Battling Terrorism in the Horn of Africa

I am restarting this book. I had read part of the intro in the first weeks of working at TRC. Now I will finish it and return it to Nancy.

So far its interesting, but it's from 2005 so a lot of it is out of date...


more soon...

Desperate Characters by Paula Fox

This novel has been highly acclaimed from the New Yorker in 1970 when it was published to Jonathan Franzen in the 1990s (he wrote the introduction for the reprint and also mentions it in his collection of essays How to Be Alone).

I'm about 1/3 of the way in (50pgs out of 150). It's well written. She is exploring a marriage (or two?) imploding. It's quite well done and from what I can tell its going to be worth checking out, the first 50 pages are.


More on this and more in the near future.

They Call Me Naughty Lola

The London Review of Books has the quirkiest personal ads. This book is a collection of the best of them. Go to here to see a few examples. They are great great stuff.

I'm about a quarer of the way though it. It's a quick read that I pick up occasionally. I highly recommend reading some of them at a bookstore before dropping $16 bucks on it. But definitely a great quick read.

The Discomfort Zone by Jonathan Franzen

I finished this memoir. It's mostly about his childhood. Though it does have a bit about his mother's death as well as the collapse of his first marriage. While the memoir is well written and intersting, there are two points I have to make in this short review.

1.) Why a memoir? Joan Didion's A Year of Magical Thinking was written for a reason. This one though seems like a distraction from his main job as a novelist. I enjoyed it but I still don't understand why he wrote this rather than a new novel.

2.) This memoir makes it clear that The Corrections is highly autobiographical.

I guess if you like the work of Mr. Franzen, then check this out. Otherwise, it might be better to find a better memoir. I still liked it a lot though. And I did like The Corrections a lot in case that makes a difference.

Update

I am now also reading the new issue of Tin House. Steve Almond was an adjunct creative writing professor at BC. They invite Condi Rice to speak and he resigned in protest. He got letters from the wingnuts. There is a section in Tin House in which he prints the original letters and then replies with humour and wit. Its quite nice.

I am still working on This Discomfort Zone by Jonathan Franzen. I have about fifty pages left. It is really well written as well as pretty interesting. However, I still have to ask why a memoir and not a new novel?

I am so excited for the Yiddish Police Man's Union by Michael Chabon. May 1.

All for now. Now sleep.

What I am now reading (a brief list)

I am reading several books, all of which I need to finish:

1.) The Discomfort Zone by Jonathan Franzen
2.) How We Are Hungry by Dave Eggers
3.) Girls on the Verge by Vendela Vida
4.) Battling Terrorism in the Horn of Africa (Brookings Institute)

Reviews, thoughts, quotes, words, etc to come in the not too distance future. Enjoy yourselves here.

An explanation

There is someone I know who lists among her favorite books "US Weekly." This blog will serve two purposes. First, it is to inform the general population that US Weekly is NOT in fact a book but rather a trashy tabloid magazine. Second, it will allow you, dear reader, to know what I am reading and what I think about the piece of literature I am reading.