December Books

A Canticle for Leibowitz (Walter Miller)
This book was fabulous. It’s a grand, epic, literary sci-fi that provides a unique perspective on the conflict between faith and science. (Faith is necessary to sustain science, he says.) It’s also a post-apocalyptic dystopia… and *very* funny.

Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut
This one was also fabulous, of course. It’s written from the POV of a Nazi war criminal who’s soon to be on trial for crimes against humanity. You end up rooting for this guy, which is bizarre, and also seeing the war and morality and good-versus-evil in a completely twisted way.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
I discovered a cool new author this month: Kazuo Ishiguro (who wrote The Remains of the Day, which I plan to read soon). This was the first of his books I tried and was, like the Miller book, literary sci-fi. It’s about science and love. *happy sigh* The scenes go deeply into the characters’ inner selves, but the premise is, well, I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’ll just say it’s a hot sci-fi-ish topic. The structure is one where you learn what’s going on little by little as you read, getting the full picture at the climax. The characters were so beautifully drawn (and flawed, especially unhappy Ruth) that I didn’t want the story to end. It’s a page-turner but also emotionally wrenching.

How to be Good by Nick Hornby
I didn’t like this one as much as the last Hornby book I read. I found myself unable to sympathize with the characters and kinda wanting to smack them around. I respect what Hornby tried to do, and his idea was interesting (how to be non-materialistic in the modern world and whether that equates to being moral), but the book wasn’t for me. I might try High Fidelity at some point anyway.

Joy
Glorious news: my husband bought me SIX JOSE SARAMAGO BOOKS for my birthday! *glee* I glanced at the first few pages of Baltasar and Blimunda tonight and am already super excited to read. I’ve also got some Jonathan Letham coming. Yay!