eh

Read another Rev. Merrily Watkins book over the weekend, The Smile of a Ghost.  Honestly, not much to say - I still enjoy the series, in as much as I'm somewhat attached to the recurring characters, or at least fond of them when they are on the page in front of me, but that's about it.  The series premise seemed unique and interesting at first, but it's getting pretty boring, and the twists and turns are pretty predictable. I think this was the sixth or so in the series, and I am sure I will get around to reading whichever other ones the library has, but it's not like I'm dying to.  Good for a T ride, though, and a rather emotionally draining family weekend.

Orange Prize for Fiction, 2010 - that I might read

I wasn't aware that the U.K. had an annual prize for fiction written by women; for more on all the books, see the March 16, 2011 slideshow in The Guardian.  For the ones I think I might read:
Lyrics Alley  Leila Aboulela

Jamrach's Menagerie  Carol Birch

The Pleasure Seekers  Tishani Doshi - maybe

The Memory of Love  Aminatta Forna - already on my list...should really get on that

The Seas  Samantha Hunt - I think I have another book by this author on the list (Invention of Everything?)

The Birth of Love  Joanna Kavenna

Great House  Nicole Krauss - have I read about this book elsewhere?

The Tiger's Wife  Tea Obreht - okay, I thought it looked intriguing when I saw it in the window of the Harvard Bookstore, and then the Times loved it (more than once), and now this...really must read it sooner rather than later

Swamplandia  Karen Russell - already on the list

The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives  Lola Shoneyin - I wish the title didn't rhyme :(

Annabel  Kathleen Winter - on the list

Also on the list: Room, by Emma Donoghue, which I still think was just amazing...

For when life seriously sucks

I really, really needed a distraction last night, which I handled in a not-totally-positive-but-fun way and by reading more of the "newest" (to me) Karin Fossum / Inspector Sejer book I picked up last Friday / finished today, He Who Fears the Wolf. It was the oldest of the ones the library had, at least the ones in English, so it was interesting going back in time, so to speak, when it comes to the characters (including Kollberg, yay!!!).  It was hard to tell, but I would guess this book was set at least ten years before The Indian Bride, so clearly a lot had happened in the lives of the main characters, Sejer and Skarre (?).  I'm not sure I think this book was as good as the one I first read (in particular, the parts where the crazy character was being all crazy got a little repetitive, I sorta skimmed), but it was just as good at pulling my mind out of my world and into Fossum's, and I needed that.  It also makes much more sense now that the series is named after Inspector Sejer, as he was both more present and more deeply drawn than in the other book. Might go grab another one later in the week or next week, but I have a stack at home and one waiting for me from deposit that I should get through, as I'm running out of floor space to pile my read and to-be-read books.

back to Norway

Finished The Indian Bride by Karin Fossum last night (once again, it kept me up too late), and it definitely lived up to its potential.  It's not a GREAT book, but it was interesting and engaging, and the characters were drawn nicely - detailed, nuanced - and the scenes were set well.  I also liked the dog.  How was I not more familiar with the Leonberger breed in general (huge and adorable)?  And the one in the book is great; I don't know why, he [Kollberg - I think] doesn't do much, but I just wanted to cuddle him...  He belongs to Inspector Sejer, who is - I guess? - the main character of the book (I wouldn't have thought so, but apparently the book is part of the Inspector Sejer Mysteries" series, so it seems likely), so maybe there will be more of him if I go track down the other books that have been translated into English??

One a more serious, or at least more literarily-minded note, I was also pleasantly surprised when the book ended without really much of a conclusion.  That is to say - we're not totally sure the person in custody on the last page is actually guilty, we don't know if someone else is going to crack and kill someone (although I think said person has already cracked, and it's just the potential killing that's in question), etc.  Some books, if they ended like that, you would think it was just so you'd buy the sequel (AHEM, Lev Grossman and The Magicians), but I don't think that's the case here.  I suppose there could be a sequel, but it felt more like Fossum had told the story she (he? must check...) wanted to tell, and ended things.  And instead of it being incredibly frustrating not knowing the answer at the end of the mystery novel (this issue came up in The Sherlockian, didn't it?), it was open-ended enough to keep me thinking after I shut the book, but still satisfied.  I wanted to mull it over more, but I didn't feel like I needed more, if that makes any sense...
Think I might run downstairs and see if they have any more in the stacks - pretty sure they did when I picked this one up - for reading this weekend.  I'll be interested to see if Sejer becomes a more prominent character; from the first Inspector Lynley novel (by Elizabeth George) I read, it was pretty clear how central he was, but in this Inspector Sejer novel, he was just one well-drawn character out of many.  I'm curious if he's a main character in the series, or simply a linking character...

