I always find it hard to rate and review classics. Usually they’re classics for a reason, I usually enjoy them just fine, and at the very least I appreciate them. Earlier in the year I read Middlemarch, which was wonderful and long, and I thought I should expand my Eliot horizons. Silas Marner is much shorter than Middlemarch, and a much easier read. You probably know the basics: old, miserly bachelor happens to become the caretaker of an orphan, who teaches him the True Meaning […]
Underwhelmingly Beautiful Ruins
This book came highly recommended to me by more than one friend, and I went in with high hopes. I am sure it suffered by following the superb Hild in my reading queue. But here I am a few days later and still I can only muster a “meh.” Here’s the summary: In the early 60s, in a sleepy little Italian fishing village, Pasquale dreams of upgrading his “Hotel Adequate View” to a resort along the lines of neighboring Cinque Terre. One day a beautiful American actress […]
Saint, warrior, seer, woman.
I wholeheartedly loved this book, but it took me about 100 pages to fall in love. The first bit was a slog–the names are a mouthful and many of them are very similar to each other, we’re thrown right into the plot, and I kept feeling like I was missing important things. (And I probably was…it didn’t help that in the Kindle version, the glossary and the map are way in the back and it’s impossible to go there without losing your place.) I don’t know whether I had […]
A Man and His Penguin
This is the strange little story of Viktor, an aspiring novelist in post-Soviet Kiev. He lives in a one-bedroom apartment with his pet penguin, Misha. He can’t get his stories published, but one day lands a job writing obituaries. The fact that he’s writing obituaries for people who aren’t dead yet doesn’t bother him too much–it pays the bills, keeps his fridge stocked with frozen fish for Misha, and, besides, he’s good at his job. But as you might expect, writing obituaries for the not-yet-dead in a planned […]
Lying *is* the job description.
I don’t often read thrillers, but I always enjoy David Ignatius’ writing, so I picked this one up at the suggestion of Mr. Luxury. Here’s the summary: There’s a new super-duper-secret CIA unit that is trying to buy peace with America’s enemies, specifically those in Pakistan. Young, intrepid Sophie Marx joins this super-secret unit because it gives her the chance to do spy things instead of just sit in an office in Virginia. Soon, unfortunately, their super-undercover operatives start showing up dead, and Sophie is […]
Your bangs are curled, your lashes whirled, but still the world is cruel.
This book was tough for me to rate. I didn’t really NOT like it, and the plot was good, and it was an easy read. But I have notes. I liked the plot: Vimbai, hairdresser in Harare, Zimbabwe, enjoys local fame as the best hairdresser around until an unknown (male!) hairdresser comes in and steals her thunder. Her old loyal customers are won over by this new hair magician and she, of course, is overcome with jealousy. Gradually, we learn her story: she’s a […]