Peachy Reads

I don’t usually get my book recommendations from Parade magazine, but this time I did.  And a good recommendation it was, too!  Josh Hanagarne is a father, a Mormon, a librarian, and a physical fitness enthusiast.  Oh, and he has a severe form of Tourette’s.  I basically downloaded this book because of the library angle ( it has an absolutely hilarious opening ) ), but was taken in by the other angles, as the author tries to come to terms with all the disparate, clashing, facets of his personality.  He finds that physical training is one way that he can control his Tourette’s, and even tries out Highland games as an extreme way to tame his muscle tics and uncontrollable impulses.   This is an interesting, frequently humorous memoir, mostly about Tourettes, but a lot about the positive influence of family in his struggles.  It’s a little off-beat, but ultimately rewarding.  You really don't need to be a librarian to enjoy this one. ...

Winston Churchill once famously said of Russia, “It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key.”  The same might be said of Ian McEwan’s latest novel, Sweet Tooth , set in 1972 during the Cold War, when the UK was trying to define a new role in a postcolonial world in which the US and the Soviet Union were the key players, and there was money to be spent on culture wars. Muses, literary prizes, and bookstore readings aren’t usually the stuff of spy thrillers, and a novel that starts so promisingly as Serena is drafted as a secret agent, very quickly becomes something quite different.   Sweet Tooth definitely had its moments, and McEwan’s style is always a treat, but as a novel it just didn’t work for me.  The premise was credible enough I suppose, but just not that compelling in the end.  And then the whole unreliable narrator thing—didn’t McEwan already try that with Atonement ?  I used to so look forward to anything ne...