Reading Notes

A couple of books caught my attention over the weekend . . .

This from an previously unknown (to me) author looks like something I must read. I read the review in the New York times and quickly added it to my TBR wish list. I love stories about people's ability to change.

Bursting with energy, The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving is a big hearted, soulful, and inspired novel that ponders life's terrible surprises and the heart's uncanny capacity to mend and become whole again. (goodreads)

And this from an author who I have only just discovered but have not yet read. I have a copy of New York Stories on my shelf waiting patiently. As so often happens when I get a notion that I might like an author I'll start collecting their books hoping to quickly read them and decide then whether to grant them a permanent place on my shelf or not. But time likes to slip out from under me before I get any of that done and before I know it the author in question has produced another book, or three, and I haven't even cracked open the first one yet! Arrgh. Couldn't we all just slow down for a second here and let me catch up, just a little? Please?

Anywhoo - Winter Journal is also favorably reviewed in the NYT, and Paul Auster being compared to Joan Didon and Julian Barnes is a no brainer for me. I must get to know him better! On to my TBR wish list it goes!

Facing his sixty-third winter, internationally acclaimed novelist Paul Auster sits down to write a history of his body and its sensations - both pleasurable and painful. Thirty years after the publication of The Invention of Solitude, in which he wrote so movingly about fatherhood, Auster gives us a second unconventional memoir in which he writes about his mother's life and death. Winter Journal is a highly personal meditation on the body, time, and memory, by one of our most intellectually elegant writers. (goodreads)

Other than that I'm listening to some Bill Bryson on my iPod with his A Short History of Nearly Everything and loving it. Why couldn't I have had him as a teacher in school?! He's such a likable, thoughtful, and well-read guy, I would have worked extra hard to get a good grade in whatever class he taught. And, hey, did you know there's a Doppler effect for light as well? It's called the 'red shift' and states that light that is coming towards you will have a blue tint and light that is heading away from you will have a red tint. Interesting, that.

And THIS! I'm super excited to get started with Prisoner of Heaven after loving the pants off Shadow of the Wind and Angel's Game. The audiobook happened to come in at the library while I was trolling the shelves and I nabbed it right off the cart. It's books like this that get me out of bed every morning at 5:30 for an hour of walking and listening . . .