Wednesday Reading
For all the book lovers out there The Morning News is hosting their annual tournament of books right now. Great reviews and discussions of the books on the lineup. Last year I found some really good books like Where'd You Go, Bernadette from the Tournament.
What did you just finish reading?
Grasshopper Jungle didn't live up to the awesomeness of its beginning, or rather it maintained the feeling of set-up and action throughout without ever bringing the novel to a real conclusion. I loved the style - the book's cross-cutting between different scenes will work very well if the promised film adaptation goes through - but found the dialogue flourishes, which started out as fun, traveled into the repetitive and bordered on annoying by the end. I was also especially disappointed that Smith never developed the female characters. Poor Shann, the female third of the love triangle Austin finds himself in, doesn't get the same attention, agency, or outright coolness that his best friend and other love interest Robbie does. It's hardly a fair fight, except that Austin starts out thinking of himself as straight. I liked that Austin refuses to choose, but that added to the feeling of all set-up/no resolution. I think it was a good book, but one that benefits from a fast read.
What are you currently reading?
I grabbed The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker from the laundry room library. It's set in 1899 New York where among the many immigrants are two magical creatures startled to find themselves in a new land. The golem was created to be a proper wife but her master died shortly after she was awakened. The jinni was trapped in what ended up being an olive oil container for nearly a thousand years and is still stuck in a human form. It's interesting as they try to understand human nature and there's histories of the Syrian and Easter European Jewish communities in New York - so far so good!
What did you just finish reading?
Grasshopper Jungle didn't live up to the awesomeness of its beginning, or rather it maintained the feeling of set-up and action throughout without ever bringing the novel to a real conclusion. I loved the style - the book's cross-cutting between different scenes will work very well if the promised film adaptation goes through - but found the dialogue flourishes, which started out as fun, traveled into the repetitive and bordered on annoying by the end. I was also especially disappointed that Smith never developed the female characters. Poor Shann, the female third of the love triangle Austin finds himself in, doesn't get the same attention, agency, or outright coolness that his best friend and other love interest Robbie does. It's hardly a fair fight, except that Austin starts out thinking of himself as straight. I liked that Austin refuses to choose, but that added to the feeling of all set-up/no resolution. I think it was a good book, but one that benefits from a fast read.
What are you currently reading?
I grabbed The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker from the laundry room library. It's set in 1899 New York where among the many immigrants are two magical creatures startled to find themselves in a new land. The golem was created to be a proper wife but her master died shortly after she was awakened. The jinni was trapped in what ended up being an olive oil container for nearly a thousand years and is still stuck in a human form. It's interesting as they try to understand human nature and there's histories of the Syrian and Easter European Jewish communities in New York - so far so good!