Spring into a Good Book Wrap Up

The Spring into a Good Book Challenge (hosted by Book Dragon's Lair) wrapped up on June 20.  

Here are the goals I completed:

• Finish 3 books (one per month) for the TBR pile challenge - I finished The Black Dalia in March, How to Read Like a Writer in April, and An Omelette and a Glass of Wine in May (which also counts toward the Foodies Read Challenge).
• Finish the Letters of Edna St. Vincent Millay for the  2014 Postal Reading Challenge
• Start a second 'postal' book: I finished The Day the Crayons Quit
•  Finish one book (it was Lord Peter) for the What's in a Name Challenge

• Read 2 Canadian books: I read Neuromancer and Next Life Might be Kinder
• Finish 3 books for the Foodies Read Challenge: I finished An Omelette and a Glass of Wine, Prime Cut, and Strawberry Shortcake Murder.

I did not start Mists of Avalon so I accomplished 6/7 of my goals for this challenge.

Spring into a Good Book Update

I had intended to post an update on this challenge (hosted by Book Dragon's Lair) on the 20th of each month, but somehow I missed it this time. 

Since my April 20th check in post:

Here are the goals I have completed:

• Finish 3 books (one per month) for the TBR pile challenge - I finished The Black Dalia in March, How to Read Like a Writer in April, and An Omelette and a Glass of Wine in May (which also counts toward the Foodies Read Challenge).

Here are the goals I have made progress on:

• Read 2 Canadian books --I read Neuromancer, so one down one to go.
• Finish 3 books for the Foodies Read Challenge -- I finished one so far.

These goals are still to be worked on:

• Start Mists of Avalon

Spring into a Good Book Update

Since this challenge (hosted by Book Dragon's Lair) runs March 20-June 20 I decided that the 20th of each month was a good time for a check-in post.

Here are the goals I have completed so far:

• Finish the Letters of Edna St. Vincent Millay for the  2014 Postal Reading Challenge
• Start a second 'postal' book - I finished The Day the Crayons Quit

•  Finish one book (it was Lord Peter) for the What's in a Name Challenge 

Here are the goals I have made progress on:

• Read 2 Canadian books (I started Neuromancer which is by a Canadian)
• Finish 3 books (one per month) for the TBR pile challenge - I finished The Black Dalia in March and will finish How to Read Like a Writer by the end of April (I have 2 chapters left).

These goals are still to be worked on:

• Finish 3 books for the Foodies Read Challenge
• Start Mists of Avalon

Review: Letters of Edna St. Vincent Millay

Letters of Edna St. Vincent Millay 
by Edna St. Vincent Millay
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Millay is one of my favorite poets and I enjoyed reading about her life in Nancy Milford's Savage Beauty. Reading Millay's letters gave me a different picture of her. I suspect the letters may provide a skewed perspective of the person who wrote them. In many of them she says that she never writes letters (despite nearly 400 pages worth having been collected here) and she often writes about being sick and being broke. I knew money had often been an issue for Millay (poetry has never been as lucrative as it should), but the impression of an invalid had not come through to me elsewhere. 

Millay's correspondence is often quite direct and frequently funny. Here is an excerpt from a letter which I really liked:

"I am sure that no one in New York has time to write letters. This is quite an effusion for me now. I hope you didn't ask me any questions. I am quite settled down. I run in my rut now like a well-directed wheel. Sometimes, it is true, I feel that I am exceeding the speed-limit. But I seldom skid, and when I do there is very little splash. Please give me some good advice in your next letter. I promise not to follow it." [3/6/1913 to Arthur Davison Ficke]

I was struck by the letters to Witter Bynner. On some level I knew he was a real person whom someone might be fond of and write to, but I always think of "Witter Bynner" as a poetry prize rather than a person. 

The only letters I didn't care for were some of the ones to her family. The use of nicknames and the tone of the letters tends to be a bit sickeningly sweet toward her mother and sisters.When she is taking her sisters to task for something (usually not writing to her) she can be quite funny. Her advice to her mother about her sister's book was wonderful:

"Kathleen is about to publish a book. If it's a good book, nothing can harm her. If it's a bad book, nothing can help her. And all your stewing and fretting will accomplish just one end: it will make you very sick, and a nuisance to yourself, and a care to everybody,--so will you please forget it and relax and interest yourself in something else?" [5/25/1927 to Mrs. Cora B. Millay]

If you are interested in the world of poetry (or farming) in NY in the early 20th century this collection is worth reading. This title counts toward the Postal Reading Challenge and meets one of my Spring into A Good Book goals. 

Review: Lord Peter

Lord Peter by Dorothy L. Sayers
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

My major issue with this book, which is a collection of short stories featuring Lord Peter Wimsey, has more to do with me than with the book. I don't really find short stories very satisfactory, especially when they are about a character I already know. Sayers is a wonderful writer and these tales are tidy little puzzles (for the most part) that Lord Peter ties up neatly by the end, but the usual extra stuff about Freddy and Bunter and the Dowager Duchess of Denver's goings-on are omitted from this shorter form and I missed them. I had read some of these stories before (this is the complete collection of Lord Peter Wimsey stories which is why I wanted it for my Sayers shelf), but some were new to me. The final story, "Talboys" was first published here and isn't really a mystery at all but it a fun story about domestic life later in Lord Peter's relationship with Harriett Vane.

I got this book as a completion prize for the Vintage Mystery Challenge last year and am counting it toward the What's in a Name 7 Challenge to cover the category "a forename or names." This completes one goal for the Spring into a Good Book Challenge.

Review: The Day the Crayons Quit

The Day the Crayons Quit
by Drew Daywalt, pictures by Oliver Jeffers

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

One day, instead of finding crayons in his box Duncan finds a pile of letters. The letters are from his crayons and each one has an issue for Duncan to attend to. The letters are funny and each one really shows a unique personality. Green is a tattle-tale and purple is concerned about a lack of orderly coloring on Duncan's part. The pictures of the letters are great and the illustrations from the coloring books (presented as evidence of the argument being made) are very clever.  The end of the book is a picture that deals with many (but not all) the issues the crayons raised. The 5th star would have been awarded if all the concerns were included in the final page. Since it is a collection of letters, I am counting this book toward the Postal Reading Challenge. This completes one goal for the Spring into a Good Book Challenge.

Spring into a Good Book!

The Book Dragon's Lair is hosting a make-it-your-own Spring Into a Good Book Reading Challenge. I haven't made as much progress on my various challenges so far this year as I would have liked, so I am creating my own list of reading for this challenge to get some progress made. I always do better with a list to work from. And, I had to join this challenge because I love the picture!

Between March 20 and June 20, 2014 I want to:

• Finish the Letters of Edna St. Vincent Millay for the  2014 Postal Reading Challenge
• Start a second 'postal' book
• Finish 3 books for the Foodies Read Challenge
• Read 2 Canadian books
• Finish 3 books (one per month) for the TBR pile challenge
• Start Mists of Avalon
•  Finish one book for the What's in a Name Challenge 

 This commits me to reading a dozen books. One book may check off multiple goals (there is at least one foodie book on my TBR pile list, for example so that would be 2 goals with one book). I may read (ok, will probably read) other stuff as well.

The challenge kicks off with a read-a-thon March 20-26 which I can't fit into my schedule. A second read-a-thon is planned as well, so hopefully I will be able to do that one.