Recently read
Dialogues : a novel of suspense / by Stephen Spignesi.
Um. Suspense? It was sort of interesting, until the OMG AND IT WAS ALL A DREAM! ending, which I didn’t see coming even though he told you it was all a dream (by way of a short story in the middle of the book where the ending was OMG IT WAS ALL A DREAM!). But it wasn’t suspenseful. 2/10
The continuity girl / by Leah McLaren.
Too predictable. Woman, mid 30s, single, wants kids, quits her job, runs into very attractive man in unexpected place, thinks he’s married, goes does something weird while looking for some sperm but no relationship, finds a jerk and a closeted gay man, then finds that attractive man isn’t married, has a kid with attractive man and gets an awesome job. Beyond that, it was fairly poorly written, very poorly edited, and had odd jumps in the POV for the first few chapters until it settled into one. Plus, too much description of BDSM photography and animal deaths for absolutely no reason. 1/10
Kafka on the shore / by Haruki Murakami ; translated from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel.
Wonderful. Just great. I don’t usually read translations because I know I’m losing something of the original. (Is this insane? Probably.) But this book was lovely and not a little weird. Murakamis other books are on my list (of books to read once I’ve read all the books — 19 — I currently have out). This was the book that calmed me down because it followed a zillion books that I was annoyed or irritated or tired by — but no, they were just not good books. 9/10
The rent collector : a novel / by B. Glen Rotchin.
I sort of love all books set in Montreal (almost all) by default, and my father is sort of a rent collector and right next to Chabanel, and of course Jewish but not observant. I liked it. I didn’t love it, something about it just missed — but very close to good. 7.5/10
The Sunne in Splendour / by Sharon Kay Penman
Yes, I am working my way through all her books. I particularly liked this — more than her others, in part because no overuse of the word “bleakly” — despite my longtime love for the Tudors, it made me rather like the Yorks and regret that they lost. Also I had no real knowledge of this period, so — and I know it’s fictionalised, thanks — it was informative, especially since two books I’ve read (The Eyre Affair, The Handless Maiden) have Richard III subplots, sort of. Maybe it’s just me being sappy, but I did an awful lot of crying during the multitude of deaths. (8.5/10)
September 17th, 2006 at 9:17 pm
FWIW - this isn’t Murakami’s best (in both mine and other’s opinons). I like A Wild Sheep Chase, The Wind up Bird Chronicle and Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. Sheep and Hard Boiled are tied for my favorites of his and proabably are both in my top 10-15 books I’ve ever read. I’ll be interested to see what other books you have of his and what you think of them…
September 17th, 2006 at 9:37 pm
Betty beat me to it. I concur with her choices. I’ve read some of his short stories, too, but none of his other work has grabbed me the way those three have.
September 18th, 2006 at 10:46 am
Well, I look forward to reading his other works. I probably overrated this one because I was SO HAPPY to finally like a book again. But still, I did enjoy it. And in a few weeks I will almost certainly get to his other books.