Right now, no doubt, many of you will still be digesting yummy Christmas food (just like I am!) and the readers will probably have their noses in a new book or two, am I right?
I was able to get through a respectable amount while on holidays and it was heaven, beginning with The Best of The Lifted Brow. The Lifted Brow is a literary journal and, as the name clearly states, this is a collection of all the best work from over the years. I had particular favourites, as is typically the case with such books, one of these being the short story by Karen Russell, who has gone on to great things. It was by pure, happy accident that on the same trip to the library I picked up The Best of TLB that I also grabbed Vampires in the Lemon Grove, also by Russell. While I didn’t get to it before it had to be returned, I’ve put a hold on it because I know others who’ve read it and enjoyed it.
The Ethics of What we Eat by Peter Singer and Jim Mason was a ‘retired’ book that was on sale at the tiny library at the beach for twenty cents (!), so I snapped it up for the bargain price. I’ve been wanting to read it ever since Lisa Dempster wrote about it being one of her Life Changing Books, and I must say it is compelling and persuasive: even if one isn’t interested in turning vegan, or vegetarian, it certainly, at the very least, does what the title says, which is address the ethics of what we eat. It’s made me have a long, long think.
I finished The Engagement by Chloe Hooper in a day. Clever, creepy and suspenseful. I found I was having these sorts of conversations with myself:
I see where she’s going
Hang on, no, I don’t
Yes, I do
I don’t get it
Yes, I do
Ah, I see what she did there
Quite the perfect holiday read.
And last, I’ve got Dear Life by Alice Munro because I want to get to know her work better.
How about you? What books did Santa leave under the tree?
