Book Corner

The NYTimes review of John's book is up, now: here. Hunh. Today's also the anniversary of the Union army's arrival in the Confederate Capital. (Did the evacuation fire begin the night before or on the 3rd?)

I am to lead North Park's book discussion group this month: The Jane Austen Book Club. I find kind of contrived, a little silly.

I'm also reading Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass, a (young) YA fantasy novel. I find it generally charming and nicely written, but not riveting. Something about his "daemons" -- souls and consciences in the guise of critters that accompany every human -- makes me a little uneasy. I suppose that at around 10 - 13 years, kids crave that imaginary friend who understands everything about them. He's responding to a need his readers have, not fostering some kind of fear of or disdain for being alone.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, seems to lead the most-reviewed-book pack. I only half-heard on the radio what seemed to be author Foer defending the appropriateness of writing A Post-9-11 Novel. WTF? has the interviewer missed all the suspense novels on the theme?? Anyway, including that public radio piece, I've seen reviews in the Post, Times, and the New Yorker; plus all the usual review journals, of course. I think we ordered an additional copy for NP, but there's not a run on it. We got two additional copies of the (easier? sexier?) Prep.

Picked up at the Friends of Richmond PL: Richmond boy Tom Wolfe's In Our Time (1980), an illustrated collection of essays.