Book Report Vol. I - Love and Other Impossible Pursuits

UPDATE: Read a few more chapters - things have improved in the story and in my mood. Cheers.

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So I have read the first 6 chapters. Still entranced, but feeling pretty down. The main character has a complicated life, complicated history, and doesn't seem to be dealing very well with the death of her infant daughter (ha - as if anyone "deals well"). I refuse to review the book until I have read the whole thing, so I am reporting:

1. I felt pretty down in the couple of hours after I put the thing down.
2. There are certain aspects about her character that are not relate-able for me (she was the other woman, she is not in tune with or doesn't trust her husband, she has a wildly traumatic personal familial experience).
3. Perhaps reading this on my lunch hour isn't a good idea.
4. I like the writing style.
5. I need to get further into the meat of the thing before I will have any sense of whether or not I like it...the author is still dealing with background at this point.

A couple of quotes that I like:

"Don't they realize that obsessive self-pity is an all-consuming activity that leaves no room for conversation" - p. 1 (for those following along at home)

"Last Wednesday I left a couple of hours early, to meet a friend who had decided that a morning of shoe shopping would bounce me out of my despondency, would turn me back into someone whose company she enjoyed." - p. 5

By the way, I never intended this space to be some sort of literary critique - but it looks as if my current coping method is to read something, decide if I agree with it or not, then plop all of those thoughts here.

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And, in other news, I have absolutely no idea what the heck is going on with my body. Charting is not helping me detect ovulation --- because I have a cold!!! My temps are up, but barely, making me thing that the higher temps are more to do with something microbial than ovulation. Other signs are equally obscure, making me think "well, who cares! Every other month, I have known exactly when I ovulated and I am not pregnant yet!!" Maybe this is a better approach, anyway.

I feel that I over use the exclamation point. Do please let me know if you agree. Nothing is more irritating that excessive exclamatory punctuation !!! (<--- those are ironic, you know).

I'm grouchy.