What makes a book good?

My husband isn't a huge reader, but I read to him a little bit every night before bed. It can take some time to finish a book, reading at most one chapter a night, and we aren't usually super selective when picking our next read, so we've had some pretty mixed results with our choices. There have been some pretty solid highs, but we've also encountered some incredibly low lows. 

At some point, I acquired a copy of We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry (which I've never reviewed, but did mention long, long ago in this post), which I knew NOTHING about, but we picked it as our bedtime book, started reading, and at some point we were both like "man, what the fuck even is this book?" It took us a few months, but we finished it and both agreed that while at no point did we have any idea what to expect, we both really enjoyed it. Then we read it again last year. And now we're reading it together for a third time. The other night, he asked what my favorite thing about the book was, and it made me think...

What is it that makes a book GOOD?

For me, it definitely isn't any one thing. Some books are good because they're fast paced and grip you until you can't stop reading. Others are intriguing and full of subtle details that come together to create shocking reveals. Then there are books with characters so well-written and full of life that they feel like real people. Some of my favorites (like We Ride Upon Sticks!) are weird and unexpected while somehow feeling true to life and relatable. I just love stories, man. They're so GOOD. (Shhhhhh I know I don't love EVERY book, let's not talk about my negative reviews right now)

What do you think? What draws you to a book? What makes you fall in love with one?

Best Wishes, Warmest Regards - Daniel and Eugene Levy

Initial Draw: ☆☆☆☆☆
Character Development: ☆☆☆☆☆

Plot/Writing Style: ☆☆☆☆☆

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"This beautifully produced, keepsake coffee-table book is the ultimate celebration of the series, the town, the characters, and the state of mind that is Schitt's Creek. Capturing the essence and alchemy of all six seasons of what is now considered to be one of the most groundbreaking comedy television series of the last decade, Best Wishes, Warmest Regards is a gift to fans everywhere who have made the show their own.

Included are character profiles from the cast of Johnny, Moira, David, and Alexis, and all of the characters that populate the town, major moments from Moira's endorsement of Herb Ertlinger Winery, to Patrick and David's first kiss, to Cabaret and the Rose Family Christmas episode. Also included are special features, such as the complete, illustrated catalogs of David's knits and Moira's wigs, Moira's vocabulary, Alexis's adventures, and behind-the-scenes moments from Dan and Eugene Levy and the cast of Schitt's Creek."

Reading slowly, but reading hard-ish

Back to school means back to less free time and less energy, which means my reading has hugely slowed down and progress has been incremental.

I continue to chip away at Uncommon Grounds, which continues to be interesting. Did you know that during World War II the United States not only put Japanese Americans in internment camps, they also extradited people of German descent from Central America and put them in internment camps until they later traded them to Germany in exchange for American POWs? Some of them were German expats, but many were born in the countries they were extradited from and had never even been to Germany before being sent there in exchange for the release of prisoners of war. Fucking gross, I tell you what.

I also finished The Ocean Would Paint Me Blue, which ended up being a beautiful read, and Wild Beauty, which was...weird, but very good. Very descriptive, beautiful imagery from both books.

Warrior Girl Unearthed and Worst-Case Scenario both remain unread, as does Does My Body Offend You and Algorithms of Oppression from August. I just finished Revolutionary Algorithms, though, and it's very funny to read about things like Skibbety Toilet with scholarly language and big words. I also finished Hear Ye Mortals, which was an interesting mix of historical fiction and supernatural and was very haunting and touching and sad and beautiful.