Musing Mondays (July 14)

Musing Mondays is a meme from Should Be Reading

Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…

• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it!
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

I have decided to use Musing Mondays to have a bit of a ramble this week.

As regular readers to my blog will be aware I have just been on holiday. In preparation I made sure that I didn’t accept any books that would require reviewing for that time to free up my reading choices for books that I already owned or ones that I purchased particularly for the trip. Now I love having the latest reads and this year has produced a bumper crop of excellent reads, but the downside is that the opportunities to read other books that I want to have been severely reduced. I took a variety of books away with me and it was great to pick my next book on my mood rather than my schedule.

It soon became apparent when I was on my trip that I actually would choose to read a physical book rather than an eBook although my choices were evenly split between the two mediums, I only bought one physical book home unread but I wouldn’t have had the choice available without my kindle so it is a double-edged sword. Carrying enough books to make sure I could choose from a wide variety of books would have used a fair bit of my baggage allowance.

As time has gone on I have thought more deeply about why a book works, or doesn’t, for me. While away I had one DNF which was one that I had really looked forward to reading, What She Left Behind by Ellen Marie Wiseman. This should have been a sure fire winner for me as its synopsis indicated that insanity led to Izzy’s mother killing her father whilst in the past Clara was locked in an asylum in 1929 for falling in love with the wrong man. Unfortunately although this time I wasn’t turned off by incorrect historical detail (something that is most likely to make me stop reading) this book’s present day story was far too flimsy. Izzy somehow instantly knows her current foster mother is good, despite by the age of 17 having lived in a variety of different homes.  She starts a new high school, meets a boy and knows that he won’t be her boyfriend. What?? What is all this just knowing! When the story got bogged down in who could be most horrible class-mate at school, and their motivations for behaving that way, I’m afraid I gave up.

Obviously this isn’t a full review as I didn’t finish the book. I didn’t get as far as finding out Clara’s story but I knew that I wouldn’t be able to engage after being disillusioned by the first 20% that I did read. The idea for this book is fantastic but I prefer it when the characters have a little more depth which is apparent through their actions not just their thoughts.

Please share your Monday Musings in the comments box below.