One of my favorite things in the world is Calvin College's Festival of Faith and Writing. It's a chance to find new authors, enjoy authors I've known about for a while and just completely lose myself in the written and spoken word. It's almost that time again, and so I'm turning my reading energy in that direction.
I just finished reading "Gods of Alabama" by Joshilyn Jackson. I was quite sure I'd enjoy this book--southern fiction, seemed to have a theme of guilt, confession, forgiveness. But frankly, while I wanted to know what was going to happen, the book just didn't do it for me. I waded through some crass and gritty stuff, waiting for the payoff, but the resolution wasn't enough. I am still interested to see what Jackson is like in person, and I might try another, since I think this was her first novel.
Currently I'm reading "Wishin' and Hopin'" by Wally Lamb. I wanted to try another of his books, having read "She's Come Undone" years ago and sort of indifferent to that one. And I'm not quite ready to climb into the Columbine story of "The Hour I First Believed," even though I do want to read that someday. "Wishin' and Hopin'" is a shorter novel, with a Christmas theme, and so far I really enjoy the main character. Felix Funicello is a 10 year old Catholic schoolboy in the 60s who wants to be in the know, struggles with his conscience and wants to be the best student his class. His mother is going to be in the Pillsbury Bakeoff, his distance cousin, Annette, is famous, he might be on TV himself, and a Russian girl just joined his Communist-fearing classroom. I love the way Lamb writes from his perspective.
One break from all "assigned" reading this month was "Short Girls" by Bich Minh Nguyen. This novel of growing up as the child of Vietnamese refugees in a little known place called Grand Rapids, Michigan. This book reads a bit like a novelization of her memoir, "Stealing Buddha's Dinner." The sisters in the novel are now grown up and dealing with the losses and missed connections of their childhoods. I enjoyed it for the perspective on immigrant adjustment and for reading familiar places of my hometown. I can only hope the sisters' lives get better from here on out.
The Fab 5 has been postponed till this Thursday, so the group report on "Hunger Games" is still forthcoming. My church book club is reading "A Long Obedience in the Same Direction" by Eugene Peterson. It looks like a valuable book to read, but I can't make that book club meeting, so I'm soldiering on with my Festival list of authors. Either Kathryn Davis or Peter Manseau will be next. I'm open to suggestions!
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