I started lots of books this week. I didn't finish many.
A lot of the books I've been reading are short stories - Night Shift, Binocular Vision, and The Best Russian Short Stories, those first two by Stephen King and Edith Pearlman respectively. Because they're short stories, I've not been reading them in one go; instead I've been dipping in and out at random.
I've also been reading Mansfield Park; I've never gotten along with Austen but I listened to a Freakonomics podcast a while back that theorised about her novels being an exploration of game theory in a social setting, which made me a little more interested. Plus, Project Gutenberg is one site that's unblocked at work and that no one says a thing about me looking at during quiet times. So I've been dipping into Flatland when Mansfield Park becomes a bit too much.
I also started reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks for a bookclub I'll be attending on Tuesday evening. I like it so far. It's about HeLa cells, the first immortal strain of human cells, which is still propagating in petri dishes all over the world, and the woman they came from in the first place.
Going back to what I actually did finish reading this week. I've read The Devil Wears Prada before. I remember Brit-picking it, and you can read that rant here. You can also read my longer review of the book here.
I reread The Devil Wears Prada this week because I got my hands on a copy of Revenge Wears Prada and figured I should reread the original so it was fresh in my mind. It worked pretty well. Both were 99p on the Kindle store.
Revenge Wears Prada is in third person, which is a bit of a jump from the first person viewpoint of Devil. Weisberger has also dropped that religion theme-naming thing she was doing. All of the old characters pop back up, and the work is thematically similar, in that Andy is treated unfairly until she snaps and fixes her life. I quite enjoyed it, though it wasn't anything too special. If you liked the original book, it's probably worth a look if you have the time and 99p to spare. There isn't really any revenge though.
I think I gave them both 3/5 stars.
I've also been reading Mansfield Park; I've never gotten along with Austen but I listened to a Freakonomics podcast a while back that theorised about her novels being an exploration of game theory in a social setting, which made me a little more interested. Plus, Project Gutenberg is one site that's unblocked at work and that no one says a thing about me looking at during quiet times. So I've been dipping into Flatland when Mansfield Park becomes a bit too much.
I also started reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks for a bookclub I'll be attending on Tuesday evening. I like it so far. It's about HeLa cells, the first immortal strain of human cells, which is still propagating in petri dishes all over the world, and the woman they came from in the first place.
Going back to what I actually did finish reading this week. I've read The Devil Wears Prada before. I remember Brit-picking it, and you can read that rant here. You can also read my longer review of the book here.
I reread The Devil Wears Prada this week because I got my hands on a copy of Revenge Wears Prada and figured I should reread the original so it was fresh in my mind. It worked pretty well. Both were 99p on the Kindle store.
Revenge Wears Prada is in third person, which is a bit of a jump from the first person viewpoint of Devil. Weisberger has also dropped that religion theme-naming thing she was doing. All of the old characters pop back up, and the work is thematically similar, in that Andy is treated unfairly until she snaps and fixes her life. I quite enjoyed it, though it wasn't anything too special. If you liked the original book, it's probably worth a look if you have the time and 99p to spare. There isn't really any revenge though.
I think I gave them both 3/5 stars.
