Book project 2010: update #24

I hate moving and moving hates me. Yep, I'm moving house on Saturday, which means I am currently in packing box hell (including 14 of books). Wish me luck...

On the other hand, I love reading. Here's what I've been immersing myself in this fortnight...

The Good Mayor by Andrew Nicoll

This is a sweet, lyrical novel about love, loss, ghosts and magic, set in an obscure town in a forgotten region of the Baltic. The story of “Good Mayor” Tibo Krovic, who is in love with his lonely, married secretary Agathe, nothing much happens for most of the book but you can’t help be enchanted by it.

Fall on your knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald

This was apparently a Canadian bestseller and I can see why. A complex family drama spanning several generations, Fall on your knees is beautifully written with a raft of engaging, colourful characters and a multi-textured plot that keeps readers on their toes.

The Fall by Guillermo Del Toro

The follow-up novel to The Strain, The Fall is a fast-paced and blood curdlingly entertaining read. I’ve said this before but these are seriously nasty vampires...

Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi

This book has a lot in common with Talking about Jane Austen in Baghdad which I read earlier this year. In fact I thought the Austen book was this book when I picked it up. Again this a memoir about the effect that reading and talking about forbidden works of Western literature has on the lives of women living in fraught (to say the least) circumstances. As the women in Nafisi’s book group, students drawn from all walks of life, begin to open up about the novels they’re reading, their own stories are revealed. At its heart this is a book about dreams and disappointments, and the everyday lives of women living in revolutionary Iran. Mesmerising.

The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver

I came to Kingsolver’s work late but honestly, I think Kingsolver could make a shopping list riveting reading. As demonstrated in The Poisonwood Bible (featured in my first ever Book Project post!), the author has the most beautiful grasp of language and characterisation. I’m only about half way through this tale of a young American-Mexican making himself useful in the household of muralist Diego Rivera and painter Frida Kahlo but it’s quickly proving itself a contender for Book of the Year.