I currently have about 20 books on loan from the library. Excessive, I know, but I promise I’ve been weeding out the duds and trying really hard to read the gems.
One recent sorta-gem was Revenge by Yoko Ogawa. I say sorta-gem because the first three or four stories in this collection of linked tales really grabbed my attention, but somewhere towards the end I really didn’t understand what was happening anymore. The feeling of not being grounded really ruins a story for me every time. The only reason I read the whole thing is because I was hoping it would all come together in the end. But no, I had more questions that ever!
A complete dud, however, was I, Iago by Nicole Galland. I borrowed this book because I love stories that give you a new perspective on a well-known or classic tale (in this case, Shakespeare’s Othello). Unfortunately Galland’s narrative style was hard to digest; not bad, per se, but definitely not my style. It was as if she were talking down to the reader. I never got past the first chapter.
Right now I’m debating the gem- or dud-ness of two books I’m reading simultaneously: May Cause Miracles by Gabrielle Bernstein and Kings of Vice by Ice-T (yes, THAT Ice-T). Bernstein’s book is a 40-day guide to seeing miracles all around you and therefore finding true happiness. Ice-T’s book is about an ex-con/former gang leader who’s out on parole and seeking revenge (what else was it going to be about?). The former seems like an OK book with helpful ideas but I don’t know that I have 40 days to commit to it; the latter is just a novelized gangsta rap video that takes place in New York City; sometimes I’ll read something just because it takes place in my hometown.
I’ll give each book until Wednesday to WOW me. After that, I need to move on and reduce some of my book inventory before the library police comes looking for me!
Have you read any good books lately?
xoxo
Raquel Ivelisse