Since my last post I’ve actually finished two books, so, I’ll knock them both out right now!
‘Just After Sunset’ – Stephen King
Stephen King’s “newest” (2008) collection of short stories. I’m an old school Stephen King fan, and really haven’t enjoyed all of his newest novels, so it took me a while to get around to reading this one.
I loved it. I had forgotten what an amazing story teller he is, and I so enjoyed the short story format. It’s been a while since I’ve sat an read an entire book of shorts by one author, so I wasn’t sure I’d enjoy the style, having gotten so used to the long novels I’ve been reading.
There were so many excellent stories in this book though, he seemed to focus on 9/11, and 9/11 “like” events, and how they effected people mentally. There were some interesting spins on how people might deal with something of that magnitude. A few of the stories were just vintage King, and wonderful. I was really happy with this book, it’s got me back on a King kick though, the next book I read was great, but I missed the suspense/evil behavior I had gotten into with this one!
‘Land of a Hundred Wonders’ – Leslie Kagen
Some how, through some crazy, amazing turns over the past few years I’ve managed to meet and correspond with some of my favorite authors. A batch of them live in the Wisconsin area, and are a pack of amazing, talented, and kind hearted women. These women have not only entertained my team mate/book club buddy, but for some reason been kind enough to introduce us to MORE authors, and provide us with signed copies of their books for our yearly auction.
Sandra Kring is one of those authors, this year after many back and forth e-mails, my team mate got to meet her (and said she was amazing, we love her books, so we behave a touch like groupies with authors, sad…) and she suggested we read her friend, Leslie Kagen (who also sent us signed books! Yay!).
This is the first book I’ve read of hers, but not her first book, I will be reading the rest though. I love this style, if you’ve read Kris Radish, Jacquelin Mitchard, or Sandra Kring, you’ll know the style I mean. I don’t want to call it “Chick Lit” because it’s generally stronger, and more meaningful, but they do center on relationships, more often then not female.
‘Land of a Hundred Wonders’ is set in the south in the 70’s, it touched on so many themes, racism, the war, drug use, and family tragedies. The main character is a girl who has suffered from brain damage, and it was really interesting to read from her point of view. The author does a excellent job of explaining the thoughts in Gibbie’s head, how she would think them, well giving enough to you, that you generally have a better idea of what’s going on then she does. It’s the third time recently I’ve read books from a different sort of perspective, and I find I get really pulled in. I like trying to understand that view point.
At it’s core, it was a love story, but a love story between many people, it moved quickly, but not so quickly that I felt cheated. Like I said, I’ll read her other books for sure. I think they’ll make nice summer reading material out on my deck at night after the boy is asleep.