Marcus of Umbria - Justine van der Leun

I found this book baffling. Its subtitle is What an Italian Dog Taught an American Girl about Love, but the dog really isn't a major player in the book at all. Some of the events make no sense - the author tells us that the rural Italian family she is tangentially part of (by virtue of being the ostensible girlfriend of one son) is constantly battling bankruptcy, yet a few chapters later she has convinced the boyfriend to part with his life savings to buy her a horse, solely because she has a fantasy of owning a horse. She claims she is a great novelty to the villagers, who are supposedly unused to an American in their midst, but her boyfriend's mother works for a wealthy American, and non-Italians are always mentioned as being part of the village life, so - ? She tells us she has learned a rough, rural dialect of Italian that leads her to sound crude and coarse to non-villagers, but doesn't back this up with any relevant examples. Books like this are usually more light-hearted, but this book had such a negative tone it felt more like a chore to read - it was more about an American "girl"'s year of moping around rural Italy, failing to meet her own unrealistic expectations for life.

Destroy All Monsters - Greg Hrbek

What a wonderful exception to my usual mixed feelings about short story collections. This kind of fluid, beautiful writing seems to be more and more unusual and hard to find these days. My usual complaint, that short stories feel unsatisfying and leave me wanting more, was rendered moot in this collection, as each story felt perfectly self-contained and seemed to tell a complete story despite its shorter format. In fact, my only complaint about this book is that I want more of these stories. Highly recommended.

Cold Zero - Christopher Whitcomb

The subtitle to this book is Inside the FBI Hostage Rescue Team and it's written by an FBI Special Agent, who is something of a Renaissance man with a background in writing/literature, so the writing is solid. I love behind-the-scenes type books, and I found this book's description of the training and actual real-life hostage/stand off situations fascinating. Recommended.

April - This Month in Reading

Well, April ended up being a vast improvement over March, even if it's sad that a "vast improvement" included only 4 books! But even with my rudimentary math skills, I know that 4 > 0, so I'm claiming it as a victory.

I didn't set a goal for April at the end of March, but for May I would like to read at least 1 book for each challenge I have going, and also to finish a bunch of books I have somehow started and then set down unfinished. This is just plain silly, and I need to stop doing it, as it's just putting me behind in my reading, since I'm flitting from book to book instead of just finishing one already.

How has your reading been?

Neanderthal - John Darnton

Another book that I would call a "serviceable thriller." It was about what I expected - a classic "bestseller" type book. The real mystery of this book is that I got it from a coworker, "S," who sold a bunch of books for 5 cents each (Mr. K of course said "why didn't S just give them away?" and I couldn't give him a good answer!) before a move. Although I don't claim to know S all that well, he strikes me as a very intelligent person in general and I don't picture him purchasing books like this. Maybe it was a gift or something, or he joined one of those book clubs where you get four books for $1 each but then you have to buy a book at full price, and he got cornered into buying this one. Who knows. I wouldn't want to seem like a jerk for asking S about it, plus this happened more than 5 years ago now so he probably doesn't even remember.

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane - Katherine Howe

I saw this book on every visit to Borders for a year or so, and kept picking it up because the premise seemed intriguing, and then deciding I was too cheap to buy it. I was able to pick it up for under $1 during the Borders last day sales, and finally got around to reading it. I liked the book overall, but I wanted to like it a lot more than I did. I liked the flashbacks, particularly because the reader gets to see what daily life in the late 17th century may have been like. All in all, there were some things in the book I felt unsure about... For example, the story is set in 1991, but no particular reason is given for this, so it feels arbitrary - or maybe it was used to remove a "use the Internet to get information in seconds, which will solve your mystery" potential plothole.  Something happens at the end of the book that I feel like I must have misunderstood or something, but it could just be that ... who knows. So while I enjoyed it for what it was, and it certainly wasn't the worst book I have ever read, it wasn't a new favorite or something.

The Toughest Indian in the World - Sherman Alexie

Sherman Alexie is an author I've been meaning to read for a while, but didn't get around to reading until I was finally lucky enough to stumble on this book on my office's book exchange shelves. As I've said so many times it's an annoying cliche at this point, I am not usually a big fan of short stories, but there were some here that I really enjoyed. Alexie has a way of creating characters that can be unappealing on the surface and yet have enough underlying humanity that you want to read more about them. I also liked that he was able to explore different genres and styles in the stories. As with any story collection, I liked some quite a bit more than others, and I'd definitely check out his other writing.

