Filed under: Books | Tags: Ann Patchett, Chuck Palinuk, Harry Potter, Madeline L'Engle, Manil Suri, McCall
A pretty lackluster reading month. Two titles really stood out, but most of what I read was stuff I wouldn’t have normally picked up, but the last teachers in my apartment were kind enough to leave an entire stack of books behind. Maybe luck isn’t as bad as it seems. 😉
The Sunday Philosophy Club
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6)
The Magician’s Assistant
I don’t know how to explain it, but there was something about this book that was both engaging, yet devoid of life. As I was reading, I enjoyed the story, I was compelled to keep reading, but in my head the story viewed flat, like a movie on a banged up old screen. It is one of Patchett’s earlier works, and although not of the quality of Bel Canto, the premise was interesting. A magician’s assistant marries her magician, who she has been madly in love with for twenty years even though he is clearly gay, and he and his lover die of an unnamed, but identifiable disease soon after. She discovers that everything he told her about his younger life in their twenty years of friendship is a lie, and pursues his real family for answers to who her husband really was.
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America
The Death of Vishnu – Manil Suri
Fight Club
I think the only reason I enjoyed this book is because I’m the only American under 35 who has never seen the movie. Interesting, disturbing, great twists, and can be read in it’s entirety on the subway ride from Anguk to Bupyeong Market.
Many Waters
Filed under: Books, Buddhism, Peace, War | Tags: Ani Pachen, Diane Ackerman, Harry Potter, Katherine Dunn, Namkhai Norbu, Philip Gourevitch, Shambala Sun, T.C. Boyle
It was a slow reading month, I didn’t quite make it to thirteen, so I added a couple of magazines. Lots of moving around, and very little sitting still.
The Women – See my full review.
The Zookeeper’s Wife — Fantastic hour long interview with Diane Ackerman about the novel.
Short excerpts from Gourevitch at the Pen Festival of authors:
Terry Tempest Williams reads the article she wrote for Orion Magazine regarding her trip to Rwanda to help build a mosaic memorial.
Geek Love Nominee for the National Book Award, this is a disturbing tale of a carnival family that attempts to engineer “freaks” with the use of drugs and poisons. All of their children are deformed in some way and we watch them grow up and manipulate each other. Interview with the author at Wired for Books.
Sorrow Mountain A wonderful book about Ani Pachen’s childhood in rural Tibet, how her life changed after the invasion of the Chinese army, and her 21 years in prison. She tells her story without resentment, but in attempt to make the world understand how her spiritual practice sustained her. She recently died in Dharamsala, but here is a nice piece in her honor.
Shambala Sun Magazine
For all the reading I’ve done, I’ve never bothered to pick up the Harry Potter series. I’m in Maine visiting my mother right now, and she had this inviting, hardcover, texturally interesting complete set sitting on her floor. I picked up the first one, and am half way through number 4 with no break at all. Highly entertaining, now I see what all the hype was about.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
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Previous months reading lists: January , February, March
