As I have written about before, one of my goals for the year was to read as many books or pages as I did in 2010, 126 or 31,358 respectively. While I am still clinging to hope that I can make the pages goal happen (7,361 pages to read during the final 35 days of the year), I think the books won’t happen unless I head into the library and do some damage to the picture book section (48 books left to read). Although thankfully, I finally made it to the top of the holds list at the library for the most recent Game of Throne book, which totals 1,367 pages, so that should help bump up my numbers.
Two weeks ago I wrote a little bit about both Game of Thrones and The Magicians. So I thought today I would include little snippets about several other books that I have read recently and enjoyed:
Eat, Pray, Love, the famous memoir by Elizabeth Gilbert of her year spent eating in Italy, meditating in India and finding love in Bali, wasn’t high on the list of books I thought I would enjoy reading. Wary of the some of the critiques I had heard of it in regards to the privilege Gilbert demonstrates on her travels, I wasn’t sure I would enjoy it. However I had already read Gilbert’s sequel, The Commitment, and had been highly impressed with her writing style and very compelling voice. In the end I was glad that I gave Eat, Pray, Love a chance, seeing as Gilbert does a wonderful job of remaining aware of her own follies and creating warm inviting environment that pulls the reader in. And given my own love for travel, this book was a great inspiration to start planning my next trip.
Written by the renowned gay sex columnist, The Commitment is Dan Savage’s memoir of how he and his partner of 10 years wrestled with the idea of marriage. Hilarious and occasionally over the top in it’s biting humor, I enjoyed Dan’s well reasoned approach to contemplating both the overarching idea of marriage or committing to spend one’s life with another and the over-arching issue of gay marriage.
A 27 year old librarian living in Missouri accidentally kidnaps a young boy whose runs away from his controlling parents. A fascinating road trip novel, that deals with both the highs and lows of librarianship and the greater issue of mid twenties angst, I enjoyed this amusing and well-written story.
Probably my favorite of my recent reads, this story is both set in Seattle and narrated by one of the best voices’s and perspectives I have encountered, that of Enzo, the golden retriever owned by a wannabe race car driver Denny Swift. Enzo tells the story of Denny’s triumphs and defeats and his own role in helping his owner fulfill his life long dream. I highly recommend this one.
I am a little late to the David Sedaris game, but this one was a great introduction to this hilarious writer. Whether it is stories of making a living as a performance artist, learning French or a father who hoarded food, Sedaris reliably makes you laugh with self-depreciating and gloriously bizarre stories. I love the short story format and read this on a couple of bus commutes, however fair warning, don’t read on a bus unless you are cool with laughing loudly in public.
Mennogirl 