It’s that time of year – taxes, finals, grades, a change in the weather. All good reasons to fall behind in your reading, or at least that’s what I’m telling myself. This month only two of our intrepid readers finished their books: J Harker, who read Lolita, and Lanea, who read The Song of the Lark.
While J Harker acknowledged that Lolita was “superbly written and a phenomenal example of the ‘untrustworthy narrator'”, his opinion of the book was irreparably colored by his visceral reaction to “the tone, the constant and growing sense of unease” and the sense of “be[ing] inside a pedophile’s head, listening to his logic, his justifications, his schemes and plots and dream.” [review]
It seems like Lanea enjoyed her book a bit more, though it didn’t hold up to the others she’s read by Willa Cather. She appreciated Cather’s ability to write strong female characters and to portray the world as it is, warts and all, though she was “uncomfortable about some of the racial and ethnic language and questions in the book.” Cather’s total avoidance of romance, sex, or sexuality also didn’t ring true in a story that otherwise seems to have been about a young woman’s coming of age. A good book, but not a perfect one. [review]
Me? I’m still working my way through two previous months’ book, as well as Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age. You know what’s weird? Reading a book about social networks and networking that was researched, written, and published before Facebook.
