Many moons ago, I either read or listened to Plainsong and its successor, Eventide. I frankly don't recall much about either of them from a plot perspective, but I do recall liking his tone and pace.
I'm very much looking forward to seeing what he has in store here!
Who doesn't love Alex Trebek? He's an American treasure! (Except that he's actually Canadian.)
After the recent announcement of his diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, he decided he would write a book about himself. Apparently he had been asked to do this several times in the past, but until his diagnosis he had always refused.
What he came up with when he finally agreed to set down his thoughts is a collection of short stories. They are chronological, so it reads like a classic memoir in that sense, but the stories are often disconnected from what came before and what follows. This is not intended to be a criticism. The short story format makes for a very quick and easy read, which was incidentally exactly what I was looking for when I picked this up.
It does get a little heavier towards the end, when he talks about the possible end of his run on Jeopardy! and, of course, his illness. But he does all this with an overwhelming sense of happiness and satisfaction with the trajectory of his life that keeps it from being depressing.
In short, this book confirmed every wonderful thing I have ever thought about Alex Trebek.
After much prodding by K, I finally read The Great Gatsby. Twice.
Let me explain.
Upon K's urging, I decided to dive in for some true-classic summer reading. On my first reading, I started out appreciating the writing, but not being propelled through the narrative. Frankly, not much happens. But when things start to go sideways in that NYC hotel room, I couldn't put it down. That was the turning point for me.
I got to see K back in late June, and we were both their with our copies of Gatsby. K had a heavily-annotated copy, which she agreed to let me borrow for a second read-through (to make up for my prior educational delinquency). I thought it would be interesting to see what a real Gatsby expert thought was important.
I started my second read and got about 25 pages in before discussing my second reading with K. I said that it was enlightening to see what she thought was important, and how it was different from what I might have marked. (She also had a lot of comments about the over-arching motifs, so I could tell it was organized in such a way as to identify topics for student papers!) Anyway, she told me she wouldn't mind if I also annotated it, so I took my red pen ("Red means love!") and went to work. About 4 weeks later.
For some reason, restarting the book the third time seemed daunting, but eventually I got it done, and it has been returned -- red markings and all -- to its rightful owner.
So, what did I think?
I really liked it! The writing is excellent. That should come as a surprise to no one -- that is one of three ways that books typically get "classic" status. The overarching tale of lost love is timeless. As the introduction says, it's a good novel and can just be read as a good story, rather than getting caught in the academic aspects of it, if you're not in the mood for that.
One of the things that K told me she loves so much about this book is that every time she reads it, she notices different things and it speaks to her in different ways. I can definitely see how that is the case, even reading it twice in three months. That doesn't mean I'm about to go read it again right now (I'm not K, after all), but I could see reading it again in a handful of years and finding different themes.
I'm going to take a break from the serious goals and just try to blog a little bit this month.
I have a big backlog of things to blog and it is weighing on my mind. I'm sure you are stressed out about not having blog posts to read!
This month has been a complete fail, from a goals perspective (again).
Baby Mama is probably exactly what you might expect from a Tina Fey and Amy Poehler movie. It's cute, and a little bit funny, at least enough to keep me entertained for 90 minutes or so. 
Da 5 Bloods had potential, and some great scenes, but in my opinion it was just way too overdone. Sometimes I just don't appreciate being beaten over the head with the point. It was just a bit too much.
I was surprised by how moving Beautiful Boy was. I didn't expect Steve Carell to be able to carry the emotional weight of such of heavy story, but I was pleasantly surprised (once I got over the trauma from the film) by how well he pulled it off. And I love Maura Tierney in just about anything. It was an all-around winner, if movies about upper-middle-class addiction are your thing. (I didn't read either book -- if anyone did, I'd be interested in comments!)
One weekend, we dedicated ourselves to watching the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy -- yes, the extended version. It actually took us until Monday night to get through the end of the Return of the King, but if you can spare the time, watching them back to back is a wonderfully immersive experience.
