Hangovers
Currently reading:
The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
California Bear by Duane Swierczynski
Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury
Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver by Mary Oliver [ongoing]
Extracting the Stone of Madness: Poems 1962–1972 by Alejandra Pizarnik [ongoing]
Books finished this week: 1
★★★★★
Where this book came from: One of three highly anticipated preorders I nabbed from Kew & Willow——and my favorite by a longshot.
Why this book: Another one where the cover drew me in and the flap copy sealed the deal.
Thoughts: My god, this book blew me away. I was in from the very beginning, when things began in medias res and though the world wasn’t deeply explained, I never felt lost in the details and hierarchy of the Ministry. (Though time travel will never make sense to me——I’m fine to ignore that when the writing is as strong as it is here.) I had a feeling this was going to be a five-star read about halfway through and I’m glad to report I annotated a bit throughout, shed a few tears at the end, and agreed with my early assessment. The beauty of the language and the richness of the characters makes me want to be a better writer. I was moved and inspired by this book, and I think it will easily sit on my list of favorites from here on out. I look forward to a future re-read.
Library updates:
I had hoped I might finish The Outsiders in time to include it in this week’s missive, but life had other plans. (“Life” here meaning accidentally taking a two-hour nap yesterday, not doing much of anything with the rest of the day, and then getting too lit last night to be useful today.) I think I was also happy to sit with The Ministry of Time for a little bit longer——the book hangover is as real as the hangover-hangover I’m nursing today. God, that BOOK!!
Anyway, I also went to the beach twice this week, Wednesday and Friday. Fitting, seeing as summer officially started on Thursday. I am happiest when I am sitting in the sun, listening to the waves, and reading an excellent book on a summer Friday. I’m planning to make that more of a habit this summer.
Maybe I should save this for when I actually finish reading the book, but I also wanted to write about The Outsiders a bit more this week. I’ve been thinking about it a lot this year, really since Tess (hi, Tess!) and I went to see the musical back in April (and then immediately watched the movie, obviously). I don’t think I’ve read the book since ninth grade, though, yes, I do routinely test my ability to recite Robert Frost’s “Nothing Gold Can Stay” and say, “Things are tough all over, Ponyboy,” quite a bit, mostly to myself. I remember being intensely skeptical when the Broadway musical was announced, though I guess I shouldn’t have been——it’s really just continuing the tradition started by West Side Story of making it cool for tough guys to sing and dance. There are one or two sizable deviations from the book in the musical (who knew the film would be the more faithful of the two?), but I think it beautifully captures the most important things: the big feelings, both good and bad; the brutality; the injustice.
Anyhow, I’ll probably have more cohesive thoughts once I’ve finished reading the book (and once my assorted sunburns fade). But I had some good reading and thinking time this week, and I hope that’s a sign of good things to come this summer.
Finally, here is a gratuitous picture of my cat judging me for not reading (and not really being at all coherent) this morning:
Closing thoughts:
Stay gold!
Total books read from the Moratorium Library: 88
(Total books added to the Library: 174)
I finally ordered Plain Bad Heroines after having it on my TBR for literal years because a friend (hi, Meg!) has recommended it at least twice now.
And I bought that copy of The Outsiders in honor of the musical’s Tony win (and because I could enter a Barnes & Noble contest to win Broadway tickets).
