Recent additions to the Great Monstrosity that is my wishlist....
Disgrace introduces us to middle-aged professor David Lurie shuffles numbly through the shifting landscape of postapartheid South Africa. After he gets fired for sleeping with one of his students--and refusing to express remorse--Lurie finds shelter with his grown daughter and is exposed to a social reality that threatens more than his own sense of security. Winner of the Booker Prize, Coetzee's eighth novel employs spare, compelling prose to explore subtly the stuttering steps one man takes in a new world.
~ Found at Farm Lane Books ~
is a science-fiction fantasy in the guise of an old-fashioned Victorian novel, complete with epigraphs, brief outlines, and a rather ugly boxer in three-quarters profile at the start of each chapter. Ned Henry is badly in need of a rest. He's been shuttling between the 21st century and the 1940s searching for a Victorian atrocity called the bishop's bird stump. It's part of a project to restore the famed Coventry Cathedral, destroyed in a Nazi air raid over a hundred years earlier.
But then Verity Kindle, a fellow time traveler, inadvertently brings back something from the past. Now Ned must jump back to the Victorian era to help Verity put things right--not only to save the project but to prevent altering history itself.
What keeps
Unwind moving are the creative and shocking details of Shusterman's kid-mining dystopia. The Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until age thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child "unwound," whereby all of the child's organs are transplanted into different donors, so life doesn't technically end. Connor is too difficult for his parents to control. Risa, a ward of the state is not enough to be kept alive. And Lev is a tithe, a child conceived and raised to be unwound. Together, they may have a chance to escape—and to survive.
What do you say, readers? Sound good/bad? Have you read any of these?
7 comments:
Ooh, the first one sounds really interesting! I just saw District 9 which also references South African apartheid. And, I admit, all those ESPN World Cup commercials make me want to learn more about the country, too.
To Say Nothing of the Dog is one of my favorite books. I love it. I used to live in the same town asConnie Willis and have this book and a couple of others autographed. She is so nice.
I'm pleased to see that you've decided to read Disgrace. I hope that you enjoyed it.
I enjoyed To Say Nothing of the Dog, but it was a bit fluffy for me. It is a good book for when you need something to lighten your day.
I love the sound of Unwind. I may have to add it to my wishlist - but think I'll wait to see what you think of it first.
To Say Nothing of the Dog is interesting--people had been recommending Connie Willis to me for years, so I finally got a few and read this one first. It was great. Having read Three Men in a Boat several times in my teens, I got all the jokes, which made me feel good. I found the first 50 pages pretty confusing, though, and had to force myself to stick with it, and am glad I did.
Btw, I’ve given you the Prolific Blogger award. Visit me at http://janegs.blogspot.com/2010/02/prolific-blogger-award.html for details.
Aarti~ I also saw District 9 recently. Lots of fodder for discussion there...
Amanda~ Have you read any of her other books? I've always heard good things about Doomsday Book...
Disgrace is wonderful. You won't regret reading that one.
I'll look out for Say Nothing of the Dog. I love time slip books. I hope it gets the Victorian details right though - I've been immersed in the Victorian era for 5 years and I can't help jumping a mile when I spot an anachronism. Grr!
Have not read Disgrace but it sounds good. I have just read a book that's just out here in the UK about Zimbabwe, a man remembering his time at a hideous boarding school just after Mugabe came to power, and an exploration of the roots of the present troubles there. It's powerful and illuminating. It is called OUT OF SHADOWS by Jason Wallace. For some reason it's been issued as a YA book here - I got it because I review YA books for our local paper. I think it's a pity to confine it into a niche market.
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