April Book Roundup

Since I spend as much time reading as doing practically anything else, I'm going to make it a goal to share what I've been reading. I did a lot of it in April, because I was rewarding myself for finishing the first draft of my critical thesis. Don't ask me what my excuse is these days.

And I'm not going to rate them with stars or anything because I am a notorious book slut and I like just about any book that I can finish. Ahem.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Hark Haddon (Fiction): This book is often suggested to me when I'm having conversations about protagonist voice. I can see why; it has a unique and well-done pov.

My Year of Meats by Ruth L. Ozeki (Fiction): Japanese-American beef politics, mass marketing, slaughterhouses, and domestic violence.

Sand Dollar Summer by Kimberly K. Jones (Young Adult): Only slightly overdramatic coming-of-age story on a Maine beach by someone from Away. Points off, though, for stereotyped all-wise, all-accepting, self-sacrificing, precognitive Native American character.

Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson (Young Adult): Feminist homesteading in the 1940s. A little bit of a YA treatment of this (sexuality seems almost censored).

Burn by James Patrick Kelly (SciFi): Sweet. Reading this felt like a magic spell in which I'm reading a delicious short story and wish it was longer and then, shazam, it is. I read it in one sitting. Yum.

The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster (Fiction): Complicated and slightly slow but ultimately rewarding story of aging, utopia, and second chances. Bonus points for treatment of homosexuality as a non-issue.