Another week, another book read! I am trying so hard to pick up my Reading game this week because Friday is the last day the library will accept hours for the summer reading contest! Currently, I have 18 hours, but I’ve gotta represent for team green!
So, the latest read from Blanche’s Book Club is “Less” by Andrew Sean Greer. Here is the book’s description from Good Reads:
You are a failed novelist about to turn fifty. A wedding invitation arrives in the mail: your boyfriend of the past nine years is engaged to someone else. You can’t say yes–it would be too awkward–and you can’t say no–it would look like defeat. On your desk are a series of invitations to half-baked literary events around the world.
QUESTION: How do you arrange to skip town?
ANSWER: You accept them all.
What would possibly go wrong? Arthur Less will almost fall in love in Paris, almost fall to his death in Berlin, barely escape to a Moroccan ski chalet from a Saharan sandstorm, accidentally book himself as the (only) writer-in-residence at a Christian Retreat Center in Southern India, and encounter, on a desert island in the Arabian Sea, the last person on Earth he wants to face. Somewhere in there: he will turn fifty. Through it all, there is his first love. And there is his last.
Because, despite all these mishaps, missteps, misunderstandings and mistakes, LESS is, above all, a love story.
A scintillating satire of the American abroad, a rumination on time and the human heart, a bittersweet romance of chances lost, by an author The New York Times has hailed as “inspired, lyrical,” “elegiac,” “ingenious,” as well as “too sappy by half,” LESS shows a writer at the peak of his talents raising the curtain on our shared human comedy.
I saw this book during Pride month — the library made a list of LGBTQ authors and this was on the list. It was checked out so I had to wait a bit for it, but I was really excited to read it!
This book was definitely different than ones I’ve read before. It never sucked me in like I hoped it would, but it was well-written and parts of it were really funny.
Just for the record: happiness is not bullshit. — “Less” by Andrew Sean Greer
The ending was confusing, but I won’t give any of it away! I know the author has written other books and I definitely want to check them out.
The next book Blanche’s Book Club will be reading is “Beautiful Ruins” by Jess Walter.
In other news, I finally got around to a little DIY project that’s been on my list — tie-dying an old cream sweatshirt! I got the sweatshirt from Goodwill a few years ago. It was from Victoria’s Secret and I thought it would be perfect for wearing around the apartment, especially for $7.
But I got coffee stains all over the front. But, I didn’t want to toss it! So, I bought a Tulip tie-dye Kit with red, pink and yellow dye. I followed the directions to make a swirl pattern and it turned out so cute!
I’m ready for fall so I can wear this 24/7 – ha! I think I kept putting it off because I was nervous I was going to mess it up. But, it turned out fantastic (the finished product is in the photo)! I love it when that happens 🙂
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The Bitter Lemon 