I'm embarassed by my lack of reading this month. Truly humiliated...

I have absolutely no idea what happened this month, but I came nowhere close to reaching my monthly goals.  All I can say is, summer is fast approaching.  Which means pool time.  Which means more reading will be done!

Snobs by Julian Fellowes.  This was the book club book for my second book club.  It's written by the guy who created Downton Abbey, so I was convinced I would love it.  Wrong.  It was very, VERY slow going for most of the book.  The nameless narrator espouses upon the courtship of Edith (a middle class girl) and Charles, Earl of Broughton.  Edith's eventual marriage to Charles is everything her mother wanted for her.  Lord love Charles, he's not everything Edith wants.  While she does care for him, she is quickly bored by him (he's not the brightest bulb, but he's got a good heart).  When a period drama is filmed at the family home, Edith quickly falls into an affair with one of the (married, GASP) actors.  Drama further ensues when she leaves poor Charles for the louse.  Edith realizes that she has given up a place in society and stability for passion.  Is that enough?  I actually enjoyed the end of the book and the discussion a lot more than I enjoyed the book as a whole.  Although it made me think, if I just had to read the script of Downton Abbey, would I like it nearly as much as I do watching it come to life?  Probably not....

Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes.  This is one of my favorite movies.  There are two, count them two, similarities between the book and the movie.  The main character is Frances Mayes.  And she does buy and restore Bramasole in Italy.  In the book, she and her husband Ed purchase the home and renovate it together.  Shockingly, for how different it is from a beloved movie, I actually really liked it!  Mayes is an exquisite writer.  The words just come alive on the page.  Some of my favorite phrases from the movie were taken directly from the book, like my favorite "they even smell purple."  To be honest, there's not much of a story story here- for Pete's sake, there's two entire chapters devoted to recipes!  But I found myself loving the book (I can't tell whether I loved it because it had no story or in spite of having no story though.)