I have talked to several people lately who have either too many or too few books to read. It's an interesting question for die-hard readers: where do you get your books? You know my usual suspects: my mom's house, library book club selections, recommendations from friends and family or even students, occasionally reviews in magazines and newspapers. But what about when your usual sources provide either too many, or worse, too few titles? It's a nerve racking predicament for the kind of people who would rather read the personal ads than nothing at all. My people.
I find myself in between the two situations, which isn't to say that I have just the right amount of books, Goldilocks-style. I have had a big stack of books to look forward to all summer, and as I've worked my way through them, more have appeared in my hands or my mailbox. And yet...not of them have been just right. To my friend who asked for a recommendation yesterday, I had to say I haven't loved a book for months now. And I'm sorry to say that this title doesn't break that streak. No love for "The Art."
I admit that I can't remember where I heard about this book, but I must have requested it from the library because it came in one of those beautiful purple fabric envelopes in the mail. It's actually a few years old, written in 2002 and translated in 2006. A young woman in New York travels to Burma (I had to look up where that is--bad social studies teacher!) to find her father who disappeared a few years before. She meets a mysterious monkish stranger in a tea house who says he has been waiting for her for years and tells her the story of her father's life in Burma from birth to age 20, including the woman he loved and left there. The story is beautifully told, almost mystical, and has a tropical post-colonial intensity about it. Right up until the end, though, I found it a little...boring, Maybe my attention has just been harder to grasp and hold throughout my pregnancy and now with a newborn at home, but I just haven't been swept off my feet lately.
What I liked about the ending is the prospect of long lost families reunited. It's a theme that appeals to me deeply for some reason (I'm not adopted, at least I'm pretty sure of it, so I don't know why it grabs me). I've loved that about Kate Morton's books and it's one of the themes of my own manuscripts. I just need a little more plot-driven story, ooh, and maybe an English manor or some elements of mystery thrown in.
So dear reader friends, where do you get your book recommendations? And what can you recommend for me that fits the aforementioned qualifications? Please comment!
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