Monday, October 15, 2007

What I'm reading...trying to stay up to date

A couple of weeks ago I had a mom-at-the-library night and took out several newer-than-I-usually-read books that I'd had on a list of "I've read the review, now see if I can find it." I usually read a lot of older and/or kid-appropriate books, with the hope of eventually sharing them with the Squirrelings. This time I threw caution to the October winds and picked up some more recent "grown-up stuff." Some of it I like, and some I don't; some of it makes me want to go back to Sir Walter Scott.

So far I've finished The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, and Swimming in the Monsoon Sea, by Shyam Selvadurai. Neither are young-maiden reading--sorry. The Thirteenth Tale is a page-turner (and has a fun website too) but hinges on some decidedly unsavoury plot elements; Monsoon Sea has a cool setting (Sri Lanka in 1980; the references to Olivia Newton-John and Shaun Cassidy were bang-on) but overall it wasn't my cup of chai.

Still reading: Court Lady and Country Wife, the true story of the two Percy sisters and their times (the 1600's). [Update: why does every recent biography have to have the yuckiest stuff mixed in with the rest? Seems inevitable.]

Just started: Grief Lessons: Four Plays by Euripides, translated and with commentary by Anne Carson. (Assuming this will also be fairly adult in content, but so far I'm fascinated by the introduction to "Herakles.")

And not even dipped into yet: Margaret Avison's poetry collection Momentary Dark.

I have other things I should be doing besides reading...oh yes. But every so often I need a book refuel.

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