as this summer in oxford comes to a close (sigh), summer comes to a close, too. assuming my flight is on time, i'll be pulling into school to start my first day of work exactly 15 hours after my plane lands at hartsfield-jackson international airport. the almost unlimited free time will come to a close, and reading will take a back seat to work.
in my second (and final) month of freedom in 2011 i read:
a storm of swords, by george r.r. martin (the third book in the series. in college i read the first 3 books, i thought, but halfway through this book a MAJOR CHARACTER DIES and i did NOT remember that, so i'm thinking perhaps i didn't finish this book the first time around? either way, this book was really good and i'm pretty embarrassed to admit how invested i am in these characters' lives. i have my name on the list at the library for the fourth book [and the fifth, which just came out this summer, so of course that list is realllllly long], so expect more george r.r. martin in future posts.)
moon tiger, by penelope lively (a girl i work with here in oxford let me borrow this book, which i LOVED. it has a very similar feel to white oleander and the english patient if you liked either of those books. the author puts words together in a way that is beautiful. a storm of swords was all about the action; this book was all about the writing. i'd highly recommend it.)
the prime of miss jean brodie, by muriel spark (this is one of those books you're SUPPOSED TO READ if you want to call yourself a cultured person. right? that was my perception. it made it onto my list for that reason, and then seemed a fitting book to read while in the UK, as it's set in edinburgh. i liked this book, but i don't know if i quite GOT why it's so famous. the main character irritated me because she did all these things that teachers aren't supposed to do. let her students into her personal life. told them who to dislike. used them to get information about other teachers. tried to get one of them to have an affair with another teacher (?!?!). i have trouble liking books if i don't like the main character, and i didn't like jean brodie, even though i knew that was the POINT. i did love the way that you sometimes couldn't tell what was fact and what was the girls' perception of facts. i did a lot of questioning throughout. i'd KIND OF recommend it, i guess?)
never let me go, by kazuo ishiguro (i saw the movie last year and LOVED IT. really an incredible story - a world just a tiny bit different than our own - with a great cast. i liked the book, too, but (of course) i think i would have liked it more if i hadn't already known what was going to happen. sigh. why did i have to read the book second! i'd highly recommend this, though - an easy read, but it stuck with me - i'd think about it at random times during the day. i won't tell you what it's about, though, because you are meant to discover that over the course of the book. it's set in an english boarding school; i can safely tell you that.)
No comments:
Post a Comment