Book List

A couple of years ago I made a list of books I wanted to borrow from the library.  I read a few of them, misplaced the list, accidentally racked up a large amount of overdue fines and put the library out of my mind for a while.  Recently, in a fit of spring cleaning, I found the list again.  Since my husband has been visiting the library frequently to check out books on cds to listen to on his drive to work, I harassed him into borrowing books for me.  Last week he brought me three books from the list.  Books that I don't even remember putting on there.

The first one I picked up was Heart Sick by Chelsea Cain.  It was a lovely murder mystery involving a nasty female serial killer, an emotionally scarred cop and the innocent bystander who "unexpectedly" becomes all too involved in the plot.  It was good.  Not excellent, but good.  I finished it rather quickly, assumed correctly that it was the first in a series about this cop and serial killer combo, and have yet to make up my mind as to whether I would read the second or third in the series.

Moving on, I picked up Falling Man by Don DeLillo.  I have read a few DeLillo novels, and they are by no means easy reads.  The first I read in college, White Noise, was really well done and an interesting read.  I also read Libra which was DeLillo's fictional account of the Kennedy assassination.  That too was interesting and quite good.  Falling Man, however, is just a bit too much for me right now.  DeLillo is a very modern writer, when I tried to describe to my husband why I struggled with the book, the only way I could put it was that he doesn't write to tell a story, he writes art with a story inside.  I'm sure the book is excellent, if you can get into it, but I just couldn't do it this week.  So I put it aside and moved on again.

And boy, was I glad I did.  The last library book I had Don pick up for me was Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns.  It was EXCELLENT.  I don't know much about the history of Afghanistan, and while I know we've had troops over there since September 11th, I've never really "thought" about what life was like over there.  The book looks at the lives of two women who are old enough to be mother and daughter, but are married to the same man, and how the wars, the politics and the Taliban changed their lives.  It sounds a touch dry, but it was just so beautifully done, with amazing characters and storyline, that I couldn't put it down, and then, when I finished it, I went into a sulk because it was over.  I will have to add his other novel The Kite Runner to my list and hope that it is as well done.

Now the problem I have is that since Don went to the library for me the end of last week, and he hasn't finished his books on cds yet, I have to wait for him to make another trip to the library...in a few weeks.  Ugh!  Now what am I going to read????