Reading Recommendations and/or Reviews
 

Much like how the movie thread moves me to watch a film I might otherwise choose to miss, or the music thread has me spending more money than I can afford to spend on new tunes, I thought it would be nice to have a similar thread devoted to books. Not so much a book club discussion thread as a GET IT NOW or AVOID type of thread.

I just received my copy of No one belongs here more than you. by Miranda July, performance artist, writer and filmmaker, more widely known for her film Me, You and Everyone We Know (one of my favorites).

I read one of her short stories in the New Yorker a few months back and was completely taken with her writing. Her stories, borrowing Dave Eggers words from the back cover, are "incredibly charming, beautifully written, frequently laugh-out-loud funny, and even, a dozen or so times, profound."

http://www.amazon.com/One-Belongs-He...8827092&sr=8-1

My commuter/reading time has evaporated and so I have the same books sitting unopened on my night stand for months - so I'm still searching for a new rhythm to participate in this thread.

There is a new Murakami out, so I hope I can be recommending it shortly

Oh, I'm sorry to hear that Chris. I've not been on LJ much if you wrote aboutthe commute change, there. Good news about the new Murakami, at least.

I've been reading the same book since London. MY schedule hasn't changed THAT much? What's up with me?

Combined with my new commute and a return to fiction I've been blowing through several books a week.

The two recent more literary ones are:

Deliverance by James Dickie. The novel on which the movie was based. The phrase "squeal like a pig" does not appear in the book (though the scene does) but it is interesting to see how it changes. I haven't seen the movie in quite a while but I came away from it with a very different mood than from the book.

The Geographer's Library. Another one of those "the present connecting to some episode in the past" books that seem to be all the range. See also The Illusionist in which a contemporary man learns of his magician ancestors startling history. Or The Historian in which a scholar learns of troubling connections between her life and Vlad the Impaler. They all end up feeling a bit too gimmicky. A different version of needing a white hero in an Africa movie; apparently we need a modern protagonist in a historical novel. Also felt echoes of The Club Dumas (made into the atroticious The Ninth Gate with Johnny Depp). If you've read any of those and really liked them then you'll probably go for this one. But I liked those others as well and just am feeling kind of bored with the story telling methodology.

I just finished Fun Home by Alison Bechdel. It was a great read and I couldn't put it down.. that is until I had to go back to work!

I'm rereading the Harry Potters in preparation for book seven right now, but I've also started On Beauty. So far, quite captivating.

Disclaimer: I generally read fiction and usually don't want to think too hard, but want to be entertained.

Just finished The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian. A little bit of mystery, a little bit of historical fiction to Gatsby's era, some empathy for the main character and her obsession. And an ending that I didn't see coming and really enjoyed. I'll probably re-read this one again at some point, just to pick up some of the hints about the ending that I missed.

I've enjoyed just about everything he's written.