readsday 10/26

Been putting this off since my brain has been feeling so blah, but 90% of success is just showing up, right? So here I am, showing up. (Also this is exactly why I have never been able to keep any kind of job, I can't even make a blog post on schedule, Jesus.)

What did you just finish reading?
The Unwinding, a fascinating if understandably flawed and cultural study, and Interesting Times, a less impressive collection of New Yorker essays, both by George Packer. Unwinding is so well-written a lot of the time I kept just kept reading, absolutely enthralled, even when I disagreed with Packer's political points or his occasional sexism got on my nerves (if a woman is fat, or 'stout,' or 'obese,' you can bet it will not only be noted but made part of her characterization. Did this happen with men? No). Interesting Times was a lot more focused on the Iraq war, so parts of it were unbearably tragic ("Betrayed" is included), and it was more in the New Yorker house style without the irresistible crackle and zing of Packer's own prose. A friend told me his memoir of the Peace Corps, WHICH IS UNFORTUNATELY NOT AVAILABLE AS AN EBOOK, FSG, was also excellent. I don't want to read more about the Iraq war, especially since Packer was sort-of for it at the time, but I'll keep an eye out for his other books.

I also read Shadows, by Robin McKinley; I couldn't bear to read anything of hers in full after Sunshine, which I loved (and nearly all of my friends hated) but Elizabeth gave it a glowing review on Booklikes, and a good friend gave me the ebook, so why not. I don't know if I liked it quite as much as Elizabeth did, but the story was certainly very readable and quite entertaining. But, as E said, "If I didn't know anything about Robin McKinley, I would have said this is a perfectly fine young adult book, probably more on the younger side than the adult side." I had that same impression, of a 'younger side,' altho it's hard to think why. Shadows is sort of like Sunshine, set in a world where magic is illegal, with the same kind of tight family structure, a pack of supporting friends, animals, and really neat minor characters (including, I kid you not, an algebra book). But interestingly, it's lighter than Sunshine -- brighter, even, with much less blood and death, and a lot less darkness. Pro:  McKinley channels the voice of a bratty young teen quite well. Con: Unfortunately it is also the petulant-to-waspish voice of her blog, which I had to stop reading because it was contaminating my memory of her actual books. One problem was that while Rae's talent in Sunshine seemed organic to who she was as a person, and related to her actual supernatural ability, this heroine's ability seems more....accidental? Unrelated to who she is, her family, her environment? Hard to say. I'd recommend it, but not as a new purchase in hardback. As Elizabeth said, it's solid and straightforward (if a bit slight) (I said "a bit slight," not Elizabeth). (And it does not end on a forever-unresolved cliffhanger, which I know was a big turnoff for some friends who actually read McKinley's more recent novels.) It's a bit like....Sunshine's little sister. The Dawn to Rae's Buffy, so to speak.

What are you reading now?
For some reason I couldn't get into A.S. Byatt's short stories, I bounced off the opening of the Janeites book (which does really look very funny), and couldn't find Savage Beauty or What Lips My Lips Have Kissed or  A Little Original Sin, so I gritted my teeth and went for The Poe Shadow -- I know, I know, but I want to read something, I like Poe, and it's Halloween (i.e. Poe season!). It's OK so far (I'm 5% done, my Paperwhite informs me....God I miss being able to see how many pages I was into a book) and the first-person historical fiction voice, altho strained, isn't too full of anachronisms. It's no Measure of Night, though.

What do you expect to read next?
Maybe Peter Ackroyd's Poe: A Life Cut Short, because I at least know where it is, RIGHT ON MY GODDAMNED DESK. I might reread Dracula, or try a new book about Mary Shelley (I have several). It's the most wonderful time of the year!


ETA Got derailed into Nixonland instead, the gift of a very kind friend -- it's rather like Unwinding, sort of dubious or at least slanted cultural history, but amusing and entertaining -- not anywhere near as well-written as Packer's book, but still good. It reminds me of all those scary Paul Conrad satirical cartoons showing Tricky Dick as Richard III.