Friday Shuffle -- the back home edition

After a ten hour drive, I'm back home -- I arrived last night. I enjoyed visiting my friends and my family but frankly I'm glad to be back home where I don't have to worry about conforming to other peoples' standards of housekeeping or living. After awhile that gets just plain tiring. I did read while I was gone despite the fact that my sidebar says I'm reading nothing:

The Tenth Circle: Jodi Picoult: I read this because it was a quick read. I'd not liked an earlier book, My Sister's Keeper, not so much because of the story but because of the ending -- I thought it was a cop out. But since so many people like her, I thought I'd give her another chance. Picoult tells a decent story and that's what saves her in The Tenth Circle. I liked this book but it was crammed with tragedies -- I thought she'd have been better off focusing on one thing with maybe one subplot included. Not only is our main character, Trixie, raped, but her boyfriend commits suicide (maybe), her mother has an affair, her father is accused of murder, then Trixie herself is accused of the same murder so she runs away, making herself look guilty. And it's all wrapped up in a little allegorical package using Dante's Inferno, too heavily for my tastes. Trixie's mother is a Dante professor at a nearby college and we are treated to some of her interpretations of The Inferno. Trixie's father is a comic book artist and while I liked the inclusion of his comic art as breaks in this novel, the story, of course, was a retelling of The Inferno and it paralleled our heroine's journey from innocent little girl to someone who has a better comprehension of how the world works. I did find myself disturbed by some aspects of this novel. Trixie is 14 and she goes to parties where having sex, or at least oral sex, is expected of girls. She's only 14! I'm not positive I knew a whole lot about sex at 14. Because of these parties, whether or not Trixie was actually raped is a question. I liked this book but I wouldn't read it again.

Friday Shuffle

1. Coconut Skins: Damien Rice from 9
2. Put Your Records On (Acoustic version): Corrine Bailey Rae from Corrine Bailey Rae
3. Anytime: Robert Cray from Shoulda Been Home
4. You Can't Make Love: Don Henley from Building the Perfect Beast
5. Get Him Back: Fiona Apple from Extraordinary Machine
6. It Beats 4 U: My Morning Jacket from Z
7. Lived in Bars: Cat Power from The Greatest
8. Zombieland: T Bone Burnett from The True False Identity
9. Another Perl: Badly Drawn Boy from Hour of the Bewilderbeast
10. Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair: Nina Simone from Verve Jazz Masters 17