Election Day is soon upon us putting into even sharper view the small avalanche of political or world events books that are invariably released at this time. I can't quite manage a single one though some seem compelling. One in particular is at least a must-check-it-out book and that's Barack Obama's The Audacity of Hope. I read an article of one of his speeches and was surprised to hear a politician speak that way.
I look over the New York Times Bestseller list and feel rather ambivalent about what's there. Not much of it looks all that good. The Memory Keeper's Daughter? Just finished it and what a soap-opera. Reading this prompted in me again the nagging question of should one finish a book no matter what, or should you just give it the heave-ho because time's short, why waste it? Well I finished it and though I wouldn't call it dreadful, it was certainly short of satisfying. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is also still on the list – I was interested in this a while back. Has anyone read this? Any thoughts or insights?
Anyway, here's what looks good out there:
Lisey's Story by Stephen King I don't like to be scared but this one is supposed to be more than just scary. A new biography, Charles Addams: A Cartoonist's Life by Linda H. Davis and they say he was kind of a strange duck himself. I wonder if the book shows that to be true, or is quirky part of the myth –building apparatus. The book looks fascinating - chock full of interesting anecdotes and such. NPR's All Things Considered featured the new Dave Eggers book called What is the What, about the Lost Boys of Sudan and his experiences in Sudan in 2003. The interview is fascinating. One last book I'm interested in is The Lay of the Land by Richard Ford. I'd never read Ford until very recently, a short story of his published in the New Yorker, and I thought it was terrific.
So what are you all reading these days? And while you're at it, do you always finish a book you've started? I've just cracked the cover on Carolyn Pankhurst's' The Dogs of Babel. I hope it's good company for the next few weeks.
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Comments: 12
I have been hearing things about Memory Keepers Daughter~ good and bad but alot about how it falls short,etc. there was alot of hype for this book and I have it at home to start.guess I'll give it a whirl,but yes, I am always torn about quitting or sticking it out. I give it the old baseball test~ iF it doesn't hit a homer before three strikes, well, thats it. Right? I have lost much of the self dicipline i had in grad school~sticking in there no matter what. With casual reading I don't think that works so well.
Reading bad or mediocre writing does make you appreciate GOOD writing though!
No. Oh heck no. Sometimes I stop and start and stop and start all over again from the beginning. It varies on the book and on the schedule of life... Speaking of life: I am anxious to read again, Vera! Until post-election I'm afraid there just isn't enough time (or brain) for me to tackle it. Might look into that "Dogs of Babel" book you've mentioned.
Currently, I'm reading The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters by Gordon Dahlquist which is, well - something completely different! Has anyone else heard of this one?
I found the book well-written, empathetic and disturbing -- she does document the most repressive cultures in the Middle East.
For our next book club we are reading "The Terrorist" by John Updike -- I guess to get a young Muslim man's point of view?
I'm trying to learn some Norwegian to counter balance my brain...
As for me, I'm just back from a vacation (yes!) in which I indulged in not one, not two, but THREE murder mysteries by British women authors. Agathie Christie, P.D. James and Dorothy Sayers. Comfort food!
Now I'm back and the book "Affluenza" caught my eye - but after flipping through it a bit, it doesn't appear to be much more than a re-worked version of "Your Money or Your Life!" I find these gratifying in that it reminds me of all the money I'm NOT spending.... Now since I haven't spent it...where did it go??
Okay, now that the election is over I'm back, baby. I'm firing up Letters of a Portuguese Nun: Uncovering the Mystery Behind a Seventeenth-Century Forbidden Love for my own reading on the bus, and re-cracking Eragon (our copy doesn't look like that...) for family reading before the movie comes out.