What I Read Wednesday

My library book requests keep pouring in and I want to cry because so many books. Not enough time.

Zero K
I always want to read Don DeLillo novels. Then I remember that I find his writing style hard to get into, but at the point that I remember, I'm too far in to quit. Ross and his wife, Artis, are millionaires. Ross' son Jeff is summoned to say goodbye to Artis, who is about to be cryogenically frozen until the time that there are enough medical advancements to keep her whole and healthy. Much of this book takes place in the compound where Artis is to "die," a strange and cold place where Jeff meets people who both comfort and frighten. It was an odd book, but raises an interesting question... should we be allowed to die when we want, in the hopes of living for a better future?

Everyone Brave is Forgiven
Oh, this book. It had me in tears so many times. Mary North, a wealthy beautiful girl, leaves school and signs up to be part of the war relief. It is London 1939 and the job they give her is to teach children who have been sent from the city to the country. After she becomes too attached to a black child, she is sent back to London, where she applies to teach again. It is here that she meets and falls in love with Tom, eventually becoming acquainted with Tom's best friend, Alistair, who spends his time fighting Italians on the island of Malta. While the book started out slow, it picked up steam during the London blitz and had me hooked on all the stories from that point forward. It isn't happy, not by a longshot, but there is some happiness in the midst of the war.

Asking For It
In the wake of so many stories of young girls getting raped and then blamed for it, this is poignant and timely. Emma is a beautiful Irish girl who has it all. Until a night at a party when she mixes drugs and alcohol an, for reasons outside of her memory, ends up a crumpled sunburnt heap on her front porch the next day. As time goes on, the pictures of what happened that night are leaked to social media and although the pictures make it clear that Emma was not a willing participant, her peers and the media are all too happy to chronicle the many ways in which she was asking for it. This was definitely not an easy read. It raises some interesting societal views without really answering what we can do about them, but I am glad I read this book.

There Will Be Lies
After being hit by a car, Shelby's life changes entirely. She and her mom are on the run, for reasons Shelby doesn't quite understand. Shely is suspicious and doesn't know who to trust, but in the midst of this, she finds herself going to another realm in her sleep. One where she becomes friends with Mark, who is also a coyote, and where she is tasked with killing the Chrone to save the Child. Shelby is unsure who she can trust in either world as the truth about who she is and who she was is slowly revealed. I loved how the author so seemlessly wove fantasy and reality together.

The Ghosts of Heaven
This book was not my favorite, though I did like some of it. The author weaves together four stories, which he says you can read the conventional way or in the order that feels best to you. I chose the conventional way. The first story is of a young girl, drawing spirals in a cave and hoping to be chosen for the hunt. The next is Anna, a girl dealing with the loss of her mother in the midst of being accused of witchcraft. The third is a doctor in an asylum, missing his wife and trying to peice together the mystery of the spiral design, while the fourth is a man on a spacecraft hurtling toward an uncertain world. I really didn't connect to this, not in the way I've connected to other overlapping stories. It was just a book with four stories that could maybe fit together but weren't even that strong to stand alone.

What are you reading?