Thursday, July 06, 2006

Vacation and new books

I'm on vacation right now and will be until the 21st. I except the time to whip right on by since I'm actually enjoying myself. I'm with my dad and my sisters; I haven't seen them for a while so this is nice but a little tense since I have to make sure I see my dad and spend time with both my sisters and I'm only here for a week. But it's still good. I'm more relaxed than I would be at work.
New Books

Leaving the Saints by Martha Beck: This is the story of a woman's eventual disenchantment with the Mormon church especially after she recalls being abused as a young child by her father, whose position as a famous apologist for Mormonism made him practically unassailable. Her descriptions of the Church's attempts to censor academic freedom at Brigham Young University, where she and her husband were professors, are interesting and frightening. Some of the book dipped a bit too much into New Age philosophies for me, but on the whole, I liked it. My new favorite TV show is Big Love, so I've gotten interested in books on Mormonism.

Lisey's Story by Stephen King: The release date for this is October 2007. I was given an advance copy at ALA, something I 'm truly thrilled about. I often forget that Stephen King has such an ear for language and the beautiful sentence, as he himself often forgets it and instead goes for the cheap gross out. I've not finished this book but so far I'm enjoying it. I'm told that it's related in some ways to Bag of Bones, one of my favorite late Stephen King books. This new book is the story of the wife of a famous writer who has to go through his manuscripts after his death and choose an appropriate archive for them. What happens to her during this process and the nature of marriage and love are the key themes of Lisey's Story.

3 comments:

Peach Pod said...

Hi! I just wanted to let you know that I'm new to your blog and really enjoy it.

Kathy said...

Thanks -- that's nice of you to say that.

lazy cow said...

I tried reading King's The Cell and tossed it away in disgust after one chapter. Thankfully it was just one of those promotional chapters the bookstores give away.
Maybe I need to his less bloodthirsty books.