Do the A-Z author challenge

When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka

Was all right- quick read, interesting perspective, and some striking insights. But overall I didn’t feel any great connection with the characters or the situation.

A Backward Place by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.

Quite a quick, light read… you can choose to ignore any political ex-pat commentary on life in India after the Empire or not… but the characters are quirky and some are likeable. Though thouse that aren’t so likeable are a bit more interesting and make for a quicker read.

Suite francaise Irene Nermirovsky

It started very very very slowly. Very slowly. but got quite better by about half way through the book. What I found most interesting, however, were the appendices which had a series of correspondance from the Nemirovsky family at the time of her being taken into a concentration camp… a snippet of reality that spoke much more eloquently than the novel… though that was good too, by the end.

In Her Absence Munoz

Interesting perspective into the way the mind works, especially when befuddled by a relationship. I really enjoyed the first chapter when the setting and the themes were presented with a great deal of obscurity.

The Historian Elizabeth Kostova

Intriguing, if slightly annoying with its myriad coincidences, with an altogether predictable and unsatisfying ending.

Deafening Fracis Itani

Was okay… the first part (in their youth) was a bit slow, but once the book got moving then it was quite captivating.

Siddhartha by Herman Hesse

Much much much better than I imagined this could be. I first wanted to read it because I knew a guy who had only eve read one book in his life, this one, and he felt that that was all he needed in life.

I’m not sure that I agree with that line of thinking, but it certainly builds up the book. And, I felt, it definitely met expectations. A brilliant allegory with a numbero f thoguht avenues to explore. Hurrah!

The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass

I gave up on this G book. I have paid almost twenty pounds in overdue fines for this book alone and I’ve scarecely moved through the first half of the book. It odd and disjointed and so hard to keep track of when your mind is going a million miles a minute in other directions.

I’ll try and pick it up again when I’m ninety and medicated.

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier

I thought that this was an okay book- nothing splendiloquent, but I have heard that the movie is better, which is a rare thing indeed.

It took me freaking ages to read though. Even the bits that were interesting, I couldn’t seem to push through more than a chapter at a time.

I s’pose I’ll rent the movie now and see if the rumours are true.

The Memory Keepers Daughter by Kim Edwards

I was not amazingly impressed by this book. It wasn’t boring, but it wasn’t captivating. It wasn’t a hard read, but it often felt that it was a written at a high school level…

Basically, it’s over. I won’t tell anyone not to read it, but I certainly wouldn’t recommend it.