This is one of the books I'm reading at the moment, I'll be done with it this evening, so I'm going to give you the heads up on it. Barring it having a horrible ending, this is the best book Stephanie Meyer has written. It blows the Twilight series to smithereens. Not only are the characters less annoying, and therefore easier to connect to, but the writing is sharper, crisper, less useless repetition, and much more inventiveness. It is about our world in the near future when we've been taken over by an alien race, and our bodies are given hosts. The main character, Wanderer, is inserted into a host, who's love for another free human keeps her from giving in completely to Wanderer. The two, trying to coexist in a body together, begin to change each other, and thus the course of humanity. A good read.
I'm also currently reading all of these. Crime and Punishment is not impressing me as much as a classic should. The Plague? Well suffice it to say I've never been fond of Kamus, and this is no exception. The Girls of Riyadh is a much more interesting read, telling of the lives of 4 young women coping with life in the Saudi Capital and being women who straddle an ancient faith and culture, and the modern sensibilities of their world.
I also have had the pleasure of reading not one, but two, Alexander McCall Smith novels. The Miracle at Speedy Motors was a lovely installment in the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. Precious Ramotswe is as wise and lovely, and traditionally built, as ever. And even though the Tiny White Van may be on it's last legs, this series has much still in the way of relationships and Botswana left to mine. It was a breath of fresh air, especially as read aloud by Lizette Lecat. She creates the lilt and the accent of each character. I feel as If I could turn a corner and be on the Tklokwen Rd.
44 Scotland Street was quite a different thing entirely. What was so unique about this novel was that it was originally written as a serial novel, literally written day by day for publishing in a newspaper, and subsequently had to have things happen in each 'episode' that kept you hungry for more, and ready to come back the next day. I was very taken by the little boy Bertie, and the Winking Dog. I've already ordered the next in the series from my Library. Good solid, and deep stuff. See Pop Culture and bite sized media doesn't have to be all bad.
These two books, the last in the Twilight Saga series, were finished a long time ago, and I blogged about it here where I complained about the lack of good editing now a-days. Truth be told, I didn't like then ending to Breaking Dawn. I thought it wussed out in a major way. I did, however, like Bella better in it than I did in any other book. I felt bad for Jacob (who I still think is the better man/mythical creature) and for the record , Angel (of BTVS , Angel, and the Whedon-verse) could kick his ass, and it would be a good thing if it happened.
For the Reading for Life group I led this summer I re-read Kite Runner and was very impressed with it yet again. Sparse, harsh, and yet rich with emotion and life. We also read Persepolis in that group. It is a book I would highly recommend. It is a graphic novel, and that brings such life to this autobiographical story of a girl growing up in Iran before and during the revolution. For one of the girls in that group, my new neighbor KhxKairi (check out her interesting post on the dress code at her HS), I also read Wuthering Heights. Let me first off say that not even the incredibly talent Juliet Stevenson could fully redeem this book for me with her accurate and impassioned reading. The Bronte Sisters have some serious issues. This book was depressing, heartbreaking, and above all SELFISH. Every person in this book acted willfully selfishly and it hurt everyone, no one was happy, no one had a good life. I was not impressed the last time I read it, more so this time. Self serving love is not better than no love. It just isn't. It causes more pain than good.
Last but not least were these two. Wicked Lovely is the tale of an unlikely Fairy queen to be, and her fear of the Fae. It has a lot of wrestling with fate, and the problem of destiny in it. However I was not impressed with this book because it was marketed to teens, and had underage drinking and drug use in it (in a gratuitous sense, not in a realistic sense). Thematically it was a little older than teen fiction, and was very sexualized as well. It was a gripping read, but way too dark for younger readers. Belle de Jour was everything it claimed to be. A romp in the life of a young professional woman, who became, well, a professional, I enjoyed every lascivious bit of it. However, navel gazing as to why a prostitute has a hard time keeping a boyfriend is a little to ridiculous. I get that you made your choice, Belle, and enjoy it, most of the time, but don't whine when you suffer the natural consequences. For most of us, being committed to a woman who sells herself to other men, and women, sometimes at the same time, is going to be outside of the realm of possibility, and it has nothing to do with rewriting the definition of faithfulness.
Ok, so a good collection. I'm actually working on a bunch of non fiction at the moment. Yay reading.
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