Reading Life--Part 2

The Book of Mormon Girl--I bought this for my Kindle because one of my college roommates mentioned it on Facebook. Joanna Brooks and I were students in BYU's English department at the same time; I knew of her but didn't know her. Her memoir made me both laugh and cry with nostalgia. I highly recommend this to anyone who grew up Mormon in the 1970s and '80s.

Duty Free--elliptical fluff. Tolerable, but I won't seek out more books by this author.

The Thin Man--another book about the stereotypical hard-boiled, heavy-drinking, chain-smoking detective. Except, of course, it wasn't a stereotype at all until Dashiell Hammett created it in this and other books. This is very short and a quick read. I didn't see the solution to the mystery ahead of time, which is always nice. I don't think I've ever read a book with a higher drinks-per-page ratio.

Galileo's Daughter--another pre-trip read. Galileo had three children, all illegitimate. He purchased legitimacy for his youngest child, a son. The two daughters he put in a convent just outside Florence. He and his oldest daughter kept up a regular correspondence, and although his letters to her have not survived, hers to him have. Despite the title, this is really a biography of Galileo, not his daughter, but the inclusion of her letters in the narrative provides a different view of him. I knew only the barest outline of Galileo's conflict with the church, so I learned a lot reading this.

I won't talk about Michael's latest book in an attempt to provide some anonymity for my blog, but I enjoyed reading and proofreading it. It'll be out in the fall.

Witches Under Way--the newest book from my favorite fluff author. This was supposed to be my elliptical book, but I finished it off early on a day I was recovering from a cold.

In the Garden of Beasts--the book club pick for this month (although I suggested it). I have read a fair bit about WWII Germany and Hitler, and yet I really didn't know much about the events of 1933 and 1934, and I'm not sure I'd ever heard of The Night of the Long Knives (June 30, 1934). This book is based on the writings of the American ambassador to Germany and his daughter Martha, who dated a number of Nazi officials during her years in Berlin. I found Rudolf Diels, the head of the Gestapo, to be surprisingly sympathetic and shockingly sane and moderate. He realized just a little too late that the Gestapo attracted sadists and made sadists out of even the normal men and women who worked for it.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy--this book was on so many reading lists--including the "I Can't Believe You Haven't Read *That*?!" list--that it was only a matter of time before I read it. I enjoyed it. I chuckled a time or two. I don't understand those who say it is the best science fiction book ever written. I need more depth in my great books. I did jot down a couple of quotes I may use in the future.

Slaughterhouse-Five--I found this while alphabetizing the paperbacks left in the ping-pong room by the former owners. I'd heard of it, of course, but knew no details, so I was a bit surprised to find myself back in WWII Germany. Excellent book. I should read more Vonnegut, because so far I'm 2-for-2 with his books.

On Writing--Michael recommended this to me more than once, and I was finally in the mood to read it. I enjoyed the memoir parts the most; the writing advice less. It was interesting to get a look at how he works, especially since I share my office with a fiction writer.

The Human Factor--Stephen King recommended some Graham Greene books in On Writing, and I knew from alphabetizing the paperbacks that we had some of Greene's books. We didn't have the ones King recommended, so I picked this one because the cover quote said, "Probably the best espionage novel ever written." I haven't read enough in the genre to speak to that (and the quote is over 30 years old now), but I did enjoy it. The author has some nice turns of phrase that I meant to write down, but I was too caught up in the plot to do that, and now I can't find them.