Three Junes - Julia Glass

I decided to read Three Junes by Julia Glass for the National Book Awards Challenge. Previously this year, I read her more recent novel I See You Everywhere and thought it was a pretty good read. It took me a while to pick up Three Junes, well, because I thought the cover was pretty boring. But once I did I was hooked. I loved it. I love loved it. It's now on my all-time favorites list. I rented it from the library but I'm going to have to now buy it. And I'm not even sure I'm going to be able to tell you why I loved it so much. So here it goes:

The book revolves around a Scottish family, the McLeods. The books starts out in June of 1989 with Paul McLeod, recently widowed, taking a vacation in Greece. There are flashbacks to his past life with his wife, how they met, and raising their three sons.

Six years later, it's June again and Paul McLeod has just passed away. The three sons are gathered together with their wives and families in Scotland to pay homage to their father. This section is narrated by Fenno, the eldest son who is an expat and gay man living in New York City. It's during this period that Fenno starts to unravel some of their family history and family relationships are tested. He also flashes back to his past in New York and to his relationship with a gay man who is dying of AIDS.

Four years later, the story is narrated by...well, I won't tell you the last narrator.

So why did I like it so much? The plot of the story is pretty odd. Is there really a plot? It's really all about the characters. The story sucks you in by having Paul McLeod narrate. And you really like him. And this first part is short and then he dies. So you're already invested in the story. The second section is the longest section, narrated by Fenno, and I just fell for that character. I mean, while reading this section I loved to take the book for coffee, sit down, and just savor the book.

When I finished the book I was so disappointed. Not disappointed in the ending, but sad that it ended at all. It took me awhile to read this book. I didn't rush through it, I didn't check on what book was waiting in my TBR que, I just sat and drank coffee and savored it.

A big thanks to Vivienne and Lit and Life for encouraging me to post my reviews!

Also Reviewed by:

Lit and Life

Already September

Well, some of you may be wondering whether or not we went camping last weekend. We thought it was going to be crazy weather due to Hurricane Daniel. So we stayed home. And it barely rained. Sheesh.

We will definitely be going at least once more this year. Our Thanksgiving tradition is camping.

In the meantime, I have been a slow reader this month and even worse at writing reviews. I will get caught up though. Here's how I did for the month of August:

August
52. The Girl on the Via Flaminia - Alfred Hayes
53. Three Junes - Julia Glass
54. The Art of Racing in the Rain - Garth Stein
55. Julie and Julia - Julie Powell
56. The Coral Thief - Rebecca Stott

I'm only on book 56 for my 100+ Reading Challenge. I probably won't make that 100 mark but I'll keep trying.

To Camp or Not To Camp

That is the question today. We are supposed to head out and go camping after work today and come back on Sunday. But a little thing called Hurricane Danny is standing in our way. Will we make it? Hmmm...

While we try to make up our minds, enjoy some past posts from previous camping trips.

Enjoy!

Camping in the Catskills

Thanksgiving Camping Tradition

Camping in Canada

R.I.P. IV Challenge

Woohoo! It's time for Carl's R.I.P. IV Challenge. For all you who haven't heard of Carl over at Stainless Steel Droppings, go check him out. You can also check out what I read last year for the R.I.P. III Challenge. It was a blast.

Here's what Carl says:

Readers Imbibing Peril, that is what it is all about. I hope you’ll consider joining us on this more eerie road less traveled.

Walk this way.

Mystery.
Suspense.
Thriller.
Dark Fantasy.
Gothic.
Horror.
Supernatural.

The desire for the thrill that comes with this kind of reading drifts in on the autumn winds. You breathe it in and it takes hold of you, tempting you to late nights, book-in-hand, turning pages and starting at every unknown noise. Something wicked this way comes…

I'm choosing Peril the First: Read Four books from any sub-genre of scary stories that you choose.

Since I'm on a self-imposed no buying no borrowing kick (to make some room on my shelves), I'm only reading books that I own but haven't read. Here's my list:

The Meaning of Night: A Confession - Michael Cox

Drood - Dan Simmons

The Mystery of Edwin Drood - Charles Dickens (Finished October 20, 2009)

The Monsters of Florence - Douglas Preston, Mario Spezi

The Black Tower - Louis Bayard

The Last Dickens - Matthew Pearl (Finished October 04, 2009)

Dark Star - Alan Furst (Finished September 05, 2009)

Bridge of Sighs - Olen Steinhauer

Dead Until Dark - Charlaine Harris

Voyage of the Narwhal - Andrea Barrett

Smilla's Sense of Snow - Peter Hoeg

The Monsters of Templeton - Lauren Groff

**Found two more:

The Harrowing - Alexandra Sokoloff (Finished September 01, 2009)

The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman
**Borrowed from Library
The Strain - Guillermo Del Toro & Chuck Hogan (Finished October 21, 2009)
Real Murders - Charlaine Harris (Finished October 26, 2009)

You can see what everyone else is reading over at The Review Site.

Winner!!

I'm pleased to announce the winner of Anne Rivers Siddons book Off Season is:

LauraKnight

She is a huge Anne Rivers Siddons fan and hasn't read this book. Congratulations!

Pet Sitting

Starting tomorrow, we are pet sitting a friend's pup for the weekend. Too cute right? It should be interesting with her and our pups. They've been camping together but she really doesn't like Charlie Dog. Charlie tries to play and shake hands with her. Which means she just gets bopped on the head. I told Charlie that's not how to make friends.

I'll try and take pictures.

Another Giveaway!

I'm trying to weed out my shelves because, well, I seriously have no more room for books. Ok ok. That's a lie. I'll always find more room for books. But our apartment is seriously small and to make a little more room, I have a stack of books to give away this summer. So keep checking back because you'll never know what I'll be giving away.

This week is Anne Rivers Siddons' book Off Season. You can read my review here.

Contest is open all week through August 23rd and open world-wide.