I have been reading so many books lately, which is why I haven't been posting them here. Just too busy!
I just finished What is the What by Dave Eggers, which is about the Lost Boys of Sudan. It's really amazing. Even though it's a true story (about Valentino Achak Deng) it is classified as a novel--Deng's reasoning is because when he was sending information to Eggers to write the book, he couldn't be 100% sure of conversations that happened when he was a young boy. Either way, it's really sad and funny. I stayed up late last night finishing it. Also interesting is how much criticism the book got because of Eggers' style of writing. I've read A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (also by Eggers) and I didn't think that his writing style was too apparent in this one. Either way, the story is true, and very sad. Also--if you are planning on reading it and don't know anything about the Sudanese Civil War... you might want to read up on it. The book does a pretty good job of explaining it but I had to keep asking Robbie questions about it. And if you even try to comprehend Darfur in the mix... woof. It's just complicated.
Anyway. During the last week of Europe I read Love in the Time of Cholera, The Time Traveler's Wife, The Year of Magical Thinking, and Eat Pray Love. I should really expound on my feelings on all of the books but let me make it easy for you: LinToC left something to be desired (I really hated the protagonist!), TTTW was... ugh (I just can't imagine it being portrayed on-screen, yet I have this desire to see how it plays out), TYoMT was sad and good (I think it deals with a lot of the same issues that the two former books do [loss of love, real or imagined] but so much more maturely--probably because Didion is 1) older and 2) a real person), and EPL was okay. I liked it at first--compelling, funny, and engaging--but the author lost me when she started sharing too much information about her love life. I don't know. It was okay.
Anyway. Done with the blogging break. Off to apply for jobs at bookstores. (Not kidding.)
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5 comments:
TTW was way better onscreen than the book. I think it made more sense. David actually liked it, too.
I've tried starting TTTW - haven't gotten too far.
Sometime I will try again.
I will admit that I started TTTW a few years ago and I ended up just skimming the end to see what happened. It just wasn't grabbing me. I was very surprised when it got so popular, and then a movie made out of it too.
I haven't read any of the others you listed, probably because I have heard/read something about each that made me think I didn't want to spend time on it.
Karen, Year of Magical Thinking is a great audio book - for the next time you are alone in the car on a very long car ride!! (Although Jeff would like it too.)
i LOVED TTW - we read it for book club 4 years ago. in fact when i saw the movie was coming out - i re-read it. SUCH a beautiful book. A bit racy in parts, granted. but i loved the love story.
in fact bruce read it and still isn't quite sure why i like it so much.....
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