This was a pleasant surprise! I wasn't expecting to enjoy this as much as I did. No insta love, and likable characters. Full review to come! 

Remember my review of "The Goldfinch? http://carissagreen50.booklikes.com/post/1276684/the-big-book-donna-tartt-s-the-goldfinch

Turns out, Booklikes highlighted it as a featured review in their e-mail newsletter to subscribers dated October 30. Of course, I totally missed it until I was cleaning out my queue, almost two weeks later.

I'm honored - and I'm a little bit shamed that I don't review more often. Perhaps this is incentive. 

Thanks, Booklikes.

-cg

Donna Tartt's "The Goldfinch" deserves every inch of praise that has been sent its way. I know a few people who have commented that at 771 pages, they couldn't finish it, but I read it twice in two months - first over the three-day Labor Day weekend, then again more slowly through October. 

It has been rightly noted that "The Goldfinch" takes its place among the great Bildungsromans. The book also pays more than a nodding homage to the great Russian epics. But to my mind it also belongs in the pantheon of New York stories. Yes, there are significant side trips into the exurbs of Las Vegas and the Amsterdam underworld, but for the majority of the story the reader is steeped in a classic sampling of the places and people that make up New York City (pretty much just white people, unfortunately, but you can't do everything in one book).

I loved "The Goldfinch." After hearing book bloggers and podcasters rave about Tartt's "A Secret History," I do believe that my summer reading list for 2016 has its first entry. But this one will stay with me, its overall impression is that great. One scene, particularly, will probably haunt me all my days. Anyone want to sponsor my trip to The Mauritshuis so I can visit the painting?

-cg

Hi!

I just posted my Bookish Bingo wrap up post on my blog for the Ready for Spring Edition.

It was fun and I'm quite happy about my results.

Did you guys join this one? How did you do?

Every summer, I try to fill at least one hole in my literary life. This year, it was my first Nabokov. I chose "Pale Fire." I finished it this morning.

What the heck did I just read?

No, don't tell me. Let me enjoy the meta-crazy for a while . . .

-cg