Books I've read recently

[mieystrapurore]

1. The Circus in Winter by Cathy Day. A collection of stories about a circus town from early 20th century to modern time America. Fascinating stories they were. I liked this one excerpt:
   
   At the college where I teach, I'm surrounded by circus people. We aren't tightrope walkers or acrobats. We don't breathe fire or swallow swords. We're gypsies, moving wherever there's work to be found. Our scrapbooks and photo albums bear witness to our vagabound lives: college years, grad school years, instructor-mill years, first-job years. In between each stage is a picture of old friends helping to fill a truck with boxes and furniture. We pitch our tents and that place becomes home for a while. We make families from colleagues and students, lovers and neighbors. And when that place is no longer working, we don't just make do. We move on to the place that's next. No place is home. Every place is home. Home is our stuff. As much as I love the Cumberland Valley at twilight, I probably won't live there forever, and this doesn't really scare me. That's how I know I'm circus people.
   
   ... It's taken me a long time to figure out one very simple thing: the world is made of hometowns. It's just as hard to live a city block in Brooklyn or a suburb of Chicago as it is to leave a small town in Indiana. And just because it was hard to leave Linden Avenue in Flatbush or the Naperville city limits or Lima doesn't mean you can't ever go back.
   
   
2. The 10pm Question by Kate de Goldi. Story of a young boy with mild anxiety disorder. It reminded me a bit of the Curious Incident of the Dog at Night, but not quite as tightly knit. Seemed the idiosyncary wasn't as pronounced, but the writing was alright.
   
   
3. The Outcast by Sadie Jones. Story of a young man who continually gets into trouble after his mother's drowning. Very much like Atonement, but more depressing because the protagonist keeps fucking himself over, lashing out at everyone. Didn't like any of the characters.