Know When To Bail: Sunk Costs

Know When To Bail: Sunk Costs

So, this has nothing to do with books, or reading, but I came across it, and I think it's a really, really good lesson for me to try and learn, especially where I am right now, so this will remind me...

Books for when guys seriously suck, pt. 2

I had a...tumultuous... Sunday (very early) morning, and spent much of Sunday wanting to thow a shoe (either heavy or pointy, I was going back and forth) at a guy's head.  I wanted to read before bed, to distract myself from alternately being wrathful and a little sad (okay, mostly wrathful), and so I wouldn't go to sleep stewing, but I didn't know what to read.  I was too angry and unable to think about anything else but what a d-bag the guy had been to read something that required attention; but I didn't want to read anything remotely positive about relationships, or men in general; and I didn't think anything too light would be enough to take my mind off being treated with a complete lack of common courtesy.  But then I decided to pick back up Karin Fossum's The Indian Bride - and it was perfect! 

This entry is probably a bit premature, since I am not done with the book yet, but I have to say, it was so fantastic: I got completely caught up in the story, and almost entirely forgot how upset I was.

The book has been on my list for a while, and then I forgot about it, and then R mentioned she had picked it up to read on the plane (will need to remember to ask her how she liked it), so I remembered it again, and I am glad.  The writing style is interesting; it's SUPER expository - like, "Tom is a man.  He has blond hair and blue eyes.  He is friends with Harry.  Harry is a man with brown hair.  Tom, Harry, and their friend Dick were sitting in a cafe.  The cafe tables had red and white checked tablecloths."  I'm exaggerating, of course, but it took some getting used to.  Not sure how much of it is the author, and how much of it is the translator, but I think it's definitely the book itself, and not just the translation.  But, honestly, I can deal with lots of exposition as long as it's nice and clean and spare - I am still recovering from those silly Girl Who... books, and am delighted to know I don't need to be leary of all Scandinavian authors.  Hmm, that reminds me that I really need to get onto the Wallander books. 
Anyhow - yeah, Fossum / Indian Bride: good stuff for when guys seriously suck :)  And, based on last night, when I had cooled off, also for when you don't really care as much any more.  However, not so good for when you need to get up at 6:00 a.m. to go have breakfast with your mom before work, but can't put the book down, even though you were "only going to read for 10 minutes" in bed - I am tiiiiiiiiiiiired today!

Wow:

have I only read/finished one book in the last week?  I know I started The Indian Bride on the bus one night, and have spent a few hours before bed with something else, but still...
In any case, I DID finish Graham Moore's The Sherlockian. I'll be honest, I was disappointed.  It sounded cool (where I read about it, God knows - maybe another Harvard Bookstore newsletter), and the cover was appealing (worse, though, is the library's version, which has this enormous shiny - literally, reflects the light - red silhouette of a man in a deerstalker, and it actually hurts my eyes when the light bounces off the cover and into them just right/wrong).  It was fine - would have been decent plane reading if it had been available before my trip - but boring as sin.  And the two stories, of Arthur Conan Doyle and Bram Stoker trying to solve a murder, and a contemporary Irregular trying to solve the murder of a man who supposedly found A.C.D.'s diary from the same year, don't mesh all that well.  I am sure it is incredibly hard to do the whole two-time-periods-in-the-same-book thing, but I think they need to sort of twine around each other, not just run parallel.  And these stories don't, in my opinion.  And, really, the whole conceit of looking back in time was just waaaaay over-played - I mean, okay, a joke about how A.C.D. feels bad that Bram Stoker's silly novel about undead creatures and "Count Something-or-Other" will never amount to anything?  I get that it's not inaccurate, but it's certainly not funny either.  WE ALL GET IT.  I guess that was how I felt about a lot of the book - we get it.  It is, seriously, elementary.  Oh, well - as always, I should say (and do believe) that it's wicked easy for those that can't to criticise.  I am sure it's a delightful book, and that I couldn't do any better.  Etc.  Did make me want to go read more A.C.D. in general, and Holmes in particular.  Also learn more about Oscar Wilde.