Books in the Pile!

What's in "the Pile" these days:

The Perfect Reader Maggie Pouncey
The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains (NF)
  Nicholas Carr
Mrs. Somebody Somebody Tracy Winn
Neighborhood Watch  Cammie McGovern
The Map  Brunonia Barry
61 Hours  Lee Child
Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and Her Family's Feuds (NF)  Lyndall Gordon
Last Night in Twisted River  John Irving
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest  Stieg Larsson
The New Food Processor Bible (NF) Norene Gilletz
The Practical Naturalist (NF)  Audubon/Dorling Kindersley, publishers

(NF = non-fiction)


Now, keep in mind, this one stack of books will probaby take me several months to get through - considering I don't or can't really spend time reading until my kids are in bed.  Whenever I do manage to read during daylight hours - even for a few minutes - both the strangeness of it plus the attendant guilt that I'm not doing something "more important" get to me and I put the book down.  That, or I'm just interrupted so much that it's difficult to hold a thought.

I have started reading The Perfect Reader and The Shallows:What the Internet is Doing to our Brains.  Both are very good thus far, and Shallows has been both enlightening and intriguing as to the nature of the human brain and how it is affected/can be changed by the stuff we all do everyday. 

So, how do I go about finding good stuff to read?  Well, here is another photo:

This is a picture of the notebook I have been keeping, for the past few years.  I'm actually not sure how far this goes back!  I started this when I was still working at the library, because I would find so many books that looked good, but obviously just taking a book home doesn't necessarily mean it comes with the time to read it.  So I started keeping lists.  I also started reading two things:  "BookMarks" magazine, which my library carries and which is exclusively book reviews.  Very good magazine; I'd subscribe to it but at the moment, I'd rather save the money and use the local library.  I also read "Book Page" which is also available at the local library and is also solely reviews of books.  As I look through each publication and read the reviews I just write down the title and author of what looks interesting.

Then I go my library's website and just request a whole chunk of things at a time.  Just walking into the library and wandering around generally doesn't work, because what I have in mind to get probably isn't just on the shelf (like that Stieg Larsson book, that is never just on the shelf, it's too popular) - so then I just grab whatever.  And then the "whatever" I grabbed turns out to be poorly written and not worth my time.

So, now, I've got this whole stack of good stuff to read.  What are YOU reading these days?

Thanks for reading THIS!
Later,
Jen

Books in the Pile!

What I'm Reading These Days:

Well, I guess I should really call it, "what I'm listening to these days", as this particular book was one I did as a book-on-CD.  And I have to admit, this particular book really took me a while to finish, although it is a very good, very well-written story.  I may not even be much of a world-traveler, so I enjoy reading literary fiction which is so well-written that the reader feels like they've actually been to the location of the story.  Bangkok Haunts by John Burdett is just such a book. 



The story is set in Bangkok obviously, and the main character is Sonchai Jitpleecheep, a Royal Thai Police homicide detective.  This is Burdett's third book featuring Jitpleecheep, and in this story, his former lover Damrong is killed.  Damrong was an extremely skilled prostitute, and Sonchai learns of her death because a video of it - bluntly, a snuff film - is sent to him. 

I have to admit something here: while I am no prude, the level of, shall we say, "physicality" in this novel was a bit uncomfortable.  Not only is Sonchai the son of the owner of a gentlemen's club (where he still sometimes moonlights), but Burdett spares very few details as Sonchai investigates Damrong's death within the environment of Bangkok's prolific sex trades.  Since I was listening to the book instead of reading it, it wasn't as if I could skip through parts of it, willy-nilly - because if I did, I would have missed some of the details that are important to the story.  My "squeamish-ness" notwithstanding, Burdett's writing takes the reader directly into the Thai environment and lifestyles - the incredible heat, the Buddhist mysticism, the levels of humanity within that country, the workings of a society the economy of which seems to be based largely on prostitution.  There are even former Khmer Rouge soldiers put to work as security guards/hired killers. 

As I continued listening to the story, I realized that the highly sexual nature of this story was not a simply gratuitous tool on Burdett's part.  The entire book is, actually, somewhat of a study on the nature of human relationships on the physical level - and from a Buddhist perspective, on the spiritual level as well.  There is Sonchai, married with a pregnant wife, investigating the murder of his former lover - a prostitute who makes a living by selling her physical self.  Ultimately she is killed - but she has a spiritual agenda there, all the same.  She haunts Sonchai's physical side - while mentally, intellectually, and spiritually he resists her as much as possible so as not to bring bad luck to his unborn child.  There is Kimberly, Sonchai's FBI-agent friend, who falls in love with Sonchai's assistant - a young man inhabited by a female spirit and thus, on the verge of a sex-change operation.  Then there is of course the general topic of prostitution running throughout the novel - is it right? wrong? why do various countries allow such a large part of their economic structure depend on the practice of prostitution?  Why do men have such a need for sexual fulfillment that they would contribute to a practice which demeans women and keeps them in a level of poverty?  Is Kimberly right for not wanting Leg to go ahead with the sex-change operation - or is she wrong for bringing Western beliefs into a situation she can never really understand?  Did Sonchai really "love" Damrong - or was he addicted to what she could do for him physically? 

So, overall, I would recommend this book, as long as you are able to read it for the vivid characters and the equally vivid sense of Thailand it provides.  I'd also recommend reading it instead of listening to it; some of the passages can be skipped but that is easier to figure out if you can skim the words!

Thanks for reading-

Later,

Jen

Books in the Pile!

I just edited the "Books in the Pile" section, over there to the right.  Some of those titles had been on there for a while!

I still haven't finished reading "Uncle Tom's Cabin".....ugh.  It just hasn't been a "page-turner" for me.  I still want to finish it, but I think I would be somewhat more interested in reading about the affect/influence the book had on the whole slavery issue, and even possibly on the whole African-American/black experience in the U.S. 

I just started reading Lonesome Dove - yes, this is the book upon which the t.v. show (? or movie?) was based.  I think there was also a "Return to Lonesome Dove" which was definitely a t.v. show.  I'm not too far into it, but I already like it.  Very vivid.  It is a western, which is a genre I'm not very familiar with; it is also a really long book, so we'll see how I last with this.

You'll also notice, on that list, a few titles with an obvious working on my faith life emphasis (The Jesus I Never Knew, Women of the Bible).  Do not be scared, do not be alarmed - I am not what is stereotypically called a "Bible thumper".  I'm just in the middle of a very difficult process, called "trying to figure myself out".  And, folks, I have tried to depend only on myself, and my knowledge of myself up to this point - and it has not been successful.  I am a regular church-goer and have been my whole life.  I grew up Catholic, and B and I made the choice in 2003 to search out a church where, to put it very simply, we could both partake of Communion.  Thus we are currently attending an Episcopal church; and over the past 6+ years, whether because of the intensity of our life experiences, or because of this church specifically, or both, my faith has been greatly enriched.  I also am part of a Bible-study group which is just starting the Women of the Bible. I can already say I have learned from/been affected by this book...and we are only into week two.  All I can say is, God was there at my beginning and he'll be there when my days here are done....it is a good thing to get to know Him.  It has helped me deal with my life already.

More books later!
J.