Listened to Pat Barker's book Border Crossing, 2002, and thought it was perceptive. Someone wrote that they thought it was her best non-Ghost-Road book and I agree. I haven't thought her books, other than that great triology, have been so good but this one tackles a child killer and the people around him and is very good. Interesting book.
Reading the The Room by Emma Donoghue, 2010, and it has been hard to make myself read it. It's hard to read about someone in such an abused and cloisted situation. Her kid perspective is great though. I will keep reading.
Really like What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn, 2008. Switching between 1984 and 2003, about a little girl who goes missing after starting up her own detective agency. It's set mostly in a huge mall, with very believable characters you want to get to know.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Saturday, October 23, 2010
books
Listened to Jonathan Franzen's Freedom, 2010. The narrator was a bit grating and the story too long and the characters almost completely unlikable but he can write a good book. And timely, our planet heading into an overpopulated, polluted, navel-staring state - he brings it all in. Thank god my cats are indoor cats.
Per Petterson, I Curse the River of Time , 2010. I liked Out Stealing Horses a lot better, but this is a good book. His characters I like, he's gentle with his flawed people.
Curtains, Adventures in an Undertaker-in-Training, 2010 by Tom Jokinen is very good. It's a revelation, what happens to us in those places, and interesting to read about the state of the business. Good writer, very interesting book.
Per Petterson, I Curse the River of Time , 2010. I liked Out Stealing Horses a lot better, but this is a good book. His characters I like, he's gentle with his flawed people.
Curtains, Adventures in an Undertaker-in-Training, 2010 by Tom Jokinen is very good. It's a revelation, what happens to us in those places, and interesting to read about the state of the business. Good writer, very interesting book.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Books - two mysteries, two novels
Murderous Proession by Ariana Franklin, 2010. It's good but I am just not as interested in it as her first books. Seems to be how several series are affecting me these days. There are just too many other books I'd rather be reading. It's a good read, just not great.
I am really enjoying Emma Donoghue's Landing, 2007. Likable, interesting characters, from Dublin or from rural Ontario. She tells a good story. Looking forward to reading Room, up for the Booker, although I often hate those Booker books.
Generosity by Richard Powers, 2009. Interesting book, he keeps switching perspectives. Whose voice are we listening to? An off stage writer, the main character who is a writer teaching a writing class? Is happiness in our genetic code, to be manipulated?
Once a Spy by Keith Thompson, 2010. Charlie finds his father, Drummond, in the thoes of Alzheimer's, but then finds out he was a spy. A mad chase ensues, bodies flying, a wild tale. Not a great book but the humour around Alzheimer's is good.
I am really enjoying Emma Donoghue's Landing, 2007. Likable, interesting characters, from Dublin or from rural Ontario. She tells a good story. Looking forward to reading Room, up for the Booker, although I often hate those Booker books.
Generosity by Richard Powers, 2009. Interesting book, he keeps switching perspectives. Whose voice are we listening to? An off stage writer, the main character who is a writer teaching a writing class? Is happiness in our genetic code, to be manipulated?
Once a Spy by Keith Thompson, 2010. Charlie finds his father, Drummond, in the thoes of Alzheimer's, but then finds out he was a spy. A mad chase ensues, bodies flying, a wild tale. Not a great book but the humour around Alzheimer's is good.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Books
My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult, 2009. Good, but hard to hear about the medical stuff. Believable characters. Didn't like the ending, needlessly melodramatic, but the book is worth reading.
The Past is a Foreign Country by Gianrico Carofiglio, 2010. I have really liked his other 3 books, mysteries set in Italy, this one is different. A bit dry, hard to connect with the main character, but it's good.
The Good Parents: A Novel, 2009, by Joan London is good. Nearly finished it, Australian writer. Moves around in time in the lives of a family of characters. She writes well.
The Past is a Foreign Country by Gianrico Carofiglio, 2010. I have really liked his other 3 books, mysteries set in Italy, this one is different. A bit dry, hard to connect with the main character, but it's good.
The Good Parents: A Novel, 2009, by Joan London is good. Nearly finished it, Australian writer. Moves around in time in the lives of a family of characters. She writes well.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
summer books
Tana French, Faithful Place, July 2010. First book read on an iPad. It's good but I think I liked her other two books better. Still, a good mystery, but I get tired of reading about drunks and the fallouts from alcohol.
Listened to Stone's Fall by Iain Pears, June 2010, in the car. Very long book. Would have preferred the print version, needed to go back and check dates and can't do that with the audio book. He's a good story teller though, interesting to move backwards in chunks in time. The prologue is set in 1951 and the first part is set in 1909, the second in 1891, and the last in 1867. Good plot, interesting characters, he keeps the question of Stone's Fall running in the background no matter which tale he is side-tracked on.
I am half way through David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet June 2010, and like it very much. I know nothing of the Dutch East India Company, nothing of Japan's history at all so it's interesting to read about. Good writer. Novel is set in 1799, on the island of Dejima in Nagasaki Bay. The Dutch East India Company is the sole trading point between Europe and the isolationist Japanese and Jacob de Zoet is a clerk given the task of finding corruption.
The Betrayal by Helen Dunmore, 2010, is on the Booker long list and I was inspired to read it because it's the only book on the list that looked interesting, or approachable, and Ian Rankin mentioned in a tweet that he had not read one of the long list Booker books. Me either, until now. This one is good. Set in 1952 in Leningrad, tells the story of the mobster government dominating everyone's lives. Andrei, a young hospital doctor and Anna, a nursery school teacher, are trying to live after nearly starving through the war. Good characters, good book.
Listened to Stone's Fall by Iain Pears, June 2010, in the car. Very long book. Would have preferred the print version, needed to go back and check dates and can't do that with the audio book. He's a good story teller though, interesting to move backwards in chunks in time. The prologue is set in 1951 and the first part is set in 1909, the second in 1891, and the last in 1867. Good plot, interesting characters, he keeps the question of Stone's Fall running in the background no matter which tale he is side-tracked on.
I am half way through David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet June 2010, and like it very much. I know nothing of the Dutch East India Company, nothing of Japan's history at all so it's interesting to read about. Good writer. Novel is set in 1799, on the island of Dejima in Nagasaki Bay. The Dutch East India Company is the sole trading point between Europe and the isolationist Japanese and Jacob de Zoet is a clerk given the task of finding corruption.
The Betrayal by Helen Dunmore, 2010, is on the Booker long list and I was inspired to read it because it's the only book on the list that looked interesting, or approachable, and Ian Rankin mentioned in a tweet that he had not read one of the long list Booker books. Me either, until now. This one is good. Set in 1952 in Leningrad, tells the story of the mobster government dominating everyone's lives. Andrei, a young hospital doctor and Anna, a nursery school teacher, are trying to live after nearly starving through the war. Good characters, good book.
Monday, August 9, 2010
green cardigan
green alpaca mitt
blue sock, favorite Wendy pattern
Blue EZ Sweater
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