Reading Report: Mid-March

Posted on 03/21/2022 by chick
  • I watched both versions of The Goodbye Girl. The two screenplays were virtually the same, making the second film feel like a weird echo of the first. Richard Dreyfuss really plumbed the extremes of the role. He was intensely dislikable at the beginning and intensely likable at the end. Jeff Daniels was not nearly as repellent at first, and that wasn’t such a bad thing, even if he didn’t reach the same level of likability at the end. Reviewers are hard on his version. Too hard, I think. It was made for television, and it deserves to be judged within that context. Everyone has become accustomed to streaming services and being able to watch blockbuster movies at any time of the day. They forget what it was like when television had so much less to offer and a decent made-for-television movie could make your day. Anyway, I don’t think either Pretty Woman or While You Were Sleeping needs to “lash itself in shame,” but they maybe ought to move over to make room for The Goodbye Girl in the movie queue with them.
  • I finished reading Accidentally Engaged by Farah Heron, Grade: A; Portrait of a Scotsman by Evie Dunmore, Grade: A; and I finished listening to The Unhoneymooners (audiobook format) by Christina Lauren, Grade: B+.
  • I haven’t made any progress on Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler. If I pick it up soon, I’ll have no trouble getting back into the story. Time is running out, though.
  • As for On Writing Romance: How to Craft a Novel That Sells by Leigh Michaels, I didn’t have a bookmark for it, and I kept losing my place and rereading parts of it by accident. I don’t always, or even usually, use bookmarks, but clearly I need one for this book. I have since found a bookmark for it and made some progress. I am now on page 113.
  • I abandoned Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert on page 36. Both main characters have made big, negative assumptions about each other while simultaneously being in lust with one another, a combination that’s irritating rather than suspenseful. Chloe Brown, the main female character, is chronically ill, which is not inherently a problem, but I found the repeated references to her ailments to be off-putting. It’s no fun to be ill. I know that from personal experience, which is why constantly being reminded of her physical complaints was such a downer. The book might get better, but I have so many other books to read that I’m not willing to take the gamble.
  • I haven’t chosen my next read yet. Among the options are Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr (I had put myself back on the hold list and once again the book arrived much faster than I’d thought it would); Price, Prejudice, and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev; Bringing Down the Duke or A Rogue of One’s Own by Evie Dunmore; The Violets of March by Sarah Jio; Wings of the Falcon by Barbara Michaels; and D (A Tale of Two Worlds) by Michel Faber. And of course, there’s always Any Other Book That Suddenly Strikes My Fancy–that book is always a contender!
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2 Responses to Reading Report: Mid-March

  1. sprite says:
    03/23/2022 at 4:09 am

    I’m glad you put the Hibbert down. When we talked about some of the things you did and didn’t care for in romance novels, I suspected it wouldn’t be your cup of tea.

    I love Dev’s series, but I have a lifelong love of Austen. It was a palpable blow when I realized after reading the author’s note in the third novel that there would only be four books in the series, rather than six. (I’d incorrectly assumed that since there were six cousins and six completed Austen works, I was only halfway through, rather one away from being done.)

  2. chick says:
    03/23/2022 at 6:44 pm

    I have a fondness for Austen-inspired novels myself, so I have high hopes for the Dev book. But I started reading “The Violets of March” first, since it was both short and timely. I’m already done with it, actually, and now I must choose a new new book. I’ll probably do my usual thing: pick out five books or so and then read the first paragraphs to see which one fits my current mood best.

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