Saturday, October 27, 2012

What I'm (Not) Reading

Just a quick entry. Yes, I am reading something:
  • Q & A - the book on which the movie Slumdog Millionaire is based. It's good! I like it! I'm taking my time because I have a batman costume to sew for my kid.
  • the Yellow Birds - a novel about the Iraq war by a veteran. The words are like poetry and I wonder if the whole thing will be a sort of stream of consciousness or if maybe I was asleep when I was reading the first chapter. 
What I am not reading (otherwise known as new books that came in and I'm trying to increase my recall of the authors and title/subject matter to help people choose a book):
  • Two books about Native Americans. The first about the Iroquois of the 1400s titled People of the Black Sun and the final installment of the People of the Longhouse series. Written by a husband/wife pair of archeologists. My first thought is that people who liked the Clan of the Cave Bear series might like this, but novelist has Mercedes Lackey, James Alexander Thom's Follow the River and Bernard Cornwell- mostly for the fantastical elements, but maybe b/c the main character of PotBS turns out to be a prophet and there may be some spiritual/fantasy elements. The second NA book is set in modern day and written by Louise Erdrich and is titled the Round House. The basic premise is a boy's mother is attacked and he starts an investigation of what happened when tribal justice just takes too long.
  • I also didn't read Mitch Albom's the Time Keeper where father time must teach some people the true meaning of Christmas (no, wait, time), in order to save himself.
  • I did read a passage from somewhere in the middle of Alexander McCall Smith's The Uncommon Appeal of Clouds- something to do with projectile vomiting that was really funny in a debased way, but then unexpectedly turned to a touching moment between two characters. It made me want to read it. Instead, I busted reader's advisory on my mom and will let her tell me all about it.
  • I rolled my eyes at the guy has girl, guy loses girl, guy meets up with girl again later in life as they work to save the local mom and pop bookstore romance The Bridge by Kingsbury (why can't they just figure it out the first time around and spare everybody the grief?), however, the girl attracted to bad boys in me was interested in Phillips' The Great Escape, where the perfect girl adopted by her perfect ex-president of the United States mom leaves the perfect marriage to the perfect guy and hops on the back of a motorcycle of a not-so-perfect friend of the groom.

1 comment:

Superbrarian said...

Just a follow up- when I was writing this up, I dismissed the Round House with a brief summary sentence. Since then, I read an interview with the author in the BookPage publication and found that she had some personal themes- especially the desire children feel to help their parents when their parents are going through a painful event- based on her personal experience of being diagnosed with cancer and watching her children around her. I was impressed at the thoughtfulness of the themes she used the mystery book to explore.