blue_lotus13 | What I've been reading lately

1. Looking for Jake by China Mieville- A collection of short stories. I actually ended up skipping one or two of the stories because they didn't interest me. There were a few that were really good. "The Ball room" is a creepy horror story that takes place in the ball room at Ikea. This is a foray into dark fantasy, which Mieville does quite well. The man does love his pus, though.

2. No Place for a Lady- by Barbara Hodgson- Good book about women travellers. Full of lots of funny anecdotes and neat pictures.

3. Lapsing into a comma by Bill Walsh- Strangely, I read during the same time period that I watched "All the President's Men". Bill Walsh is the chief copy-editor at "The Washington Post". This book is part copy-editing manual, part style guide. I learned a few things which will be useful to my writing while reading this book. One of the many things I learned is that I'm a huge geek, because I like to read about copy-editing.

4. Born too short- Dan Elish- Read this one because it was mentioned in the same article that mentioned that "Vegan, Virgin, Valentine" had been banned in Maryland. This book was also banned, probably because it mentioned that sometimes girls are lesbians and boys like to sleep with girls and picture them in underwear. Horrors! This quick read was about a 13-year-old who was jealous of his best friend. I enjoyed it, but still think there wasn't much too it.

5.Female Chauvinist Pigs- By Ariel Levy- I liked this book because I felt the argument was both topical and accurate. In recent years, our culture has become a lot more comfortable with sexism and pornification. The argument is that women are embracing a sort of male sexism because they are trying to fit into male society. They use this sexism in the name of empowerment. The argument made sense to me, and I was compelled to think of the ways that I've been a female chauvinist. I used to be more critical of other women, and had problems with "girly girls" and being more feminine. As I age, I feel that I'm becoming more comfortable with shades of femininity. I also thought about how I sometimes objectify other women by talking about them in sexist ways. Still digesting this one.

6. Rats saw God- Rob Thomas- Yes, this is written by the Rob Thomas who writes/created "Veronica Mars". It was his first young adult novel. At first I wasn't that blown away, but as I read it, I got sucked in. It's a story about family relations and a young romance. I felt very nostalgic as I read this because it was written at the same time that I was going to high school. The characters in it go to a Pearl Jam concert, there's a reference to "Sassy magazine" and Kurt Cobain dies in one chapter. Thomas' ear (eye?) for good dialogue is already apparent in this book, as is his good ear (eye?) for teen speech, plot and style. It's easy to see how the brain that created this book, could spawn Veronica Mars.

Can I be Rob Thomas when I grow up?

I should also acknowledge the 2 books that I did not finish. I believe life is too short to force myself to read things I don't want to. I did not finish "Redress", which is about the Japanese Canadian redress movement. I'm going to do an interview with the author, and thought I should read his book. However, I only got partway through, even though I learned a lot from the part that I did read.

The other failed attempt was "Kuraj" by Silvia Di Natale. This is a historical novel about a girl who grew up on the steppes in Central Asia. I loved the descriptions of herdsmen and yurts, but there wasn't enough plot to hold my interest. I wanted to like the book, but in the end, it was too much like a textbook.