Incendiary – Chris Cleave
Whoa. Intensely emotional and depressing, this is the story of a woman recovering after her husband and four year old son are killed in a terrorist attack. Made me cry. Only recommended for those with strong, erm, not stomachs so much as minds. I know mine had some trouble handling it.
Life of Pi – Yann Martel
This was the book club book this month! Here is my post about it.
The Pale King – David Foster Wallace
This is David Foster Wallace’s last novel, which he did not have the chance to finish before his death. However, it reads like a complete novel, and is quite good. It is about some IRS agents and is semi-autobiographical. I liked it quite a lot.
Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides
This novel takes place over the course of three generations of a family, from Greece to Detroit, from the early 20th century to present day. The narrator is a hermaphrodite. This is a lovely book and I enjoyed it immensely.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
The earth is destroyed to make room for a super space highway, and a man is picked up by a passing spaceship just in time. With his alien friend, he hitchhikes across the galaxy. Great fun. Hilarious. And a classic.
1Q84 – Haruki Murakami
I’m not usually a fan of fantasy, but this was a great book. It was a sneaky fantasy, starting off like a literary novel, but slowly becoming weirder and weirder as it went. The two main characters are massage therapist slash murderer Aomame, which means “green peas” in Japanese, and writer and math professor Tengo. They are somehow transferred into an alternate universe that has two moons in the sky and is riddled with magical little people that hide inside other people and come out to build air chrysalises upon their death. The more I read of Murakami, the more I realizes he must be genius.
