Been Reading

I love reading, because it's relaxing and because I get to learn about all sorts of random stuff. So here's what I've been reading since coming to China (minus a few that were free on kindle for very good reasons).

Scion of Cyador

This is somewhere in the middle of a sci-fi series by LE Modesitt. I haven't read the ones before or after it, and I had some trouble keeping characters straight for a while, but I really enjoyed a lot of the book (and I kind of want to read it again.)

Mao's Last Dancer

Borrowed this from Sharon when we were in Beijing; it was gripping and a good way to learn some history from a personal perspective.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter

I had been intrigued by this book when I picked it up in a random bookstore in Pittsburgh where a group of us hung out before watching Coppelia this spring. It's a kind of random novel, interesting but not much more than that. It was kind of frustrating because a lot of characters seemed to lose out – which I suppose could be realistic, but there wasn't enough in the way of redemptive elements or challenging questions for me to really love this book.

The Kitchen God's Wife

The Bonesetter's Daughter

I was introduced to Amy Tan last year in Xiamen when we watched The Joy Luck Club, and I've really appreciated her writing about Chinese culture through telling the stories of women who emigrated to America.

So Brave, Young, and Handsome

Nothing too special about the story, but definitely worth reading for Enger's masterful wordsmithing.

When Character Was King

I picked this up in Beijing because someone was giving it away. It was good, it seemed pretty balanced and was well-written. I'd be curious to read something about Reagan from the opposite perspective. Frankly, I'm a little disenchanted with politics in the US in general right now (me and the rest of the population, right?)

Till We Have Faces

This is one of my favorite books ever. Lewis does an excellent job of raising questions through the retelling of mythology that pull at the edges of ultimate questions that humans have always asked, and he uses language beautifully.

A Prefect's Uncle

Random book by Wodehouse. It was okay, amusing in a British sort of sense, but nothing particularly deep. Of course, it was also free on kindle, so...

The Awakened (part I)

Good, not the best thing I've ever read, but good enough that I wouldn't have minded reading parts II and III when I finished. Not good enough for me to be inclined to pay for parts II and III when I have access to so many other free books right now. It ended really abruptly.

In the Presence of My Enemies

This was a good cultural education of a setting very different than mine... for which I am thankful.

Toxic

Again, a so-so kind of sci-fi/fantasty story... it wasn't a total waste of time to read, but it didn't serve much more than relaxation purposes.

A Beautiful Mind

I haven't seen the movie (I guess we weren't watching it for humanities my semester), and this book was a series of highs and lows. Parts of it were intellectually intriguing, and parts of it just dragged, seemingly endlessly. I typically have to push through biographies, though, so that may have been part of the problem.

The Lovely Bones

Eh. Memorable, but really creepy. Probably not something I'd recommend.

Riding the Bus With My Sister

This was a good book, telling one woman's story about living with a mentally handicapped adult sister. It was mostly sweet and pretty honest, which I appreciated.

Mitford 3 & 4

So I read the first two books in this series while I was in OK this past summer. They aren't profoundly life changing, but they're fun reads, good for chilling with.

My Unknown Child

An English woman's story of how she had an abortion and her life after that. It was okay, obviously not really a fun subject, but I admire her honesty in writing a book to help others.

Holy Fools

This book was like Name of the Rose meets Chocolat without being a particularly good story. So... skip it and read Name of the Rose instead.

A Million Little Pieces

Trippy is probably the best word to describe this memoir of a man going through drug rehab. I can't think of many situations I would recommend reading this for, if for no other reason than a lot of language that I don't really enjoy having banging around in my head. It was a pretty convincing reason to stay far away from substance abuse, though.

Kabul Beauty School

This was a really interesting read since I don't know much at all about Afghanistan. Also, the author had a lot of crazy adventures that make me feel like my life in China is totally normal in pretty much every possible way.

Eat Pray Love

Interesting in the kind of way that it's interesting to read decently well written stories of someone else's travels. I can't say that I'm a fan of her theology/philosophy, but she at least is pretty straightforward about that.

Currently reading or have to read: Boundaries (which I am two-thirds of the way through and have found one really good sentence), The Divine Conspiracy (which I owe an immense debt to Griffin for getting me into this book five or six years ago), The Pianist, and Celebration of Discipline.

What got returned after not much reading: The Barbarian Way. (It was annoying me, and I felt like I had other books in a similar genre that would be more beneficial.)

What I'm not reading: The Gulag Archipelago. So... I started this when I was coming back from OK, brought it with me on the plane to China, have had it the entire time here... and still haven't gotten past the first hundred pages I think. It is not light reading. Oh, Russian books. Maybe, maybe at some point this year I'll manage to summon up the necessary strength of character to progress. 

Got more suggestions for me?  ;)