Reading Four Books At A Time...

...well sort of. I love to read the way George Bush loves to use good 'ole southern sayings to get out of tight situations (snort, har har har.) This can lead to a crazy balancing act sometimes.

I had already begun reading We Are Iran when my friend Priya lent me her copy of Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth, a book I've wanted to read since it was released. The day I brought it home my book club book, Half Broke Horses, arrived in the mail and I had only two weeks to get that read before our meeting. And as I do mundane chores I listen to audiobooks on my iPod; I was listening to The Host while holding We Are Iran, Unaccustomed Earth, and Half Broke Horses in my hands. What to do?

Since We Are Iran is a series of blog topics and not really a story line with a plot to keep track of I decided to put it down for the time being. I had to finish my book club book on time so I went ahead and read that first. Half Broke Horses is the story of the author's grandmother in the 1930s and 40s in the untamed scrabble land of west Texas. You may know the author, Jeanette Walls, from her recent well known book Glass Castle which is the story of her own life. I didn't care that much for Glass Castle and had to make myself read Half Broke Horses and I'm glad I did. It was well written, interesting, and provided much needed background information about the author's family that helped me better understand the events in Glass Castle. All but one of my book club members had read Glass Castle and we couldn't help but discuss both books and compare notes about what we thought made her crazy family members do the things they did. We had a great discussion about what elements of a person's education make it better or worse than other forms of education, for example, the value of school education with books, paper and pen versus the learning that results from living the myriad experiences of life. Walls classifies this book as a 'real-life novel' since it was about her grandmother and many of the events were real, but she had to put words in her grandma's mouth and feelings in her heart that may or may not have been there. One of my book club members said she felt 'cheated' by the author's willingness to simply make up what she didn't know, but I didn't agree with her. Even in this day of high tech recording capacities you can't know everything about a person who is no longer here to ask. And unlike some other authors who wrote 'memoirs' that were later shown to be mostly fiction, Walls clearly labels this book as a fictional novel. If you currently have Glass Castle on your shelf I would advise reading this book first.

As soon as I finished Horses I began Unaccustomed Earth by one of my favorite authors, Jhumpa Lahiri. She also wrote Interpreter of Maladies (a collection of nine short stories) and The Namesake, a fantastic story which was made into a movie. Unaccustomed Earth is also a series of short stories, most of which involve characters from India now living in the U.S. Her stories deal with family issues, relationships, personal strivings and failures, and simply put, ordinary life. Lahiri is a gifted story teller and next time one of her books comes out I may not wait so long to read it. Life is too short.

The Host was written by Stephenie Meyer, the author of the Twilight Saga series which I have not read and probably won't. The Twilight series sounds too juvenile for my taste. Shirin and Gabriel like to read books that I normally would never choose, more fantasy and sci fi types, but I end up liking most of them nonetheless; The Host was an audiobook Gabriel put on my iPod. I ended up loving this story despite the fact that I wasn't satisfied with the ending.(*) The story focuses on an alien life form called "souls" that are embedded in the host species of a given planet, using their bodies to live on that planet. Souls are generally very peace-loving, group-oriented beings but because they must insert themselves (in the brain, no sexy business) in the host species they naturally have to take them over. On earth humans are, of course, the host species and as humans are wont to do, they fight like hell to avoid being hosts. The interesting thing is, the reader comes to know one soul in particular and follow her from her "insertion" to where she becomes part of a human outpost, learns to live with the group and ultimately chooses them over her own kind. It's kind of a rinky-dink, done it before idea, but the storyline is gripping and you come to love this soul -- I couldn't put it down, or, pull out my ear buds to be more accurate.

SO! Now I'm back to reading We Are Iran and won't start my next book club book till I'm done with it. That doesn't mean I haven't cranked up my iPod for the next book in line!

(*) The reason I didn't like the ending was because I didn't like Wanda/Wanderer in that tiny, fragile, high-pitch voiced, blonde-ringleted angel woman. I understand the author wanted to give Melanie back her life, and give her back to Jamie and Jared, but to me Wanda/Wanderer was a strong, capable person, though meek in nature. To hear that she began to giggle like a little girl in her new body made me SO MAD!