I’m a little delayed in my celebration, but at least I’m not too late. September 27th to October 4th is Banned Books Week, a celebration of the freedom to read.
In observance of Banned Books Week and my favorite amendment, I’m going to finally read The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman, one of the “10 Most Challenged Books of 2007.”
How will you celebrate?
American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
I first heard about American Wife through an article in the Books section of the New York Times a few weeks ago. Michiko Kakutani’s article, “First Lady, Second Version,” piqued my curiosity. I have always been interested in the First Lady’s duality of self, especially after I became a librarian. I found it fascinating, and sometimes infuriating, that a librarian could allow herself to stay married to a man like George W. Bush, to whom privacy is exchanged for “security” and the lives of American soldiers are exchanged for oil. This book has helped me reconcile these things, if only hypothetically, and it has helped me view the current First Lady in a more humanized perspective.
Despite the frequent claims that the book is out to smear the Bush Administration, it seems to have done the opposite for me. (They consider it a smear because it contains adequately detailed sex scenes between two consensual adults in three relationships, one of which winds up resulting in marriage. Are we Victorian, all of a sudden?) Maureen Dowd wrote in her Op-Ed piece for the New York Times, “Dreams of Laura,”
Ms. Sittenfeld was not out to sensationalize but sympathize. The portraits of Laura and W. — known as Alice and Charlie Blackwell here — are trenchant and make you like them more.
They become people, not just distant American symbols. They’re closer to the reader than they’ve ever been, and that’s not a bad thing.
Tell Your Sister by Andrew Daley
The story is complex, rotating every other chapter between past and present. The two protagonists, Aaron and Dean, are portrayed in very different ways. The narrator mostly sticks with Aaron during the past, and the present is Dean’s.
It’s clear that the author’s day job is in visual media. He is very good at making the setting part of the story, often including descriptions of the smells that accompany it.
The pace is fast, and the story is interesting. I would recommend this book as young adult fiction, but it works for adults, too. (4/5)
Thanks to MiniBookExpo for Bloggers and Tightrope Books for sending me this free copy of Tell Your Sister.