Too Many Books, Too Little Time

I finally have a day off! This auxiliary has been going full tilt! I must admit that I did have Sunday off, however I was preoccupied with planning a baby time for 0-12 month olds, and with my minimal experience with this demographic, feeling fairly anxious. So today is a REAL day off. I have so far managed to wake up, and eat chocolate in bed (dark) while reading Anderson Cooper's Dispatches from the Edge. I'm only on page 27, and it's a smooth easy read. I'm finding it a little sentimental and over the top so far...but he does make a living sensationalizing the news. Almost every paragraph ends something like this:

Post-new years reporting he heads out to cover the tsunami: "At dawn I board the plane, the first of several I'll take to get to Sri Lanka. When I sit down, the flight attendant tells me I still have confetti in my hair."

Or, "On the plane the flight attendant asks a Sri Lankan passenger if she's comfortable.

"I just lost three people in my family," the passenger says.

"Oh, that's terrible," the flight attendant says, pausing for a moment. "No duty-free then?"

On every page you find human disaster juxtaposed against something contrite or trivial. Or, simply reflections on devastation, and short diversions into Cooper's personal history, particularly so far, the loss of his father as a child.

I don't want to be too critical, because I really am enjoying it and I can see the widespread appeal this type of book will have. I perhaps find foreign war correspondent Asne Seierstad's books to be a grittier, less sentimental and more political version of this genre. However, Seierstad is Norwegian and approaches international conflicts with a much more neutral tone, part of her appeal, whereas Cooper is everything CNN stands for. America. The Great.

Anyways, overall I'm really enjoying it. A nice recreational read.

Other books I've read of late and don't have time to comment extensively on:

Girlfriend in a Coma
Finally I've read a Douglas Coupland book. I quite enjoyed the first half of the book, but then playing with reality, ghosts and time travel doesn't really appeal to me, so the second half kind of bothered me. The characterization was superb, but it seems like the message of a lost generation of youth, obsessed with consuming rather than really living was expounded on in excess. It was set in West Vancouver and featured some sort of apocalyptic events which was kind of interesting. Plus, imagine going into a coma at age seventeen pregnant, and waking up when your daughter is a teenage girl and you are grey haired. And guess what? Your boyfriend waited for you all those years. Yeah.

Tomorrow When the War Began (YA)
This is the book by John Marsden (author of Winter) that I mentioned a few years ago. It's been reissued (originally from 1993) with an enticing gorgeous cover and I couldn't resist the title. Again, it was a little slow to start, but I loved the Australian regionalism and the concept. A group of teenagers head out camping in the backwoods and when they return there is no one left. Their country has come under siege and their families are being held at the fair grounds. Mass destruction, fires, dead livestock, evidence of guerilla warfare, no power or hydro, etc. are just part of the intrigue. To add to the plot a number of boy-girl relationships intertwine as well as the discovery of an old hermit's shack with the fragments of a forgotten mans' life. I quite like that the female protagonist is a very strong and independent character.

Nelcott is My Darling (YA)
Again, this book by Golda Fried is supposed to be YA but it was classified as an adult novel at this library. It got a lot of flack because it was basically about a girl who goes to McGill for first year and is obsessed with losing her virginity (or not). I found the main character inherently insipid, wimpy, and unlikeable. Read no further if you don't want the ending spoiled! She dates a loser and it isn't until the end of the book that she hooks up with a nice guy (not even Nelcott!) and within minutes IT happens - 176 pages leading up to a few sentences - "Then she lost her virginity. It was simple. It was changing positions around on her bed. It was really quiet with no rock music to save her." Well that's just swell. Not only does this book not satisfy any potential teenage curiosity or provide any delicious details - on the opposite end of the spectrum it doesn't even mention things that maybe a teen might think about such as uh, protection? I didn't mind this book at first but in retrospect, I think I kind of hate it. Even better, my tax dollars funded it - yup, completed with the assistance of a Canada Council Grant as well as an Ontario Arts Council Grant.

I'll Sing You A One-O (YA)
This novel by Canadian Nan Gregory was quite delightful. The author has written three picture books, and this is her first novel. Unfortunately I believe this is actually J-Fic. At first I though the protagonist was autistic, then I though she was perhaps simple for her age, but soon enough I realized that however old she is, her thoughts are along the lines of a child in perhaps grade six. I think this novel is perfectly suited for that age as it explores the twisted logic that leads a girl to believe she can obtain an angel to help her by doing as other saints have done in the past. She ends up stealing to give to the poor, finding herself in hot water with her new family (recently rescued from a group home she dearly misses) as well as landing herself and her brother danger on the downtown eastside. I even shed a few tears.

Other recommended reads from the past few weeks:

Getting Near To Baby by Audrey Couloumbis (J-Fic)
An Obvious Enchantment by Tucker Malankey (Adult Fic)
Snip Snap What's That by Mara Bergman (J Pic)
Miss Bridie- Chose a Shovel by Leslie Connor (J Pic)
Eva Luna by Isabel Allende (Adult Fic) - author of House of the Spirits
When You Are Happy by Eileen Spinelli (J Pic)