Daily Archives: March 5, 2010

The Postmistress by Sarah Blake

Posted on March 5, 2010
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Postmistress The Postmistress by Sarah Blake

Buy on Amazon: The Postmistress by Sarah Blake

Honestly – I wanted to love this book. I wanted to fall down in adoration and sing its praises and recommend it to everyone I know. I mean – look at it. The cover is beautiful. The title catching, simple, perfect. The premise a beautiful one, the story of two women who were unable to simply.. do their job, in a time when doing their job was one of the hardest things they could possibly do.

So on one hand, while there were moments I was extremely touched (mostly during speeches made and newscasts made), I felt as if Blake stopped just short of really getting somewhere with the character. I felt anger and frustration because I wanted to know these characters. I wanted to know Emma and Iris and Frankie. I wanted to know what made them tick. I wanted to know what made Iris do that incredibly crazy thing at the start and why Frankie felt so compelled to go to London to report the news. I wanted to know why Emma was separated from her husband for so long (before they were reunited at the start of the book) and how she handled the unexpected gift he left behind for her.

Instead I was left with a story that tried to tell too much in too short a time. Instead of focusing in and really delving into the characters we were only given a glimpse and that is why this book isn’t getting the high praise I desperately wanted to give it. I have never felt so incredibly frustrated after reading a novel. There was so much potential here – so much that could have been told.

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Friday: Week in Review

Posted on March 5, 2010
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WOW! What a week this has been – and not in a good way!  While I was afforded the “opportunity” to read quite a bit, unfortunately I discovered that the floor of my bathroom does not make a good reading place.  What happened? Well.. you see my niece, Grace, brought home this lovely intestinal virus.  And while I appreciate the 11.9 pounds it’s taken off of me the method which it used was..not so hot. So again, I apologize to my giveaway winners.  With a kidney infection last week and being laid up since Tuesday with this virus – I’ve not had a chance to make it to the post office .. but I am determined to go tomorrow morning! I finally feel 100% better and need to get back on track! That being said, here are some of my highlights of the week:

  • I have become a huge fan of Trader Joe’s Daffodil bunches.  at $1.49 for a bunch of them they are a steal, provide awesome yellow spring color in my room and they last.. forever.  Seriously! The bunch I bought last week are still bright and fresh and beautiful!
  • I did manage to get quite a bit of reading in this week – I’m having to switch up my reading list a bit because I have some books due back at the library, so upcoming over the weekend you should see some reviews of some more recent, popular books.
  • I passed the 50 follower mark!  Stay tuned this week for a giveaway to celebrate this and another giveaway incentive for reaching 100!
  • Last Tuesday I started a new meme that I’m very excited about.  This upcoming Tuesday I’ll include a Mr. Linky and we’ll see if we can start getting it spread – I’d love to see what people recommend.

There’ve been discussions around lately, like my post last Friday and a big discussion over at Home Girl’s Book Blog on books that you didn’t read, or popular books that you just.. didn’t get.  It’s awesome to know that the community feels this way and makes it easier to come out of the book closet and say “I just didn’t get it“.  So, with all of those great discussions already happening I’d like to put a little twist on it with this question:

What big, media-hyped book did you completely and thoroughly enjoy and you thought you wouldn’t?

My Favorite Reads post on Thursday highlighted one of mine, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón.  I had heard so much hype about this book before I picked it up and read it and it really inspired me to start seeking out more novels in that dark, gothic, literary feel.  So what about you?

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