Although memories of summer are becoming increasingly fuzzy (does anyone else feel like summer 2012 was already a million years ago? I blame the election*), I do seem to remember having gone on something of a fiction bender.
Mostly I just re-read a lot of stuff I had around the house, which was kind of relaxing. I plowed through Susan Cooper's first-ish book in her Dark Is Rising series, Over Sea, Under Stone, and it was a lovely read. Just right for summer, although I wished I could have been reading it while actually IN Cornwall. Cooper really does a lovely job with setting; very vivid accounts of a seaside fishing village in Great Britain. And of course now I'm ready for my winter re-reading of Dark is Rising. I like to have my reading ducks in a row like that.
I also plowed through a ton of largely forgettable chick lit novels, because, along with romantic comedies and BBC classics, I really love chick lit on some elemental level. One title that stood out was Jancee Dunn's Don't You Forget about Me, but that was mainly because I love Jancee Dunn (DO read her memoirs But Enough about Me and Why Is My Mother Getting a Tattoo?: And Other Questions I Wish I Never Had to Ask).
And, oh, I finally read another Carol Shields novel, titled Larry's Party. I enjoyed the hell out of that. Let's run down Carol's case, shall we? 1. She's considered a Canadian novelist, because she lived most of her life in Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Vancouver, although she was born in the States. Go Canada! 2. She is perhaps my favorite woman novelist, nearly on a par with Anne Tyler. 3. She writes a really good guy character. And, because I am a married woman with a child, I basically never ever get to talk to men anymore.** It sucks. So spending a novel in the company of an interesting (if sometimes exasperating) male character was a real treat.
I'm pretty sure there are novels I'm forgetting. But you start to get the idea. I did a lot of cheating on nonfiction with fiction this summer. No worries though. I'm back with my true love. I just raced through D.T. Max's biography of David Foster Wallace, and it was GOOD. Ah, nonfiction, you're always there for me.
*I am blaming the election for everything. What will I do with myself on November 7?
**Thank God I had a son. Someday when he grows up, if he forgives me for whatever I'm doing wrong currently, I hope he'll talk to me and I'll have a guy friend again.
I dated a writer once who told me that she had learned more about men from "Larry's Party" than from any other book she had read.
Posted by: Robert Burgin | 18 October 2012 at 11:37 AM
Oh, Robert, that's priceless. Thanks for sharing that. That's a reason I like Anne Tyler too--she writes really good men characters as well ("The Accidental Tourist" and "Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant" being the best of her books, I think).
Posted by: Citizen Reader | 18 October 2012 at 09:22 PM
I so need to read more Carol Shields! I have a lot of NF on my shelves I want to read and it keeps getting crowded out.
Posted by: Care | 22 October 2012 at 10:01 PM
Have you read Carol Shields's "Republic of Love"? Highly recommend it. It's my go-to romantic novel to re-read set in Winnipeg, Canada. Shields writes lovely prose about love, life and winter (-30 Celcius temp - brrr, it's gets so bloody cold up here). Thanks for the Jancee Dunn recommendation. Cheers from Edmonton (where it's a balmy -5 this a.m.).
Posted by: Angelique | 23 October 2012 at 10:21 AM
Care,
Me too! I'm working through her stuff very slowly, saving her books as little treats every now and then.
Angelique,
I have not yet read "Republic of Love," maybe that's next. I've read The Box Garden (I think that was Shields, anyway), The Stone Diaries, Unless, and now this one. I can't wait to read the rest but I am pacing myself.
Whenever I hear "Winnipeg" I think about that short-lived show "An American in Canada," and how they were always picking on men from Winnipeg (are they actually called "Peggers"?) for being smooth girlfriend-stealers.
Have you read some Jancee? Let me know what you think. And as always, thanks for the Canadian cheers, you know that makes my day. Stay warm!
Posted by: Citizen Reader | 23 October 2012 at 02:35 PM
Hey CR - my husband wanted to make sure I warn you - whatever you do, please do NOT watch the film adaptation of Republic of Love. So, so awful. TGIF!
Posted by: Angelique | 26 October 2012 at 10:19 PM