Books

I've been working on my reading list for 2008, which I posted a few entries back. Since not very much happened today - other than meetings - I thought I'd thrill everyone with my choice of reading.

The Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Banks. Some reviews I read had classified this book as chick-lit. If that's what it is, it's a cut above the rest. It's a series of short stories dealing with Jane (and she seems to be a plain Jane at that), who watches her brother with his new girlfriend - then she enters her own series of love dramas. There are touching moments with her family and the regrouping that takes place at the Jersey Shore.

I also just finished listening to Contact by Carl Sagan. The first 3/4 of the book was incredible. Since he was a scientist, he wrote about the minute details in the life of a radio astronomer. This would seem to be a boring job, except one day an unexpected signal is picked up the radio telescope - and changes the course of the world. Towards the end of the book, there's some fuzzy religion wrapped up with the aliens. It's a fun book to read - I enjoyed Sagan's superlatives about the universe.

I'm now reading Mortals by Norman Rush. It has an interesting plot - tangled American lives in Botswana though it is full of densely carved characterizations and relationships. It reminds a lot of Dom Delillo but more plot driven.