Books

One of the best things about my new job and being done with school is a little, tiny bit of free time and a little, tiny bit of space in my brain. With this new time, I have been reading a lot - and I am finding myself drawn to novels more than I have in the past. Some of these books will remain nameless, as I am not secure enough to wave the I love trashy books banner too high.

I do have two strong recommendations from the past couple of weeks. The first is Zeitoun by Dave Eggers. I am a huge fan of Eggers and highly recommended What is the What, his last book; his last two books are way more accessible than A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Zeitoun is the non-fiction novel story of Abdulraman Zeitoun, Syrian-American, Muslim, father of 4, upstanding citizen, and contractor in New Orleans, LA. This story follows his odyssey immediately before and after Katrina.

I also just read The Lovely Bones - Ariel had read it almost a year ago and told me that I should try it. I started it at 8:00 last night and drank enough coffee that I could stay up until 12:30 to finish it. Susie Salmon, the 14 year old nararrator of the story, is raped and murdered in the first few chapters, and spends the rest of the book observing her family from heaven. Her prose is sharp and clear, and I loved that her perspective on the story is suprising throughout. I felt the story sort of fell apart at the end, but overall very worthwhile.

I also think I am ready to start on the quest for my own personal reading Everest, Ulysses (Actually Ulysses might be K2, and Brothers Karamazov Everest, but never mind). I have gone through most of the other big, challenging novels, but am a little terrified of Ulysses. I read in her biography that Virginia Woolf had to try four times before she could get through page 35, and then thought it was the most amazing thing she had ever read.