What We’re NOT Reading*

*Lots.

Sadly, this is one of those moments when every aspect of my life has decided to team up and orchestrate a giant dumping of crap-I-have-to-get-done-asap all over my best intentions. Needless to say, in my frantic scurrying around from this to that, I have NOT had time to finish a book.I have, however, stared longingly at my books in-progress, which form a small, yet alarmingly fast-growing mound at the side of my bed. In my feverish moments of down time, I’ve picked them up and read a chapter more here and there, attempting to digest a whole book, but alas, this is not that week. I will not let that stop me, however. In the spirit of not letting endless to-do lists bog us down, I am carrying on with this week’s post featuring three quality, wonderful books I am indeed reading (and you should, too) but, erm, have yet to finish.

White Teeth by Zadie Smith (Vintage International 2000)

I love this book. But it’s taking me a while to get through it. British author Smith is an excellent writer, making her characters and plot in her debut 2000 novel so real, yet so funny, yet so gut-wrenching. Is one writer allowed to do all those things in one novel… successfully? Because I think that’s just not fair. While these characters aren’t the most lovable in the history of characters, I am somehow completely invested in their lives. I’m blaming it on the fact that I gravitate towards novels that encompass generations of families (see One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez), as this one spans three generations of different families connected by the friendship of two men, Archie Jones and Samal Iqbal. Although to call it a friendship in the usual sense of the word may be going too far — rather, they fought together in wartime, and after years of not seeing each other, eventually got lumped back together by life, and decided to call it friendship. Their lives and children intermingle, making this a multi-faceted story with layer upon layer of individual and familial history.

Perfect Dragonfly edited by Scott King (Red Dragonfly Press 2011)

I’ve had this poetry anthology for a while. As soon as I got it, I sat down and did the obvious thing: I thumbed through to my favorite poets and read those first. I’ve slowly been working my way through all the rest since (and have discovered some new favorite poets along the way). I’ve also been to multiple readings with poets from this anthology over recent months (including one last night as part of the Birchbark Reading Series), and have really enjoyed experiencing this book through these haphazard readings I’ve attended. There’s always something intimately memorable about hearing a writer read from their own work, rather than reading it on the page. An anthology of every poet Red Dragonfly Press has published in the last fifteen years, this is an excellent collection of writers, including Todd Boss, Lightsey Darst, Dave Etter, Dorianne Laux, James Lenfestey, Nancy Paddock, and many more.

The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood (Bantam Books 1993)

We at Hazel & Wren are venturing down to Chicago for AWP at the end of this month, where the marvelous Margaret Atwood will be the keynote speaker. So this recent adventure into The Robber Bride is to brush up on my Atwood in anticipation. Atwood’s care with detail and depth when crafting her characters is phenomenal. She also has the talent of writing beautifully about normal people, while at the same time creating an overarching saga of manipulation, compassion, and heartbreak. The book is revolves around three women, Roz, Charis, and Tony, whose lives and relationships with their men have all been disrupted by Zenia. Zenia supposedly has died, but one day, on a lunch date, the three women encounter what seems to be Zenia. Here, they say, is where the plot thickens. And here is where I am stuck until I sneak in another free moment.

What books are crying themselves to sleep because you haven’t paid them enough attention lately?