Book Chatter

Fates and Furies
By Lauren Groff
Riverhead Books, Hardcover, 9781594634475, September 2015, 400pp.

The Short of It:

Imperfect people joined together in marriage makes for some entertaining reading.

The Rest of It:

Lancelot is this gorgeous, Greek god of a guy. He marries his female equivalent, Mathilde and the two, although quite young, throw caution to the wind and create a happy marriage for themselves.

Or, do they?

This book has gotten a lot of attention! Mainly, due to President Obama naming it his favorite book of 2015. But even without that endorsement, I can see why this book became popular with readers.

It’s well-written
Has a somewhat complex story structure to wrap your brain around
It has a lot of gratuitous sex
It contains Greek mythology references
It’s a page-turner
Flawed characters galore
It has a lot of gratuitous sex (oh, did I already say that?)

I don’t think the book has been optioned for a movie yet, but I can absolutely see that happening. The story is twisty and a bit deceptive and a little dark without being too dark. As a movie, I think it could be quite good.

My book club read and discussed it last week and there was a lot to discuss. Yeah, the sex came up quite a bit but the really big question we all had:

What makes a good marriage good?

Do love and trust come into it? Is it a good marriage if the end result is somewhat shallow in nature as long as both parties are happy with the end result?

We also spent a lot of time talking about the narrative structure. The story is told in two halves, one being Fates and the other being Furies. As interesting as these halves were, some members of the group felt manipulated by this structure.

Overall, I found it to be a fun book to discuss but a bit tedious with all the sex scenes. Well-written, but a little slow in the middle because of the repetitive nature of some of the content but overall, very entertaining.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

Sunday Matters

All I can think about these days is what my big summer read will be. I like to pick a challenging book for the summer because I seem to have more time to read but I can’t really zero in on a good one . Seveneves? What else is out there? I’m blanking.

Right Now:

Today, my day starts and ends with church . First, we will attend the service. Then, I am attending a mandatory camp meeting as both a parent and group leader. My daughter and I have never attended camp so we are pretty excited.

This Week:

The only thing I have going on this week, is a dental appointment. That’s it! I really need to do some stuff around the house. I said that last week and some of it got done but not much. I plan to make more of an effort this week. My closets are a mess and my drawers are kind of a mess too, as is the garage. The last time I cleaned the garage I broke my foot so I must be more careful this time.

Reading:

After a slump ( I guess it was a slump) reading has been going really well. Amazingly well. I’ve been plowing through my review pile and reviews are scheduled and everything. I feel so accomplished.

The only sad thing, is that with all my reading I managed to drop my Kindle and it is now no more. It was an old Kindle but a great one and included 3G which you have to pay extra for now. Anyway, after much thought I went with another basic model. I was reading Wintering by Peter Geye when I dropped the darn thing. I got the new one yesterday but it won’t let me transfer my review copies and my library books are no more. Sadness.

In the mean time, I’ve read two actual books, My Last Continent by Midge Raymond and Firefly Summer by Nan Rossiter.

Watching:

I haven’t been in the mood for TV but I feel like watching some 80’s flicks. Oh, and the Tony Awards. HUGE in my house, as you can imagine. The Teen is very excited for tonight’s show.

Making:

It was a good week for cooking. Tonight? We may pick up Chinese take-out so we can just kick back and watch the Tony Awards. I will be working at the church until right before they start so there won’t be time to cook much.

Grateful for:

So grateful that the beach is just a short road trip away. We hit Santa Barbara yesterday and I’ve never eaten so much food. It was all so good though and even though it was overcast and raining (rain? really?) none of us cared. We hit the zoo, did a little shopping and just roamed around town.

What are your plans for today?

Chatting with friends about books and life…