July Chick Lit Challenge Read #1: The Wedding Beat

What better time to read about weddings than the summer? I decided to read The Wedding Beat by Devan Sipher for my July Chick Lit Plus Challenge read. I had heard great things about this book and I'm so glad I got the chance to read it! Also, as a fun aside, this was one of the first books I got from my new library - three cheers for public libraries! :)

Here's the synopsis for this book:

Sometimes the best man isn't even in the wedding party...
Gavin Greene is a hopeless romantic. He's also a professional one: he writes the wedding column for a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper, covering spectacular parties from coast to coast. But there's a thin line between being a hotshot reporter on assignment...and being a single guy alone on a Saturday night at someone else's wedding.
Everything changes on New Year's when Gavin meets Melinda, a travel writer with enchanting dimples. A moonlit stroll across a Manhattan rooftop seals the deal. Until an Aussie with attitude swoops in and whisks her away before Gavin gets her number.
Gavin crisscrosses New York City to find her again. And he learns that there's something worse than losing the woman of his dreams: Having to write an article about her wedding.

What interested me most about reading this book was finding out what it was like to read a chick lit-esque novel that was narrated by a male. Turns out it was pretty neat! I think Sipher is a little bit of a romantic, though I knew he wrote the Vows column for The New York Times so it shouldn't have been that surprising! It was fun to see a guy pine over and then obsessively search for a woman he met briefly at a party. Turns out guys can act just as nutty as females when it comes to dating :)

I think I wanted this book to be a little bit longer. It was just under 300 pages and I think I needed just a bit more. I believe part of that desire comes from the fact that I wanted the ending to be written a little bit differently. Don't get me wrong, I like how it all turned out for Gavin but it left me wanting more, and not in a good way. It was sort of "boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy has to write about girl's upcoming wedding, are boy and girl going to get together?, question answered, and done. There was no explanation as to how the question was answered. I feel like I was left to make too many assumptions and that was a bit unfortunate.

Overall, I really enjoyed The Wedding Beat. I think Devan Sipher did an awesome job of creating a story that gave me just enough romance and amusement. I definitely recommend this one, especially for a summer read. What better time to read about weddings than the summer?

Have you read this one? What did you think? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Happy reading :)

daily book pic - week one recap

I'm sure most of you have read of the photoaday things that people are doing these days - taking a particular photo (self portrait, sunset, pet, etc.) every day for a month. Cassandra Neace from Book Riot has decided to put a bookish spin on things and there are a ton of book worms (including myself) who have jumped at the chance to participate. If you want to get involved or just want to see the full list of photo prompts check out the original article here.

It's now the end of week one so I thought I'd share my pics from the week. I'm having a bit of photo envy as it seems many other people have artistic photos and mine now seem lacking. Perhaps I'll be a bit more creative as the month goes on :)

Day One - Favourite Reading Spot

I was already a few days behind when I decided to start this project and when I got around to taking the first two pictures it was approaching darkness. Why does this matter? It means that I wasn't able to get a good picture of me reading outside which is my favourite place to read in the summer. Reading on the couch (which you see here) comes in at a comfy second.

Though...now that I'm writing this I realize that my all time favourite spot was here:

This was on a cruise to the Bahamas in February. Not bad, eh? Sigh. Can I go back there?

Day Two - Current Read

I'm not one to normally read more than one book at once but because All Roads Lead to Austen (amazing, by the way) is a non-fiction, and I take much longer to read non-fiction books, I decided to start a fiction book as well, The Wedding Beat (also very good). I've since finished them both and recommend them! 

Day Three - Book Browsing

I've just recently made it to my new local library. I've been living in this city for just about four months and it wasn't until last week that I got around to getting a library card - shocking, I know! This photo was taken on my second visit. They have a fantastic seven day borrowing section full of new books so I knew to make a beeline for it as soon as I got there the other day. I ended up picking up Point, Click, Love (the one on the top shelf on the far right) and am excited to read it!

Day Four - Bookshelf

This picture shows the top two shelves on my bookshelf at my house here. I say that because I have another bookshelf back at my mom's house that is still full of books that I've already read. Yes, you are interpreting that correctly - I haven't read any of the books in the photo. And in the interest of full disclosure, those shelves are now a bit fuller (as well as the two shelves below it...) as I had other books to add. I know, I know...I have a problem :)

Day Five - Bookmark

As soon as I saw this prompt I knew exactly which bookmark I planned on taking a photo of. The one shown here is from Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. My best friend was down there last summer and picked one up for me. Why is this such an interesting thing? Because Flyleaf Books is Sarah Dessen's favourite local indie bookstore. I repeat, why is this such an interesting thing? Because Sarah Dessen is our favourite author. My friend thought I'd get a kick out of the bookmark and I did. Little did we know that that September we would get the chance to meet Dessen when she came to Toronto! I had her sign some of my books and this bookmark, which led to a discussion between her and my friend about when she was at the store. It turns out that the owner saw Dessen in another store shortly after my friend was there and the woman told Dessen that there had been a family from Canada who visited the store and the daughter was a huge fan of hers. And she remembered that! We thought it was the greatest thing. (And yes, that's a snitch pin. Got it when I went to Universal in February.)

Day Six - Book and Beverage

It has been an incredibly hot summer so far and, while I'm a new beer drinking, I equate hot weather with drinking beer. Therefore, day six led me to a Coors Light Iced Tea and looking at my next read (The Singles) and a book that arrived in the mail that day A Girl Like You). It was a good, but HOT, evening!

Day Seven - Book and Breakfast

This is what I normally have for breakfast. The Shreddies, not the book, of course. Juice and cereal at home and tea taken in a travel mug to work. Since I had actually gone out for breakfast the morning of day seven, I couldn't take a true breakfast photo. Well...I suppose I could have brought a book with me to the restaurant but I never would have heard the end of it from my boyfriend's ball team who we went out with. :) PS Have you heard of Seen Reading? I recommend you check out the website!

So, there you have it. Week one is complete! Stay tuned on (hopefully) Saturday when I will be recapping week two. Think about joining in - it's been a lot of fun!