I finally finished The Finkler Question last night. I should have finished it by April 10, but like everyone else in book club, I didn't. Four of the seven of us met that night. Only three of us had started the book. I'm really not sure what I think about the book. I think I took too long to read it. If I had finished it on time, I think I would have had a lot to say about it. I generally like satire and thought the book was very funny in places, but for me it kind of fizzled in the end.The book is only about 300 pages. So what took me so long? Lots of things got in the way, especially my reading of The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald, which I read for The Classics Circuit's Lost Generation Tour. I'm still thinking about that book often. The portrait of these two people who at first glance seem to be determined to make their own way, Gloria especially, but then just float along waiting for Anthony's inheritance to give them the impetus to act. I wouldn't even say they are treading water. Treading water indicates action and these two are reactors not actors. All the money in the world wouldn't save them from themselves either. I'm not sure that I'm making sense, but I found this book very affecting.
April was very busy at work with implementing a new library automation system, going to state library association annual conference, and teaching students how to make book trailers. May looks to be just as busy. Last year, I gave away over 200 books to students to take home for summer reading. This year, I hope to give away over 300 books, and I would love to give all 575 students at my school a book for summer reading, but I think that goal might be out of reach for this year. To reach my immediate goal of 300+ books, I have decided that I must have one more book fair. Next week, I'll be giving my summer reading presentations to all the reading classes over a period of 4 days. Then the week after that is book fair plus I have to do my end of year inventory. May is going to be jam-packed, but it will fly by and bring me to summer vacation faster.
Before I sign off, I can't forget to mention what young adult titles I've been reading lately. I'm almost finished with an advanced copy of Texas Gothic by Rosemary Clement-Moore. I usually don't like ghost stories, but I'm enjoying this one set in the Texas Hill Country. It hits bookstores in July. I've also started two other books, an advanced copy of Libba Bray's Beauty Queens (it'll be out later this month)--I love the cover!--which I've found very funny so far, and Cathy Ostlere's Karma, a historical fiction verse novel about a Canadian Indian teenage girl who returns to India with her father at the time of the assassination of Indira Ghandi. I've always been fascinated with Indira Ghandi and her legacy. I haven't read much of the book so far, and I'm not a big fan of verse novels, but so far, I am enjoying this one.
Now it's time to go to bed and read for a while. Later.
1 comment:
Good luck with your book-raising (kind of like fund-raising, but not)! I know how much it meant to me to get my summer-reading book from the librarian, although I usually took it back finished in, like, a week and took it back to demand a new one, hehe. Don't blame you for not being able to stop thinking about Fitzgerald - he's good that way! Love those book covers, and can't wait to hear you talk about them.
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