Manuscript Musing

It's my favorite time of the year: Analyzing my reading habits from the past 366 days! To see all the books, go here: https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2020/33585525 I read 76 books in 2020, totaling 31,982 pages (or an average of 421 pages per book--the Goodreads page count is wrong due to the wrong edition of Les Miserables being logged). If you want to be pedantic, I listened to 14 of the books, so really only read 27,411 pages. This is an increase from last year of one book and 4,439 pages total , or technically 4,725 pages if you take into account the audio books (I listened to one less audio book this year). Technically, I read 76.5 books; I started A Room with a View and ditched it halfway through due to extreme boredom. The longest bo ok was War and Peace at 1,422 pages; it just beat out Les Miserables , which clocks in at 1,232. My main reading goal this year was to read those two books, and I expected to read far fewer books as a result....I didn't expec...

**SPOILERS BE HERE** Is this my favorite book I read this year? Is Fredrik Backman my current favorite author? I think the answer is "yes" to both of those questions. Wow. I don't even know how to put into words my feelings about this book. It was so unexpected. Well, maybe not unexpected; I expected it to be great, as most of Backman's books are, but I didn't expect it to be so simultaneously humorous, heartbreaking, encouraging, and mystifying. I loved getting to know all the characters and felt for them all in different ways. Zara pushing people away and letting that letter eat way at her; Julia and Ro loving each other despite their massive differences; Roger and Anna-Lena supporting each other in their own small ways that are actually huge; Jim and Jack (who I kept getting confused) tamping down their affection but doing everything with the other in mind; Estelle's loneliness. I loved how their stories intertwined and how they lifted each other up by the ...

  **SPOILERS BE HERE** I am underwhelmed. This was such a disappointment. I really enjoyed American Royals , but this sequel fell completely flat. Granted, due to my poor memory, I can barely remember the first book (I had to read a lengthy summary before diving into Majesty ), but I can remember that it wasn't so blah. Did it focus on romances as much as this one? It probably did; I guess I expected there to be more interesting monarchy drama since one of the main characters is queen now. Silly me.  My distaste for this book, as stated above, stems from the romance. It was all just so boring! Everyone happily ends up with the person they are with for ulterior motives—really? All of them? I guess I shouldn't include Daphne and Jeff in there since they aren't necessarily happy, but everyone else? Lazy and uninspired, especially since they were all in love with someone else in American Royals ! They're all that fickle?! Ugh.  Backing up to Jeff for a second, I'm reall...

**SPOILERS BE HERE** I read this book in about two days flat after borrowing it from my mom. It's pretty much the epitome of an easy read; it was extremely easy to consume and everything was fairly predictable. I enjoyed it well enough but the "easy read" detracted from it. I didn't like that everything was predictable—I was pretty sure from the outset that the mystery woman in the prologue wasn't Etty's mother. I knew Dorothy was going to die at some point, as was Laurie, so one of the children in the prologue would be there's. I did think one of the children was going to be May's son, so at least that didn't happen!  The characters were pretty flat. I don't feel like anyone really experienced any growth, and if they did, it felt forced. I don't know if this is considered a romance novel, but if it is, I wasn't feeling it. Trevor and Etty seemed kind of toxic together, and I don't think they should have stayed together. Good on the...

**SPOILERS BE HERE** I heartily enjoyed this book. Evelyn's story was compelling, as was Monique's side story. I'm apparently completely unobservant, though, because I didn't realize that Monique's father was the man in the car with Harry until about two pages before Evelyn revealed it. I knew Monique's father had to be tied up in the story somehow, so it should have been abundantly clear when it happened, but I think I was too caught up in the emotional telling to really think about it.  The best part, obviously, was the love story. The struggles Evelyn and Celia had to go through were heartbreaking; I was so happy they got to spend some time together at the end of Celia's life to be themselves. They were completely awful to each other at times but considering their situation, it's understandable (although that still doesn't excuse it)--that amount of stress would get to anyone. It was fascinating to hear about Evelyn's marriages, specifically w...

**SPOILERS BE HERE** Before getting into the book, I'd just like to say people are sleeping on large print books. Whenever there's a book I want with a long wait list, I check for large print copies—more often than not, they are available or have a much shorter wait list.  I really liked this book! It was like a nice, warm, doughy hug. The stakes were low, the people were mostly happy—what more could you want from a comfort novel? I was actually skeptical when I started it; I hadn't realized until I picked it up that it was written by the same person who wrote Mr. Penumbra , which I didn't like very much (too much mysticism). This one, fortunately, didn't suffer the same issue, although it was a touch too much at the end.  I don't really know if there's too much specific to say about Sourdough . It was just a nice, lighthearted read that left me feeling content. The end wasn't as strong as the beginning—I was actually a little disappointed that she stopp...

