Sunday Caught My Interest

Catching up between a cross country meet yesterday (absolutely beautiful day for in in Wenatchee) and the Symphony this afternoon.

The LA Times reviews Bitter in the Mouth by Monique Trong author of The Book of Salt: A Novel.  Bitter follows Linda Hammerick who has an unusual sensory disorder.  The themes of the book seem to include learning to live with who you are within and secrets within secrets.  Sounds delicious.

The September list from IndieBound is up with two books that are already on my list: The Gendarme By Mark Mustian which is called “a meditation on memory” by Publisher’s Weekly and for some reason I am fixated on books about memory.   Also on the list is Room by Emma Donoghue which is on order from the library.  They also listed a book I had heard about before Healer by Carol Cassella set in a small Eastern Washington town.

S. Krisna shares longlist for  The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. If you interested in literature from this area of the world, this list is a great starting place.  The only one I have read was Chef by Jaspareet Singh but many of the others look very interesting.

Kevin From Canada is discussing the long list for the Giller Prize (Literary prize for a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection) as well as posting tidbits from the first review of the “shadow jury”.  I really really liked The Disappeared by Kim Echlin which was short listed last year and have the winner The Bishop’s Man on my reading list.  I think I will wait to see what the shadow jury says about this year’s books before I add to my reading list.

Kerry from Hungry Like the Woolf reviews Orion You Came and Took All My Marbles by Kira Henehan describing it as a “absurdly original detective story”.  There seems to be questions of existence, wordplay, and absurd-ism all wrapped up in a delightful, intriguing debut.   My library doesn’t have a copy but this one may go on the Christmas list.

Finally, a book for my friend Carolyn who loves novels about women in other countries: The Calligrapher’s Daughter is reviewed by The Gutenberg Girls.  Set in Korea, the novel covers thirty years of Korean history through the story of Najin Han, a privileged daughter of a gifted calligrapher.

Enjoy your Sunday reading.

PB