I've fallen behind in writing about the books I've finished reading--I think I am up to four with a fifth soon to follow. Not sure how that happened but I suspect the recent holiday weekend had something to do with it. I was going to start with one today, but during the work week I tend to be too tired in the evenings to give proper book posts the attention they deserve. Instead I will share a few little bookish items including a couple of books I'm finding very compelling reading at the moment.
First, though, I've decided not to join my coworkers (and other interested parties associated with the library) in a read of James Joyce's Ulysses. I'm sorely tempted to try it, and as Stefanie seems to be having good luck with it it scares me just a little less, but.... I have too many other books that are calling out to me, that I have already started and would like to finish. Either one or the other is going to suffer (Joyce or all the other books), so best not to be tempted this time around. I don't think Joyce will have to be worried about going out of print or being removed from the library's collection anytime soon, so he'll be there when I am ready for it.
To make up for that I am instead joining BlogLily's Summer Reading Program. My public library is having a summer reading program, but Lily's sounds more fun. I like her eight categories: a summer read from ten years ago (I actually have a notebook with all the books I've read going back to 1994), a book you librarian recommends, genre fiction, literary fiction, genre fiction, women's fiction, men's fiction, whatever you like. I like that she has genre fiction in there twice--my kind of reading program. So you see, even without reading Joyce, I still get to start a new book. Tricky.
And just because I like coincidences...Caroline just wrote about Colette's The Cat, and Stefanie about Colette's Barks and Purrs. Dogs and cats. Colette. All on the same day and all by chance. How fun is that.
My new current gym book is S.J. Watson's Before I Go to Sleep. Has anyone read it yet? Perfect gym book--totally engrossing and I can actually pass my hour there without constantly looking to see how much time I have left before I can stop exercising. There is much to be said for books like this. The premise isn't exactly new (Joy Fielding did something similar and had me equally riveted one vacation years ago), but I like the spin Watson puts on his story.
A woman wakes up every day with her memory wiped clean--her recent memory that is. She recalls bits from her younger days, but the last twenty years are essentially a blank. She had been in an accident that caused the amnesia and is now cared for, but living fairly independently with her husband--a man she doesn't remember. On the sly she has been working with a doctor to try and get her memory back, but she hides this fact, and her daily journal writing, from her husband. Part of the fun is trying to figure out which man is the one who can be believed. This is the perfect set up--she has no, or very few, recollections except what she notes in her journal which she reads and adds to each day. But you just know something is not right. Images come back to her, which help piece the puzzle, but someone is lying. The question is who.
My bus book is Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, which is also a book I'm finding hard to put down. I'm not sure why I ever waited to read this, but I'm happy that Litlove gave the nudge to finally pick it up, as I'm thoroughly enjoying it (though enjoying is probably not the best word really). It is considered the one of the first books of the true crime genre. It reads like fiction, so I imagine this is what is meant by creative nonfiction? Capote tells the story of this Kansas family who was murdered in 1959 as if the reader were actually there listening in to the family and the murderers. It's quite suspenseful and filled with details of the lives of those involved and imagined dialogue. I've read and enjoyed Capote before so I'm not surprised it is as good as I have heard it would be.