birds of america by lorrie moore

her writing is very dark; almost depressingly so. the first story started off fairly well; feeling strong, and engaged. by the end of the book, i wanted to stab out my eyeballs.

Hmmmm.... I dropped the ball for a little while on updating the blog. I'm so sorry! So I have to remember all that I have read. I will start with The Man Who Smiled by Henning Mankell. As you probably have gathered, I love this author. I love his protagonist. And I love how smart and original and well set these mysteries are. But this one was truly awful. It was as if Mankell was just sitting at his desk staring out the window and every once in a while he would write a sentence or two because he felt like he had to. Very disappointing.

the zookeeper's wife by diane ackerman

I wanted to fall in love with this book from the get go, but Ackerman made it difficult to do so. The Zookeeper's Wife tells the remarkable WWII story of Jan Zabinski, the director of the Warsaw Zoo, and his wife, Antonina, who, with courage and coolheaded ingenuity, sheltered 300 Jews, as well as Polish resisters during the war. Ackerman used Antonina's diaries, as well as other sources, to take us into the Warsaw ghetto and the 1943 Jewish uprising. There are so many rich facts and details, that are heartbreaking and astounding, but Ackerman takes on too much. I was confused in some parts; the story was often interrupted to insert facts about the Pole's revolt against Nazi occupiers in 1944, or introducing us to such figures such as Lutz Heck, the head of the Berlin Zoo and Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, spiritual head of the ghetto. It was a lot to absorb; as if a novel and a history book merged together into one. I wanted to lose myself in the story, and instead I felt I was being lectured to.

Beautifully written, but be prepared as this is not a story for the faint of heart.

we all need a little self-help...

i just finished self-help by lorrie moore. she's a new author for me - there has been some recent coverage of her lately as her new book, a gate at the stairs was just released. i was intrigued, and on a recent trip to the movies, stopped into the bookstore to pick up a few of her books.

i don't usually go for short stories (something about them being short - i feel i become committed to the characters, and then at once they are gone), but i did enjoy moore's writing. all except the last story in this collection i found to be devastatingly heartbreaking. tragic and honest, dark and sublime. the last story could not hold my attention, and i found myself having to reread paragraphs to figure out what was happening.

all in all, i did enjoy her stories, and i am eager to start birds of america..