Sunday, November 4, 2007

What I'm reading


Before we left for Belgium, I was talking to my mom about all my favorite reality tv shows (we're currently watching Kid Nation, Survivor: China and the occasional Dancing with the Stars while eagerly awaiting the 12th season of The Amazing Race). My mom made the comment to me that at least I'll have to do more reading when I move, because I won't be able to watch all these silly shows. Little did she know... not only have we found the UK version of Dancing with the Stars and the German version of Survivor on Belgian TV, but we can download all of our favorite American shows over the Internet! Even so, I have been doing quite a bit of reading lately, and to prove it, here is the first installment of a regular column entitled "What I'm reading". I've just finished Ann Patchett's latest novel, Run. I read Bel Canto a year ago, and while I appreciated the writing, I spent the whole book just waiting for everyone to die (because you knew it was going to go badly in the end). I will say right off the bat that I really don't like happy endings, so I always find books much more satisfying when they end in sorrow or ambiguity, and from the first few chapters Run gives you the feeling that it's going to be one of those. Happily though, Run has enough twists and turns that it is always hard to decide what the optimal tragic ending will be, and of course the writing is excellent.

Last books: Outlander and Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon. Just the right mix of science fiction, historical fiction and romance for a great, entertaining read!

Up next: The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. I tried to read this on the plane, but it was too sad and I didn't want to cry the whole way to Belgium so I pushed it back in my reading list.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I am currently boycotting Chapters until they sell books at par. They continue to refuse to pass along savings to their customers based on the notion that they purchased their stock well before the Canadian dollar was doing so well. If you consider that they probably have at least a 300% markup on their stock anyway, one would assume that they could pass along savings to customers or face the fact that on-line sales are going to do them in. Why would I buy a book in the shop at twice the price I'd pay on-line and furthermore have it shipped directly to my door?
Here endeth the first rant!

Jane said...

I'll send you copies of my books after I'm done with them... I always make the best choices anyways. :)

Leslie Jane Moran said...
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