Working more and reading less. At the same time, I don't have any coworkers that absolutely insist on having lunch together, so I can read while I eat.
The Kitchen God's Wife (1991) by Amy Tan. I missed reading Tan during my college years, probably because I had completed all of my "cultural" requirements before it was published (The Joy Luck Club was published in 1989, just too late to make my reading lists.) A nicely crafted chronicle, which could have done with a little more editorial polish -- like everything else these days. And while I'm complaining, the framing story wasn't very strong, it needs something more.
Maus: A Survivor's Tale (1986/1991) by Art Spiegelman. I bought a copy of this a few years ago but never picked it up. Having read and seen the film adaptation of Sophie's Choice, as well as watching The Pianist I feel suffused with awareness of the Jewish Holocaust.
Kitty and the Midnight Hour (2005) by Carrie Vaughn. Carrie was a classmate of mine, and the informal host of our X-Files gatherings back when the X-Files was on the Friday night lineup. Now she has successfully launched a series of supernatural novels featuring Kitty the werewolf/late night talk show host.
Taking its cues from any number of television pilots, the first half introduces us to Kitty and her network of associates while offering few hints of a plot structure. Kitty doesn't seem to have much of an inner life, which makes it easier for readers to identify with her as an empowered female figure or something. There are lots of squishy-girl moments juxtaposed with razor-sharp-claws-cutting-through-flesh moments, culminating in a [not quite] bittersweet victory and a [not quite] crushing defeat, nine, ten, end of novel, see you next time.
Posted by B Rickman at May 6, 2009 12:03 AM