More December Books

My Kindle is a Superstar
Last night at Barnes and Noble, the husband and I were bombarded with questions about our Kindles. We showed them off and answered questions for probably 20 minutes. The one point that appealed most to people was the cheaper cost of ebooks. So, dear publishing industry, take note! If prices drop, people might buy more.

The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro
Ishiguro is becoming one of my favorite authors, and I loved this book, but it’s the sort of book I would never recommend to any of my friends… because it’s a 210,000-word dream sequence. It’s all metaphor with no logic or consistency of time or plot. And yet! For some reason, I enjoyed the interesting setting and vivid writing and Ishiguro’s gift for characterization and realistic emotion. I also liked trying to figure out what all the dream situations said about the character’s real life. But, still… 210,000-word dream sequence… (I think only Ishiguro could pull this off.)

Baltasar and Blimunda by Jose Saramago
Mmmmmsaramago. Another brilliant book by The Jose. This one is historical magic realism (*dies*) with the composer Scarlatti and the scholar/scientist Padre Lourenco as characters. Saramago also tackles the hypocrisy of the Inquisition and the royal lifestyle in the early 1700s in Portugal as well as showing what life was like for the worker peons. Truly brilliant and fascinating.

The Final Solution by Michael Chabon
This book contains some gorgeous writing, but I didn’t really connect with the plot or the characters. It’s about an old guy who is supposedly Sherlock Holmes solving a case in his later years under a different name. The case involves a parrot who lists secret numbers. If you’re curious about Chabon, I probably wouldn’t start with this one.

Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem
So, Lethem rules. The writing in this book was soooo beautiful and vulnerable and human. The main character has Tourette’s Syndrome, which Lethem portrays gorgeously through word play and physical tics. This makes it super enjoyable to read. The plot was a fairly typical detective story, but the world (Brooklyn!) and characters made it special.

God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut
I read somewhere that Vonnegut wrote this one as a challenge; he wanted to write an interesting book about money. He explores all sorts of money-related themes with Vonnegut humor and flair. I think he succeeds really well, doing what Hornby couldn’t quite do in How To Be Good. I’ve still yet to read anything by Vonnegut that I didn’t love.