Wally Lamb’s Wishin’ and Hopin’
December 8, 2009
I finished Wally Lamb’s Wishin’ and Hopin’ last night and all I have to say is yay! I have lots of reasons to say yay.
- I finished this book before it was due back at the library, which rocks because it was an express loan so you are only allowed one renewal and I’ve already used it.
- I finish a book. Period. It feels like a really long time since I finished a book.
- It’s a Christmas book so it counts towards the 2009 Holiday Reading Challenge. Since I never did say how many books I was going to read I can consider this one won! Woohoo! (I’m still going to try to read more, of course.)
You notice none of those yays are about the book itself? I wasn’t really crazy about it. At times it reminded me of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (those were the good parts). At other times it was a little too all over the place. As you got into Felix’s head you found out that Felix was very much attracted to the shiny. This is an example of Felix’s thought process – “I should be doing x. Oh look! A SHINY! I have this much left of . Oh look another SHINY!” It was a bit distracting at times. I also think that I maybe would have enjoyed this more if I had, in another life, been a 10-year-old boy. Note: dirty jokes abound, which didn’t bother me (they kind of bored me mind you) but might bother some of you. I did like the epilogue/where are they now at the end of the book. It amused me.
I know I’ve read Wally Lamb before. I read She’s Come Undone many years ago, long before I started this blog and probably close to the time it was an Oprah pick. My memory of it is pretty fuzzy but I want to say that I liked it and that this book felt very, very different.
I don’t think that it’s a book that I would recommend, but I’m pretty sure that some readers would find it charming.
December 8th, 2009 at 9:49 am
I’ve been curious about this book, so I’m glad you reviewed it so I know! Thanks, and congrats on finishing a book and challenge.
(I know how that feels!)
Becky´s last blog ..Review: White Picket Fences by Susan Meissner
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sassymonkey Reply:
December 8th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
I like challenges, I just generally suck at them so any time I finish one I pretty much rejoice!
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December 8th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
I’ve read several by Wally Lamb and loved them all but this definitely sounds like a departure for him and maybe not in a good way? Sorry you didn’t enjoy it more but at least you found some positive things about the overall experience.
Kathleen´s last blog ..Sunday Salon: Wow, What a Week!
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December 25th, 2009 at 8:03 am
[...] Sassymonkey [...]
February 12th, 2010 at 3:50 pm
I read She’s Come Undone & This Much I Know Is True. Loved both. Was very dissappointed by The Hour I first believed. Maybe I’ll give him another try with this book.
Chris´s last blog ..Ottawa Ammas making a difference
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