Reading

My reading life has been funny lately. The past few weeks have been busy. Every time I think "today is the day I curl up with my book for more than my lunch break or the 15 minutes before I fall asleep" I get sidetracked or distracted by things like cleaning...cooking...laundry. Plus, there have been a lot of activities going on and I'm finding myself a bit ADD when it comes to what I'm reading. One day, I'll read book x, the next I'm reading some of book y, etc. I know a lot of people read this way regularly and on purpose, but I've not done that for a while. I think it's a response to not having as much time as I want to read. I'm trying to read ALL THE BOOKS at once. But it's making me a little crazy. I did read a Kristan Higgins book I hadn't yet: Just One of the Guys. I think it's one of her better ones, with a unique heroine, big family dynamics, small town charm, and an I'm-in-love-with-my-best-friend kind of romance -- sweet but with just the right amount of sizzle. I'm in the middle of reading The Walking, by Laleh Khadivi. It's about two Kurdish brothers from Iran, set right around the hostage crisis in 1979. So far, I'm entranced by Khadivi's beautiful writing, and her ability to tell a small part of the story of a people, through the experience of these two young men. Oh, and I just finished a non-fiction book (very rare for me, I'm not going to lie) How Israel Lost the Four Questions, by Richard Ben Cramer. Pretty interesting stuff. The author (a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist) has an easy way of presenting his points and telling the stories of the people he talked to. One benefit to reading a book written by a journalist: he's not unnecisarily wordy. Cramer comes off a little sarcastic and smug at times, but he very clearly illustrates how the conflict in Israel and Palestine is both complex and simple at the same time. And while at times he seems a little biased against Israel, it seems to me that it's because he sees a country he grew to love turning into something he doesn't recognize. It's a frustration born out of love and high expectations.

Waiting in the wings is Swimming at Night, by Lucy Clarke. I don't know much about this book, except that it's about sisters and it was written by the friend of a friend, so I'm looking forward to it.

So that's what I'm reading these days.