I got Chris’ newsletter yesterday; he asks for pictures of people reading his book at the beach (or anywhere else for that matter). It got me thinking about my current reading state of affairs. March and April were a little discombobulated around here — too much work for a few weeks, then the stinky weather, more than one home project in the works.
Not surprisingly, my reading has been a little discombobulated as well. You all know that I am usually in the middle of a few books at once but the past several weeks have been off the charts. Instead of working my way through whatever I started, I would just pick up something that I thought suited my mood. This means that right now, I’m in the middle of nine books.
Walking the Old Road by Staci Drouillard. This is a “history” of Chippewa City and the Grand Marais Anishinaabe. I want to like this book a lot more than I actually like it. The author wanders all over and rambles with a lot of detail that is actually distracting from her topic. Unfortunately I’m listening to it on CD and the author speaks v.e.r.y. d.i.s.t.i.n.c.t.l.y and v.e.r.y s.l.o.w.l.y. so it’s taking much longer than if I had just plowed through the print.
Beautiful: the Life of Hedy Lamarr by Stephen Shearer. Quite interesting. Hedy Lamarr was incredibly intelligent and all we remember about her is how beautiful she was. She was actually the co-inventor of a radio guidance system for the Navy. Who knew?
Coyote vs Acme by Ian Frasier. Re-reading this because we talked about the author a couple of weeks ago. Funny. Very funny.
Autumn Light by Iyer Pico. This one keeps getting shuffled to the bottom of the pile. The writing is quite nice but it’s a memoir of a man helping his wife navigate the grief of losing her mother and whenever I start to pick it up I think “too sad”.
American Aristocracy by David Heymann. I’m reading this because it’s a biography of Amy Powell (and her famous family). She wrote the poem “Giver of Stars” which features in a JoJo Moyes story of the same name. I’ve read the first half really quickly because I find I’m not all the interested in her family – just her.
Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver. I’m just in the beginning of this, so hard to give any kind of synopsis, but it’s Barbara Kingsolver, so I’m pretty sure I will end up liking it a lot.
My Fine Fellow by Jennieke Cohen. This is an alternate history re-write of Pygmalion. It’s an intriguing idea but unfortunately the author is sticking way to closely to the original story, just with different characters, so it’s not feeling as fresh or original as it should.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K Dick. I picked this up because I just recently actually watched Blade Runner (I don’t know why I waited so long – but I did). It had such an ambiguous ending that I thought I’d see what the book was like. I’m only a couple of chapters in… I’m not a big Philip K Dick fan, but I think I’ll make it through.
Why Didn’t They Ask Evans by Agatha Christie. Re-reading this because I saw recently that Hugh Laurie is producing and directing another version of Christie’s work. This isn’t actually Christie’s best work by a long shot but I’m still enjoying it.
I have a couple of other books from the library on the bedstand and Chris’ book AND the Sherlock Holmes book I bought while at his signing last month. Maybe now that work has let up and the weather is improving, I can stick with just three or four and get some of them finished!
What are you reading right now?
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