"the beautiful miscellaneous" by dominic smith

sometimes i like to read mediocre books because it makes me believe that i, too, can write a novel one day.

nathan nelson is the son of a physicist genius father.  the father, believing that nathan is also a genius, spends the better part of nathan's adolescence trying to coax out his inner whiz-kid, eventually realizing that nathan is just a boy with slightly above average intelligence.  then nathan is involved in a car accident, develops synesthesia and the ability to memorize entire phone books, and goes to spend time in an institute with other savants.

this is your classic coming-of-age-with-a-twist tale, and while i found it sub-par, there were sentences of incredible beauty, mr.smith having a knack for descriptions of scenery.  the story itself is a great idea, but the execution of it falls flat.  meh.

"gods behaving badly" by marie phillips

this book was a riot to read, keeping me up past my bedtime many-a-nights to just read one more chapter.

set in the modern day, "gods behaving badly" finds all the greek mythology gods living in a run down house in london where morale is fading fast as no one believes in them any more. aphrodite is a phone-sex worker, artemis walks dogs, apollo is a tv psychic, eros has become a christian. a couple of overly nice mortals come into the picture providing a narrative and hilarity ensues. fun fun fun.

"late nights on air" by elizabeth hay

regrettably i had to speed through this book as it was due back at the library with 200+ holds on it.

this book is beautiful. very meaty, but absolutely outstanding and deserving of its many accolades. i had to carefully read it, often pausing after particular sentences to let the words sink in; be absorbed. after my last rather vacuous read, this was a welcome change. elizabeth hay's prose is majestic and complex. she gets inside each of her characters and offers profound insights into their lives and personalities. my strong interest in heading to the northern part of canada was reawakened and satisfied.

set in yellowknife in the 1970's, the story follows the people who work for the local radio station. fabulous.

"quiet please: dispatches from a public librarian" by scott douglas

what i liked most about this book was the chapter titles.

it's not that it is bad, it's just not very good. if i didn't work in a library, i would have stopped reading it. considering how much i love douglas' regular mcsweeney's column, "dispatches from a public librarian", i thought this book would be just as great. not so. the humour is often stupid, the writing is sub-par and his grand philosophical statements about a librarian serving the community come off as shallow and narcisstic. stick with mcsweeney's mr. douglas.

"the loss of leon meed" by josh emmons

up until about page 200, i was sure this would end up in my top 10 books ever.  upon finishing it, i'd put it in my top 25, which is still a very respectable place.  it was (and is!) everything i could have dreamed off. contemporary magical realism, eclectic and beautiful characters, sly humour, heartbreaking and subtle language, an intriguing narrative and innovative structure.

set in a small city in northern california, this novel follows an eclectic cast of characters as they go about living the best lives that they can. tying them all together is leon meed, a 50something burl sculptor, who keeps mysteriously materializing in their lives.

i found the ending not quite up to par with the rest of the story, but it's hard to have a satisfying ending to a story with so many diverse characters and some unexplainable phenomena.  a review i read said "it sets up expectations it cannot fufill", which is pretty spot on.  it's still a stellar book that'll warrant a re-read in a couple of years.  i anxiously await josh emmons next book.

"the know-it-all: one man's humble quest to become the smartest person in the world" by a.j. jacobs

after tremendously enjoying a.j. jacobs newest book, "the year of living biblically" in which he lives by the bible for an entire year, i had to read this one in which he embarks on reading the entire encyclopedia britannica.  

while not as refined as his latest offering, this book was a very good read.  the humour is often a bit hammy and too obvious, unlike the wit in "the year of living biblically", but it's kind of nice to be able to actually notice a writer getting better.

 

"the luck of ginger coffey" by brian moore

poor ginger coffey. the guy just can't get a break. he immigrates from ireland to canada with his small family in hopes of a better life and ends up with a shitty job, a tiny apartment and a wife who leaves him for their only friend in montreal. despite his inumberable obstacles and hardships, ginger's optimism rarely wanes and is the impetus for the novel, propelling the title protagonist ever forward.

this book won the governor general's award in 1960. it was a quick read.