Though always an avid reader, I especially bulk up on books during the summer. Last summer was slim pickings. Even a book by an author I admired was a disappointment (my precious book budget! Wasted!! Umberto Eco's The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, if you are curious). But this year was excellent. I've had a long string of enjoyable readings.
Here's the most memorable:
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. Yep, it's a vampire book, which isn't my thing. But it's also a well-written, moderately academic novel that mixes intriguing history, colorful descriptions of placed I'd love to visit (Eastern Europe), compelling characters, and the right amount of suspence.
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. Wow, this book is amazing. It has a clever overall design: 5 individual stories that interrupt each other, progressing in time from the 1800s to the future, and then resolving in backwards order. The stories at first seem unrelated, than related by minor, superficial things, and then suddenly it strikes you what they have in common: how powerfully they illustrate that civilization is uncivil and that we are doomed to oppress or be oppressed unless we learn to recognize this.
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. The most interesting thing about this book is that everything seems so normal, including that the book supposedly takes place now, but that the characters have a futuristic, spooky role in our society. The toughest part for me was their acceptance of this role as inevitable. Following right on the heels of Cloud Atlas in my reading list, it was especially powerful.
The Real Inspector Hound by Tom Stoppard. An older play by a playwright I really, really admire. This quick read during a rainy camping trip was a treat, particularly since it accurately and hilariously spoofed the country house murder mystery genre that I've always enjoyed on rainy days.
An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears. More on this later. The kids need attention.
