Recent Reads

                                                                                                                                                

Zadie Smith's Swing Time follows the lives of two mixed race English girls, both obsessed with dance. Tracey has the talent, making it to the chorus line of various shows; her friend, the protagonist and narrator of the book, becomes the personal assistant of a famous singer.

So much is explored in this book, which shifts from England to  West Africa, where the famous singer (white) is planning a school for girls. Misplaced philanthropy, diaspora tourism, families, friendship, careers, choices . . . it's an excellent, engaging read on important subjects. Highly recommended.

***

I'm a longtime fan of Harlan Coben's Myron Bolitar series. He writes terrific standalones too, like Stay Close. A soccer mom with a secret, a once-respected photographer, and a detective who can't let go of a very cold case are thrown together as the past threatens to become all too real.

Coben's characters are well drawn and his dialogue crackles. It's a fine, fun read that will keep you guessing. 

                                                                                

Reading YA

 YA is the publishing term for novels aimed at Young Adults -- though in actuality, the age range of the readers is fairly elastic -- from preteen to early twenties -- or, in my case, late sixties.  The protagonists, however, are almost always in their late teens and the story is often that of a coming of age.


Recently I've been wandering in this genre. Jo Walton's Among Others is a quietly charming novel about Mori,  a young girl who has run away from her mother in Wales to England and the father she hardly knows. Set apart from others at her boarding school because of a crippled leg, she spends much time reading -- and a great part of my enjoyment of this books was that she reads many of my childhood favorites.


Oh,  and Mori's mother is a witch - an evil one -- and Mori herself can do magic and . . . well, there's a detailed review HERE. I really loved this book

 

 Another YA that I recently enjoyed is Lev Grossman's  The Magicians. It's a kind of  American and more grown up  Harry Potter and there is, I might warn you, Language, as well as Adult Situations. (Not surprising for this late teen, early twenties age group.) I also caught quite a few nods to Narnia. This is another fantasy meets real life. I was completely engaged by the characters and would like to read a sequel. 

Not a YA,  Live Wire is the tenth in Coben's  NYT bestselling Myron Bolitar series.  I've written here before of my total fascination with this wise-cracking, sweetheart of a protagonist as well as his psychotic preppy ninja sidekick, Win. (In this outing Win has two Asian girlfriends, named Mee and Yu, affording the opportunity for a lot of punning.)

And there's another new character -- Myron's nephew Mickey. He's a wonderful, conflicted teen with serious family issues. All of which makes him perfect to be the protag of his own YA novel. 

Shelter, with Mickey in the starring role, is just out. I haven't read it yet but I will, I will!
  

An Unreasonable Attachment

I'm not a sports fan.

I was out of college before I understood what 'downs' were in football. In spite of being surrounded by hard-core Carolina basketball fans, I've never learned to appreciate the strategy and beauty that I'm told are part of the game. And golf?

As if.

So why am I totally enamored with Harlan Coben's suspense/thriller series about Myron Bolitar, a sports agent, all of whose clients are (obviously) athletes ?

Probably because Coben manages to be both extremely funny and extremely serious. Bad things happen and Coben makes us care -- while the indomitable Myron Bolitar with his tender side and his smart ass humor is a guy after my own heart -- in spite of the sports thing.

And then, even more improbably, I am completely fascinated by Myron's sidekick, Win (that would be Windsor Horne Lockwood III,) the psychotic preppie. Oh my, this is quite a fella -- but as the series develops, we find out the reasons for his . . . quirks.

As I've mentioned before, when I'm writing I still have to read -- with breakfast, with lunch, in the bath, before falling asleep -- and I tend to pick up books I've already read so I don't race through to find out what happened.

I've been re-reading my own Signs in the Blood, just to remind myself of what I've said previously (after four years some of it is a bit hazy.) But the other night, I felt in the mood for something different and picked up Back Spin which I've already read a couple of times -- and I'm hooked all over again.