Description: Essential or Overdone?

I've been shying away from books recently that include lots of descriptive passages. Why? I guess I have been spoiling myself with books that have a little more action. I'm still in the middle of Up Island, and when I picked it up last night I delved right into six or more pages of pure description -- nothing else. I'm telling you, those were some of the hardest pages to get through. It would have been better had the description served a huge purpose, but really, it didn't and I don't think it will have a large impact on the next chapter in the book.

A little progress

While I was on a short hiatus from work last week, I finally picked up a book again! I'm still in the middle of Anne River Siddons' Up Island. So far, it's a pretty good book, but a lot different than Outer Banks. Instead of a love story/suspense with great flashbacks, Up Island has been more focused on internal reflection. It is still a good book. There are many beautiful descriptions of Martha's Vineyard. I have never been there, but I feel like I have after reading many portions of this book. What I am tired of is the internal conflict that almost seems whiny. I can understand how a divorce could be traumatizing, but sometimes the "why me?" goes a little overboard.

I'll give a full review after I finish the book.

I'm not the type of person that gets excited about forthcoming books, but there is one book on the immediate horizon that I cannot wait to read. It's The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. I will admit that I have not read The Da Vinci Code or its sequel, but somehow the intricacies of Washington, D.C. intrigues me. It might be because I have seen many of the sites when I went there on vacation as a child.

Read Equire's review of The Lost Symbol.

Book clubs for the 21st century

When I think of book clubs, I always get the picture of middle-aged housewives in 1960s fashions sitting around the living room, eating finger sandwiches and drinking iced tea. That's such a stereotype about book clubs that I saw everywhere as a kid. But now with the help of social media, book clubs have really evolved.

With things like Be the Change Bookclub and Online Book Club, anyone in the world can participate in a lively discussion about books. Book clubs now feature not only people with ample time to read, but those who read a few pages a day on their Kindle while commuting on the subway.

It's such a fast paced world, but with new technology and better ways to reach out, you can quickly become a part of an online community that meets your book discussion needs. And it's a great way to get started writing book reviews too!

Great Site for Students

If you have a budding writer at home, writing books reviews may be a great way to teach kids many important elements to creating a good review. It can also present work that can be published online or in print through local sources. The site I found for students learning the art of writing reviews is Scholastic. It has a section for students called "Writing with Writers." In this section, Rodman Philbrick presents a step-by-step guide to writing a book review. It's an interesting tool for students or adults venturing into their first book review. If you have never written a book review before, why not give it a try?

started another one

The three titles I'm in the middle of right now (Boom!, Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry: Book 1, and the Selected Writings of Gertrude Stein) are still at my old apartment for a few more days. Since I finally found time to read again, I had to choose a new book for the moment. I chose Up Island by Anne Rivers Siddons. I am only about six pages into the story so far, but I already have a comment: does Siddons always talk about sororities? I'm not complaining or against the mention of that type of institution, although the idea of paying for friends is not something I participated in during my college years. I know that some writers like to include one or two things that are dear to their hearts or that they have first-hand knowledge of. For instance, most of my characters either know how to write or appreciate classic movies, TV, and music.

The reason for the question is because I read Outer Banks a few years ago, and the sorority was a huge part of the plot. I kind of want to be prepared if that's the norm in her books since Low Country is include with Up Island.

Now I will keep my mouth shut until I finish the book so that I can give it a fair assessment. Every author deserves that kind of respect when anyone reviews their work.

At a loss on summer reading

It's a terrible thing to happen, but I haven't been able to check a single book off of my summer reading list. With packing, constantly changing jobs/clients, and trying to find some balance in my life, reading was put on hold. For a writer, that's the first step towards sabotaging everything you have worked so hard for in your career. And it stops today. I will get back on the reading bandwagon full force - after all, what good is writing a blog about writing book reviews without new books to review?

I also want to branch out. I probably can't afford it, but I want to try and find some obscure books that I know I would take an interest in. Some of the ones I have been trying to locate are books that movies were based on in the Golden Age of Hollywood. Many of the movies that I'm thinking of were not even box office hits. Most of these titles can be found in the public domain, which gives me hope that maybe the original book that they based script on is floating out in the public domain as well.

I did find a pretty good site called Chasing the Frog that provides some of the more popular titles. I'll have to do some more exploring for the lesser-known titles. I'll let you know what I find.