Reading Completely Derailed

I've been totally off track on reading since Deathly Hallows. I got sidetracked trying to plan some vacations so I mostly was reading travel guides about Alaska and the Grand Canyon.

Right now I'm trying to read The Raw Shark Texts, which is confusing but pretty cool, and I hope to finish it this weekend on vacation. It's way overdue at the library and since I'm already paying a steep fine for it, I refuse to return it without actually finishing the book!

Next up will likely be a re-read of the Traveler by John Twelve Hawks before tackling the follow up "Dark River" that was recently published.

Stay tuned -- I promise to read and update soon!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

As I'm sure you've all guessed, all other reading stopped in the days leading up to the release of Deathly Hallows. I needed to refresh my brain on the last few books and ponder all the questions I wanted answered in DH.

Then I read the book over the weekend in a page turning fit. I forced myself to stop and sleep and then to go for a run before the huge battle of Hogwart's.

I loved the book. I have many thoughts but I don't quite know where to begin.

In progress: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life

This one is interesting but a little preachy. The woman (author Barbara Kingsolver) and her family are trying to eat only local foods for one year. She's trying to support the local economy and cut down on the fossil fues wasted in the transport of "exotic" food.

I'm really only getting into the real story - they've only just begun their quest - but I have had to laugh a few times when she mocks kids for not wanting to eat things that have touched dirt. I'm totally like that!

The namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

The Namesake is a pretty awesome book. I'm about three quarters through and I'm really enjoying every word.

This is a quiet book and not much happens although it does trace a man's life from birth until at least his 27th birthday (where I am now in the story). I assume it'll continue through his entire life.

The central characters are a Bengali couple who move to the U.S. shortly after their marriage and their two children who are born in America. Their oldest son, Gogol, is "the namesake" and he is really the main character. It's a really interesting look into the clash of Indian and American culture and how it's hard for Gogol's parents, especially his mother, to function in the U.S. especially when their children are totally American.

It's really interesting to me to see the perspective of the parents who never quite feel at home in the U.S. and how puzzled they are by their children and vice versa. It's cool to see their side of it when most of what I'm exposed to is the Americanized kids version of things.

This will sound strange, I think, but I find that Lahiri's style of writing is particularly soothing. Her words have a very quiet tone and they seem to just wrap you into the cocoon of a world she's creating in her novel.

I can't wait to finish this and I've also checked out her book of short stories: The Interpreter of Maladies which won some awards a few years ago.

The audacity of hope : thoughts on reclaiming the American dream

I checked out the Barack Obama book because I find him a little bit fascinating. I haven't heard him speak very much and I really don't know why he has so much buzz about him other than that he's young.

I'm ashamed that I sat on the book for about a month and never cracked the cover until the day it was due back at the library. I took it to work and managed to read nothing but the Introduction -- and that part was enough to make me want to read the rest of the book.

I've heard that his political views are pretty far to the left, and I generally am middle of the road leaning to the right, but I can't argue with what he says he wants to do in his introduction. I guess it's what everybody wants to do, it's just a matter of you actually get there. A quote:

"... another tradition to politics, a tradition that stretched from the days of
the country's founding to the glory of the civil rights movement, a tradition
based on the simple idea that we have a stake in one another, and that what
binds us together is greater than what drives us apart, and that if enough
people believe in the truth of that proposition and act on it, then we might not
solve every problem, but we can get something meaningful done." (Page 2)

That makes sense right? Idealistic, sure, but it makes enough sense that I should probably check the book out again and read it! (or at least skim it!)

Then we came to the end : a novel -- by Joshua Ferris.

I just started this book today. I must say that I'm not loving it to start. It feels very heavy and pretentious for a book that is supposed to be funny.

It's about an office that is going through layoffs. It sounded like it would be like the movie Office Space but I'm not getting that vibe. We'll see but as of now I'm not sure I'll be able to plow through this before it's due back at the library.

Update 6/20: I finished the book today at lunch. I'm not sure how I feel. It had some funny elements but mostly it was just strange and depressing. This was all about how people in cubes hate their jobs, they hate their cubes, the mostly hate their co-workers and in a lot of cases they hate the rest of their lives too.

The worst part of it is how familiar so much of the depressing vibe was. People droning on about how pointless and annoying work is and how they have their assigned roles within the office eco-system. But I guess that's also the best part of the book. The author certianly captures a feeling that is uncomfortably familiar.

Bottom line: don't bother, it's kind of depressing despite the fairly good writing

Eat, pray, love : one woman's search for everything across Italy, India and Indonesia - Elizabeth Gilbert

Words can't express how much I hate this book. I love the concept, I love the cover, I even liked the author (before I read this book!). Everybody seems to love it.

I HATED it!

She's annoying and pretentious and completely nuts. And possibly lying through her teeth about everything.

Here's an example. She leaves her husband of 10 years to take up with her "soulmate" with whom she has a wild affair that leads her to meet her guru. Anyway, this is a tumultuous affair where they hate each other as often as they get along. She runs away to Italy for four months and tells the soulmate not to contact her while she's away. Six months later, after no contact from the guy, she e-mails him and says: "I think we should break up". His response? "I adore you more than words can say."

BLAH! She's a big faker.

Then she went to India to live in an ashram for 4 months. I didn't even make it to the part where she gets to Indonesia to live with a medicine man or something.