(no subject)

[decemberthirty]

I'm still trying to catch up to what I'm currently reading, but I'm almost there. After finishing Written on the Body, I read Changing Planes by Ursula K. LeGuin. I found it to be a bit of a disappointment. The idea of being able to visit different planes of existence while waiting for you plane in an airport is clever, but I didn't find the results to be particularly special. The stories read like little travelogues or anthropologists' reports about the different planes. Much of LeGuin's writing has something of an extraterrestrial anthropological bent to it, but she usually does a better job of mixing that in with an engrossing story. LeGuin is so good at creating characters that I thought it was a shame that almost none of these stories had strong characters to revolve around. It's entirely possible, however, that I wouldn't be nearly so disappointed by this book if I hadn't just read the wonderful Birthday of the World.

And now, without further ado, I will tell you what I am currently reading. It's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon. What a fantastic book. If I could make my book half so heartbreaking, I will die happy. I don't think I'm going to be able to very coherent about the book right now, because I'm still in the middle of it, and all I can think is, "Oh, Sammy! Oh, Joe! I love you both so much..." But I am particularly in love with Sammy. His story is just heartbreakingly tender and sweet, and then full of so much painful and unnecessary self-denial. That kind of thing is right up my alley. I will post more once I finish it, but all I can say right now is that the book is amazing!