books

2006-01-31 - 1:28 p.m.

This is for harriet.

I just finished Philip Roth's Plot against America. I read it for my book group. I think we all agreed that there was an interesting book in there, but that it had nothing to do with the plot, which we found sort of feeble. Don't you think that if there was nefarious plotting going on against an ethnic group, it would probably be the black people who got it? That's what we thought, but maybe we're wrong. It seemed a bit paranoid to me, although I certainly know Jewish people, probably of Roth's generation, who truly believe they are a target, and who knows, perhaps they are right. We really liked all the sneaking around, and the feeling like an outcast, and particularly the wierd clothing thing that went on with Roth and his friend/enemy Selden. That seemed to be the meat of the story. Also, the whole plot thing was wrapped up in a most unconvincing manner, as though Roth had grown tired of it, and now it was time to put it all away.

I also just finished Love in the Time of Cholera, which I read to be a resource to N in her paper-writing. I liked it. I'm not a great Garcia Marcos fan, but I confess that I did like the non-storiness of it. "This happened, and then this happened." And I liked the exotic location. I really liked that N liked it so much. She said it was great to read a harder book for a change, by which she meant a book you could think about. She thought it was like one big poem in that it could be taken apart and examined. That may be the first time she's actually done that to a book.

I'm halfway through that Edward Jones book -- The Unknown World - no, The Known World, which I was really liking until M wanted to read it on the plane and I was forced to give it up and haven't picked it up again since. I should, though, since I borrowed it from a friend.

I'm halfway through Case Histories by Kate Atkinson. It's not terribly deep, and she does seem to have an obsession with families gone awry, but I do like it.

I'm supposed to read The Fingersmith by Sarah Somebody or other for my book group. I will. I just don't have it yet. She wrote something called Tipping the Velvet a few years ago and was interviewed on Fresh Air. She sounded interesting.

I've got a ton of other books lying around that I've been meaning to get to but haven't. I've been knitting instead. I read 1491 which was a great discussion of what exactly was going in the New World before the Europeans came. I'm not sure how true it is, but it was very convincing.

And there you have it -

out of print - new releases

find me! - 2008-02-12
where I've gone - 2008-02-07
Where I've gone - 2008-02-05
where I've gone - 2008-02-01
New - 2008-02-01

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