September 11, 2007

Recent Reads

Vacations give me a chance to wallow in my reading, and a couple of books I've ingested lately are:

1. The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
My book club book for August. I absolutely loved this book. Desai's writing is lyrical and non-linear. Her story of the various losses that impact her characters is told with gentle empathy. The loss of love, family, culture, faith, roots, etc. Simply brilliantly done.
This is not an easy book to read. I was not able to simply blow through it. I found that I had to take pauses every several chapters to let it all sink in.

2. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
Another book I loved. Have you ever read a book sparingly, and slowly, so as not to finish it too fast? This was one of those books for me. I was grabbed by the first line. And oh what beautiful language. I loved the characters and was not prepared for the ending. Simply delightful.

Isn't life grand when you are surrounded by wonderful reads? I so agree with the quote " a reader never goes to bed alone."

1 comment:

VirtualDinnerPartner said...

Hi Elizabeth!
Thought I'd stop by to read and get caught up. I loved 13th Tale too! What an odd story, and a wonderful mystery. What redemption in the end! I've passed it to several people and they have loved it too. Guess it was all those years of teaching literature that helped the author cook up such a great story.

Annie Proulx was a prolific reader too, and was in her 50's before she started writing. Lots to be said for reading! Bet you could cook up some good stories yourself.

Best to you! Mary