I have been devouring books again. My family has even noticed it enough to actually comment. Anyway, here’s a round-up of the books that have left the biggest impressions on me lately:
I spent a while trying to get a “six degrees of separation” going with these books, as they all seemed to be fitting together, but I couldn’t make the two streams jive. Maybe someone else can:
(1st stream)
- Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street by Michael Davis. He mentions at one point that the meal served at the dinner where the people behind SS start putting the idea together is directly from
- Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which leads, this summer anyway, to
- Jule & Julia, Julie Powell’s book about her experience cooking her way through the book above.
Disclaimer: These thoughts occurred to me, but I still haven’t managed to get my hands on to a copy of the last book, or see the movie.
(2nd stream)
- The Invention of Hugo Cabret: a novel in words and pictures by Brian Selznick was a great read. I went through it much quicker than I expected, and I’d love to get my hands on it again, and take the time to really enjoy the mixture of the words and pictures, which I think was really well done. Without giving too much away, it links to
- Georges Méliès’ motion picture Le voyage dans la lune, or, A trip to the Moon, made in 1902. The making of this film was depicted in the 12th part of
- From the Earth to the Moon, the HBO miniseries produced by Tom Hanks about the Apollo space program. The miniseries was based primarily on the book
- A Man on the Moon: the voyages of the Apollo astronauts by Andrew Chaikin. I’ve long been interested in space and space travel (yes, I was even a member of the Space Club (?) in grade Six, and did a project about Mars during lunch hours because I thought it was fun), and this book was the perfect mix of layman science (hey, I said I was interested, not that I understood the complexities of it!), history, and just good storytelling.
I’ve been contemplating those two streams for a while, trying to figure out if I could link them… I think the most likely link is probably between Sesame Street and Hugo Cabret, but I don’t know what it would be. As you can see, however, I’m not staying explicitly with written materials, (or, I’ve added extra steps that aren’t written materials), so if you think of something, please let me know!
On other reading, I’ve been kind of fixated on the murder mystery/thriller genre. I’ve been a fan of mysteries ever since i picked up my first Agatha Christie back in about 1994 (or thereabouts, I’m really not sure). Most recently, I’ve been reading the In Death series by J.D. Robb, starring NYPSD lieutenant Eve Dallas. I’ve enjoyed Nora Roberts’ other works in general fiction and romance, and this series is not disappointing me at all. I’ve read most of the nooks in the series, but for the most part have read them out of order. This isn’t really a problem, as the story has been pretty easy to follow/pick up on/fill in gaps when necessary, but I think it would be interesting to go back and read them all in order sometime. The one suggestion I have for anyone who is thinking of picking them up would be to definitely start with the first couple of books in the series (Naked in Death is the first), as they set the foundation, and then pick it up wherever you feel like it.
I’ve also started (very slowly) reading Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series. this one I am trying to read in order, and so I’ve been having to wait for holds to come in at the library, and I’m up to waiting for the fourth one, Four to Score.
While I can understand why NoveList (to which I have access from the lovely Winnipeg Public Library) doesn’t list them as read-alikes (Robb’s works are darker and more serious, and her settings of future-NYC much different than Evanovich’s Trenton, NJ Burg and laugh-out-loud funny writing), I find them both appealing. They both showcase strong female characters who make no apologies for who they are, and a cast of quirky secondary characters.
I’ve read all sorts of other books in the last little while, but these are the ones that have made the strongest impression.
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