  **SPOILERS BE HERE** Last year, I decided to read War and Peace  and Les Miserables  in 2020. They're both around 360 chapters long, so reading two chapters a day would enable me to finish them both by the end of the year.  I succeeded!  I actually finished War and Peace  in April (cuz COVID) and then waited until July to start Les Miserables. I've also already read Les Miserables  twice before now, but this was my first time reading this translation. I prefer the Fahnestock/MacAfee/Wilbour translation; I wasn't a fan of how this one cut out two sections and added them to the end.  Oh wait! I've read an abridged version, too, one based on the 1998 film with Liam Neeson. That one is terrible; unabridged or bust! Ok so maybe not unabridged or bust. If you had asked me about 10 years ago (the last time I read it), I would have said that, but now I think some sections could be reduced or cut out. Those two that were slapped onto the end weren't very...

**SPOILERS BE HERE** I didn't hate this book; it was actually quite compelling and I finished it in two days. But I hated Chelsea and most of this review will be about that. First, I'll talk about the positives. Jasmine's story was very interesting, and she was extremely likable. Her romance with Isaac was so cute. I liked the...relationship seems like too strong of a word but I'm struggling to find a better one. I liked the relationship progression between her and Meg, and how Meg seemed like she was starting to change her way of thinking. And that's about it for the good stuff. I'm getting it out of the way—I've never enjoyed poetry and still don't, so I was pretty tempted to skim all of that. I didn't, but I caught myself trying to a few times. The characters' actions seemed a bit extreme. Meg and her crew dressing up as princesses and racist stereotypes for Halloween to prove a point....I just couldn't see it happening in real life. Parti...

  **SPOILERS BE HERE** Dare I say it? I dare: I loved this book. I tore through it in about two days. I'm a sucker for modern romance, but this one ticked all the boxes.  There weren't an effusion of sex scenes, and they were there to further the plot.  It was a lot more realistic than most romance novels—there was actual communication and character growth, and it dealt with real issues. Of course, there were unrealistic bits. Like how did all these men find each other? Are they seriously spying on dates? Mack is such a caricature. Did Gavin really not notice how the WAGs were treating Thea?  It was cute without being cavity-inducing or cringey. The main issue (Thea faking it) felt a little weak to me at first; Gavin absolutely overreacted and Thea overreacted to his overreaction. However, I liked that their reactions made sense as the book progressed and their underlying problems came to light. I also enjoyed that Thea didn't break it off when she found out about th...

  **Spoilers Be Here** This is one of the few books I remember adding to my Goodreads list. I was at Union Station in Denver, waiting for a table at Snooze with my sisters and mom. There's a bookstore across from the restaurant, so we went inside and browsed while we waited, and the cover of this book caught my attention. Then our table was ready and my sister announced she's pregnant and my mom started crying (tears of joy) and scared the waitstaff....good times. I would like to say that I loved this book, but I didn't, and I can't quite put my finger on why but I'm about to try! I usually really like, if not love, time travel. The story was entertaining enough; I especially liked that Kin's great-grandson ends up saving him in the end, which I probably should have seen coming. (Side note: I read Kin's name as Kim for about 20 pages.) But it just didn't resonate. Maybe it needed more world building? I suppose there weren't too many differences betwe...

  **SPOILERS BE HERE** Let's cut to the chase: I didn't like it. I can see why others like it but it wasn't for me. I think listening to the audiobook may have been a mistake here—the narrator wasn't very compelling so my mind drifted quite a bit—but I still don't think I would have liked it very much if I had read it.  The characters didn't resonate with me one bit. I thought they were boring, fairly one-dimensional, and I just plain didn't like them. Events seemed to come out of nowhere too. That one guy (I don't have the book so can't look up names and don't care enough to Google them) going AWOL and suddenly having mental health issues. The main guy admitting to Phineas he jostled him out of the tree but then reneging and trying to convince everyone otherwise. Phineas DYING. I get it, that's the point of the book. Parallels between war changing people and them experiencing that at school, blah blah blah. It just didn't strike a chord ...