Tag: Reading Challenge

My Twenty-Five Years in Provence: Reflections Then & Now

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Peter Mayle, Provence, France, Elaina Avalos blog

I am participating in a 2020 Reading Challenge. For February – the book theme was memoir or biography. I chose Peter Mayle’s My Twenty-Five Years in Provence: Reflections Then & Now.

 

I have read other books written by Mayle, including the novel A Good Year, which became a movie starring Russell Crowe {love the movie}. Mayle, who passed away in 2018, writes charmingly about his life in Provence.

So charming in fact, that I try to contrive ways to move there, as I read. Like, maybe I can get a job with the U.S. government in France – searches frantically on USA JOBS website. Okay, yeah – that won’t work. 

His sense of humor is woven throughout his anecdotes on every day life, the passing of the seasons, tourists visiting the region and the village he lives in, and my personal favorite – talk of Provence’s food & wine {Rosé in particular}.

Mayle writes beautifully, but not in a complicated or fussy way. I have longed to visit Europe – France, in particular – all of my life. I hope to someday. But writing like his makes me want to get there as soon as possible. His writing is simple and straightforward. Yet somehow, he is still so artful that I can envision the scenes he describes, as if I were in Provence myself.

He is a delightful writer. And this book is a new favorite.

For March’s book, I will be reading The House on Tradd Street by Karen White. The House on Tradd Street is the first in her Tradd Street Series. I have enjoyed other Karen White books, so I’m looking forward to starting this today.

Here are the themes for the reading challenge:

January: Book Related to Your New Year’s Resolution
February: Biography or Memoir
March: Book in a Series
April: Try an Audio Book
May: Feels Like Falling! (Obviously… Then Join Us May 15 for a FB Live Discussion)
June: Classic Beach Book
July: Thriller So Scary You Have to Read on the Beach in Daylight
August: Historical Fiction
September: Book That Has Been in Your TBR Pile Forever
October: New Release Impulse Buy
November: One of Your Family Member’s Favorite Books
December: Holiday-Themed Book

*Links to books are affiliate links.

Slightly South of Simple – 2020 Reading Challenge

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reading challenge january 2020 kristy woodson harvey1

I admit it. I started Slightly South of Simple before starting a Reading Challenge in January. The theme for January was a book related to your New Years resolution. Since I don’t do resolutions, I decided finishing a book that was in my Kindle queue or on my bedside table, was close enough to a resolution.

First up was Kristy Woodson Harvey’s first book in the The Peachtree Bluff Series. I started this book during a very chaotic time last summer, as my foster son was preparing to be moved. As much as I love reading, you would have thought it would have been a little self-care. But I couldn’t bring myself to do much of anything but watch comedy specials on Netflix.

As a result, the book sat on my Kindle without being read. I read the author’s first book Dear Carolina, and loved it – especially the ways in which it incorporated Eastern NC – this place I’ve called home for so long. So I knew Slightly South of Simple had to be the first book I read for the challenge.

What did I think of it? I loved the book. But as I’m not a book reviewer, I don’t intend to dive terribly deep into the plot. What I will say is that I find her writing to be honest, heartfelt, and funny. While the book is technically not set in North Carolina, the town Peachtree Bluff is said to be modeled after Beaufort, NC. If you’ve been around a while, or read my book, you know how much I love that quirky, beautiful town.

I think Harvey writes relationships genuinely. She approaches complexities in those relationships in a way that I appreciate as a writer and reader. There were a couple of things I didn’t care for so much in this book. One of which was an obsession that a couple of characters appeared to have with body image/size.

While it rings very true that this might be something women in certain spheres are focused on, it did frustrate me as it didn’t really seem necessary to the plot itself. Who knows? Maybe I’ll come to understand that particular issue better, in the next two novels? That said, it didn’t alter my overall view of Harvey’s writing.

Elaina Avalos Reading Challenge Kristy Woodson Harvey Novel

If you’re wondering what my February book is, it’s My Twenty-Five Years in Provence, by Peter Mayle. Mayle was a wonderful writer. He wrote joyfully about his life in France (and about food & wine – my favs). You may have seen a movie made about one of his novels – A Good Year? Mayle passed away recently. I think this is the perfect book for this month’s theme.

Here are the other books in this challenge:

January: Book Related to Your New Year’s Resolution
February: Biography or Memoir
March: Book in a Series
April: Try an Audio Book
May: Feels Like Falling! (Obviously… Then Join Us May 15 for a FB Live Discussion)
June: Classic Beach Book
July: Thriller So Scary You Have to Read on the Beach in Daylight
August: Historical Fiction
September: Book That Has Been in Your TBR Pile Forever
October: New Release Impulse Buy
November: One of Your Family Member’s Favorite Books
December: Holiday-Themed Book

What have you read so far in 2020?