In any vid–er, excuse me, DVD — rental place, or reco–er…excuse me, CD shop –the “Staff Picks’ is always my favourite section. When I see three movies/albums I adore on someone’s shelf, surrounded by things I’ve never heard of, it feels like a gift. So much more to watch/listen to! I’m not sure the joy I take in movies/music/books is entirely healthy, but I’m not out robbing banks or doing “the drugs”, so let’s not worry too much.
Anyway, today NPR posted the first (there are going to be more! *swoon*) issue of “What We’re Reading”, which is exactly what it sounds like. And through it, I found out the new Barbara Kingsolver novel, The Lacuna is out today. Very exciting! I loved her last book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, detailing her family’s efforts to eat locally, but I have sorely missed her fiction. Sadly, NPR links to a review which calls The Lacuna Kingsolver’s ‘Disappointing Return’. I hope I disagree. I love her writing so much. She’s very descriptive, whether she’s writing about lush forests, arid deserts, the smell of a ripe tomato plant or an old woman’s hair. I like the vividness and the –sincerity? Earnestness? Maybe frankness is the word I want — of her style.
Other books on the NPR folks lists at the moment include Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals (I’ll probably check this out - I liked Everything is Illuminated a lot), Googled: The End of the World As We Know It by Ken Auletta, The Humbling by Philip Roth (I’ll be skipping this one - Portnoy’s Complaint , and Invisible by Paul Auster. 
As for the AbeBooks side, my the most successful of my recent forays have included Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, which was so absorbing and compelling that I read it in about 6 hours. It was my first time reading it (I know, I know), and it was a bit chilling how many of Bradbury’s dystopian, science-fictional inventions in the book are now not far off reality (Twitter, reality television, the slowing of print media…). I wish I had read it a long time ago, as well, but am so happy to have read it now. I definitely recommend this as a read - or re-read - for everybody who enjoys dark, thoughtful, creative fiction. And now I’m about 90% of the way through Walter M. Miller’s A Canticle for Leibowitz, which started off so intriguing and strong that I couldn’t wait to dig deeper, but I confess my fascination has waned somewhat. It’s also science fiction, set in a wasted future that feels like the past because of its rudimentary, humble surroundings, but is quickly revealed as the future, a desolate result of the Flame Deluge of the twentieth century - nuclear war. I’m still enjoying reading it, but it’s lost some of its early excitement. I also took time for a fun, dark, gritty noir read in Richard Stark’s Parker novel The Hunter, which is perfect if you like your men square-jawed, inscrutable and spitting nails, your women blonde, bosomy and untrustworthy, and your violence gory and plentiful. I’m going to read Darwyn Cooke’s new graphic novel adaptation next, about which I have heard nothing but awe-inspired raves.
Richard’s reading Tragically I Was an Only Twin, an anthology of comedian Peter Cook’s performances, Krakatoa by Simon Winchester and Sound Bites: Eating on Tour with Franz Ferdinand. Kathleen is reading Amsterdam by Ian McEwan, and Flesh Market Close by Ian Rankin. And Scott rounds us out literarily - he’s currently reading Following the Equator by Mark Twain.
….to which we all naturally said “ooooh! La-di-DAH! Mark TWAIN, my my!” and waved our hands about, while Scott rolled his eyes.
It’s good to work here.
And you? What are you reading? Leave us a comment! (NOTE: we are having some strangeness with our comment capability - please write your comment, COPY it, then submit - if you receive an error, use your browser’s back button to try again. We are so sorry for the inconvenience and are trying to fix this - we love hearing from you!).
