Reading Challenge XXIII

I might hit 30 books by the end of the year. Maybe. So much for 100.

It doesn't help that I keep starting books and putting them back down. Oh well.

Yesterday, I finished I Was Told There'd Be Cake, which is an awful lot like a straight female version of David Sedaris. Not quite as roll on the floor funny, but almost. She happens to have grown up in the same area as I did. I found that hysterical.

Book Challenge XI

Today I finished Zadie Smith's second book The Autograph Man. When I bought this at the local independent bookstore off the sale table, the nice bookseller told me that Smith fans thought this was her best book. I took this as a good sign having recently read On Beauty. I didn't like the second half of White Teeth -- but I really liked On Beauty so I was willing to give this a shot.

Eh.

Smith has an interesting look at the world -- but it took a long time to get there with a character that I didn't really like all that much. But, I got there and so I move onto my next book. Sorry this isn't a ringing endorsement. I wish it were. I so wish it were.

Reading Challenge IX

While in the middle of my amazing writing class that has me soaring into the wonder of words, I decided that I would spend my Sabbath with the words of another -- instead of my own. I mean, I have some brilliant things happening in my writing (thanks to the surreal job that I have) but I really needed to get lost in someone else's story.

So I finished God is Dead by Ron Currie Jr. Currie is a local writer which is kinda fun for me (but maybe not for you). I admit that this was one of those books that ends and you turn the page wondering how it could have ended there. I mean, the concept is enough to get you thinking. God manifests Godself in a refugee woman in Darfur -- and dies. Sets your mind running, doesn't it?

I started this book in the bar where I often have dinner. The bartender is wonderful and the clientele will probably appear somewhere in my novel. The woman that was seated next to me asked about the image on the cover (won't tell) and then insisted that this was some kind of heresy. I was befuddled. She knew my vocation. She's a little strange, but ... um, God's revelation on Earth did die in Christianity. We're still acting out the story, right? So, this is an interesting telling of that story (and there is even a resurrection). I actually wonder how this story can be so Christian while trying not to be. Anyhow, I would love to talk about this so please read it.