The Gilmore Guide to Books

Connecting Books and Readers One Review at a Time

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Reviews
    • Reviews by Author
    • Reviews by Title
    • Reviews by Genre
  • Podcast
  • Policies
    • Review Policy
    • Cookie Policy
    • Privacy Policy

It’s Monday, May 8th: What Are You Reading?

May 8, 2017

Monday again and May already?! Mentally I’m still in March and while I’ll be happy for some sunshine I’m not sure I’m ready for summer. What I am ready for is a solid streak of great reading. Currently, I’m stalling out and DNFing most new releases or finding them OK at best. Here’s hoping today’s picks will be game changers!

 

monday

 

I’m taking a break from historical fiction and going with contemporary themes this week. Tracy Chevalier has been a favorite author for awhile (I loved Falling Angels, her take on the suffragette movement in England) so something new from her is an automatic yes for me. New Boy is a retelling of Othello, set in a suburb of Washington, D.C., amongst 11-year-olds at school. Osei is a diplomat’s son befriended by the most popular girl in school. From what I can tell, Chevalier condenses the timeline to one day which makes me even more intrigued.

The synopsis of Fake Plastic Love was chum in the water for sharkish reading brain: debut, millennials, NYC, finance, female protagonist not interested in romance. C’mon?! How can I resist? That is low hanging fruit. Or it could be really bad. I’m going all in on the optimism.

Having said that, even though it’s very early in the month here are a few novels I’ve already attempted and let go.

 

monday

No One Can Pronounce My Name: Another book that sounded like it couldn’t miss. Set in Cleveland’s Indian community it was supposed to be a funny, but serious and touching look at assimilating into American culture. I was stoked for this because I’m a huge fan of Thrity Umrigar who actually lives in Cleveland and writes amazing fiction about the Indian-American experience. Sadly, I only made it to about 60% before setting this one aside. It felt like riding in a manual transmission car with a student driver, jerking between comedy and pathos before stalling. Author Satyal never seemed to get it into a high enough gear for an effortless ride.

monday

Before We Sleep: Another book that seemed as if it would be in my wheelhouse—generational family saga set in Vermont (my entire family is New Englanders) and spanning WWII to the 70s. Basically, this comes down to a mother-daughter story, but the author’s style was not a good fit. I did not enjoy his writing nor was I pulled into the story enough to keep reading.

Onward and upward! What are you reading this Monday?

 

Related Posts

  • Related Posts
amitysorrow
Amity & Sorrow
peach
Peach by Emma Glass
witness
Witness 8 by Steve Cavanagh
Love is Red
asymmetry
Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday

6 Comments
Filed Under: Feature, Reading Tagged: childhood, contemporary fiction, Manhattan, new adult

Comments

  1. Sarah's Book Shelves says

    May 8, 2017 at 4:41 am

    Interested to hear your thoughts on Fake Plastic Love…I gave up after literally 5 pages. Something about the style that I couldn’t quite put my finger on….but tell me if I should give it more of a chance!

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      May 8, 2017 at 8:50 am

      Oh No!! This does not bode well.

      Reply
  2. Kristin says

    May 8, 2017 at 10:47 am

    I had 5 books from my hold list at the library come available at the same time. So I’m trying to read as fast as you do:
    The Shadowland – finished
    Behold the Dreamers – mostly done
    The Paris Apartment
    The Kommandant’s Girl
    and one other I can’t remember right now
    All to finish before May 18!

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      May 9, 2017 at 7:33 pm

      Oooo…what did you think of Shadowland? I read it over a month ago and still haven’t put together a review. I thought Behold the Dreamers was a marvelous look at lives I don’t often have to consider.

      Reply
      • Kristin says

        May 10, 2017 at 7:01 pm

        The subject of The Shadow Land was something I wasn’t at all familiar with, so from that point of view, it’s an important book. The first half of the book went around in circles too much and it was hard to remember all the places they were, but I liked the second half more. I also had a hard time with the setting — what young woman goes off with a cab driver she’s just met?

        Behold the Dreamers also has an important message for those like us who don’t face these immigration issues daily. The historical basis during the Great Recession was very compelling. I feel compassion for the immigrants and sorrow for the employer and his family. I wish our country did a better job at immigration management and of balancing our financial system.

        Next up will be The Blind Astronomer’s Daughter.

        Reply
  3. Annie says

    May 8, 2017 at 11:19 pm

    I think I read about 10 pages of Before We Sleep before I gave up… That writing… Not for me 🙁

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Goodreads
  • Instagram

Save time and subscribe via email

No time to keep checking for new reviews? Enter your email address to subscribe and receive notifications of new posts by email. No spam!

Bookshop

Currently Reading

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
by Emily Nagoski
The Dutch House
The Dutch House
by Ann Patchett
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me
by Adrienne Brodeur

goodreads.com

Affiliate Disclosure

I’m an affiliate for Bookshop. If you click on a link that takes you to their site and make a purchase I’ll earn a small fee, which goes towards the costs of maintaining this site. Your support is appreciated. Thank you!

Archives

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.

Theme Design By Studio Mommy · Copyright © 2025

Copyright © 2025 · Beyond Madison Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in