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Thursday, July 17, 2008

Past, Present, Future

No, I'm not going to write about tenses. Not yet, anyhow. Instead, I'm just going to tell you about my recent book selections.

I just finished reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon, which you might have guessed as I recently quoted a selection from it for a Textual Inspiration.

I really enjoyed this book. I love Chabon's use of language. At times when he's describing something, it seems like he's trying to make me feel something instead of see something. That's not ground breaking, of course, but it was novel to me and has me thinking about descriptions in a different way.

The book I'm reading now is Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. I'm about 200 pages in and a little underwhelmed to be perfectly honest. Sure it moves fast, but the language is completely serviceable, and the main character spends quite a lot of time talking and brooding about her feelings. I suppose books are the medium of feelings, and in particular a first person narrative, but considering the popularity of this book, I was expecting more. So far it feels very uninspired - not any better than The Silver Kiss by Annette Curtis Klause, or In the Forests of the Night by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. I'll continue to push through, and hopefully will have a change in opinion as I continue and the plot thickens.

After Twilight my options are aplenty as usual. I have piles of unread books in my apartment. A selection that I can think of off the top of my head follows below, and if you have any recommendations from it, I'm all ears:

- Hoot by Carl Hiaasen
- Underworld by Don Delillo
- Crimson Petal and the White by Michael Faber
- Wicked by Gregory Maguire
- Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
- The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett

Any thoughts?

6 comments:

stu said...

I'd recommend Wicked, but I still haven't got round to finishing the thing. I keep getting distracted.

Justin said...

Weaveworld by Clive Barker.

Anonymous said...

The Only Good Thing Anyone Has Ever Done by Sandra Newman. Just finished reading it. I think it broke my brain. I'm dying to see what you'd think.

Unknown said...

I have nothing to recommend from your list since I haven't read any. I suggest Mirror, Mirror by Gregory Macquire which I just finished. I hope you don't mind, I'm stealing your list for my book club. ;-)

Anonymous said...

I'd recommend Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. I just finished reading it for the second time remembered why I love it so much! I'm usually not the type for sci-fi, but this book is very well written and interesting. There is also a sequal, Ender's Shadow.

Stephanie said...

Ooh, thanks for the recommendations everyone!

Randika, I have added the Sandra Newman book to my Bookins request list. Hopefully I'll get it soon and if not, I'll just pick it up at the store.

Jay, Weaveworld isn't available on Bookins so I might just have to find a used copy on my own.

Meital - I've actually read Ender's Game before and loved it! Great book! Never read the sequel though, have you? How was it?