6/29 - A Productive Reading Weekend

Good morning everyone, I hope you all had a fantastic weekend. The weather here was phenomenal, first time in a while we had two beautiful days! Anyway, I completed two books:

First, 'In the Lake of the Woods' by Tim O'Brien. I previously read another book by him about Vietnam which I enjoyed. This one had flashbacks to the war but had a much different plot; a couple vacations over the summer and the wife disappears. Won't tell you how/why, you will need to read it! But very suspenseful and great ending. If you read it, please feel free to share. I got a comment via facebook from a college friend re: another book by O'Brien which I cannot remember. However, I do have "Tomcat in Love" at home which I will be reading shortly.

Second, I re-read (after a number of years) "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes. I have heard this compared to Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis"; in my opinion, it's completely different. But it is a very depressing tale of a boy who grows up mentally retarded and undergoes an operation to become a genius. The operation does in fact raise his IQ but the still has the social skills of the lower IQ. I would say the book is depressing (I didn't remember which was why I read it again). After a number of years, he goes back to the way he was as a child and is no better off than before. So, the question...was he better off with/without the operation. As depressing as the book is (in my opinion) the end is somewhat uplifting. I'll leave you to decide that for yourself...:)

This morning I started "See you in Court: How the Right made America a Lawsuit Nation" by Thomas Geoghean. I generally dislike reading books around party politics, however, Geoghan really puts forth some interesting hypotheses as to why we as a country are in court all the time. His basic thesis is because of deregulation and the weakening of unions, people are constantly suing and going after each other civilly. I think his ideas are interesting and are backed up by statistics and personal experiences.

I also received a recommendation on Friday from a friend on a book about books: "Who the Hell Is Pansy O'Hara? It tells the background of a number of popular books, I have requested it from the library and will report on it once it has been read.

Happy reading everyone!!