October was a spooktacularly wicked month, in a good way. We participated in Fall Feasts at the kids' school and we watched my daughter cheer at the homecoming football game. Cold weather finally arrived, which we welcome with open arms here in Texas. And we are getting ready to go trick-or-treating tonight...my so is a Ninja and my daughter is Mal from the Disney show The Descendants...see photos below. Work-wise I only had to travel once, to Raleigh, North Carolina.
October wound up being the month of female authors (not to mention authors with hard-to-pronounce-names). Not planned, yet absolutely enjoyed. Selections from Adichie, Van der Vliet Oloomi, Rice, Slimani, and Tokarczuk.
Ready for Halloween!
October wound up being the month of female authors (not to mention authors with hard-to-pronounce-names). Not planned, yet absolutely enjoyed. Selections from Adichie, Van der Vliet Oloomi, Rice, Slimani, and Tokarczuk.
Ready for Halloween!
Now on to the books...
 | NBCCA - 2013 Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie First Printing *** This is a novel about immigration, and the effects on ones persona, psyche, and viewpoints. At times it was moving and gripping, at other times it crawled and slithered. It is filled with philosophy, sociology, and adventure...but at the heart is a love story, an everlasting one. As teenagers growing up in Nigeria, Ifemelu and Obinze fall in love. Soon after, they part ways, one to America to attend University and live a solid life and the other to London to live a dangerous undocumented life which marks his destination. Through all of this we get a first-person point of view of what it is like to struggle with your identity as an immigrant, documented or not. A good read. |
 | PEN/Faulkner Award - 2019 Call Me Zebra by Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi Signed First Printing * Zebra (she gives herself this odd nickname) is a self-proclaimed anarchist, atheist, and autodidact. She is also very annoying. She is "recrossing borders I have already crossed in order to map the literature of the void and prove...that thought worth preserving in our pitiable human record was manifested in the mind of an exile". Starts out promising with her father and her having to escape Iraq and winding up in America. After her father dies, she decides to trek back to where she came from, re-living the treacherous trek back 'home'. However, nothing really happens and the whole novel is just frustrating as hell. Do yourself a favor, and skip this one! |
 | Interview With The Vampire by Anne Rice Signed First Printing **** I finally got around to reading this masterpiece. And a masterpiece it is. I put this up with there with Shelly's Frankenstein (not quite on the level of Stoker's Dracula). The first book in the Vampire Chronicles. A fascinating and bloody tale of how one becomes and learns to live life as a vampire. Louis is the main vampire who is telling his tale and we learn of his first 'master' Lestat and the young girl he is enchanted by name Claudia. Other vampires (Lestat) show up later in his centuries-long journey. One character trait of Louis I did find shocking is that of him being almost weak, enfeebled. My favorite character by far was Claudia. A wonderful Halloween read! |
 | Prix Goncourt - 2016 The Perfect Nanny by Leila Slimani First American Edition **** This one has been on my to-read shelf for some time now and I am glad I finally got to it. A gripping, spine-chilling, horrifying subtle tale of a family entrusting a meek seemingly fragile nanny to their two young children. I don't want to give anything away, therefore I won't say any more, other than Leila Slimani is an amazing writer and I am surely going to be checking out more of her books in the near future! |
 | Nobel Prize for Literature - 2018 Drive Your Plow Over The Bones Of The Dead by Olga Tokarczuk First American Edition **** I read Flights, her book which won the Man Booker International Prize and I liked it but wasn't quite blown away. After she recently was crowned the Nobel laureate, I had to read her latest. This one nearly blew me away...it was so so good. I could have read it in one sitting if it wasn't for my pesky job getting in the way. The story takes place in a remote location in Poland where we meet an elderly seemingly sweet lady and a few of her neighbors and friends from the nearby village. During the wintertime the place is mostly vacant shy of her and two of her neighbors. This elderly lady is adamantly against hunting and the killing of animals, which most other neighbors take part in. Peacefulness is suddenly interrupted by strange murders one-after-the-other. Could the murderers really be the animals within the area avenging the deaths of their fallen? Tokarczuk loves to blend a lot within her novels, and this one has a bit of astrology, philosophy (mostly Blake), and plenty of subtle suspense and crime. A magnificent novel and a stupendous writer! |
What did you read in October?
What are you currently reading?
Anything you recommend?
Thank you and don't forget to check out my Goodreads Page!
What are you currently reading?
Anything you recommend?
Thank you and don't forget to check out my Goodreads Page!
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