Have been using much of maternity leave devouring the online books available at CLP. For the past few months, I haven't been able to read anything too upsetting- my mind goes into overdrive and I get visions of those horrible things that I've just read about happening to my kids and I spend the next week broody and depressed.
This happened after reading the first half of J.K.Rowling's "A Casual Vacancy". That book upset me no end. Sure, the writing is beautiful and there are some sentences that are masterful in their understated irony. But the story itself? Drugged mothers, abusive fathers, rape, looting, despair,drugs. I hated the story. I kept wondering if Ani and Durga would end up like some of the kids in the book, if we would ever have a cordial relationship and how in the world I was to become a good parent.
Anyway, that's why I stopped reading the book halfway. Couldn't take the sheer nastiness anymore.
The safest feel-good books are romances, but God, spare me those implausible plots and the saccharine dialogues. I still read romances, of course, but it's getting harder to find truly good books. My safe options- Eloisa James, Lisa Kleypas and Loretta Chase- are not bringing out books fast enough for me.
Since time is on my side, I have been scouring the pages of CLP's "eBooks Available Now" looking for something decent. What do I mean by "something decent"? The book should have good writing and a plot that engrosses me. It shouldn't be vulgar. And it should have something in it, some deeper meaning or nuance that I can ponder on long after I read the book. The gold standard here is something like "Atonement"- a book that sweeps one away, a book that is filled with compassion, horror and humanity that it is instantly recognizable and yet quite unforgettable.
Here are my picks so far:
a) The Descendents by Kaui Hart Hemmings. Exquisite. Poignant. I am curious about how they made the movie, because so much of the story lies in what is not expressed.
b) More down to earth, but quite entertaining: A Duty to the Dead by Charles Todd. Mystery novels set in the time of WWI with the protagonist as a nurse serving with the Brits (who else? Why can't somebody write a novel with a German or French protagonist in the times of WWI or WWII? Oh wait, I suppose you could say that 'Allo 'Allo is a work with French protagonists... though it was actually created by the British. As for the Germans, I can think of one.... a novel by Chris Bohjalian... though not in this genre)
*****Update****
On much more reflection, I don't think The Descendents is worthy of my gushing praise above. It's too black-and-white.
Charles Todd's Bess Crawford books are far nicer to read than the Ian Rutledge series. But where's the romance? There needs to be at least a hint of it, for me to continue the series!
