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An Advanced History of India by Macmillan. It has 1149 pages and I am on page 1...long way to go
Oddly, I attempted to read that book and had to quit about 1/10th into it. I got so confused. So I read The Life of Pi instead and watched two Sanjay Dutt movies.
I think this might be what I liked (or some of what I liked) so much about this book. People are messy and their intentions are not always clear or even understood by them. Keep reading (I know you will) and check in with your thoughts on Charity when you are done, please!
I'll definitely check back. But it's not just her controlling manipulative behavior I don't like. I just have a knee-jerk dislike to people who have a "big personality." So even before her controlling side came out, she annoyed me. I usually find people described as having a big personality to be just "too much" and I run the other way. They exhaust me. If I had met Charity the way the Morgans met her, I'd have decided she was too loud, too involved in other people's lives, and I'd be uncomfortable that she got so close to me so quickly. She decided Sally would be her best friend, and the couples got very intimate very quickly.
When I meet someone whose personality can just "fill up a room," I tend to leave that room.
Most of the books I read are audio books (I'm a product of the L.A. public school experiments in the early 60s on "whole language" that didn't work for me, so I can listen to a book faster than I can read the printed word). Unfortunately, audio books & books on CD are a small subset of printed books & ebooks).
I just finished "No Higher Honor" by Condoleeza Rice, her memoir about 8 years in the Bush administration (first as National Security Adviser and then as Secretary of State). She not only wrote the book, but is also the reader for audio listeners like me.
It is a truly insightful. I learned quite a bit.
The book isn't about politics of the left vs. right. It is more about diplomacy and the quest for common ground around the world in all the various hot spots.
I am 45% into "Breaking the Code: A Daughter's Journey into Her Father's Secret War," by Karen Fisher-Alaniz. Frankly, I was more enthused about reading it at the prologue than I am now. It's a memoir of a woman's effort to understand her father's years in WWII, after he gives her his letters to his family written during those years. He is 81 at the time, she's a grown woman with children of her own, and she discovers her father's previously told stories about the war were not the whole story. It sounded intriguing, but her delivery is ponderous... probably to be expected given she is not a professional, or even experienced writer. Still, her editor can be held responsible. It took her nearly 30% of the book to get to that mysterious point, a brief "blip" on the reader's "radar" before falling back into banal accounts of her transcribing the letters and weekly breakfasts with dad.
I gave The Blackest Bird a good try, but the author's sentence structure frustrated and sometimes bewildered me and I kept having to go back and try to figure out what sentences meant. Also, it takes place in the 1840's and the author had the main character musing on microbiology as he watched a bar owner wiping down a counter to prevent the spread of germs. That's the type of anachronism that can derail a story for me. Oh well.
Now I'm reading Norwood by Charles Portis. I loved True Grit and Dog of the South by him and this one is starting out well. The books are short with colorful characters and wonderful dialog.
I gave The Blackest Bird a good try, but the author's sentence structure frustrated and sometimes bewildered me and I kept having to go back and try to figure out what sentences meant. Also, it takes place in the 1840's and the author had the main character musing on microbiology as he watched a bar owner wiping down a counter to prevent the spread of germs. That's the type of anachronism that can derail a story for me. Oh well.
Indeed, clarity and credibility are two must haves in my reading. I think authors should have to read their works out loud to others to see that the words flow and are understandable. As for the latter, I find that is the case with a lot of historical fiction. The authors have a challenge with keeping their head in the age they are writing about, particularly when they are broaching the topics of scientific discovery.
Have you ever tried any Ivan Doig? He tends to stick to what he knows, and his works are believable, with characters that have dimension. Just a thought, because you mentioned "True Grit."
Indeed, clarity and credibility are two must haves in my reading. I think authors should have to read their works out loud to others to see that the words flow and are understandable. As for the latter, I find that is the case with a lot of historical fiction. The authors have a challenge with keeping their head in the age they are writing about, particularly when they are broaching the topics of scientific discovery.
Have you ever tried any Ivan Doig? He tends to stick to what he knows, and his works are believable, with characters that have dimension. Just a thought, because you mentioned "True Grit."
I haven't read anything by Doig, but he's been recommended to me before. I'll put him on my list. Thanks!
Just finished Barbara Kingsolver's Flight Behavior, I think it should be required reading, loved it. Now I'm reading Tell the Wolves I'm Home, by Carol Rifka Brunt, takes place in 1987, so far, really beautiful!
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