I finally finished The Weird: a compendium of strange and dark stories, edited by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer. If you like that sort of thing, you’ll like this collection. I did enjoy it, but ugh! It was just so darn big, I’m mostly relieved to not have to carry it around anymore, and in the mood for a change of pace.
I read about half of Slouching Toward Adulthood, a non-fiction book about adult children living at home. It seemed like a lot of interviews with people whose kids got several useless college degrees, or just won’t stop gallivanting around Europe, or have had a series of volunteer jobs. This is nothing to do with my situation, where we have one kid who is barely motivated enough to keep breathing, and another whose part time job hardly pays for itself.
Am on the home stretch of 1Q84 (Haruki Murakami) and hoping to finish it before the e-book goes back to the library. It’s a fascinating story - I did figure out the connection between Tengo and Aomame before Murakami made it explicit. The characters are compelling, and The Little People make for an interesting twist in what otherwise could be relatively “straight” fiction.
Just finished Rage, the second in Jackie Morse Kessler’s Riders of the Apocalypse series. This time around, the young woman tapped to be the incarnation of War struggles with self-harming, specifically cutting. Kessler once again treats the subject with honesty and tact, while building an engaging story, She thanks the participants in a self-harm recovery forum for their help in the afterword. I think these books could be of help to young women struggling with self-image issues, but they’re also worth a library read in general.
I’m still working on the audiobook of Mary Roach’s Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers The narrator, Shelly Frasier has the perfect tone of voice for this not-so-serious work that investigates the world of the cadaver and how it is used in medical, military and safety environments. Roach writes with both humor and sensitivity - and has put a lot of research into this work, both in the library and boots-on-the-ground. For example, in the chapter dealing with decapitation, not only does she delve into the experiments performed on guillotined heads in 19th century France, but also talks with Robert J White, the doctor in charge of the first successful monkey head transplant. She was in the operating room while a body donor’s organs were being recovered and visited the Body Farm of the University of Tennessee, where donated cadavers are exposed to the elements to learn how they decompose under different conditions. I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in science and history as it relates to how we deal with what death leaves behind. Note - you must have a sense of humor and a somewhat strong stomach.
I had to interrupt my current reading of Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone because I’ve just picked up a copy of Mary Roach’s Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It is freakin’ hilarious.
BRE was fun, but the Book of Basketball has easily been the most read (and reread) book of the past few years. I’ve enjoyed it more than any non-fiction book since Cities in Civilization by Sir Peter Hall, and it has (re)awakened in me an interest in basketball that has been lost for about a decade.
Just finished off The Price of the Stars. Total junk food, but a good fun space opera romp. I’ll be going back for more of the series.
Next up is Hitch’s The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice. Ordered it from the library back when Hitchens died and it finally came in–I’d completely forgotten I’d ever requested it. A nice slim little volume, so I should have no trouble finishing it off in time.
Lots of Candles Plenty of Cake by Anna Quindlen. I normally adore Ms. Quindlen but this book mostly sucked. The problem isn’t that she’s clearly the sort of person with so much money her husband can buy her a mink coat in her early thirties. It isn’t particularly with the constant references to her second homes or her fancy Italian china or her ginormous NYC apartment. She’s rich and that’s fine. She’s a wonderful writer and she’s earned her money.
It’s with her constant attempts to pretend she’s Ms. Ordinary Mom and Working Momma. Uh no, Anna. You’re not the ordinary mom who goes back to work within three months because your family cannot survive on a single income. You’re not the working mom trying to balance daycare and career and childrearing needs and every damned else in your life. You’re sure as hell not the person trying to find some time to write that first novel or paint or get that master’s degree in social work in between cleaning the house, watching the children and working a full time because you need the damned money.
I finished Lonesome Dove. I have no problem calling it one of the best books I’ve ever read. For as long as it was, there are definitely some loose ends. But the characters were real, the dialogue was funny and the writing really puts you in that cattle drive. I highly recommend it, even if you think you don’t like stories about cowboys.
I completely agree! I am generally not a fan of westerns but am so happy I decided to give Lonesome Dove a chance. It’s really an excellent book and I don’t know if I’ve ever met anyone who’s read it who hasn’t liked it.
After completing two E.M. Forster novels ***(Howard’s End and APassage to India), I’m now 75% of the way through The Nine ***Tailors, a Lord Peter Wimsey mystery.
That’s one of my favorite Wimsey novels. I started a thread about it years ago, questioning the plausibility of the murder victim’s cause of death. (Spoilers in that thread, wait until you’ve finished the book!) Someone linked to an even older thread about change ringing that was really interesting.
Thanks for avoiding a spoiler. At this point in the book, the good news is that the stolen jewelry has been found; the bad news is that Lord Peter now realizes the murder PROBABLY wasn’t committed for the reasons he assumed, so he’s sort of back to square one.
I just got hold of the second and third books in Kevin Hearne’s Iron Druid series; Hexed and Hammered, and read them both back to back tonight. Khadaji was right upthread; they are quick reads, but good.
This book is one that I really wish I could get my Dad to read…but he doesn’t read anything but magazines and that is only occasionally. The story is so compelling and I just know that he would love it. It remains one of my go to favorites, even though it’s not the “happiest” of books!
Absolutely HATED it. If I were you I would skip it. There are millions of other enjoyable novels out there!
Another one of my favorites! She has such a great sense of humor and I loved the portion of the book about the U of Tennessee and their studies regarding decomposition. Wasn’t the word she replaced maggots with haciendas or something like that? Hilarious and truly interesting. Gross as it sounds, I think it would be fascinating to have the experiences that she has had!
Finished perusing the relevant sections of the Lonely Planet Japan guidebook for our trip next April. The trip is shaping up well. We have our flight reservations on Japan Airlines. Booked accommodation in Kyoto at a place recommended by friends. (I’ve only ever visited Kyoto as a day trip from Osaka myself, and we don’t need anything as fancy as what the wife was put up in when she attended a seminar there a couple of years ago). But Tokyo is proving a problem, as the places we’re interested in won’t accept bookings for April this far in advance. Since that is a high season for Japan due to the cherry-blossom viewing, we are a little anxious about that but expect it will all work out.
Anyway, I’ve checked some more of Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch series out of the library. First up is Angels Flight.
Just finished it this morning, and I was definitely underwhelmed by it. Don’t quite see what all the hoopla was. Even though the movie got mixed reviews, I’ll probably check it out anyway.
I’m now reading Marina and Lee, nonfiction by Priscilla Johnson McMillan about the Oswalds. Right now I feel bogged down in stuff about Marina’s childhood in Stalinist Russia; might skip ahead to the JFK-related chapters.
