Books Lately

 I haven't reported on the books I've read for sometime so these are from February to April, and it's not many.  

The Palace Papers by Tina Brown

As a Canadian, I am also a proud monarchist, meaning I want the King to be our Head of State and to remain in the Commonwealth.  I also love all of the gossip about the lives of the Royals, even though I know much of it is ill-spirited. I remember picking this up a few weeks ago because I thought it would be fun to read, and I was right.  I really enjoyed hearing the history of the Royals, going back a number of years, and then onto more modern times with the marriage of Charles and Camila, and then the marriage of Meghan and Harry.  

I felt like I knew a number of details from what was portrayed in The Crown, but this gave even more details and background, which I enjoyed.  I can only assume that it is accurate and it helps to explain a lot of the motivations behind a lot of what has gone on.  One thing that is clear is that the writer is clearly pro-Charles, Camila, William, and Catherine.  She is anti-Harry and Meghan, Andrew and Sarah.

I read this before the whole "Where is Kate Middleton" drama of March, and I would have been interested to hear a bit more behind the scenes stuff on William and Kate, and the rumours, to see what to really make of these more current events. 

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin.

This will be my favourite book of the year, I'm calling it now.   This book is about two friends who design video games, and their lives from young kids to middle age.  The book mostly follows along in order, but we do get to hear the backstory along the way. 

I don't know much about the world of video games, I know about the few that the kids play, and I like Mario Kart, but this book opened my eyes to the industry and the type of work going into it.  I found it so interesting and made me appreciate my kids' interests. But not only that, the writing is so moving. I loved how the two main characters related to each other, and how other characters were woven into their lives.  

Because of the video game aspect, it had some fantasy type feel to it, so it felt a bit like Cloud Cuckoo Land, but not really.  It somehow also reminded me of Demon Copperhead, but not really.  I think it's just because I loved all of these books so while I was reading this one, I was having the same feelings. 

The Jetsetters byAmanda Eyre Ward.

I know this was a popular book, and was from Reese's Book Club, but I found it pretty disappointing.  The story is about an older woman, widowed and living in the Southern US.  Her best friend has just died so she needs an adventure, and she's also trying to reconnect with her three children.  Through a series of events they end up on a European cruise.  Hijinks ensue.  

I felt like it was sloppy and lazy writing, and there were times when the plot made leaps that just didn't make sense.  I was also personally offended by one line in the book.  One of the daughters was described as letting herself go and (horrors!) her thighs rubbed together now.  Now I have never had a thigh gap and it wasn't until my mid-twenties when I even knew that people had thigh gaps or aspired to them.  I suppose I'm lucky because it was never a thing that was talked about in my family or circle of friends.  But I really hate that this is the message that is out there for so many people and then reinforced in this silly little book.  So since that comment was made at the very beginning, I had already sort of written this off,  but I don't think I was wrong. 

The only thing good about this book is hearing about the various ports of call they visited on the cruise ship.