Well, that's finally finished. The school year, that is. And I'm starting to come back into myself, which means I want to talk about books with you.
Since it's been only a week, I haven't been able to settle into any one book for an extended length of time. But I did want to reconnect with our Readers and Book Lovers community. So here's what I am reading right now and a few books that are coming up.
Currently reading:
Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler is the story of a young woman who, much like the author, goes to work at a renowned New York City restaurant. It's the way Danler equates developing a palate with relishing life's experiences that have been entrancing. For example:
Taste, Chef said, is all about balance. The sour, the salty, the sweet, the bitter. Now your tongue is coded. A certain connoisseurship of taste, a mark of how you deal with the world, is the ability to relish the bitter, to crave it even, the way you do the sweet.
"The only way to get to know a wine is to take a few hours with it. Let it change and then let it change you. That's the only way to learn anything -- you have to live with it."
Or, as her boss says at the end of her job interview:
"We are creating the world as it should be. We don't have to pay any attention to how it is."
Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler: Hogarth Press is publishing new works of contemporary authors rewriting Shakespeare. Tyler has taken on The Taming of the Shrew. This Kate is a young woman who takes care of her scientist father's home and her flirty younger sister, and who has drifted into a nothing job of preschool assistant. I did like the part where she told the children that the pasta and tomato sauce smelled like wet dog. The Petruchio is her father's assistant, who is due to lose his visa soon. The plot does nothing for me, but I'll see what happens.
Zero K, the new Don DeLillo, which I wanted to read so badly because Underworld has become part of my literary DNA. In this one, a man philosophizes while his stepmother is prepared to be frozen before dying and his very rich father may develop a sense of parenthood. Or not. I've hit a snag about a quarter of the way in but am still willing to try to unsnarl it to see if the rest of the journey pays off. It may well end up being one of those books that only satisfy in spots rather than as a whole.
City of Mirrors by Justin Cronin: A post- apocalyptic horror novel, The Passage was filled with life, death, terror, suspense, action and a pure love that made me catch my breath at the end. This is the third novel in the series. Surprisingly, while going into the earlier life of the creature who started the epidemic that nearly killed humanity has gone a bit into Donna Tartt territory and is reading a bit like The Secret History. I didn't expect that and am even more intrigued.
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf: Another online community wanted to read a Woolf novel after we discussed the lovely Vanessa and Her Sister. So I get to read one of my favorite novels again.
On the horizon:
LaRose by Louise Erdrich: I've admired her work for years, especially The Round House. In this novel, a tragic accident leads to the loss of a child. The families decide how to cope in a rather unusual way. Knowing the author's work, I know there will be compassion and strength wisdom as well as the heartache.
The International Man Booker winner, The Vegetarian by Han Kang of South Korea, translated by Deborah Smith. It's about a woman's dreams of blood and brutality lead her to give up eating meat. This sets into motion what is describe as a grotesque chain of events with her husband and other relatives fighting to assert control. It's been called a Kafka-esque allegory. And I still plan to read it as soon as possible.
Barkskins by Annie Proulx. Annie Proulx. Annie Proulx. Annie Proulx. That sums up why I want to read this novel.
As Good as Gone by Larry Watson: A new novel by the writer who gave us the wonderful Montana 1948 and White Crosses. For anyone who appreciates Ivan Doig and Kent Haruf, this is an author to treasure.
And you? What are you reading? What else should I go request at the library?