Books
As I’ve finished all the books you guys recommended last winter, I figured it was time for some new reading material. Next in the queue are:
- Atonement by Ian McEwan. I’ve been reading the film reviews with interest, and I noticed that most of them made a big deal about how it’s okay, but the book is SO MUCH better. It was Kevin‘s review that really sealed it for me though, so I headed over to Dymocks to pick up a copy. They had about 500 of them, and they all had Duck Face plastered on the cover.
Me: Excuse me… Do you have any copies of Atonement that DON’T have Keira Knightley on the cover?
Staff Member: Yeah, I’ve got some hidden here behind the counter.She really did. So now I’ve got it, but I’m finding it hard to make much headway. Not that it’s boring or anything; it’s just that every time I start reading it, I zonk out within ten minutes. I’ve heard there are some war scenes in it later, so I’m hoping it’ll pick up soon.
- The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke. The Snook and I both enjoyed Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, so when I saw that her next book was now available in paperback, I had to get it.
- The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. That suggestion came directly from this AskMeFi question, where someone asked for books similar to Jonathan Strange, books that are really dense with detail and often mash genres together. I don’t really know anything about this book other than it was a movie with Sean Connery (which I haven’t seen), but it was universally praised so I’m going to give it a go.
Have you read anything good lately?
5 responses
I just finished “Extremely Close & Incredibly Loud” by Jonathan Safran Foer (the guy who did “Everything Is Illuminated”)
He has a really strange writing style, but it is very addictive. I didn’t want to put it down.
Don’t know about that one in the middle, but you’re going to like the other two. The Name of the Rose is somehow both silly and intellectual, which is kinda cool. Atonement will blow you away–but it can be a bit draggy at the beginning. Everything there is important, though, and the payoff at the end is delicious and HUUUUUUGE. So good! I taught McEwan’s Saturday in my English class this fall, and that plus the movie made a lot of them go out and read Atonement afterward–haven’t heard a negative review yet! A dozen smart 16-year-olds can’t be wrong! 🙂
I’ve been pushing Atonement on my lab’s monthly book club (which, admittedly, is more of a “happy hour, oh yeah, and then a book” club) for a couple months, to no avail. Then of course, when it’s my turn to pick this month, I go with The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, but I felt like I had to, since no one else would ever go for it. I’m looking forward to it.
But in previous months we read Middlesex (the second half of which was excellent) and Kavalier and Clay (which I haven’t finished).
I’ve been trying to start Atonement for a while now, too.
I recently read “The Last Summer of the World” by Emily Mitchell. It’s about a real person, an artist/photographer who pioneered aerial intelligence in WWI. The novel moves between his war experience and his personal life in the years leading up to the war. Jeff and I both really enjoyed it. I am biased: the author is a good friend of my sister, but the book is getting good reviews from professionals as well as friends of the author. 🙂
Did you read The Time Traveler’s Wife yet? It’s a good one. I liked Atonement, but didn’t love love it. Oh, an older book I read lately and absolutely loved is I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith.