Book project 2010: update #9

We're now more than a third of the way through my project to become a more conscious reader and I'm enjoying it thoroughly. I'm not sure exactly what conclusions I'll be able to draw at the end of the year but having now read over the last four months of "book diary entries" (for want of a better term), I think there is a value in it. For me, at least. Hopefully some of you are enjoying it too! Here is my list of the books I've read this fortnight. It's a short one.

House Rules by Jodi Picoult

Not to make light of a serious condition but I picked this book about a teenage boy with Asperger’s Syndrome whose obsessive focus on forensic analysis and crime scenes sees him accused of murder because I’m convinced that at least one of my acquaintances has a touch of Asperger’s about them...

So much for that by Lionel Shriver

Shriver’s We need to talk about Kevin (WNTTK ) is one of the most engaging and thought-provoking novels I have ever read so I didn’t even bother to read the synopsis of this new novel before diving in. Half a dozen dismal pages in, I belatedly did just that, discovering that this much-anticipated novel was about the gritty realities of terminal cancer, degenerative disease, America’s dire health-care system, and an aged care system that neglects and humiliates the elderly, thwarted ambition and frustrated hopes, and ultimately bankruptcy. Uncomfortable stuff even for a reader lucky enough to live in a country where health care is considered a right, not a privilege. I was in turns both physically nauseated and morally disgusted by this thought-provoking book, and ultimately angry.

Interestingly, I didn’t know until reading the reviews for this new book that Shriver is female, a fact which makes me view WNTTK - essentially the musings of a mother whose teenage son has committed a high-school massacre - in a different light. I’d like to read it again.

A case of knives by Peter Rose

Dropping into the Anzac weekend book fair in the Leichhardt Town Hall on the same day as I finished the harrowing So much for that, I did a literary about face by stocking up on no-brainer detective novels and “thrilleries”. Intellectual and thought-provoking is all very well and good but sometimes a girl just needs light entertainment.

This back of this book promises eccentric publishing types (are there any other kind?), talented opera divas and mysterious, missing socialites, and “an incestuous world of steely alliances, lopsided passions and ... dark impulses.” Cool.

Feeding the demons by Gabrielle Lord


This is a pretty standard psychological thriller/serial killer/who done it kind of novel but nonetheless it was perfect for a day spent “elevating and icing” a sprained ankle. And no, I hadn’t had any drinks, thank you, oh faithless ones...