new book list!
Ah decided to add a rolling list of my favourite current reads to my blog (see right). I commute, I read a heck of a lot of books, and recently I've had a good run of books. May as well spread the word.
I guess every time I update the list, I'll try to write a bit about each book. So here goes -
Before anyone mocks the last book on the list, know that Calvin & Hobbes saw me through some dark times in Japan and they never fail to make me laugh. I have just discovered that on this website you can get Calvin and Hobbes every day. Direct to your inbox. Something to think about.
I'm just about done "A short history of tractors in Ukrainian". Odd title for a comic novel, but absolutely brilliant. It's the story of an 86 year-old widowed Ukrainian emigre who marries a 36 year-old buxom blond from his home country purely so she can immigrate to the UK. Told through flashbacks and memoirs, the story looks at immigration issues in the UK nowadays as well as educates the reader about eastern European history. Absolutely brilliant. Read it.
You may discern from the above comments that I have a soft spot for Japan, and Asia as a whole to be honest. "Empress Orchid" is a fact-based-fiction story about the last empress of China. Bit slow to start with but once you get into it, is really hard to put down.
"The time traveller's wife" messed with my head at first - it was such a bizarre concept to get my head around. I loved it, my colleague did not. It's an unconventional love story which - well I can't do it justice.
Despite the controversy surrounding his pseudo-fictional 'memoir', I was intrigued by James Frey's follow up, "My friend Leonard". This charts James' first few years post-rehab and all that Leonard did to help him. The ending caught me off guard - keep a tissue to hand.
Our local library really is a great place - when I first moved in with boy last year, it was one of the first places he took me to. A few months ago I discovered that they did "fast backs" - the top 10 bestsellers which you can take out for two weeks at a time. Brilliant. And that's how I managed to read Nick Hornby's latest, "A long way down". New Year's Eve, four strangers go to a notorious suicide spot intent on ending it all. But bumping into others, they abandon their plans and the four misfits become friends and try to help each other. Bittersweet, with some darkly comic (and not-so-darkly comic) moments.
So there you have it. My first list. Stay tuned for more to come.
I guess every time I update the list, I'll try to write a bit about each book. So here goes -
Before anyone mocks the last book on the list, know that Calvin & Hobbes saw me through some dark times in Japan and they never fail to make me laugh. I have just discovered that on this website you can get Calvin and Hobbes every day. Direct to your inbox. Something to think about.
I'm just about done "A short history of tractors in Ukrainian". Odd title for a comic novel, but absolutely brilliant. It's the story of an 86 year-old widowed Ukrainian emigre who marries a 36 year-old buxom blond from his home country purely so she can immigrate to the UK. Told through flashbacks and memoirs, the story looks at immigration issues in the UK nowadays as well as educates the reader about eastern European history. Absolutely brilliant. Read it.
You may discern from the above comments that I have a soft spot for Japan, and Asia as a whole to be honest. "Empress Orchid" is a fact-based-fiction story about the last empress of China. Bit slow to start with but once you get into it, is really hard to put down.
"The time traveller's wife" messed with my head at first - it was such a bizarre concept to get my head around. I loved it, my colleague did not. It's an unconventional love story which - well I can't do it justice.
Despite the controversy surrounding his pseudo-fictional 'memoir', I was intrigued by James Frey's follow up, "My friend Leonard". This charts James' first few years post-rehab and all that Leonard did to help him. The ending caught me off guard - keep a tissue to hand.
Our local library really is a great place - when I first moved in with boy last year, it was one of the first places he took me to. A few months ago I discovered that they did "fast backs" - the top 10 bestsellers which you can take out for two weeks at a time. Brilliant. And that's how I managed to read Nick Hornby's latest, "A long way down". New Year's Eve, four strangers go to a notorious suicide spot intent on ending it all. But bumping into others, they abandon their plans and the four misfits become friends and try to help each other. Bittersweet, with some darkly comic (and not-so-darkly comic) moments.
So there you have it. My first list. Stay tuned for more to come.
posted by koochan @ 9:54 pm
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