book. Momo was fun, but none of the side characters really seemed compelling to me.

The prose also felt a bit stilted, which is something I've noticed in other books I've read in translation - I had the same issue with Inkheart, for instance. (Which I also think I might have enjoyed more if I'd read it younger.) It's a pity I don't have all the time in the world to spend learning languages.