Well, what do you know, I actually liked Atwood’s Oryx and Crake. It was science fiction, which I didn’t expect, but then again, I hadn’t read the back cover before I started reading. The plot is your typical sci-fi doomsday distopian morality story, but it reads well and is engaging. I still haven’t decided whether I will read any more Margaret Atwood’s books. I just might, but not for a while as I have a whole pile of books to get through until I won’t know what to read any more.

Currently I am reading ‘The Colony of Unrequited Dreams’ by Wayne Johnston. This is all in my quest to read all books I am remotely interested in from the CBC’s Canada Reads list.

*** note to the nosy ones – I apparently already reviewed the Life of Pi. Well, there you have it. Not one, but two, brief reviews of a lovely Canadian book ***

I just realised that I’ve never talked about a few books I’ve read over the summer. So here it goes:

In The Skin Of A Lion

I enjoyed this book. It talks about Canadian immigrants in 20’s and 30’s. It is also a mystery, an examination of society and a love story. Yay!

The Life of Pi

Well, what do you know, I liked this one too. It is about a boy who gets shipwrecked on a lifeboat with a tiger. I’m not going to say much more about the plot because it twists. But it’s good and enjoyable and all that.

Currently I’m reading Margaret Atwood. I’ve been putting her off for a while due to her intimidating ways. For my non-Canadian readers, according to some young punk author on CBC, you’re made it in Canadian literature if Margaret Atwood answers your phone call.

You haven’t spent enough time around me if you haven’t heard me whining about transoceanic flights. I discovered a remedy for hours of lightly shaken, recycled air boredom on my last trip to Zagreb though. In order to survive this ordeal unscathed one must bring along a page-turner. I’ve been taking books on the airplane for years, but I’ve always put them down after two hours. Some books, most books I would choose in fact, need some time to percolate between chapters. The trick is therefore to get a book you will not put down. For me these books are written by Carol Shields followed closely by Hunter S. Thompson.

For the harrowing trip to Japan and back I have chosen her novel The Republic of Love. Carol Shields is not my favourite author, but I have always read her books within days, which is quite unusual for me. As I expected, I was able to not get bored on the plane and the book lasted me enough for both directions. Is it a good book? Yah, not too bad. It is too much of a love story which makes it corny, but it is still pretty well done. If you are a cynic, the story will not be too believable, otherwise it is a good, coherent work. I do prefer her later novel, Unless. The question is, of course, on how many plane rides I can read the same author before I get bored.

Now that school hasn’t really started yet and I’ve had a chance to catch some sleep, I’ve been reading literature. It’s nice. I’ve managed to read two books in last 6 months. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy was next to my bed since late summer. I would read it when I was not dead tired, but tired enough not to be able to do any homework.

I liked the book, it has a very real book and if you take Ottawa Citizen seriously you would think that it was written in 2078. It examines the small town attitudes in the Victorian times and their brutal effects on people caught on the wrong side of banal.

Another book that I’ve read entirely over the holidays is The Life of Pi by Yan Martel. I liked this one too, it is an enjoyable and exciting read with an interesting message.