I've not posted in a few days because I haven't finished anything recently. I'm working on Gain and getting towards the end of it. There's two story threads going throughout, one about a woman in modern-day Illinois with ovarian cancer and how she and her family are dealing with it, the other (and generally more interesting to me) about the rise of a large multinational corporation from a small company in the early 1800's.

One reason I've avoided really reviewing books I read is that I never know how much is too much to give away. When I start a book sometimes I like to know next to nothing about it. If I haven't heard of the author, I'm more likely to base a purchase on whether the first paragraph or two grabs me than I am from reading the blurb on the back. I guess in some cases writing style influences me more than specific genre. I bought a couple of books by Haynes Johnson recently purely based on hearing him speak on NPR. They're both about American politics which generally doesn't interest me at all, but I'm looking forward to reading them.
posted by kristin at 10:29 AM

I finished The Land of Laughs and did like it, and would recommend it. Carroll's one of those authors I'll probably start buying random copies of books from and give them to friends and say "read this." I think I like them because there's something about his writing style that compels me to (I'm not sure what that is though) and because they straddle the line between realistic and fantastic. There's always something not quite normal about his books, but he leads you there gradually.

While I was eating dinner I started reading Replay by Ken Grimwood since it's my current carry-around-in-my-purse book. Odd to have a novel start out with the main character's death, but not a bad read so far.

I grabbed Gain by Richard Powers off of the stack to start next, but only read a single page before crashing last night so I might change my mind later.
posted by kristin at 10:34 AM

I'm definitely enjoying The Land of Laughs. I'll probably finish it tonight. I'm not sure what I'll start next, but I'm pretty sure it won't be another Jonathan Carroll book just yet. I need to continue to space them out.
posted by kristin at 3:02 PM

I finished The Architect of Ruin last night. I'm really not sure what to think of it. I don't think I understood it that well. That would require a reread, but I'm not up for that at this point. The other book I'd read by Rosendorfer (Letters Back from Ancient China) was a much easier read.

The book starts out on a train with an unusual chance encounter, but is the rest of it a flashback? a dream? Within that dream how did he get back to the lake? How many of the people were real? Am I supposed to try to understand it, or should I just accept all of the short stories caught up within the "main" story as separate stories? I just did a websearch on "Architect of Ruins" and only found 29 hits, most of which were links to amazon (either directly or indirectly). Perhaps there's some discussion somewhere about it in German, but I don't think I've got quite enough interest in what other people thought to track it down and have it translated. Ah well. I'll chalk that one up to leaving me confused.

I started Jonathan Carroll's The Land of Laughs. It should be a much faster, easier, and more enjoyable read.
posted by kristin at 9:34 AM

Today's arrivals from amazon:
Philip Pullman - Dark Materials Trilogy
Paul Di Filippo - A Mouthful of Tongues
Karl Schroeder - Permanence
The Complete Stories of Evelyn Waugh
Jean Auel - The Shelters of Stone
Lois McMaster Bujold - Diplomatic Immunity

Now I just need to read these before I order more. (Often easier said than done.)

I'm still working on The Architect of Ruins but did get further last night.
posted by kristin at 5:52 PM

Oh, and just by the way, I should mention that I was inspired to do this by running into a couple of other people's logs. I've been meaning to force myself to write something about what I read anyhow, but hadn't had much luck with trying to specifically create reviews or anything about each thing I've read to link off of my books I've read this year page.
posted by kristin at 11:52 PM

I haven't read anything (other than street signs and a menu) since I last posted, but I did have a trip to Powells so I figured I'd post about books I'd purchased as well.

from Powells:
Love is Strange edited by Richard Glyn Jones
Divided We Fall by Haynes Johnson
The Best of Times: America in the Clinton Years by Haynes Johnson

arrived today from amazon:
Maureen Birnbaum, Barbarian Swordsperson by George Alec Effinger
50 Simple Things You Can Do to Improve Your Personal Finances by Ilyce R. Glink

I heard Johnson speak on NPR the other night and decided if he was that good of a speaker he'd probably be a good speaker as well, so I wandered into the purple room, which I rarely visit, to check out some of his stuff.
posted by kristin at 11:10 PM

I'm not sure if blogger is really want I want to use to create my book log, but I'm going to give it a shot for now.

I finished Cry the Beloved Country on the way home from Seattle yesterday (I needed to stop staring at the road so stopped at a rest area and read for awhile). It's a great book and I really wish I'd read it when I bought it 12 or so years ago. I should start keeping track of when I buy things so when embarassing things like this happen I'll know about it. Then again, just vaguely knowing I've had it a long time might be a better thing.

Hopefully tonight I can finish The Architect of Ruins since I've been working on it for awhile. I'm enjoying it and yet I'm not. It's not at all a fast read.
posted by kristin at 4:18 PM