July 10, 2003
What I Read During My Summer Vacation
By any and all measures, our family trip to the Carribean was a smashing success. And I read two books!
A Map of the World by Jane Hamilton: I chose this 1995 paperback because it was a an Oprah Book Club selection --- and I've almost always been pleased with her choices. It starts with a terrible tragedy that got me thinking about the limits of friendship. If your toddler died an accidental (though preventable) death while under the care of your best friend, could your friendship survive? The book actually gets sadder from here. But in the end, all the sadness just made me grateful for my blessed life.
Next I read How to be Good by Nick Hornby. I'd read About a Boy and enjoyed it, so another Hornby novel seemed like a good choice. What struck me about this book was that the male author wrote in the voice of a woman. All in all, I think he pulled it off ... except for some of the "marital intimacy" scenes... which didn't seem quite right-on for me. Did I say that discretely enough?
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Posted by Barbara J. Feldman at July 10, 2003 11:52 AM | Comments (1)
You were discreet as could be, Barbara! I think Nick Hornby writes more believable female characters than John Updike. I like all his books and enjoyed How To Be Good though it is not as funny as About a Boy or High Fidelity. He has a great book of essays about pop music called Songbook which is sad in parts and laugh-out-loud funny in others. I loved his comments about Ani DeFranco. Thanks for mentioning the Jane Hamilton book A Map of the World! I started to read it years ago & it got pushed aside for higher priority items. Now that you have reminded me I will look for it again. Thank goodness for the public library system! I like to support my local independent bookstores but our budget won't bear all the books I want to buy. Oh, that reminds me. Thanks for the online resources you recommend, we use them, but at gift giving times, what I give every child is a book.
Posted by: pat on December 10, 2003 12:22 PM