Salt: A World History (b)

So it turns out I'm not going to finish this book.  It has to go back to the library and I had sort of given up on it already anyway.  I thought it was interesting and it had some great tidbits about salt.  Salt is way more interesting than I thought it would be.  Unfortunately not quite interesting enough for me to finish the book.  I think the biggest reason I didn't finish the book was the organization of the contents of the book.  The history jumped all over the place and I never got a sense of a cohesive time line.  I think it's definitely work skimming but I feel okay about not finishing.

The Next Queen of Heaven (a)

I have not yet finished Salt and although I am enjoying it, it is taking me awhile to read.  I'm definitely working on another post with more random salt facts that I hope to get to before Christmas.  But in the mean time, Justin picked up this book for me from the library and I started reading it the other night mostly because I was already comfy on the couch and it was on the coffee table (and not upstairs with Salt).

The Next Queen of Heaven is by Gregory Maguire (Wicked, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, etc).  I really like all of his fairytale books, Confessions being my favorite.  This book is okay so far.  I think Maguire is really creative and has really great character development but what I'm missing in this book is the sheer cleverness of his other books. 

Heaven is two separate story lines that I assume will connect more closely eventually.  Plot A is about an uptight single mother of 3 teenagers who gets knocked on the head by a religious statue and is not fully recovering.  Her uncontrollable teenagers are now forced to take care of her.

Plot B is about a gay church choir director who is preparing for a showcase and looking for a place to rehearse.  The church offers him the use of a room in their convent provided that he (and his 2 HIV positive band members) spend some time conversing with the nuns before each rehearsal.  There is also a great deal of time spent on the choir directors failed relationship with a now married father of two.

So it's an easy and enjoyable read.  It's nice to get into a book some after trying to plow thru two books (Catch 22 and Salt) that I enjoy but haven't grabbed my attention like I had hoped. 

Here's hoping I manage to finish both books by the end of the month.  And my Christmas shopping and my cleaning, quilting, crocheting and everything else holiday related that has popped up last minute...

November 2010

I am disappointed in my lack of reading this month.  I will chalk it up to an abundance of reading in October, starting a new job/new routine and getting bogged down in a book I wasn't really in to.  I don't want to say much more about Catch-22, I'll just say that I vow to read much more in December.