I am still reading most of the books I previously blogged about, but I have also started new ones. Last week I read American Born Chinese because a friend lent it to me. It was a quick read, being a graphic novel, and I thought it was fabulous. It had three different narratives that came together as one at the end, all focusing on either Chinese culture or the Chinese-American experience. I thought Gene Yang presented the plight of the "Other" very well.
I also reread Lucy this past week, a short novel by Jamaica Kincaid about a West Indian au pair in New York City. In only 164 pages, Kincaid takes you inside the mind of one of the most complex literary characters of all time. She uses Lucy, her protagonist, to shine a light on colonialism and its effects, woman's place in the world and its effects, mother-daughter relationships, friendships and more. I loved this book when I first read it four years ago, and I still do.
Finally, I am rereading Prozac Nation. Again, I loved this memoir when I first read it years ago. I am enjoying it again now though I am certain that it could have been shorter had Wurtzel been less repetitive. That is starting to annoy me, to be honest, so I have been putting it down for some time and picking it back up.
7 comments:
The Kincaid sounds like a real find. I'm off to the library site now.
That last book sounds interesting!
Do check out my Sunday Salon posts :D
SS 1: Review of The Dark Child
SS 2: Musings about books
I've heard about Prozac Nation, and of Kincaid,but not the first one. Thanks for sharing what you're reading. They all look fascinating.
I recently read Prozac Nation too, and I agree with pretty much everything in your assessment (in fact, I need to get my review of it up on my blog, but that's another issue). The Kincaid sounds fantastic- that's definitely being added to the 400+ TBR list.
It sounds like you're trying to read everything in the whole universe all at once.
You're like me. I always have around 6 different books (if not more) that I'm reading at any given time. Sometimes it takes me too long to finish them because of life getting in the way of my having some quiet time with a book or I simply have to keep going back a chapter every time I pick a book up just to remind myself of what was happening before I put the book down.
In the past 2 weeks I managed to finish reading my "travel book" which I only read while traveling for almost a year now: "The time traveler's wife". And also managed to start AND finish "The lovely bones" and "When will there be good news?". Of course, it helps that I'm on holiday and have very little to do. :D
By the way, thanks for stopping by my blog!
I read Prozac Nation a couple of months ago and absolutely agree on the repetitiveness. For the first half of the book I really felt for her, and then the repetitiveness started to take its toll. I realized I haven't put my review of it up on my blog either (oops!)
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