Three books! What a fail. Though to be fair, We, the Drowned is nearly a whopping 700 pages. I spent all of September working my way through it and I'm just finishing up the last hundred pages now. That's a super long time to spend on a book, easily the longest of this challenge. But since I have so few books for this quarter here are some mini reviews below.
A novel set during wartime: We, the Drowned by Carsten Jensen
It may have taken forever to read, but it was an excellent novel. Though it revolves around a small port town in Denmark, the novel space 3 generations, the sea, several wars and the vast idea of humanity and violence. Between the war and the graphic depictions of violence in war and civillian life, the novel isn't for anyone squeamish. If you can get over that though, it's an interesting and well thought out depiction of humanity.
If I could change one thing, I'd have loved to see the perspective switch to more women in the town. Women are a part of the entire novel, but the three main perspectives are men since there is a strong focus on sailing and the war. Overall, though, I'd highly recommend this book.
An audiobook: Shopaholic Ties the Knot by Sophie Kinsella
I jump back to the Shopaholic series once in awhile. It's great when you need a super light hearted read (like after reading 700 pages about war.) If you've seen the Confessions of a Shopaholic movie then you know the premise already because this is the series it's based on. It centers around Becky Bloomwood, a serious shopaholic, and all the mishaps she gets into with her bank, boyfriend and everything else life throws at her. It's absurd and sometimes frustrating how crazy and complicated the situations she gets herself into, but it has some nice heart and is an easy pickmeup.
A book by an author who uses a pseudonym: File Under: 13 Suspicious Incidents by Lemony Snicket
Lemony Snicket is a little more of an obvious choice when it comes to authors with pseudonyms, but it was more of a nostalgic choice. The book is clearly for kids, but that actually made it a lot easier to listen to as an audiobook while I was painting my room. Though I wouldn't recommend the audiobook completely; they read through all 13 suspicious incidents and then at the end they read the answers to each mystery. Sometimes I really wanted to get straight to the answer which was annoying, but if you complete the book in a short period of time it's pretty easy to remember everything. And of course, the writing is equal measures of silly and sarcastic, in true Snicket fashion.
One more quarter to go!
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