What I am reading: February 2010

1. away from you by Melanie Finn: A really good book. Which I was not expecting because it's been sitting on my shelf as an unread ARC for some time. A debut novel, perhaps a bit autobiographical, as a woman returns to Africa to discover the abusive, alcoholic father whom she and her mother had fled from. Lyrical and moving and tragic descriptions of Africa as it was and is.
   
2. Heartsick by Chelsea Cain: I usually avoid serial killer books, but I read Sweetheart some time ago and enjoyed that. Really well written stories. I am just plowing through my TBR pile:).
3. I do not come to you by chance by : My book clubs are really choosing books that I am enjoying reading this year. If the title sounds familiar to you, it is because it's the classic opener for a Nigerian 409 scam and Nigeria and its society and the role of individuals who are such scammers are what this debut novel by a Nigerian is about. I enjoyed it very much and the tone and vocabulary and color of the writing brought me into the story and really made the people and the setting live for me.
4. The Girl who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson: This was a rough book. The violence was difficult to read and I put the book down and picked it up again several times. But it's a progression in the development of Blomkvist and Salander that is vital: in this book I grew to really like Blomkvist where in the last I did not. The characters grow and evolve. I really think it shows that this "trilogy" was written originally as a single very large manuscript. In these cases the second book is alwayd problematic (cf The Two Towers). I need to take some time off, I think, before reading the last book. First, because it is the last and I will be very sorry to see the last of these characters, where Larsson had originally envisioned a 10 book arc. Second, because I need surcease from the violence and specifically the discussion of violence against women.

Not very many books this month. Between moving into the new apartment (and out of the old), renovating the new apartment (and the old) and then getting the old apartment in better shape than it was when we moved in in order to turn it back to the landlord, it's been exhausting. I'm just trying to keep current with the NYT and a few magazines.