Thursday, June 11, 2015

recent readings

Grecian Holiday: Or, How I Turned Down the Best Possible Thing Only to Have the Time of My LifeI have been enjoying some of my new books lately. I started out reading Grecian Holiday by Kate Cann. From what I gathered, this was the first book in this series, though it appears each book is truly a different story with different characters, so I don't think it matters which one you start with. It started off slightly annoying, with a girlfriend and boyfriend arguing a lot over how to spend summer vacation. It was really just weird. Very immature, a very manipulative guy trying to twist things all weird. I am really hoping that the book will unfold and that the girl will realize he is not good for her. I am still struggling to figure out how old they are. They drink in bars and all of that, still in some kind of a school (college or high school?), but yet the girl and most of her friends are barely starting to learn to drive. I am so confused. It is written by a British author, so maybe a little research might clear it up. I knew before hand the book was British by the title, but I did not know prior to reading this book how different British English truly is from American English. For example, they would apparently say "the phone went" instead of "the phone rang", and "cases from the boot" instead of "luggage from the trunk" (I think). There was also a moment in the book where the weird boyfriend was complaining about one of his girlfriend's friends, calling her a "slag". I am not entirely sure of the meaning, but I was guessing "slut"?
It is an interesting read though to be somewhat immersed into another culture's writing style in this way. The girl has left her boyfriend for the summer and headed off to Greece, so I am hoping lots of fun things will happen. We will see!
Henry VI (Parts I, II and III)Also, I picked up Shakespeare's Henry VI plays. I only read the first scene last night, which was 175 lines long, but I found it interesting. I noticed that I tend to gravitate towards classic pieces when I am feeling bummed, and other books when I am feeling more happy. I was feeling a bit bummed last night, so I set aside Grecian Holiday and opted for Shakespeare. This discovery is a little perplexing for me, and I am unsure what this means about me or why I am like that. Hmm.
Back to Henry VI. I really don't know much about this king. I know a lot about King Henry VIII, but not Henry VI. I have been fascinated with English Royalty for some time and tend to devour anything related, whether it is movies, shows, or books, so I am interested in learning about this time period through Shakespeare. I hadn't realized Shakespeare wrote so many plays that are historically based. I must say, learning history through the poetic nature of Shakespeare is quite wonderful!
I know I mentioned I was done buying books from our closing bookstore...but...

Caesar's Women (Masters of Rome, #4)There was one more book there that I had really wanted that I put back, and I am somewhat regretting it. It has been haunting me, calling to me. Everything is still 40% from what I understand, so I may go back this weekend to see if it is still there. It was a large historical fiction hardcover book about all the women in Caesar's life. I did a bit of research and discovered it is the 4th book in a series, so I may see if there are any of the others there (though I am pretty sure there aren't). I think that time period would be really interesting to read about, and I am a sucker for anything that revolves around the feminine, girl power, and all that fun stuff. I'm sure I will giddily share my purchase on here if I find it!
What books have you been enjoying lately?

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