WWW Wednesday is a tag currently hosted at Taking on A World of Words. The three W’s are:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?
Currently Reading:
The Power by Naomi Alderman
The Power is a dystopian novel set in a world where women start developing an electrifying power. This results in a world where women grow more powerful than men, and this book explores what the world looks like with this change of power.
This book has been on my TBR for the longest time, and I’m finally reading it. I’m very interested in this concept (and books like it) but so far I’m not sure how to feel about it. Once I’ve read more I should have better opinions about how the story is executed.
This Book is the Longest Sentence Ever Written and then Published by Dave Cowen
This book is an experimental memoir detailing Dave Cowen’s life and most definitive moments. It is also a record-breaking one sentence long, and shares a history of past attempts at this record, as well as other examples in literature.
The author of this novel reached out to me on Instagram to read this. This is a pretty interesting concept, and the stream of conscious writing style (which is a given since this is one sentence) is giving this memoir an interesting way of looking at the author’s life. That being said, reading a really long sentence is a little more difficult to read than standard reading, so I’ve been taking my time with this.
Recently Read:
Shadowplay by Joseph O’Connor
Shadowplay is a historical fiction novel set in Victorian London. It follows the lives of Henry Irving, Bram Stoker, and Ellen Terry and their time in starting and managing the Lyceum theatre. It mostly follows Bram Stoker and how his time at the theatre inspired Dracula.
This book was a very atmospheric read and got me more interested in Bram Stoker’s life and inspirations. However, apart from that, the story did fall flat despite it being a character-driven story. Regardless, I did still enjoy the book.
You can read my full review on my Goodreads here.
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
Everything I Never Told You is Celeste Ng’s debut novel. It follows an Asian-American family living in 1970’s America. When Lydia disappears and is found dead, the Lee family is in shambles. Exploring both the family history and their family dynamics, the book shows all of the elements that led up to this point for their family.
I loved this book almost as much as I did Little Fires Everywhere. Celeste Ng explores family dynamics so well in her books, and it’s especially remarkable that this is her debut novel.
You can read my full review on my Goodreads here.
The Luxe by Anna Godbersen
The Luxe is the first in a YA historical fiction series set in 1890’s Manhattan. It follows two sisters Elizabeth and Diana, who find after their father’s passing that their family status is no longer as stable as it seems. In order to retain their financial status, their plans for the future may have to change – at the expense of those closest to them.
This book can pretty much be summed as two love triangles, which I have to see, interested me way more than I thought it would when I realized that was the central conflict. Despite that, the book had its issues – mainly, how easily this all could have not happened and certain elements of the book not being representative of the era it was from. Despite all of these issues, I feel like I would still read book two?
You can read my full (and seemingly conflicted) review on my Goodreads here.
Up Next:
So uh…I don’t really know.
I took on a lot of ARCs for this month, and in the next ten days if I want to stay true to my TBR and finish the ARCs I’d have to read four books. I still think there’s a chance this might be possible because I do have a three day weekend coming up (and still in isolation = reading), but I’m not going to force it. Getting an extra book or two into my mountly reading count is not worth rushing through books and losing reading comprehension! But I guess I’ll call this a stretch goal.
So here’s all the books I have left for the month, and we’ll see what I get to:
- Emma by Jane Austen
- Star Trek: A Choice of Catastrophes by Michael Shuster
- Mortmain Hall by Martin Edwards
- Progress Over Perfection by Emma Norris
That’s all for this week’s WWW Wednesday. Leave a comment if you participated this week too so I can read your post – or let me know what you’re currently reading below!
All of these books sounds so good and I had no idea there was YA historical fiction books out there. When I think YA, I think Contemporary or Fantasy but The Luxe looks very good. The Power sounds especially good to me. Totally a book I would pick up. Happy reading!
Yeah, I feel like YA historical fiction is never that common of a genre, so whenever I see it I always feel interested in picking it up!
This Book is the Longest Sentence Ever Written and then Published sounds really interesting as a unique reading experience, though I have to wonder how much I would want to stick with it if I were to pick it up myself. I feel it might be more interesting to me in concept than execution. Hope you have a great week!
http://musewithmeblog.com/2020/05/20/www-wednesday-may-20-2020/
Yes, it’s definitely a unique concept for a book. And as I’m reading more there’s apparently quite a few books that at least feature similar writing – Ulysses was the only one I knew of!
It’s pretty awesome that Ng’s debut was almost as good as her second book. You don’t always find that.
My WWW Wednesday.
Right? I can’t believe that was a debut. I hope she continues to write as I’d love to read more of her work!
Julie Anna, looks like you’ve been doing a great mixture of reading. I particularly love the sound of Shadowplay – Yours is the second blog I have seen it on and I am thinking I should add it to my wish list. 😉 I really love the charming and funny Emma by Jane Austen, so I hope you enjoy it. 🙂
Thank you 🙂 Yes, it was an interesting book overall! Looking forward to finally reading Emma as well.
Wow, the idea of a book being only one sentence long . . . I don’t know if I would really enjoy that or if it would drive me crazy!
I just finished it too! I would tend to think you would like it more if you like stream of conscious narration – but it definitely was an interesting way to write a memoir!
Lol, that book title by Dave Cowen is so witty. Enjoy your reads.
And it is telling the truth too!😂
The Luxe cover is so pretty!
Right? I can’t resist Bookstagramming with it <3