Monthly Reading: March 2009

April 1, 2009 at 10:15 am | In Monthly Reading, Reviews | 4 Comments
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Cover of "The Children's Hospital"

Cover of The Children's Hospital

four_starsThe Children’s Hospital by Chris Adrian — post-apocalyptic

four_starsGrendel by John Gardner — fantasy

two_starsLoving Frank by Nancy Horan — historical fiction

one_starProdigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver — abandoned

one_starStand on Zanzibar by John Brunner — abandoned

My rating scale:

  • 1 star: Abandoned before finishing. Don’t waste your time.
  • 2 stars: Poor. Avoid with extreme prejudice.
  • 3 stars: Average. Read it, have a good time and move on. Or not.
  • 4 stars: Great. Push it on your friends and family.
  • 5 stars: Excellent. Keep it, treasure it, reread it.

Disclaimer: My ratings are very personal and may have little to do with the book’s artistic or commercial merit, or its place in the literary canon. Rather, the rating reflects how the story, characters and writing spoke to me and augmented my understanding of the world.

Elsewhere on the web, here are some other reviews of a few of my favorites:

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Worth Reading: The Children’s Hospital

March 18, 2009 at 2:17 pm | In Books, Reviews | 4 Comments
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The Children's Hospital

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The Children’s Hospital, Chris Adrian (2006)

I am the recording angel, doomed to watch.

The Children’s Hospital is a book that asks a lot of its readers. It begins with the Earth being flooded under seven miles of water, and the only surviving ark is literally a children’s hospital, kept afloat by a preserving angel, who also adds new rooms, replicators that can provide anything the survivors need and ghostly, uncomforting intonations of comfort that emanate from the PA system, floors and walls. There are three other angels as well, although they are not revealed to most of the hospital’s inhabitants: the recording angel, who is the book’s invisible narrator; the accusing angel; and the destroying angel, whose ominous title is well-deserved. The hospital’s Noah is a medical student named Jemma, who discovers she has the power to heal all of the young passengers’ horrendous diseases and afflictions, and that she is pregnant with the post-apocalypse’s first baby.

Thus, this is the Flood and the Messiah and the Armageddon stories all rolled up into one, and it all would be a bit much if not for Adrian’s deft use of language. In the 600 or so pages of this dense novel, he evokes an otherwordly, magical atmosphere that slowly and seductively lures the reader in and suspends that disbelief up high. Despite the bureaucratic quibblings of the hospital staff that persist even in the End Times, this is not a story that is meant to be taken literally. It is allegory and mythology, plain and simple, so don’t spend too much time wondering about those replicators.

In fact, the allusions and references of The Children’s Hospital are so densely packed I won’t attempt to enumerate them, but only encourage you to read the book and discover them for yourself, and to stick with it for a while after the point where you want to give up. The Children’s Hospital takes its time in weaving its spell, and if my only quibble with it is that it probably could have used some judicious editing, it’s a mild quibble.

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The Sunday Salon: Where are the book reviews?

February 22, 2009 at 1:49 pm | In Books, Sunday Salon | 4 Comments
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Cover of "The Children's Hospital"

Cover of The Children's Hospital

I know it’s been a long time since I posted a review. That’s because I’ve spent most of February churning my way through The Children’s Hospital by Chris Adrian. It’s a long book, it’s a dense book, it’s a surreal book, I’m not sure how much I like it although it’s definitely growing on me… Regardless, it’s not a book you can rush. I can’t review it yet, but if you like books with apocalypses and angels, this might be a good one to pick up.

I did a lot of housekeeping this weekend. I cleaned up my reading lists on Lists of Bests so I could focus more on what I want to read rather than what I think I should read. I read for pleasure, and while I do think it’s a good thing to tackle a classic or a Pulitzer Prize winner every now and then, what really gets me jazzed are sci fi and thrillers. My “to read” shelf had gotten a little heavy on the “should read” end, and it wasn’t exciting me anymore. So I weeded out those books I knew I would never get around to reading and was able to winnow the shelf down to actually one shelf, no piles on the floor or anything. (Unlike my husband, who has two shelves and four piles on the floor right now.) That means I can start buying or mooching books again, since I promised myself I wouldn’t acquire any new books as long as I had unread books on the floor.

So what did I get rid of? I’ve decided I don’t knowingly want to read books about children who are being abused, neglected, raped or senselessly killed. These subjects are just too painful for me to want to read about for pleasure. So I eliminated some (probably) very good books that I knew had such scenes, such as The Kite Runner and Angela’s Ashes. Let’s be honest — I probably never would have gotten around to reading them anyway.

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Books on My Wishlist I’m Looking Forward to Reading

June 26, 2008 at 8:37 am | In Books, Reading Lists | 6 Comments
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Ok, my “to read” pile is out of control. I have one shelf in my bedroom that’s designated as a “to read” shelf. Ever since I discovered BookMooch, though, the contents of that shelf have spilled off the end and created a pile next to it that’s almost as tall as the bookcase.

My husband, who gets two shelves and still has piles of books all over the floor, has suggested that we solve the problem by getting another bookcase for the bedroom.

In the meantime, I am trying not to buy any new books until I make a dent in the pile. But that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped adding books to my wishlist. Here are a few that I don’t know if I can wait for:

How about you — are there any books you’re particularly looking forward to? Anyone have any recommendations for (relatively) new books to add to my wishlist?

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