Dare I jump into the fray and mention the litblog co-op's first Read This! title, Kate Atkinson's Case Histories? I know this has been mentioned quite a bit by book bloggers in the last couple of days. I was intrigued, so I hit the library and checked out a copy. Actually what is really interesting is reading all the discussion this choice has brought about. Not everyone seems very happy with this first choice of book. The co-op's stated purpose is to "draw attention to the best of contemporary fiction, authors and presses that are stuggling to be noticed in a flooded marketplace." Sounds good to me. As I certainly am not a writer, and I don't have any ties to the publishing industry, I am not so critical of this choice. I personally am just happy to find any good recommendations! I have read Kate Atkinson's earlier novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, which I thought was good, and I have on my bookshelf, Human Croquet (not yet read). So perhaps she is not entirely unknown, but I wouldn't have picked this one up without this particular recommendation. And then, of course, there is also a certain amount of curiosity about the book from the sniping going back and forth on the blog (that is almost entertainment in itself!)
I also checked out, Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi. I read about something called Reading the World Project and it sounded interesting. To be honest I am not familiar with most of the titles on the list except for a very few. My library had a copy of Satrapi's first novel, so I thought I would start there. Her latest novel is listed as a RTW title. I thought it would be fun to read a graphic novel as well. I have not read anything "comic book" style for a very long time. I wonder how graphic novels are viewed by the literary community? I guess I am sort of questioning book choices I make now as "literary" seems to be such an exclusive term according to many people. But that subject is better left for some other post. Maybe not everything I read is high brow literature, but I read what I want for my own pleasure rather than to impress anyone.
Finally...I checked out season two of Monarch of the Glen! Sorry, I imagine you are tired of hearing about this, but I am rather hooked at the moment. Season three was also just released, so I will eventually get that one from the public library, too. From reading Amazon reviews, it seems like there are several more seasons of this and BBCAmerica has been slow in releasing them here in the US. I certainly hope we get to have more episodes!