After a couple of very slow months, I’ve read five books so far in June. I bought eight during my mom’s visit last week, and then I got a cold, so I haven’t been doing much else other than read.
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. I’m always late to books! I enjoyed Jonathan Strange etc., but it was such hard work to read that it took me a long while to pick this one up. Glad that I did, since I just devoured it. Much smaller scope than the other, but beautiful descriptions and an interesting story.
Another Fine Myth by Robert Asprin. Out of print, looks like, except in collected editions. I occasionally muse on the idea of reading our entire fiction section starting from A, and I haven’t read this one in decades. There isn’t much to it–there was a time when you could publish a short, whimisical fantasy novel like this–but it was a fun revisit.
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles. Ravelry book club pick for June. I didn’t think that I would like this, and then I read the whole thing in one day. A much more philosophical piece than I initially expected, the book consistently surprised me and gave me a lot to think about thematically.
The Big Short by Michael Lewis. This was a “saw it at the used book store, recalled that I have previously considered reading it, bought it” purchase. A well-told tale despite its arcane financial subject.
The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit. This book is harrowing in places–her awful relationship with her mother, her mother’s Alzheimer’s progression, her own brush with cancer, other friends’ crises, ecological catastrophe–but also a fascinating reflection on the nature of story and selfhood and what makes us, with Solnit’s usual wide-ranging artistic sense arranging all sorts of disparate things into patterns for fresh consideration.
R Jean Stevenson 