No not that kind of March madness. But somehow, during this last month, I managed to read a lot. Not sure if I’ll be able to keep this up but I’ve decided to take a more traditional book blogging approach and start posting reviews/opinions on my reading as I go. I’ll use the grading system of my alma mater, the University of Massachusetts, where we did not mess around with plus and minus signs:. So here’s a roundup of my March reading, starting with the most recent (technically finished April 1 but it was 3 a.m. and I read most of it in March so there):
The Ghost by Robert Harris — political thriller, which I checked out from the Key West Library. I started reading this on my lunch hour last Saturday, got half way through very quickly then realized that we planned to see the Roman Polanski movie based on the book, currently playing at The Tropic — and that the point of movies like this is suspense. So I stopped reading and saw the movie, then returned to the book. I thought the movie was good, though not necessarily worth the rave reviews it received — I think people are just thrilled to see a thriller that’s not a shoot ’em up or that bears some resemblance to reality. In general, I preferred the book — the characters were more nuanced, especially Adam Lang, and the big reveal felt more obvious and silly in the movie. I’ve read Pompeii by Harris and plan to read more of his historical fiction. AB
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins — young adult fantasy/dystopia fiction that I checked out from the library. The second in her Hunger Games series, which I picked up because of a rave review on Citizen Reader and because I’m scouting dystopia lit for a future Literary Seminar — and I think it would be particularly cool to get some YA writers in there, since fantasy including dystopian fantasy seems to be huge in that area now. Maybe it always has been (LeGuin, L’Engle, even Tolkein and Lewis and Pullman if you want to extend the boundaries). Anyway it was GREAT — now I’m lining up with all the others waiting for the third installment in the trilogy, Mockingjay, which is to be published this summer. A Continue reading
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