“Tinker,
Tailor, Soldier, Spy” by John Le Carre. Margaret Atwood had
mentioned it, and someone in an article about the ongoing failures of spies,
and I’d heard that he was a good writer, so I got it out of the library. This
might not have been the best place to start – the first 100 pages were full of
characters with backstory that I didn’t totally get. However, I knew I’d be
able to get through it because I passed p. 60 without a problem. I guess I
raved about it enough, because Ed picked it up when I was done.
“All
These Things I’ve Done” by Gabrielle Zevin. Another library book.
I wasn’t really clear on how the world got this way, but the exploration of the
results of prohibition was excellent. I loved the somewhat incompetent crime
family. The way chocolate made people behave just because it was illegal was an
interesting statement about drugs in general, I thought. Some of the characters
were stereotypical, but the important relationship – that between Anya and her
brain-damaged brother Leo, was really well done. I didn’t realize it was part
of a trilogy until I was trying to quote it and had to google.
“Late
Eclipses” by Seanan McGuire. The boy negotiated with me that I had
to read this before I read the books I got for my birthday, suggesting that I
read faster than him so I’d be done this and them before he finished book five,
since he plays more tanks than I do (!). The thing that was remarkable here was
something she’s probably been doing all along – you know something bad is going
to happen, but it’s never quite the bad thing that you expect.