Book Request
As Jeffy has posted, we have officially booked our vacation to Cuba. Hooray! Now, I appeal to all of you in the blog-o-sphere for Vacation Book Recommendations.
Before you go all crazy, there are some very important parameters here:
1. The book must be vacation reading. That means nothing too heavy or plodding, nothing too complex, and nothing too dismal. I'm a clever person, but I'll be on vacation here.
2. The book must be good. We have a weight limit on our bags, and I want to bring, say, 6-8 really good reads.
3. (and this is the important one) NO BAD THINGS MAY HAPPEN TO CHILDREN. I've blogged about this before, but I can't stress it enough. I'm hormonal enough as it is, and I don't need to be weeping my way through a book on the beach in Cuba. Generally I find that if I stay away from anything in Oprah's book club and anything with a sepia-toned cover, that's a good start. But I emphasize this because before I had children, I myself was immune to the Bad Things Happening to Children in novels. On more than one occasion I've re-read a book post-children that I really enjoyed pre-children and will come upon a scene wherein a Very Bad Thing Happens to a Child, and I will wonder how I missed that the first time around. I'm just saying. If you have any doubts at all, or can't really remember, best to leave it off the list. Both Jeffy and I will thank you for it. (Me, because it will keep me from getting too upset, and Jeffy because he will be spared my tears and angry venting about Books with Bad Things Happening to Children in them.)
You can leave suggestions in the comments, or if you are too shy to do so, feel free to email them to me. I can always bring my old favourites (The Robber Bride, some Robertson Davies trilogy, any Jane Austen) but I would be happy to branch out to something new.
Thanks to everyone in advance! (Kenji, what was the name of that G.G. Kay one you were reading over the holidays? Where it's sort of set in Denmark?) I hope to have a fun trip to the library on Saturday perusing and collecting books for the trip.
Before you go all crazy, there are some very important parameters here:
1. The book must be vacation reading. That means nothing too heavy or plodding, nothing too complex, and nothing too dismal. I'm a clever person, but I'll be on vacation here.
2. The book must be good. We have a weight limit on our bags, and I want to bring, say, 6-8 really good reads.
3. (and this is the important one) NO BAD THINGS MAY HAPPEN TO CHILDREN. I've blogged about this before, but I can't stress it enough. I'm hormonal enough as it is, and I don't need to be weeping my way through a book on the beach in Cuba. Generally I find that if I stay away from anything in Oprah's book club and anything with a sepia-toned cover, that's a good start. But I emphasize this because before I had children, I myself was immune to the Bad Things Happening to Children in novels. On more than one occasion I've re-read a book post-children that I really enjoyed pre-children and will come upon a scene wherein a Very Bad Thing Happens to a Child, and I will wonder how I missed that the first time around. I'm just saying. If you have any doubts at all, or can't really remember, best to leave it off the list. Both Jeffy and I will thank you for it. (Me, because it will keep me from getting too upset, and Jeffy because he will be spared my tears and angry venting about Books with Bad Things Happening to Children in them.)
You can leave suggestions in the comments, or if you are too shy to do so, feel free to email them to me. I can always bring my old favourites (The Robber Bride, some Robertson Davies trilogy, any Jane Austen) but I would be happy to branch out to something new.
Thanks to everyone in advance! (Kenji, what was the name of that G.G. Kay one you were reading over the holidays? Where it's sort of set in Denmark?) I hope to have a fun trip to the library on Saturday perusing and collecting books for the trip.
| posted at 7:44 PM |
