Travel day!
I’m reading Sherwood Smith’s Banner of the Damned, still in manuscript. I’m reading to make comments. Smith’s writing in this novel shows a writer at the height of her powers: beautiful prose plus a bone deep understanding of the cultures through which her characters travel. A novel like this one could be required reading in world building. I believe it’s due for publication in 2012.
Because reading to comment (beta-reading) is a different kettle of fish from reading for pleasure, I’m also reading J. Damask’s Wolf At The Door (urban fantasy set in Singapore by a Singaporean writer) and Noble Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee’s memoir (with Carol Mithers) Mighty Be Our Powers.
What are you reading? And why?
I just finished “The Emperor of All Maladies” by Siddhartha Mukherjee, a natural history of cancer and the development of new cancer therapies. While I must admit to some bias (I teach Biology) I found this book to be a true page turner. And I learned a lot that will be be showing up in my lectures from now on.
Jealous. Jealous… love Sherwood’s books!
Just finished reading The Returning by Christine Hinwood, delightful, thoughtful, and surprising in entirely believable way.
Just began Green by Jay Lake and I suspect I’m going to lose large chunks of my upcoming (forecast to be gloomy) weekend to this one.
Kristen, can you tell me more about the Hinwood?
I’ve heard so much about this book that I suspect I am going to have to read it.
It’s about how a long war and occupation have intended and unintended consequences on all sorts of people, from the rulers to the refugees. Each chapter is almost a discreet short story, so the story unfolds slowly as it builds a web of interconnectedness. Certain characters carry most of the story, but not always from their own POV. So, the local landowner is viewed by himself, his daughter, and the occupying warlord in understandably different ways that worked together in surprising ways sometimes.
This book rang absolutely true for me, but I have a hard time putting into words how or why. I will admit that it’s now on my “Purchase Soon” list because I’m going to want to re-read it.