Since you’ve been gone
Hi! I’ve returned. I am a lot tanner, a little smarter (maybe?), a little more into eating meat, and very much out of love with working a boring library job. I want out of here, but that’s neither here nor there. While I was away, I did as much reading as I could, but I was perpetually crunched for time in Panama, and when I did have free time, I was so tired I almost immediately fell asleep. Hammocks, though, are so excellent for reading.
Anyway, in the last 6 weeks I read:
- Jeffrey Eugenides-Middlesex
- Junot Diaz-Brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao
- Milan Kundera-Identity
- Octavia Butler-Wild Seed
- Isabel Allende-Paula (absolutely incredible. Made me sob. On a chicken bus. In Costa Rica.)
- Louise Erdrich-Master Butchers Singing Club
- Jhumpa Lahiri-Interpreter of Maladies
- and this ninja series I borrowed from OMC that was a little tedious and made me have weird dreams. Although I read literally 1000 pages of the series, I can’t for the life of me remember what they were called.
- also I am forgetting another book that I read. My brain is GONE.
This weekend I went to Ottawa & Toronto and (OMG) I saw a moose! Actually, three of them. I’m currently reading Isabel Allende’s House of Spirits (she is my new gf) and eyeballing a couple of graphic novels stacked on my work desk. I need to get back into the spirit of school & yoga & running & reading more regularly & being social & so much more, but for now I am content to hug the dog and hunker down with Clara & my new friends in House of Spirits.
July 8th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Thank God you’re back. I am so sick of checking this blog with no updates.
July 8th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Hurrah!!! Welcome back!!!
July 10th, 2009 at 8:11 am
Please tell me what you thought of Interpreter of Maladies and Middlesex.
July 10th, 2009 at 8:26 am
Okay. I read Interpreter of Maladies in a really short period of time (it’s actually disgusting. It was like four hours or something. I hate myself.). Ordinarily, doing something like this would make every story run together in one mish-mash of gross, BUT the majority of these stories are so unique and random (random in that they all exist in one collection yet aren’t similar AT ALL) that I can remember all of them, and can report that I really liked all but one or two. I would read more of her work. I love short stories (you don’t, though, do you?) and I think Lahiri is pretty good at writing them. A lot of the characters in these stories were beautifully written, and I have nothing but the highest respect for writing like that.
Middlesex is a little epic. It took me awhile to read it (also that book is HEAVY). I HATED the Virgin Suicides, which I read in high school as an angsty suburban teen, so I was surprised when I very much enjoyed reading this book. It is weird & strange & funny & sad. There were sentences within this book that I don’t think I’ll ever forget–which I think is pretty remarkable. I would say read this book if you don’t mind reading something for long stretches of time–I usually finish books in under a week (duh) but this took me at least 2. That said, I enjoyed every minute I was reading it. Seriously, so many great stories within it.