Thought about tackling The Goldfinch or finally starting Dead Souls. Started reading Eleanor and Park instead, a young adult romance novel.
It turned out to be pretty good--intensely, sentimentally romantic, but the sappiness of the romance is tempered by the author acknowledging (although not necessarily delving into) the many problems with the setting and the time period. The sort of doom that presses down on the couple are societal pressures rather than more mortal ones (domestic abuse and poverty vs. cancer). I wish more was done with Park's insecurities about being Asian in a dominantly white area, but oh well.
Maybe it's because I went through The Black Count recently, but all I could think of as the novel wound down was wait and hope, wait and hope. Their hope is rewarded, so the resolution isn't really bittersweet, just sweet; I thought the former would fit the tone of the novel better, but I didn't think it was sickening or anything. A bittersweet ending would have given the novel what it needed to push it over the top for me; acknowledgement (as Eleanor mentions somewhere in the middle, it's not like they're going to get married) that kids move on, and in new places, will find new love.
Really should start Dead Souls next. Will probably start The Goldfinch instead.
Why listen to some songs when I could be going through another book? 