Inexpensive Books for 2013

I thought I already did this, but apparently not, as I can't find a post for it. I'll keep track of inexpensive books I have read this year. For some reason I like doing that and it helps me feel better about book spending.

1. Charley's Web - Joy Fielding (less than $1 book from Borders last days sale)
2. Man and Boy - Tony Parsons (free book from neighbor)
3. The White Hound of the Mountain and Other Irish Folk Tales - Thomas J. Kiernan ($1 Library Sale book)
4. The Consequence of Skating - Steven Gillis ($1 Borders last days sale book)
5. Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides (50 cent Library Sale book)
6. Zoya's Story - Zoya with John Follain and Rita Cristofari (50 cent Library Sale book)
7. The Toughest Indian in the World - Sherman Alexie (free book from office book exchange shelves)
8. The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane - Katherine Howe (less than $1 book at Borders last day sales)
9. Neanderthal - John Darnton (5 cent book from coworker)
10. Cold Zero - Christopher Whitcomb (free book from neighbor)
11. Marcus of Umbria - Justine van der Leun ($1 Borders last days sale book)
12. Years of Red Dust - Qiu Xiaolong ($1 Borders last days sale book)
13. Grand Ambition - Lisa Michaels (50 cent Library Sale book)
14. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle - David Wroblewski (50 cent Library Sale book)
15. The Finder - Colin Harrison ($1 Borders last days sale book)

Zoya's Story - Zoya with John Follain and Rita Cristofari

It routinely makes me both sad and furious that there are so many horrible, sick, evil people in the world. Books like this one, which is subtitled An Afghan Woman's Struggle for Freedom, give me hope. I so admire women like Zoya, who literally risk their lives to help others and to fight injustice perpetrated by horrible, sick, evil people. I hope for the best for her, her country, her people, and the people who work alongside her to help others.

Side note - it doesn't escape my notice that those of us who feel secure in our supposedly "enlightened" Western world have work to do as well. We may not face the daily horrors faced by women under the rule of monsters (and I am truly thankful every day for that), but we live in a "civilization" that decrees that gifted, talented writers like J.K. Rowling and D.C. Fontana (to name two off the top of my head) can't publish under their full names because "boys won't buy books by female authors, they'll write the books off as 'girl books.'" Not to mention some of the public figures who make shocking comments that denigrate women - but that is straying way too far from the purpose of this blog. I guess my point is we all need to work for human rights and fight injustice and "backwards thinking" wherever we may live.

March - This Month in Reading

This was officially the worst month for reading that I have had since I started this blog in 2011. I literally read nothing in March. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Rien. Niets. Not a single word from a book met my eyes. I have no idea why, either.

On the positive side, I started several books in February so I can work on finishing those for April. I also started a book last night and got halfway through, so that's another work in progress that can help lessen the To Be Read books.

One other note: I think I have finally cured myself of my compulsion to hit the Library Sale shelves and  buy random 50 cent paperbacks: bedbugs. Mr. K is obsessed with bedbugs, and apparently they are becoming a big issue these days. I'm terrified to inadvertently bring them into my home, because they are notoriously difficult to get rid of once you get them - it seems like nothing kills them! The other day I read an article about how bedbugs can take up residence in USED BOOKS and I about fell off my chair! As you can imagine, being a true bookworm, this was very, very disturbing, as the vast majority of my reading is done through the library or through inexpensive used books! As heartbreaking as this is, I think I have to stop bringing home used books. I just can't take the risk that I'd bring home bugs from someone else's infestation. On the plus side, maybe now I can concentrate on the books that are actually here and read those. It's really sad though :(

(Side thoughts - I am aware that "new" books could potentially harbor bugs too; and I am also aware that I could have already purchased infested books before reading the article. However, because I have issues with denial [ha ha], I have decided that all the TBR books are officially bug free, as it is too late to worry about them anyway. I'm also aware that library books I borrow could end up infested so I am going to skip borrowing books for now too, since I have so many on hand anyway. I'll maybe reevaluate if I ever run out of books on hand but for now it's a total ban :( This really blows because some of my TBR books are books that come later in a series, and I was planning to read the preceding books through the library rather than shell out the cash for new copies. I'll have to see how things play out on that front once I get there.)