By Lori Perkins
Because I work in publishing, I only get to read about 12 published books a year, so I am so careful about what I put on my active To-Be-Read (TBR) list. I do a good part of my reading during the summer, when my outdoor pool opens and I go to Maine for a week of relaxation.
I always buy the newest Stephen King novel, and actively look forward to diving into it. This year’s offering, Fairy Tale, arrived around Labor Day and I have tried to read it for more than six months. I am only 200 pages into it, and it has consistently put me to sleep too many times. I guess I have forgotten that Stephen King’s fantasy novels are my least favorites of his (after his scat novel – you know what I’m talking about). It pains me to write DNF for a King novel, but I gave up.
I thought that was okay because Margaret Atwood had a collection of new short stories, Old Babe in the Woods. I love Atwood, or at least I thought I did, especially since one of the stories in the collection was about a mother witch, and I really enjoyed it. Turns out that was the best, and most memorable, story in the collection, which was largely about how shitty it is to get old. I am getting old. I DNF’d this one too.
But I had the latest E.L. James novel, The Missus. Now I really liked The Master, maybe even more than the 50 Shades trilogy, so I was eager to dive into this one, But more than 100 pages in, I’m feeling like it’s all filler about a wedding that I am not interested in. Will get to the end of this one, but not excited.
So the next book on my TBR list is Spare, and all I can say is that Prince Harry better deliver! I’ll let you know.