2010 Reading list #8-#12... oh so sad
I refuse to believe that I read only 12 books in 2010. That's not true... that's impossible!! I think the thing is, I dip into other books on history, literature, and (new this year!) pregnancy & childbirth. So I don't really count those as "read" because I didn't read them start to finish, but they do take up a lot of my reading time.
Writing reviews of the last books I read has been on my to-do list for ages. The only way to get this done is to do mini-reviews and say, good enough for horseshoes and hand grenades. So here goes:
#8: Passage by Connie Willis: Oh Connie. You write good speculative fiction, but YOU NEED AN EDITOR. Passage is about a researcher who studies Near-Death Experiences and is trying to figure out how to induce them in subjects (without bringing them to the brink of death, naturally) by fiddling with their brains, essentially. She discovers some weird commonalities that bring her to some startling revelations about the nature of the near-death experience. Let's just say if you're interested in the sinking of really famous ships that happened about a century ago (ahem, Lisa Jackson-Wilson) this book might be worth your time. The problem is, it's a 776 page book that really should have been about 400. Darrin and I have noticed this about Connie Willis and it saddens us. I still think Doomsday Book is her best work, but there are a couple of others Darrin says I need to read that are equally good. What keeps me wanting to read her is that unlike many other writers of science fiction and speculative fiction, her writing style doesn't make me want to throw the book across the room. It's actually decent writing. But I do hate it when I find myself slogging through to the end of a book that needed judicious editing.
#9: Enter: the relief that is Ann Patchett! This time, Bel Canto. My, she is a marvelous author. I love everything I've read by her. This is such a bizarre story about a lengthy hostage-taking at a fancy diplomats' reception in an unnamed South American country. Since it's Ann Patchett, I developed instant interest and investment in her many wonderfully drawn characters -- the hostage-takers included. It's romantic, meditative, devastating and uplifting.
Wonderful quotations: a priest finding himself a little TOO moved by certain operas, and trying find a way to enjoy the music without treading too close to temptation: "When he suffered from any feelings of questionable discomfort, he simply rectified the situation by not reading the libretti. He had studied Latin in seminary, but he refused to make the connection to Italian. Tchaikovsky was especially good in these cases, as Russian escaped him completely. Sadly, there were times when the lust came through the music rather than the words. Having no understanding of French did not keep a priest safe from Carmen. Carmen gave him dreams." p. 52-3 I love it! I highly recommend Bel Canto.
#10: Dune by Frank Herbert. One I've been meaning to read for a long time, in the same way I meant to read The Lord of the Rings for a long time. But I enjoyed Dune more (not quite as much of a slog, for one thing). I'm a sucker for socio-political and cultural sci-fi. That is the *heart* of sci-fi to me, rather than endless discussion of wild and wacky technologies. Dune also has the virtue of being reasonably well-written, and a good dose of philosophy to go along with it. I have been told that the best thing I can do is not read the sequels. Done and done!
#11: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I'd love to tell you this is a re-read, but it's NOT! I know! I must have watched the BBC miniseries about a half a dozen times, but never read the book. Turns out the BBC series is ridiculously faithful to the book, which is a delight. I enjoyed the wonderful turns of phrases and Elizabeth's wry perception as much in print as I did on screen. What can I say? There's really nothing to criticize here.
#12: The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt. This was my choice for my book club with a few friends. A weird, weird choice about a precocious (to put it mildly) boy on a search for his father. I don't really know how to describe this book; that and I was pushing through it while in the fog of morning sickness. But I enjoyed the classical allusions tremendously (since the boy is being led by his mother through the classics, Ancient Greek, Japanese etc). My favourite moment of the book really came at the beginning, as the mother describes being in graduate school and slogging slowly and painfully through a manuscript in German only to find after 50 pages and an excruciating process of translation that the entire argument is total crap. I wanted to laugh. I'm not sure there was ever a scholarly work in German that I cared about enough to slog through the German. Anyway, it's a bizarre style of narrative and actually a well-received first novel.
My first book of 2011 is a reread: The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood. Not her best... as I recall, the ending is lame. But it's also very funny and written as well as anything else I've read by her. Which makes me think: I need to read more by her, because I'm painfully behind... I think the last thing of hers I read was Alias Grace (if you don't count 1/2 of Payback, her Massey Lectures opus).