instead of thank you notes

i try to be rigorous with my thank you notes, and i'm proud of this. but i read this carolyn hax advice column today, where she points out that while thank you notes are still a good idea, we should really rethink the whole concept of gift-giving, given that stuff is much easier to acquire these days.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/carolyn-hax-reconsidering-our-gift-giving-habits/2013/06/27/30f3284a-d389-11e2-b05f-3ea3f0e7bb5a_story.html

it's an interesting point! especially for the adults in my life (because it's still fun to buy toys for kids most of the time). most adults i know can buy what they want or need whenever they want, and do a much better job than i would at getting exactly what they want. so i think it might be a better idea to skip the gift-giving and send a card, or maybe donate some money to charity in someone's name.

Gone Girl

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

i have mixed feelings about this book.

on one hand, i really enjoyed the characterizations. flynn masterfully guides the reader to hate or love the characters. the plot is fascinating.

then it started to feel too long. i was ready for it to be done. i got bored with amy's interactions with the drifters. and then when it finished? i thought the ending was too abrupt. i wanted to know that something happened for the detective or for go or somebody who deserved it.

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Dead Souls

Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

just fantastic. there are parts that seem tedious and long-winded (aren't all russian novels like that), but most of it is hilarious.

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Navel

My pregnant bellybutton is visible through 2 layers of clothes. And one of those layers is a fleece shirt.

Bring Up The Bodies

Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

for some reason, i didn't enjoy it as much as i enjoyed wolf hall. i'm still loving mantel's thomas cromwell (sure, it's easy to enjoy a from-the-viewpoint-of-the-traditional-villain story, but hilary mantel's cromwell is impeccable).

maybe the problem was that the characters' names were harder to keep straight (this could be simply my aging brain, but it was difficult that sometimes he was "charles brandon" and sometimes he was just "duke of suffolk") and i couldn't remember who was related to whom. i read wolf hall in paperback and i read bring up the bodies on my kindle, and that may have made a difference. sure, you can bookmark on a kindle. but the problem is that i'm not sure when i will need a bookmark, for something to make reference to. so then by the time i realize that what i thought was an insignificant name is in fact important, it's hard for me to just flip back and find it. and of course, maybe there is an easy way to do this on my kindle and i just don't know how to do it.

but anyway, it's still a great read if you like historical fiction or if you're interested in that particularly juicy part of english royal history. i want to read more of her books. maybe "a place of greater safety"?

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