Book a Week - Week Three

I'm sorry I'm all over the map on my blog, folks. I know I'm supposed to be posting about The Love Dare, but I've fallen off the dare wagon. I'm also a few posts behind on my general life stuff that I mean to do. And now, I've gone and added this Book a Week challenge with my buddies from The Well-Trained Mind forums.

*sigh* Anyway...I just finished reading A Simple Christmas by Mike Huckabee. It was an enjoyable read. I felt that I needed something relaxing and not too cerebral. This book met that need.

My complaint about the book is that it's not tightly edited. He takes three pages to say what would fit on one. There were also a few glaring word clashes. Once he said something like, "I can't verify the veracity of..." That almost hurt my ears. Two such similar words clanging together like that. Also, I got tired of every chapter ending with the refrain..."a simple Christmas. I realize he's trying to bring the theme back around each chapter but it got dull. Okay, Mike, it's a simple Christmas. We know.

Still, a very pleasant read. Good stories in there that really make you chuckle when you think of your own eccentric uncles or chain-smoking cousin or whatever oddballs make up your family history. Funny stuff.

So my book for this coming week is "Mansfield Park" by Jane Austen. I have never read that one before. I'm enjoying the language and the character development just as much as all the other Austen novels. Her word-craft rocks the house, people!