In case some of you kind, devout readers are wondering why I haven't posted lately, it's simply because I'm not reading anything new. I reread Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince while we were waiting on our furniture, and now I'm rereading the Abhorsen trilogy by Garth Nix. All are thoroughly enjoyable the second time around, and I didn't cry nearly as much at the end of HP6 this time.
What's on my summer reading list? Nothing in particular. I checked out Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, so hopefully I'll get around to it before it's due. On the lighter side, I happily stumbled upon Whales on Stilts! by M.T. Anderson at the library and couldn't resist the wacky cover. Ickie was sitting out on the porch guffawing as he read it just now, so it appears that Anderson is just as talented at campy humor as he is with serious SciFi (Feed) and historical drama (Octavian Nothing).
I'm also hoping Water for Elephants will soon be returned to the local library, as I've seen many positive reviews of it, and I suspect summer is an appropriate time to read about carnies. Those colorful freaks seem more summer-worthy than winter-esque, although I think that devilish circus in Something Wicked This Way Comes came around in the fall. (Eeek. Seriously, Disney and Ray Bradbury? Explain.) Anyhoo, I recommend that you avoid the tatoo-and-deformity-bedecked carnies for the Independence Day holiday and go see Ratatouille instead, which I think is my personal favorite of the Pixar movies thus far. That's not just because I'm a bit of a foodie, it's also because it's a really sweet, clever movie.
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2 comments:
So your furniture must have arrived early, if you were waiting _on_ it :)
Scott
Beth, did you ever read The Dark Is Rising series by Susan Cooper? I ask, because I just read a review of what they've done to film the titular second book, and it's a genuine travesty.
Let me know what you think about the Ishiguro; I enjoyed it, but it's a subtle book, and I know some people who didn't like it at all. IMO, it feels somewhat like an anime or manga: it's very character-driven, though it may not seem so; the plot unfolds slowly, even oppressively, and not everything is answered or wrapped up neatly at the end. (We Western readers tend to find that harder to live with, I think. It's less Zen. Or maybe that's an especially American preference.)
I picked Octavian Nothing for the August book club reading, but that's based purely on our discussions about it while in SB. I haven't started it yet; I've been trying to finish re-reading the HP series. It's been slow going with Book 5. OotP makes my heart hurt all over again.
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