Bloggin' 'bout Books: 09/03/21

2026 Literary Escapes Challenge

- Alabama

- Alaska

- Arizona

- Arkansas

- ~~California~~ (1)

- Colorado

- Connecticut

- Delaware

- Florida

- Georgia

- Hawaii

- Idaho

- ~~Illinois~~ (1)

- ~~Indiana~~ (1)

- Iowa

- Kansas

- Kentucky

- Louisiana

- ~~Maine~~ (1)

- Maryland

- Massachusetts

- Michigan

- Minnesota

- Mississippi

- Missouri

- Montana

- Nebraska

- Nevada

- New Hampshire

- New Jersey

- New Mexico

- ~~New York~~ (2)

- North Carolina

- North Dakota

- Ohio

- Oklahoma

- Oregon

- Pennsylvania

- ~~Rhode Island~~ (1)

- South Carolina

- South Dakota

- Tennessee

- Texas

- Utah

- Vermont

- ~~Virginia~~ (1)

- Washington

- West Virginia

- Wisconsin

- Wyoming

- Washington, D.C.*

International:

- England (2)

Overhyped Dog Novel Just Doesn't Resonate With Me

8:58 PM

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

At ten years old, Enzo knows his life is coming to an end. He doesn't mind. As a dog whose soul is "very human," he's pretty sure he's going to be reincarnated as a man, a prospect he's very much looking forward to. After all, Enzo has been studying humans his whole life. Not only has he watched a considerable amount of educational television, but he's also been observing his owner, Denny Swift, ever since the race car driver brought him home as a puppy. With all the wisdom he's gathered, Enzo knows he'll make a stellar human.

As Enzo ruminates over what he's learned from a canine life well lived, he tells the story of Denny's life—from his career as a pro race car driver, to his marriage to Eve, to the birth of their daughter, Zoë, to how everything changed when Denny began to lose all of them. Like all faithful companions, Enzo is there through it all to mourn with his best friend, cheer him on, and lick his wounds (sometimes literally). Along the way, he learns some great lessons about what it means to be human.

I'm not a big fan of stories narrated by animals, so I have given The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein a wide berth for a long time, in spite of the many rave reviews it's gotten. I only decided to take it on because I needed a new audiobook to listen to and my library seemed to have nothing else that was immediately available. Although it started as a reluctant listen, I ended up finding the novel compelling enough to finish. Did I love it? Can't say that I did. Do I understand why it's so overhyped? I do not. The story moves at a glacial pace for much of the book, although it does pick up after the Big Event happens. Problem is, I hated the direction the tale took at that point. It wasn't what I expected or wanted. Thus, the read just felt sad, depressing, and...ugh. I did finish the book, like I said, but I found The Art of Racing in the Rain to be an average read at best. Part of the problem, I'm sure, is that I don't love animal books and I have no interest in car racing; a lot of my issues, though, stemmed from a story that just didn't resonate with me. Bummer.

(Readalikes: Hm, I can't think of anything. You?)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for language (a dozen or so F-bombs, plus milder expletives), sexual content, violence, and disturbing subject matter

To the FTC, with love: Another library ~~fine~~ find

Fall Into Reading Challenge 2021

10:24 AM

I'm not a BookTuber or a Bookstagrammer (I do have an Instagram account for Bloggin' 'bout Books, but I don't post there very often). To be honest, I sort of forget these mediums exist even though they revolve around my favorite subject: books. Thank goodness for the lovely Nicole over at Bookwyrm Knits who posted about a fun Fall reading challenge that was announced a couple weeks ago on BookTube (just FYI: her links go to the 2020 challenge). The Fall Into Reading Challenge is a prompt-based challenge that is hosted by four YouTubers: Tia at Tia and All the Books, Kelly at Cozy Reader Kelly, Angie at Literary Labors, and Rainey at Rainey Day Reads. Because the prompts are very general, I'm going to do the harder 24-square level:

I'm not going to pre-plan any reading for the challenge since the books I'm already tentatively "planning" to read in the next few months fit these categories pretty well. We'll see what I end up doing. You can track my progress with this challenge—and all the others I'm participating in—by checking out the left sidebar of my blog. For more details, like which books I'm using for which challenges, click on the "Reading Challenges" tab in my blog header.

Also, you may not know or may not remember that I started Ready for a Reading Challenge? at the end of 2019 to act as a database for all the reading challenges going on around the Internet. While there's not a lot going on over there at this time of year, pretty soon it will be hopping with lots of announcements about new challenges for 2022. If you are hosting a challenge in the new year or if you see one announced, please let me know so I can add it to the database. Free advertising!