The Final Catch-up

I should be back on track on Sunday. This will actually take me through Wednesday night's reading, so I'm officially all caught up.

'To the Moon and Back' is the latest Jill Mansell novel and, once again, I'm in love. Ms. Mansell has the Brit chick lit thing down. Her books are smart and funny and touching and full of charming characters and the requisite adorable animals. Also, the apparently necessary scene of Our Heroine (in this case, Ellie) being caught outside in a state of near nudity (in this case, a dressing gown, but, sadly, no wellies). I gotta tell you, though, that this one did not start out easy and it kinda broke my heart a little bit. But, as is so very, very necessary in these sorts of things, Ellie got her Happily Ever After--and so did nearly everyone in her tight-knit circle. If you're looking for the perfect book to accompany a bubble bath and a glass of wine, then Jill Mansell should be your go-to girl.

Colson Whitehead has written a zombie novel called 'Zone One'. And, because it's Colson Whitehead, it's really well-written and smart and full of some delicious metaphors and descriptive passages. But, it's the Zombie Apocalypse and I, for one, am completely over it. The next time I read about the ZA, I kinda hope it's in the newspaper.

'When She Woke' is Hillary Jordan's follow-up to 'Mudbound', which won all kinds of prizes and accolades. I never read it, so had no expectations of this second book. Which is probably good, because, from what I understand, 'When She Woke' is completely different from 'Mudbound'. 'When She Woke' is a sorta-kinda dystopic retelling of 'The Scarlet Letter'. Of course, I hated 'The Scarlet Letter' with a fiery zeal. Thankfully, WSW only uses Hawthorne's novel as inspiration and jumping-off point and I really, really liked it. There's a touch--well, maybe more than a touch--of Margaret Atwood's 'The Handmaid's Tale' and some really nice Underground Railroad parallels. It's also got a very, very lovely cover, which I am shallow enough to admit influenced my desire to read the book. Also, I was quite pleased by the fact that there were No Zombies. There were, however, religious fanatics and they're probably more frightening than hordes of the living dead, at least to me.

Yay! I'm all caught up! Here's hoping I can stay that way.