Elizabeth Strout – Book Dust Magic

Sunday Post (Weekly Wrap Up November 11th-17th) #SundayPost #Blogging #WrapUp #Reading

Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

This meme was created for bloggers to spotlight posts they published in the week, as well as to talk about what they plan to write in the week that’s coming.

Sunday post is also great opportunity to showcase books we got in the week behind us.

Hi Guys!

This has been an interesting week in bookish community, to say the least.

If you’re on twitter, you couldn’t escape that drama everyone was talking about. Some true colors showed up, and that is all I’m going to say because I had enough negativity on my feed this whole year.

When it comes to me personally, one of author’s minions decided to spam my goodreads review for Olive, Again. I usually like to get comments from people with different opinions, but when a profile is created just for sake of spamming, I will not tolerate that. And it is so obvious that “Armando” is fake account that it makes me question the intelligence of a person behind it.
I think they even flagged my review as spam because I noticed people “like” it and I get an email about it, but then it is not in my notifications. I can’t say for sure, though!

The question is: When will authors, their publicists and relatives realize that book reviews are subjective and written for other readers??

I, as a reviewer, don’t owe positive review to anyone!!

We, bloggers, do this for free in most cases, so at least what we can get is little respect. Unfortunately, it often lacked this year when it comes to my personal experience.

Then I got declined for two Netgalley requests, and mentally sent everything to hell, purchased two ebooks I wanted to read and took a break from my review copies.
I am not sure for how long this break will last, but there is so many books I want to read that just sit on my shelf or I never even purchased them because of review copies I wanted to read first.

It is the last day of HoHoHo readathon and I am about to finish my third book. It’s not amazing result, but it is enough, for all I care!

Also, I had some technical problems so two blog posts that should have been posted this week will go live next week, including giveaway for signed copy of The Bear and the Nightingale.

Last Week on Book Dust Magic:

Monday: I talked about The Lion King movie
Tuesday: I reviewed Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones
Wednesday: I talked about changes I noticed on my body during pregnancy
Saturday: I reviewed Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout

Next Week on Book Dust Magic:

Upcoming reviews:

There will also be my post about meeting Katherine Arden including a giveawy.

Book Haul:

I purchased these two ebooks:

Currently reading:

I am reading this sequel to Wintersong and am loving it so much.

That is it!
Let me know what’s been going on with you, what you’ve been reading or watching this week and feel free to leave your links so I can visit you.
Have a lovely Sunday!

The one I was disappointed with: Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout (Book Review) @PRHGlobal #partner #BookReview #BookBloggers

GIFTED / When you’re a book review you sometimes come across books you don’t like, even if you wanted to. This happened to me with Olive, Again, a book I wanted to read for a couple of months before getting a chance to.
This book was published on October 15th by Penguin Random House, and it has 304 pages.
I want to thank the team from Penguin Random House Global for sending me an e-galley of this novel (in an exchange for an honest review).

About the book:

FROM GOODREADS / Prickly, wry, resistant to change yet ruthlessly honest and deeply empathetic, Olive Kitteridge is “a compelling life force” (San Francisco Chronicle). The New Yorker has said that Elizabeth Strout “animates the ordinary with an astonishing force,” and she has never done so more clearly than in these pages, where the iconic Olive struggles to understand not only herself and her own life but the lives of those around her in the town of Crosby, Maine. Whether with a teenager coming to terms with the loss of her father, a young woman about to give birth during a hilariously inopportune moment, a nurse who confesses a secret high school crush, or a lawyer who struggles with an inheritance she does not want to accept, the unforgettable Olive will continue to startle us, to move us, and to inspire moments of transcendent grace.

Review:

Once again I didn’t do my homework, and went into Olive, Again without knowing it was a sequel to already published book called Olive Kitteridge.
Nevertheless, this book can be read on it’s own.
However, if I read it’s predecessor, I would just skip this one for sure.

I’m not saying this is a bad book, because, judging by other readers’ and critics’ reviews, it is a really, really good book, but it wasn’t for me.
I just couldn’t see it’s greatness, I guess.

I think that the main reason why I couldn’t connect with the story was that the main character, Olive, is so much older then me.
This is the thing I realized while reading this novel: I just can’t enjoy the story, connect with it if the characters are so much older then me (we talk here about 70+ years old characters, and even 80+ as the story progressed).
Therefore, thanks to this piece of literature, I made a decision not to read books featuring old main characters any more (at least at this period of my life).

The second issue I had with Olive was that I didn’t like her as a character at all. I know she is described as honest, outright and ruthless, but to me, she often came as just rude.
I just didn’t like her energy and I could not care for her or what was going on in her life, and it especially showed as I was further into the story.
I caught myself scanning the last 50 pages of the story because I just wanted to be finished with it.

It is a shame, I do know, but it is what it is!

Also, when it comes to writing style my expectations were pretty high because this novel is labelled as literary fiction, which stands for beautiful prose.
Unfortunately, I was very disappointed because it read as simple general fiction.

Still, I have to note that the book covers some pretty important things and some of the stories that involved other characters were interesting.

On the other hand, there were some situations that made me feel uncomfortable (like when Olive said that it was stupid that an adult man cries aloud, and even if he’s Jewish, it’s still stupid).

In the end I’ll just repeat that Olive, Again is very loved book and I am aware that many people won’t agree with my opinion.
As for me, I won’t be reading Elizabeth Strout’s other work because I don’t think I would enjoy it at this stage of my life.

Books I read in October (Monthly Reading Wrap Up) #BookBloggers #BookLovers #Reading #October

Hi Guys,

October was not the best month for me reading wise. The reading and reviewing slumps got me and I managed to finish only 6 books.
It wouldn’t be that bad if I didn’t have all the time in the world to actually read, but it is what it is now. I guess my brain just needed some time off from reading and to focus on other things.

Since then my reading slump has passed and I hope to read 10+ books in November.
This is the last month I’ll be focusing mostly on my Netgalley eARCs because in December I want to read all the books I didn’t get into this year, and of course, my festive novels.

You can expect the reviews for the books I’ve read in the next couple of weeks.

Here are the books I read in October:

Favourite book of the month:

That is it!

Tell me how many books have your read in October?
What was your favourite one?

Feel free to leave links to your wrap ups, so I can visit you.