I'm getting quite good about this "faith" thing; *I* haven't seen a single message of my own posted to either list since previous Thursday (10th day today), but they all seem to reach y'all, so I'm less "fashed" about the fog now... :)
My routine at the library is fairly rigid (I like *patterns* <g>), irrespective of the season: I drop off the books I had, and head for the "new books, fiction" shelves. I look for mysteries first. If I come accross one I had not read previously and it sounds interesting, and it says it's xyz'th in a series, I head for the main shelves. I used to head for the 'puter catalogue but, ever since they'd updated their puters -- some 6 months ago -- and changed everything around.. sigh... shelves are safer :), to see if the previous ones are available. Plan B is to check with the reference desk and get *them* to tackle the beast.
Once I have a load of mysteries, I look in "general fiction" to see what else is new. Keep an eye open for historical romances, but there are fewer and fewer of those -- my favourite writers have either died off, or quit writing, or switched genres... So then I look for "others"...
That's a real lottery; the spine has to catch my attention first, the blurb and the one-line reccommendations on back need to blow the spark of interest into a flame... And then, if I don't know the "reccommenders" (or didn't pay attention to who it was), I can still be fooled, and the book can still prove to be a "bummer" (IMPO). That's especially true with a first book (and, by that, I mean a first book *in the genre*; someone may have a Nobel for poetry, but it's no guarantee they'll be any good at fiction). Doubly true about "ethnic" books (the kind where the writers have non-Anglo names in short; makes no diff where they *live*, or which generation they are <g>); the PC-goodwill tends to overpraise some which don't deserve it (again, IMPO).
Until fairly recently, I've been avoiding the "ethnic" ones like a plague, because most were awful. But, with some guidance, I read a few which were excellent, developed an appetite for more, and try to pick at least one at every library trip. It being summer and everyone bored enough to read, new mysteries are in short supply (thanks for references to older ones; some sounded right up my alley <g>), so the last trip "netted" 3 "ethnics":
1) Monique Truong (Vietnamese American) -- The Book of Salt
2) Samrat Upadhyay (Nepalese American) -- The Guru of Love
3) Julie Otsuka (Japanese American) -- When the Emperor Was Divine
Haven't yet read #3 (will report if it's good).
Am about 7/8th through #2. Can't reccomend it. It's not bad enough to quit after the first 20-30 pages, but adult males who screw around on their wives, feel bad about it but continue to screw around, somehow fail to engage my sympathy, even if it all happens in Nepal... :) The "can't help myself; I'm but a tossed leaf on the river of life" excuse never cuts much ice with me, either... The only reason I'm still reading the book is that the details of life in Nepal are interesting, especially as I compare words and customs to those I gleaned from reading books about India.
But #1... Oh, it's a *keeper*; a must-read book... Monique Truong; "The Book of Salt"
I don't *like* poetry (either modern or old), but I've had to read a fair bit of it (at the U, because that's what DH loves best, because I've helped in translating some). And I do love language and anyone who uses it with skill and subtlety *in prose*... Which Monique Truong does, *most definitely*.
In 1929, in Paris, Gertrude Stein and Alice B.Toklas placed an advertisement in a newspaper, looking for a cook... What they got, was a Vietnamese, male, "gay" -- a refugee from French Indochina. He is the narrator of the tale (the story starts in 1934, and backtracks, in *no chronological order*, through about 20 yrs).
The entire book is like modern poetry of the best kind... The rhythm to the sentences is unbelievably precise -- it "reads" like music, with a slightly foreign lilt, to "spice it up". One never knows, "for certain-sure", what's true and what's not; you parse and you parse, and you *still* have doubts as to "what did the author *mean*? Summarise in 200 words"... The truths, semi-truths and outright lies are piled on top of one another, and shift their meaning depending on the angle you're asked to look at -- at the moment. It's like a cut diamond, with many facets -- the search for acceptance and the betrayals of love misplaced are the sharp edges of it, and the only things which do not change...
Absolutely *brilliant* (pun intended <g>)
----- Tamara P Duvall mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Lexington, Virginia, USA Formerly of Warsaw, Poland To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED]
