I haven't been blogging much lately. Spring is in the air and baseball is every night except Monday and Sunday... but I have been trying to read. It hasn't been easy! One of the reasons I took up this challenge was to read books that I might not pick up otherwise. Books that would challenge me and books from genres I don't usually choose. The surprise category has been Adult Fiction. There are a lot of books out there that are just not worth reading! One of the worst in my opinion is The Last Days of Dogtown by Anita Diament. Blech! Charmless characters in a charmless town engaging in banally unpleasant activities. I was warned by the librarian that no one had managed to get through this book but it looked readable and not too long. I was so appalled by it that I was driven to re-read the Father Tim-Mitford series by Jan Karon who writes about normal people in normal activities and still manages to keep it interesting. Bravo,Jan!! Coming on the heals of the vampire book I am now retreating to Patrick O'Brian and Captain Aubrey. I turn my back on new adult fiction!!!
Here are the new books on the list:
Parenting/Family category has been changes to biographies of saint with Saint Francis of Assisi by G.K. Chesterton leading the list. At my current stage of life I am more intersted in saints than working on my partenting skills. (Not that they don't still need it!)
In World Politics: Liberty and Tyranny by Mark Levin This reads like a high school textbook and doesn't hold out a cheery ending for our freedoms. But a good read nonetheless and timely. Maybe it is not too late??
Fiction (Classics) Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott. I hadn't read this before and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The one problem is afterwards I watched the movie. There were lots of characters with the same names as the characters in this book but no resemblance to Scott's. All nobility removed and sneakiness and guile ruling the day.
And lastly in Adult fiction we have A Common Life by Jan Karon. I read four Mitford books but this is the only new read as it was written out of sequence. If you've read one you have read them all but lately I find that comforting.
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There is some good adult fiction around ... like the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, for instance. If you can get hold of it, try An Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett - I think you would enjoy that one. And it is short! I have another fiction book I picked up in Borders last week that looks promising. Can't remember the title, and no time to go and look ... watch my blog!
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