Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go (2005)

I spent this whole book wondering what it was about. In the end, I still don't really know.

***SPOILER ALERT***




The one question that lingers now is: What three organs can one "donate" & still live? One lung, one kidney, & ... the spleen?

Gavin Menzies, 1421 (2002)

The author of this book theorizes that the Chinese discovered the Americas in the year 1421, well before Columbus thought of sailing the ocean blue. China did many other things first, so I was interested to read what the author had to say.

The book is well over 500 pages, so it was a bit intimidating to start. But by page190, I knew the theory & was bored with the supporting evidence.

This book was passed on to Robert Rossing.

Augusten Burroughs, A Wolf at the Table (2008)

I read this book after reading Running With Scissors, thinking that I would get better insight into the author's experience of his father.

Though Burroughs was clearly unsatisfied with his relationship with his father, this book does not illustrate the supposed magnitude of his father's "evilness". Burroughs was afraid that his father was homocidal, but failed to convey that sentiment in this story. Yes, he was an unaffectionate & unpleasant person, but evil? The only thing that suggests malice is the account of his father letting the guinea pig starve to death. I'm not saying that letting a small, defenseless animal suffer is forgiveable. I just didn't feel the fear that I expected to feel from reading this memoir.

Burroughs's writing is filled with incredible detail about events in his childhood. He includes dialog, facial expressions, hand gestures - even birds singing in the trees. I find myself trying desperately to recreate an event from my own youth with such precision, failing every time. After reading two of Burroughs "memoirs", I'm more inclined to call them novels with autobiographical undertones.

This book was passed on to Liane Kido.

Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner (2003)

Wow. What an emotional, unbelieveable, overwhelming story. I firmly believe that fiction is reality with different names, & this fiction is beautiful & horrific.

Near the end, I wanted to shake Amir, the protagonist, for still having such poor judgement, such a poor sense of what's right, after all that he supposedly learned from his trip to Afghanistan & his journey within.

I can't wait to read A Thousand Splendid Suns.

This book was passed on to Sherry Dunn.