I guess she [Oprah] does do them still. I thought she had stopped.
She did stop. She recently started again, although differently. I never was involved with the Oprah stuff, although she did provide quite a boost for libraries.
Anna Karenina
is a wonderful book, though. It's long, but absorbing. It would qualify for a beach book if one were spending the whole summer at the beach. I imagine that the translation would make a difference. I read it for college, but it was one of my "fun" books, unlike much of the other Russian fiction.
Brothers Karamazov
anyone? Fascinating, but depressing as hell.
12 ANNA KARENINA, by Leo Tolstoy.
13 *THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES, by Sue Monk Kidd.
I've read these, although AK was way back in college (and in translation). I remember AK being suprisingly soap-opera-ish, in a good way. There was a lot of concern with Anna's mental and emotional states, and with her relationships, and once I bought into caring about them the book pretty much flew by.
The Secret Life of Bees is pretty good. It's set in the 1960s, in the US southeast. There is a Perky White Girl who learns the True Meaning of Life through Friendship with People of Color in the Midst of the the Civil Rights Movement. But once I got past the clichés I found the secondary characters interesting and the plot pretty good. There were a couple of places where the author could have taken an easy way out and didn't.
Michael Chabon's children's book Summerland
I'm really embarassed to admit that, though I bought Summerland in November (it's still on my TBR pile), I didn't realize until right this moment that it's a children's book. I mean, that doesn't diminish my eagerness to read it -- I love children's books. But I guess I thought that, since it was such a big book, it had to be a big-people book.
But I guess I thought that, since it was such a big book, it had to be a big-people book.
You know I don't usually make much of a distinction and all it says on the cover is that it's "A NOVEL" but the publisher is "Hyperion Books for Children." And i thought i remembered it written about as a children's book.
I finished Kavalier & Clay last night. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The only thing that I wondered was why didn't Joe
go back to Prague after the war to see if anyone made it? Or to just see his homeland again?
I thought he would have, especially since
they didn't address his mother dying. It's pretty safe to assume she died in one of the camps but you'd think he'd go over and try to get some closure on it.
I'm getting my book signed by Chabon tomorrow at ComiCon!
I didn't much care for
Summerland,
despite my recent conversion experience into the cult of baseball. It was leisurely and had big pointy arrows of metaphoric importance, as a children's book often has, but it also felt flabby, and then rushed at the 2/3 mark, as if someone had been playing a videotape on slow for 20 minutes and then fast-forwarded suddenly to catch back up. Not a bad book, and I think children who like baseball would enjoy it, but it had flaws.
Doomsday Book
is a gigantic downer. I tell everyone this, because, just as I was totally flabbergasted the first time I saw Connie Willis do farce, a lot of people seem to be totally flabbergasted watching her do gutwrenching unpleasantness. Fair warning, although DB is also a good introduction point to "Fire Watch", probably the best thing she ever wrote (a novella), which is neither farce nor unpleasantness.
So jealous of GC, but I met Sherman Alexie so I do have a Hot Arty Writer Story. But still jealous.
I've not read anything else by Connie Willis so I have no expectations.
gutwrenching unpleasantness
Ah sounds like a lovely summer read for me!
So jealous of GC, but I met Sherman Alexie so I do have a Hot Arty Writer Story. But still jealous.
I think I mentioned a ways up thread that I heard Chabon speak this spring at the DCJCC and got my K&C signed. He's really charming.
