Gratuitous Book Blather

If you look at my sidebar, you'll see that I've finally moved on to some new reading material. You can click each book for a link to their respective reviews at Amazon.

As previously mentioned, Little Children just sucked. Uncle Tom's Cabin was very good, but it aroused some conflicted feelings in me, and provoked some thoughts that it will take a while to sort through. The Agony and the Ecstacy is excellent, but it is taking me a while to read. There is a startling amount of historical, philosophical and theological information to process. It's not light reading, and so, I've been reading it in fits and starts when I feel the need to feed my brain something substantial.

My new reads...

Peace Like A River is a re-read. It is one of my favorite books in the whole wide world. I've read it three times and I love it just as much every single time. It is smart, and whimsical, and moving, and completely engrossing in a way that is difficult to describe. I will write a "formal" review eventually, but for now, I will just say, if you haven't read it...do. I mean it. This is a must read.

I'm also re-reading Dracula because I love a good vampire novel. It's one of my guilty book pleasures. I recently read The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, and I enjoyed it so much that I was compelled to return to the origin from which all contemporary vampire lore has evolved. I read in the forward that it was considered trash fiction in it's heyday due to it's heavy sexual overtones. So effectively euphemized are these sexual elements that I probably would have missed them on my own. However, thus informed, I find them unmistakeable and delicious. I am enjoying the book a great deal more than I remember enjoying the first time I read it as a teenager.

I actually finished The Wall already. I loved Jeff Long's previous novels, The Descent and Year Zero. Both were a very strange and unlikely combination of sci-fi, historical fiction, anthropology and theology; but it was one that worked. They were completely engrossing. Unfortunately, The Wall did not live up to the expectations I had formed based on those novels. Normally, formulaic literature bugs me, but when it works, I tend to form a strong attachment to it, and any departure on the part of the author sends me into a disappointed funk. The Wall is more of an "old guy on an adventure trying to reclaim his lost youth" kind of story. Not a complete waste of time, because Mr. Long is a good writer. But it is not the kind of well-woven and detail laden epic that I have been jonesing for. The ending, I am sorry to say, was a complete disappointment.

Being the bibliophile that I am, I am always interested in what other people love. I'm going to list my top ten favorite books of all time. If you are so inclined, leave yours in my comments.

Happy reading fellow bibliophiles.

(This list is subject to change without notice)

1. The Stand, by Stephen King
2. Peace Like A River, by Leif Enger
3. Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett
4. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith
5. The Sunne in Splendour, By Sharon Kay Penman
6. The Red Tent, by Anita Diamont
7. Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
8. The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova
9. The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
10. How Green Was My Valley, by Richard Llewellyn
11. The DaVinci Code, by Dan Brown (I liked it. Shoot Me.)

Yes, there are eleven books on my top ten. I could not eliminate a single one.