First off... I'm going to start talking about what I am currently reading on top of the usual book of the day off my shelf and I have also decided to sometimes feature "On this day..." kind of a daily history thing because I am a nerd and I love history.
What I am reading now?
Well, what I finished reading at 8:30 this morning?
We Need to Talk About Kevin
By: Lionel Shriver
This book is a psychological head rush and often difficult to read, but not in a bad way. The novel, which is basically about the way in which a mother deals with her sociopath sixteen year old son after he commits a massacre at his high school is relevant, but chilling. It is not mushy, it is not overwrought with emotion, and it doesn't pull any punches. The main character, the mother, Eva, writes her husband Franklin in order to explain in detail the problem she always saw in her son...the problems he refused to see. Eva is not always likable, she is pretentious, she is cold, almost surgical, and she had a detachment from the son who never wanted her and often played a long lasting psychological game that only seemingly ended after his massacre and the devastation it caused. Eva looks down on most middle class Americans, big cars, and she makes a perfect antagonist at times...because even for those who may hold the same ideals as she does....you dislike her because she is so pompous and full of herself and yet at the same time... she is miserable, she has settled for a life she didn't want and in return received a child who loved no one, and felt nothing... It is a dark book and I enjoyed the read because Shriver pulls you into this life, this destroyed life that Eva now lives... To me, it is a great deal more honest than some of the other things I have read relating to this subject, which in itself is pretty taboo. The book is not for everyone... its harsh and cold and cruel.
Book of the Day
Title: Restoration and Eighteenth Century Comedy (A Norton Critical Edition) 1997
I picked this one up at the friends of the library booksale about three years ago, for two dollars... I have a thing for Norton Critical Editions, I love them.
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| Yay, Comedy! |
The text I probably like the most in the book is School for Scandal by Sheridan. And now for our New feature!
On this day in history:
1098 – First Crusade: Massacre of Ma'arrat al-Numan – Crusaders breach the town's walls and massacre about 20,000 inhabitants. After finding themselves with insufficient food, they resort to cannibalism.
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